Sanky Blog

Barack Obama’s Chief Technology Strategist, Thomas Gensemer, dropped a bomb on nonprofit marketers and fundraisers in February with this:

“Charity email newsletters are a waste of time”

This quote spread like wildfire on philanthropy-oriented online publications (AFP eWire, Third Sector Online) and led to perhaps unprecedented buzz among online communications specialists. So what are the facts? Is all of the research and data showing that email newsletters are successful cultivation vehicles for prospective and existing donors alike wrong? Are they indeed a “waste of time”?

Or was Gensemer overstepping his bounds with this blanket statement about the usefulness of email newsletters? After all, he’s the mastermind who led Obama’s online effort that raised more than $500 million online, breaking all previous online fundraising records from a political campaign. How can he be wrong about the intelligent use of email?

There are many takeaways from the Obama campaign, and there are many experts who have expanded on the lessons we can learn from their success. Donor and advocate engagement, how/why/when to use social media appropriately, effectively utilizing email marketing, and mobile marketing’s potential are just a few.

It’s clear, however, that the strategic team behind the Obama campaign didn’t invent anything new that led to their success; they simply used existing tools in new and novel ways to leverage each medium beyond what any organization has done in the past.

As marketers and fundraisers, there’s a lot to learn about the success that can come from having every marketing medium working together toward a common cause. But there are fundamental differences in donor and organization type that make direct comparisons between what worked for the Obama political campaign and what will work for most nonprofit organizations difficult. Gensemer may be right about the usefulness of email newsletters for political campaigns, but he may be a bit out of touch with the needs of most nonprofit organizations.

The differences boil down to demographics, cultivation, and sustainability.

Traditional nonprofit donors tend to skew older, even online, and are less likely to use new media in the same way, or to the extent that an Obama supporter would. The campaign’s success at energizing a younger demographic than most political campaigns and nonprofits is a clear differentiating factor.

A series of short, frequent emails might be very effective at converting donors in a political campaign, but constituents for most nonprofit organizations need to be reminded on a regular basis what donor support goes to fund before making a gift.

Abundant data supports the idea that email newsletters act as great cultivation tools to convert new and existing constituents into supporters. Email newsletters provide the perfect vehicle for accomplishing this: regular, targeted communications with compelling content and a soft donation ask. Prospects are cultivated to make a first-time gift and existing donors are reminded of what their past support has gone on to fund. For some clients, we’ve seen up to 20% of direct response email income originate from email newsletters.

We embrace some key facets of Gensemer’s argument: short e-mails are effective, short emails take much less time to produce than full-length newsletters, and constituent segmentation and engagement tools are critical to success. But while these guidelines can be used to great effect in overall email marketing, they don’t replace the need for an email newsletter in most cases.

The major issue that Gensemer’s declaration does not address is the question of sustainability. What can the typical organization expect to sustain based on their resources and available content? The Obama campaign didn’t send out any traditional email newsletters – they didn’t have to. With the 4-7 emails per week sent to constituents throughout the campaign, newsletters were simply not necessary and would have been redundant. But the volume of content generated by a political campaign cannot compare with what most nonprofits have at their disposal.

When you’re talking about the resources and content necessary to send 4-7 short emails a week, compared to what is needed to send a monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly newsletter, what is sustainable becomes crystal clear.

Most organizations — even large ones that have a variety of initiatives going on throughout the year — cannot sustain the type of frequency and relevant content that made the comprehensive email communication strategy for the Obama campaign work so effectively.

If every organization had unlimited resources, staff time, technology and the inherent public interest and momentum of an historic presidential campaign, then yes, email newsletters would indeed be a “waste of time.” But until then, its benefits as a cultivation tool for most nonprofit organizations are clear and should not be abandoned.

By: David Hughes, Account Director at SankyNet

Whether last year ended better than expected or as badly as you feared, the question in 2009 is – what next? What can your organization do to ride out the storm? How can you accomplish even more – most likely with fewer resources at your disposal?

Many nonprofits are focusing – more than ever – on leveraging value from their current constituents. Savvy fundraisers know that re-tooling their monthly giving programs is one way to keep costs low while achieving exponential upgrades.

While monthly sustainer programs have long been a part of our “fundraising toolkit” the expense of monthly reminder mailings, and the costly follow-up process required for success, has limited the value of monthly programs for many nonprofits – at least until recently. But the advent of automatic online transaction tools has dramatically changed the landscape.

