Are You Appealing to the Right Audience?

For-profit companies spend billions of dollars determining who uses their products and hire ad agencies to create the perfect hook. From “hot chicks” to annoyingly perky jingles, it is often times easy to determine who the target audience is. As a nonprofit leader, do you know who your audience is? What are you doing to appeal to your spectrum of donors?

There are a lot of great things about online fundraising, but one of them has to be the ability to change your website’s appearance and the variety of ways that you can target different donors. While product marketing generally focuses on one demographic, nonprofit marketing needs to appeal to a vast amount of people. It’s important to analyze who the majority of your donor base is, how to attract a younger donor to instill future giving, and determine what past campaigns have worked and why.

Huffington Post writer Jessica Prois reported on a new study published by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University, which determined that baby boomers and older women give an incredible 89 percent more of their income to charity than men.

“Women of all demographics are influencing philanthropy in new ways through technology, family foundations and an insider ‘culture’ of giving that includes using groups to fundraise,” comments Prois.

Why is this study pertinent? I think it breaks down several misconceptions that we tend to have towards our donor demographics. Often times, the focus falls on the 35 and under crowd, with the assumption that they are the primary audience on social networking sites and are more skilled at using technology for social change. This study shows that the baby boomer generation is, in fact, just as active in fundraising through social media. Furthermore, while men continue to receive a higher paycheck then women, their female counterparts lead the pack in generosity.

Another important takeaway reveals that nonprofits need to take the time to analyze who is contributing the most to their cause, creating a strategy for future campaigns. While it is important to focus a large percentage of time and money on current donors, it is also important to incorporate opportunities for involvement for any gaps in the giving demographic you may have. Take your donor base into consideration when planning events and promotional graphics. These graphics can also be threaded throughout your campaign and website to draw potential supporters in visually. Check out some website examples that are using color schemes and images to grab attention, appealing to current and potential supporters.

LiveStrong.org is uses crisp graphics and a bold color scheme to appeal to a younger, athletic crowd.

SavetheChildren.org includes powerful close-up pictures of young children that would tug on any mother’s heart strings.


Finally, and most importantly, define and illustrate the personality and image of your organization. Take a look at your employees and leadership team, are they a proper representation for the people you are helping and the donors you are trying to attract? Does your website or giving page portray your organization properly? Knowing who you are attracting and then creating an outreach plan can help you work smarter, not harder with your fundraising efforts.

Fundly Spotlight: Online Fundraising Helps Students Dream Big

 

Education is the basis for a successful and prosperous future. However, with ever increasing tuition hikes and the challenge that many students face of balancing school and work, a college degree can seem like a far off dream. Astonishingly, 51% of all US students who enroll in college fail to graduate within 6 years.  The good news is that there are people working hard to provide solutions to this problem.

StudentMentor.org is an incredible organization that was created to help low-income students earn their college degrees with the help of mentors in the industries in which they wish to join.  Four out of five low-income college students fail to attain a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20s. With mentors who can encourage and give insight to these students, these statistics can be a thing of the past. StudentMentor.org has made a great impact in hundreds of young lives; 93% of students say their mentorship has made them more positive about their future and 85% say their mentor has helped them towards achieving their academic goals.

The next goal for StudentMentor.org is to raise their goal of $25,000 for the 2012 school year, which will provide 500 students with mentors. This organization turned to Fundly as a partner in achieving their fundraising goals and so far, they are halfway there. (Please visit their campaign page at http://fundly.com/studentmentor.)

Ash Jafari, founder and CEO of StudentMentor.org, has some valuable advice about creating your Fundly page and getting the word out. “We included a background about our organization, a video, our fundraising goal, relevant statistics about our outcomes, and the Fundly donation widget on our website. It’s important to keep your message relatively brief and concise since people will only take a quick glance at the page. Also, having media or visuals will help bring your words to life.”

With 31 supporters, 52 donors, and $11,420 raised, it’s clear that Jafari and his team are off to a great start with this campaign. “We are using Google Grants to target those people who are already interested in our cause and introduce them to our Fundly donation page. In addition, we modified our homepage so that the ‘Donate’ section appears in the top navigation bar,” explains Jafari regarding the tools they’ve used to reach new donors. “If it’s not working at first, change things up and keep iterating.”

Google Grants provides select 501(c)3 nonprofits with $10,000 a month in free advertising on Google.com.  If you’re not taking advantage of this program, we highly encourage you to apply here.  If your organization already has a Google Grant, don’t forget to create a campaign specifically designed to drive traffic to a donation page on your website.

We would love to hear what advice you have in creating a successful Fundly fundraising page! Please use the comment section below.