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Balancing multiple disasters
2005 has truly been a disaster, but donors have opened their hearts again and again - the Asian tsunami, Niger Famine, Hurricanes in the Gulf, Mudslides in Central America and now this Earthquake in Pakistan. The amounts raised have been staggering. But, are donors tapped out – emotionally or financially? On Tuesday, Yahoo Buzz reported that the search term "Asia earthquake" was already on the decline only 4 days after an earthquake killed tens of thousands and left millions homeless. Today, the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that charities are finding it much more difficult to raise money for this emergency in the wake of a catastrophic 10 months.
Managing multiple disasters is a strain on fundraising staff as much as it is on program staff. Balancing the flow of appeals, updates, and cultivation communication is critical, especially online where it is tempting to load up your homepage or email newsletter with multiple appeals.
This may be the time when segmentation is your best bet. Ideally, nonprofits can use email open statistics, click-through data, web traffic, and giving history to begin to predict patterns of giving.
What do you think? We’d love to hear from you. Visit the NPA Blog at http://npadvisors.blogspot.com/
to read our thoughts on disaster fundraising and add your comments.
San Francisco Chronicle article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/13/BAG00F7MDD1.DTL
October 2005
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