These days, getting started is the easy part – deceptively so in fact. Most online donation processors now offer the capacity for recurring gifts. If you don’t already have the capability, it’s likely that you can easily add that component to your current online donation processing module. But having the basic functionality is a very different thing than building a program and promoting it – effectively – in multiple mediums.

The first step is to create a special “landing page” that explains, in simple language, how the program works and what the advantages are. Be sure to make it very clear how one can opt out at any time. (Very few of your donors will!) Then develop prominent – and enticing – links and pathways throughout your website to the monthly giving signup page. Frequently mention monthly-giving opportunities in your email appeals and e-newsletters. At least once a year, consider a special targeted email campaign that specifically promotes the program and invites your donors and prospects to join.

Everywhere and anywhere, point out the advantages of giving this way – how small gifts quickly add up …the ease and security of donating this way …and of course the benefits the regular income stream provide to your organization and its critical programs.

Monthly giving programs also are a vivid example of potential synchronicity between your online and offline marketing efforts. You can bolster your success online by promoting the program in your printed newsletters, developing inserts for your direct mail packages, and even testing targeted direct mail that sends offline donors online to sign up to be monthly sustainers. Last but not least, your acknowledgements and welcome packages – offline as well as online – will most likely prove to be a wonderful point of opportunity for promotion.

A handful of very large charities have proven that TV campaigns and large scale telemarketing efforts are highly effective ways to build monthly sustainer programs. But if you don’t have those resources, don’t worry. Even with a tight budget, you can find many other creative ways to promote your own sustainer program – from handing out flyers at your events … to having staff or volunteers call or email monthly donors and prospects when they are about to lapse.

The biggest mistake you can make? To get discouraged in the early months of promoting the program, as the results first arrive in a slow trickle. So many charities do, and give up much too quickly. But so many others have stuck with it and seen the magic in the math … when two become four … eight morphs into sixteen … then dozens transform into hundreds. For these organizations, persistence pays off with significant upgrades and high value donors, who renew at rates of 90+% for virtually no cost.

What more can we ask for in times like these?

By Harry Lynch, CEO of Sanky Communications

Besides the weakening economy, most non-profits are dealing with the annual mid-winter revenue slump that comes right after the Holidays. But using a compelling campaign idea, and the creative expertise of SankyNet, our client Covenant House found tremendous online success in February raising money for homeless kids.

The Covenant House “Do 1 Thing” Campaign utilized some of the most modern online fundraising techniques and the results prove that there can be victories even in these troubling times.

Before creative for the campaign began, SankyNet took into account the fact that even loyal donors may not be able to donate during a recession. With this in mind, SankyNet’s creative team worked with Covenant House to develop ways for people to show their support beside a monetary gift. These opportunities were designed to help keep existing donors engaged while at the same time cultivating potential new supporters.

The “Do 1 Thing” campaign included a call to action using social networking, an invitation to visit a Covenant House location and a request for items on a “wish list” such as blankets and food. Donors were also given the chance to quadruple their generosity with a 3-to-1 match — this opportunity to help touch the lives of four times more homeless kids made a very compelling case for giving. And despite the tough economy, people overwhelmingly chose donating over the other three points of engagement.

As for design, SankyNet went with the adage that “less is more — and used a modern technique that is proving very effective in online fundraising. We designed the “Do 1 Thing” e-appeal to look more like a postcard than a traditional appeal letter. More importantly, we paid special attention to make sure that the entire message — including all calls to action — fit “above the fold” on most browsers.

Another component that played a key role in the success of the campaign was timing. SankyNet “dropped” the e-appeal on February 12th giving donors just two days to get involved with the “Do1Thing” activities planned for Valentine’s Day. The timing of the appeal created a sense of urgency and that in turn triggered an immediate response both in donations and activism.

While these are indeed challenging times for fundraisers, the Covenant House “Do 1 Thing” Campaign proves that using a combination of imaginative techniques can have a tremendous payoff. So remember, matching gifts work. Well timed, shorter messages work. And asking your donors to support your cause in non-monetary ways — even in a fundraising appeal — works!

Gilda’s Club Westchester (GCW) is a community of people whose lives have been touched by cancer…all types of cancer. And when they decided to fully redesign their website, GCW turned to SankyNet to help capture all the caring they offer members, and put it online.

Our goal was to create a website that was as inviting, warm and comforting as the actual “clubhouse” located in White Plains, New York. But at the same time, we wanted to develop a robust online resource for those currently involved with the organization, as well as those recently diagnosed with cancer and looking for help.

Gilda’s Club Westchester provides support and networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events for men, women, children and teens in a home-like setting. And SankyNet was determined to design a website that would allow visitors to quickly and easily learn about these valuable services.

