Running a Not For Profit organisation is not always easy. There are so many important factors that help you to get the best outcome for your organisation it is hard to know where to start.

One of the most important aspects, for the benefit and success of your NFP, is your email communication. It is often overlooked, as it doesn’t seem as important as many other aspects – and perhaps, in the grand scheme of things, it may not be.

It is, however, something that can make or break your organisation, and plays a much bigger role in its success than is imagined.

A recent study conducted by Dunham & Company, entitled The Australian Online Fundraising Scorecard highlights quite clearly some of the deficits in email communication among Australian charities. In fact, Australian organisations scored lowest in the four components researched in the study.

Email Registration 

Email registration is the key to getting your message out, raising awareness of your cause, and in getting donations.

Australia rated worst in this aspect of the Online Fundraising Scorecard, with:

This basically means that your efforts to communicate your message, and ask for funds is seriously deficient.

Email Communication 

Although understanding that it is a significant component of their organisation, many NFPs are not doing so well when it comes to communicating with their subscribers; once, of course, they have managed to work out how to subscribe.

The results of the survey showed:

We all know that if you don’t ask, you don’t get – and asking is one of the easier ways to obtain donations.

Online Donation Experience

Humans really do like things to be easy, and they are more likely to do what they’re asked if you make it easy for them. This is no different with donations and support. Even if they consider the cause to be very worthwhile, they’re not going to continue if supporting you is too hard.

The research in this area showed:

• It takes 2.8 clicks on average to give a gift.
• 62% present a clear call to action.
• Only 20% have a landing page design that matches the email.
• 70% were not optimised for mobile viewing.

The clear call to action is the bit where you ask for donations, or for specific support. This may be a button that is easily located on the website or within the email communication, for example. If it’s not clear, people generally won’t go looking for it.

Finally, Gift Acknowledgement 

This finding was a little scary. Whilst some 87% of organisations understand acknowledging a donation, only 29% actually provided some sort of follow up!

Follow up or ‘next steps’ include asking the donator to share their support on social media platforms, sending a thank you email or video, which may include a testimonial or thank you from one of the beneficiaries of your cause, or the CEO who explains what their donation will be put towards.

People also really like to be acknowledged for their support, and doing so will have them remembering you and more likely to support you again. A simple “thank you” may be all it takes.

Looking at these figures, how does your organisation compare? Does your email communication look similar to this report card? What will you be doing to help your subscribers and supporters support you?

Source: http://www.dunhamandcompany.com/2014/12/australian-online-fundraising-scorecard