An recent article in the New York Times surprised me. A study, conducted by Blackbaud Inc., looked at online giving experiences of 24 nonprofit organizations that collectively have 9.5 million donors and revenues of $747 million. The results showed that people who donate online to a nonprofit for the first time do not return online to make additional gifts later on. It suggest that while online campaigns are good for soliciting gifts for specific efforts such as disaster relief, online giving does not replace traditional direct mail methods.
Several participants in the studies gave some potential explanations on the results:
- Most nonprofits have more established and sophisticated direct mail strategies, while their online strategies are still in development.
- Nonprofits tend to add any new donor, even if they come online, to their direct mail lists for follow up and additional solicitations.
- Donors who, give for a specific reason, like a disaster, may not be interested in the organizations ongoing work.
As someone who often has to ask her husband where we keep the checkbook because I use it so infrequently, this article does not reflect my behavior at all. Does it reflect yours?
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Online Giving
