• $350,000 raised in 2008
• $2,000,000 raised in 2009
• $35,000,000 raised by the Red Cross for Haiti in 2010 alone

The kind of growth we’re seeing here isn’t linear. It is exponential and by large orders of magnitude. The take away here is that mobile fundraising is rocketing forward in terms of total dollars being raised and will soon be on par with other channels.

Ok, so hopefully with those stats alone your interest is peaked. If you are interested in getting a mobile marketing program off the ground here are a few things you need to know:

Don’t use the Red Cross as your mobile marketing model.
Although the Red Cross is a good indication of what is possible, the massive influx of donations was actually driven by wide scale mass media promotion via every major TV station and almost every popular social media channel. It would be nice if every campaign you ran had that kind of coverage but the odds of that are very low… We sat down with the company who ran the Red Cross’s mobile program and the lucrative deals struck with cell phone companies to funnel money from on file bills is simply not available to other organizations. Or rather you could with huge percentages taken out.

Do include mobile giving options across all of your marketing materials.
With the minimal space requirements needed for mobile giving programs, it makes sense that the plug should be included across all of your fundraising channels and content streams. Place the call to action in your emails, on your homepage and even your direct mail programs. Most importantly, make sure you offer mobile giving at any live events.

Focus on compelling content streams.
Ultimately, the goal is to develop a double opt in list of people wanting content from your organization. If people give you that trust, capitalize on it by offering quality content. This means that your mobile messaging program absolutely cannot consist of only requests for donations. No one wants their phone spammed but many people do want to know the latest information on causes they care about. Be that source of content.

Keep in touch.
Your mobile program must have a regular content schedule (like all of your other channels). If your plan is to send 1 message out every 3 months, you will quickly find that people have forgotten that they opted in and your churn rate will skyrocket. As with everything in donor management, you are trying to build a relationship.

Plan for scale.
In our research, we’ve found that building your list and setting up the program initially is actually a low to fair cost when compared to email programs or web development. Even mobile applications can be developed at reasonable costs despite the fact that it is a cutting edge medium. The transmission costs once you get rolling however can be tricky. Some vendors we reviewed charged a nominal $.03 per message which is competitive. However, multiplying that out over a large list can make distribution costs rise. Plan ahead so you are not crippled by your own success.

Start now.
Chances are that in your specific area of fundraising, many of your competitors have not embraced this new tool. Capitalize on this fact by getting ahead of the curve. Kick off even a small program, do some tests and figure out what works the move ahead. If you spend all year deciding you will miss the boat.

The short and sweet conclusions is that people are ready to interact with organizations via mobile and explosive growth is occurring with mobile fundraising. is7 has been analyzing the market trends, researching vendors and developing strategies for mobile fundraising geared to NPO’s of all sizes. If you’d like more information or are interested in us consulting with you on your mobile initiatives please contact us.

This hour long forum was densely packed with valuable information that we have spread over three blog posts. Here are the take away points from the middle of the presentation:

1.) Offering check-only payment for donations reduces giving.

• Older donors write checks less frequently
• The world is moving away from using checks to pay bills and make donations
• Donors want payment options. In addition to the direct mail reply device, be sure to include online giving options in your appeal
• Younger donors write no checks, or at the most, one or two checks a month for their rent and car payments

2.) Online giving for most direct mail donors starts with the direct mail appeal.

• The best approach to online giving for direct mail donors starts with a unified multichannel direct response offer included in the familiar direct mail appeal
• When direct mail and online messages, themes and offers are not aligned it may reduce income and confuse the donor
• REMEMBER: Donors have one relationship with your organization, not separate offline and an online relationships
• Review your communications schedule to ensure that your direct mail and online appeals are in sync and both offer an online donation option
• It is crucial that your online and direct mail messages are always consistent

Donors with a high propensity to give online can be located using outside data.

• Households can be matched with known “digital neighborhoods,” online banking, credit card use, online catalog buying behavior and many other indicators
• Models have now been perfected with other nonprofit organizations that allow donor households to be ranked in the likelihood that they will give online
• Households who rank high on these scores are the best candidates to target for online giving

3.) When direct mail donors begin giving online their giving increases from 35% to 50% per year.

• Online donations are typically higher average gifts than direct mail donations and thus an increase in donor value
• In many cases when the organization does not offer online giving the donor has been suppressed because they have already given online to other organizations and prefer the instant communication that comes with giving online
• Donors who give to both direct mail and online campaigns have the highest value—in one organization the annual value of the “both” donors was $1600 a year
• Many direct mail donors move to online monthly auto debit donors. As a result, their donor value increases

4.) Online donors are the most likely donors to sign up for monthly auto debit giving.

• Monthly auto debit giving is the most promising avenue of increasing regular stewardship
• It is already becoming the backbone of donor support from younger donors in some organizations
• Promoting monthly auto debit donations is the next logical step to increasing consistent donations

In conclusion, offering multichannel giving options can:

• Increase your organization’s donor income for every donor that begins to give online
• Produce an increase from 35% to 50% when donors begin to actively give online
• Bring back lapsed donors and increase donor retention
• Result in larger average donations, because online donors typically give larger gifts, give more often and easily make the transition into monthly auto debit donors

Download the full slide show presentation.

If this article peaked your interest in strengthening your multichannel marketing efforts with online integration please contact us today for more info. Or catch us on Twitter – @is7interactive to see additional great content about nonprofit marketing.