The new site boasts features that include an expanded calendar of events, information about joining Gilda’s Club and a soon-to-be completed online forum. In addition, SankyNet paid special attention to optimizing the site for online fundraising – this increased revenue will help sustain GCW programs that are provided to members free of charge.

For those of you who know Sanky Communications’ history, our founder Sanky Perlowin passed away from cancer 25 years ago. At the time of her death, there was no Gilda’s Club. Today, we are truly proud to partner with an organization that provides a welcoming community of free support for everyone living with cancer.

We invite you to learn more about Gilda’s Club Westchester by visiting their new website.

With 44 million people navigating the maze of Medicare policy, The Medicare Rights Center turned to SankyNet to help them give their clients the answers they need.

Patients filing Medicare claims know how difficult it is to take full advantage of their benefits under the Medicare system. Many patients and caregivers depend on the Medicare Rights Center (MRC) to help them secure the quality care they deserve…and increasingly, their consumers want to find answers on the Internet. That’s why MRC partnered with SankyNet to create a new website rich with online resources and fully accessible to their target audience.

This project offered an exciting opportunity for SankyNet. Unlike many non-profits, who use their website as a communications and fundraising tool, the primary goal for this project was to create a website to serve the needs of the client’s consumers rather than their donors. After extensive research to identify the unique needs of MRC’s online audience, SankyNet began developing a fully interactive website. Our main objective throughout the design process was to ensure that visitors would be able to easily navigate the site and locate critical information.

Understanding Medicare is no simple task. Because many Medicare recipients need help understanding Medicare coverage, plan options, and enrollment issues, SankyNet developed a “Medicare Answers” section to address these important questions for MRC’s clients. “Medicare Answers” utilizes a series of crucial questions that link to answers via the Medicare Interactive Counselor, an independent, public resource from the Medicare Rights Center. This interactive resource is just one of the ways SankyNet addressed the unique needs of an online audience.

SankyNet also introduced a new section that not only keeps Medicare recipients aware of the issues that affect their Medicare benefits, but also helps them advocate for Medicare reform. The “Issues and Action” section gives visitors a detailed explanation of the challenges that the Medicare Rights Center confronts as they fight for their client’s rights — but also provides resources so that every-day Americans can advocate on their own behalf. These resources include statements from leading government officials, letters ready to send to both Congress and the media, talking points for speeches and presentations, fact sheets, and press releases.

During the website exploratory phase, SankyNet identified that a significant portion of visitors to the MRC site traffic are older adults. The importance of website readability is of particular importance to this audience. Older users often complain that they are unable to read web copy because of small text sizes and difficult color arrangements. To address this issue, SankyNet provided the MRC website with a high contrast viewing option that reduces eye strain by replacing light-colored backgrounds with darker colors. We also gave viewers the option to increase text size, making menus and articles easier to read. Spanish speaking visitors are also given the option of viewing certain key components of the site in Spanish.

Since 1989 the Medicare Rights Center has been working with older adults and people with disabilities to ensure access to affordable health care through counseling and advocacy, educational programs, and public policy initiatives.

Now, through their new website, the Medicare Rights Center can help even more people get the health care and medications they need and make the most of their Medicare rights and options. We invite you to visit this valuable online resource.

This year’s competition for the 2008 Gold Awards for Fundraising Excellence was especially fierce – which is why we are so honored to announce that our 2007 Holiday campaign for Covenant House took first place for e-philanthropy!

Gold Award judges complimented us by saying that with compelling copy, heartfelt stories and a positive message rounding out the ask, our Covenant House campaign “really covered all the bases.”

Tim O’Leary, vice president of McPherson Associates, said, “this is how you run an integrated, online campaign. The creative was eye-catching and clean, [and] crisp images draw the recipient further into the body of the e-mails.”

At SankyNet we have enjoyed our relationship with Covenant House for over four years. We are honored and excited to share this wonderful award with them!

By Harry Lynch & Paul Habig

“If you build it, they will come” may be a fitting slogan for the Taj Mahal or a new Yankee Stadium. But if you’re hoping to get a flood of visitors (a.k.a. prospective donors) to your brand new website, and jumpstart your online fundraising program, you’ve got some work to do. Have you thought of buying search engine ads?

In our October 20 article on search engine optimization (SEO), we discussed the various techniques and strategies for getting your website listed prominently – and for free – on Google, Yahoo and other major search engines. But if you’re chomping at the bit to leverage the tremendous power of search engines right now and don’t want to wait a few months for your SEO efforts to yield results, then you might want to consider pay-per-click advertising—also known as search engine marketing (SEM).

