Tsunami Fundraising Tips and Ideas

The following ideas have been culled from examples and research on how nonprofits are responding to the unprecedented online fundraising for tsunami relief:

• Use your offline donor contacts to build your email list. 50% to 75% of your donors have internet access, but you probably have email addresses for 10% to 25% of your donors. As you contact the rest, tell them you are posting updates to your web site and sending them out via email, and invite them to subscribe. If you are involved in inbound or outbound telephone contact with donors, this is an easy thing to ask at the end of a conversation.
• Relief Interactive, a nonprofit website that links international relief charities with consumers, is sending out millions of emails to their lists and to other permission lists of consumers, inviting them to come to their site and find charities to support. Register at http://www.reliefinteractive.org/react. You must be a member of Interaction to register.
• Keep track of your credit card fees for processing your donations. In Great Britain, credit card companies are refunding fees associated with tsunami relief donations online. If you’ve raised $500,000 online and pay two percent to the bank, you may get a $10,000 additional rebate if American companies follow suit.
• Make sure you’re on Network for Good’s list of charities. The list is posted at: http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/earthquake/tsunami122604.aspx. It seems that they put together a somewhat arbitrary list of charities that are involved in the relief effort, but did not include all. When we asked them about missing charities, their reply was this:

"We will review and consider listing Relief & Rehabilitation Organizations who are focusing specifically on tsunami disaster relief. If any of your clients are relief organizations who have not already contacted us, you can have them send information to editorial@networkforgood.org.

Please provide the following information:
EIN
Organization Name
Org Website URL
Description of Disaster
Contact Info

Note: organizations must be currently registered with GuideStar (and should have updated information on their GuideStar page)."

• Make sure your after-hours and over-capacity telephone system greeting directs callers to your web site for information and donation opportunities. Do a favor for your donors and your telephone representatives by posting “frequently asked questions” (FAQ) prominently on your web site. Update the list as your phone reps suggest new questions and answers.
• Keep your content fresh and easy to find. Build a “Tsunami Relief” link on your home page and summarize today’s news on the home page. Keep the donors informed about what you’re doing that’s unique in the region.
• Set up an auto-reply on your generic email boxes that are getting swamped with inquiries (e.g. info@yourorg.org) and give them links to the FAQ page and the donation page.
• Various Attorneys General have reported email and web frauds aimed at fleecing tsunami relief donors. Make sure your email messages and donation pages go the extra mile to assure donors that you are legitimate.
• Don't neglect your ongoing projects and needs in your communications with donors. If they’ve been giving throughout the year on Liberia, Darfur, of AIDS issues, then let them know you haven’t given up on them, and invite continuing contributions on those issues as well.
• President Bush has signed into law H.R. 241, which allows taxpayers to apply tax deductions for tsunami relief contributions to their 2004 tax returns. The proposal applies only to cash gifts made specifically for disaster relief, and only for gifts made before Jan. 31, 2005. This gives you another “year-end appeal” opportunity at the end of January. For more information see the article at: http://www.afpnet.org/tier3_cd.cfm?folder_id=2466&content_item_id=19248
• Check your capacity for web servers, donation processing systems, and email delivery systems to make sure they’re not about to be swamped. Talk to your technical people and reinvest some of this online windfall of funds (and attention from your organization’s top brass) into capacity enhancements.
• Make sure your human capacity is up to your requirements. You will be needing lots of copy for email messages, landing pages, and other web content. As you have learned, online fundraising is a 24/7 job. If you need excess marketing, technical and creative talent, and after-hours support, contact NPAdvisors.com.

January 2005

This article first appeared as an e-fund article.
Signup to receive your copy of e-fund Newsletter.

Privacy Policy   |   Legal Policy   |   Contact NPA   |   Copyright © 2000-2005, NPA.