This online marketing technique involves placing a bid with a search engine company on keywords that relate to your mission or cause (i.e., mission specific keywords). All you need to do is create a very short ad with the goal of enticing surfers to click on it so they are brought to your website. If you bid enough money for your keywords of choice, your ad will appear on the top or upper right hand corner of a search engine webpage in the “sponsored links” section. The ad will appear when a web user opens Yahoo or Google and searches using words related to your organization’s listed keywords.

This seemingly simple advertising method has made Yahoo a household name and Google a multi-billion dollar enterprise. If you’ve already tried it, you probably know how easy it is to get started. And with productive keywords and phrases often up for grabs for bids of as little as 30 to 50 cents per click, a comprehensive SEM campaign test can be launched for just a few thousand dollars. But what you also may have learned the hard way is that it’s easy to spend a lot of money fast—with little or no results to show for your efforts.

Here are just a few tips that can help to dramatically improve the impact of your search engine investment:

Consider bidding on phrases rather than single words. After all, single words associated with your organization—whether they be “art,” “cancer,” “homelessness,” “children,” etc. – are likely to be wildly expensive (due to competition) and too broad to be used by quality web traffic that is really interested in your organization. On the other hand, phrases such as “breast cancer research,” “homelessness in Ohio,” and “helping children Missouri” – are likely to be much more affordable and bring you more targeted visitors.

Transparency with your ad copy works best. If you’re using search engine marketing for online fundraising, create an ad that is transparent and clearly states the “ask.” Ads that are too clever or that deceive the user will depress conversion rates and drive down the return on the dollar. Be sure to include the keyword or phrase in your ad, if you can.

Create a special webpage for your ad. If the link imbedded in your ad takes your visitors to your homepage or generic donation form, chances are that you’re not doing everything you can to “close the deal.” In most cases, it pays to create a special “landing page” that reinforces the original keyword or phrase the user was searching for. Try designing a unique webpage with custom graphics that tie into the ad, and limit the number of links on the page. The most productive fundraising landing pages only link to the donation form.

Test, test, test! Unlike most other direct marketing methods, search engine advertising allows for quick changes with real-time results. If your ad isn’t performing well, try tweaking the wording, bidding on different keywords, and changing your bid prices. For better or worse, you’ll know your results almost instantly – and can make further adjustments as necessary.

Remember that Google isn’t the only game in town. While Google now handles a significant majority of Internet searches, Yahoo (and to a much lesser degree MSN and Ask.com) still handle a high volume of searches and offer their own “pay-per-click” ad networks. While you won’t see nearly the volume you will on Google, Yahoo in particular is a good supplement (and in some cases alternative) to a Google campaign. Using Yahoo, some organizations experience a lower cost-per-click, higher “click” rates and better donor response for less money.

Switch gears before you give up. Some nonprofits are indeed able to cost-effectively acquire brand new donors via the Internet through the purchase of search engine ads. If your own success has been limited, consider switching gears and exploring a campaign to build your email list instead of trying to acquire donors upfront. Particularly if your e-newsletter is of general interest, and the “offer” in your ad is for a “free e-newsletter,” your response rate is likely to improve dramatically and you will bring on subscriber/prospects who can be cultivated over time.

Apply for a Google Grant. If you’re a 501(c)(3) and your budget and resources are limited, a good way to get started is to apply for a Google Grant for free keyword advertising. While there are some limitations to what the grant will bring to you, tapping into a Google Grant is infinitely better than doing nothing. To learn more about Google Grants, go to www.google.com/grants.

Making efficient use of search engine ads can bring you closer to your goal for website traffic—without breaking the bank.

Harry Lynch is the CEO of Sanky Communications, and Paul Habig is the director of internet services for SankyNet, both based in New York City.

By Harry Lynch & Paul Habig

Are you worried about Wall Street’s woes? Fretting about your donors’ plunging portfolios? Wondering if your foundation funders can still make good on their pledges?

If you’re trying to figure out what sure-fire steps you can take to bolster your fundraising efforts in the coming weeks and months, have you considered … well … search engine optimization?

As one strategy for these times, it’s not nearly as off the wall as it sounds. Through all of the economic turbulence of the recent months, giving via the Internet has continued to be one of the brightest spots in fundraising and shows few signs of being affected by the crisis. But no matter how wonderful your website is (or you think it is), your best donors and potential donors can’t give to you online unless they find your website in the first place.

Search engines are the second biggest source of website traffic, second only to email (see the July 21 AFP eWire story on email appeals).

Search engine optimization (SEO) should be a key tool in your fundraising arsenal.

By now, most of us know the basics of SEO: Submitting our websites to major search engines, placing text on our homepages that’s rich with descriptive keywords and ensuring our website contains quality content that is frequently refreshed.

But the methodology used by Google and Yahoo is a constantly changing—a peculiar science with a fair bit of art thrown in. Keeping up with the latest trends in SEO can be difficult—and falling into traps and making common errors is hard to avoid. A few tips for these challenging times:

Site Architecture and Design. Technical minutia may put many fundraisers to sleep, but it is hugely significant when it comes to ensuring that your site is search-engine friendly. Utilizing up-to-date methods of coding and structuring your site is absolutely essential when it comes to SEO. If your website was designed more than three or four years back, chances are the technical structure is limiting how well the search engine “spiders” can find and read the information on your site.

Title Tags. Each web page on your site has a title tag, which is located in the “metadata” field. Adding strategic and relevant keywords or key phrases in this field is likely to gain you significant improvements in your search engine rankings. The text within the title tag is what appears in a search engine result.

Keyword Frequency. This is a fairly easy SEO technique. First, you need to decide what keyword or phrase is going to be optimized for a webpage (one or two per page). Second, make sure there is repetition of that keyword or phrase throughout that webpage. Last, add the same keyword or phrase in your website headings (text that is often larger and bolded, known to website designers as the <h17> tag). This will make a huge difference with SEO.

Friendly URLs. In the age of content management systems, pay attention not only to the SEO opportunities your system may provide, but to also some the roadblocks. For example, many content management systems (the program that allows you to build your website) generate URL web addresses that are comprised of numbers and lack a descriptive word or two that will make this key online component SEO-friendly.

Links. Have you considered methodically approaching websites that have related topics or content and asking them to provide a link to your own? What about submitting articles or press releases? These are all good ways to establish your site as an “authority” on issues, and this low-tech approach is highly effective but often overlooked. Incoming links from legitimate and apposite websites not only generate traffic, but tend to dramatically improve your rankings in Google and Yahoo.

Flash animations. Your beautiful animations may dazzle your boss and board members, but search engine spiders generally index only text that is in a particular computer code called HTML. The very elements causing those oohs and ahhs may also be limiting your traffic by making it difficult for crawlers to read your site. Consider imbedding flash “movies” into your HTML codes rather than designing your entire site in Flash.

Of course, it takes time for search engine rankings to improve. The steps above won’t provide you with instant gratification. But as you watch your website traffic gradually and steadily increase and your donations climb, the efforts will be well worth it—especially in these troubling times.

Gilda’s Club is named for comedian Gilda Radner, and was founded by Joanna Bull (along with Gene Wilder and Joel Siegel), who worked as a cancer psychotherapist during Ms. Radner’s illness. Gilda’s Club works to create welcoming communities of free support for everyone living with cancer – men, women, teens and children – along with their families and friends. Gilda’s Club believes that providing an emotional and social support community is an essential complement to medical treatment for people living with cancer.

SankyNet understands the importance of the work Gilda’s Club is doing for those learning to live with cancer. We look forward to working with Gilda’s Club during the coming months to redesign their website and expand their vital online resources. Thousands of people living with cancer have found Gilda’s Club to be a sanctuary during a very scary time. SankyNet is excited to find ways to craft their website to feel as warm and welcoming as Gilda’s Club itself.

Please take a moment to learn more about Gilda’s Club of New York.

When Greenwich House approached SankyNet with the opportunity to redesign their website, we were thrilled at the creative potential this project held.

For more than a century, Greenwich House has brought people together to overcome big-city isolation and the problems that go with it, making them feel at home in their communities. Operating 17 different social, medical, mental-health, educational and cultural programs, Greenwich House serves the needs of more than 9,000 New Yorkers annually.

In their original site, each of Greenwich House’s diverse programs stood alone with their own independent looks and feels. SankyNet recommended a dramatic site re-design to bring each Greenwich House program together under one cohesive design, allowing each program to remain distinct while still connecting to the overall theme. Now the children’s education program and the senior services program each reflect their own personalities while still fitting within the Greenwich House theme. The arts program and the health/social services program feel separate, yet still connected to the Greenwich House site.

After SankyNet’s redesign, the Greenwich House site looks great and is much more user-friendly!

Greenwich House was so pleased with our site redesign and branding work that they signed on with SankyNet for an ongoing marketing and communications plan. We are excited to continue this partnership with Greenwich House and look forward to working with them well into the future!

Please take a moment to look at their new website.