The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008 - (Page 4)

EXCLUSIVE NPT RESEARCH Continued from page 1 doing research online, checking out charities they support or are thinking about supporting,” said Nick Allen, CEO of Donordigital, a San Francisco-based onlinefundraising firm. Allen said that 20 years ago those potential donors who did their due diligence would likely be calling reference librarians.“Now, those people just go online and have access to an organization’s Web site, Charity Navigator, GuideStar,” he said. lope in there,” he said. Even now, 47 percent don’t go online after receiving a direct mail solicitation, according to the national study. “And we don’t know which 47 percent, so you’ve still got to put a reply envelope in each package,” Christ added. “Direct mail is the way most people hear about most organizations, short of a disaster, that causes them to do things,” Allen said. In most instances, he said, people get direct mail from groups they al- opportunity for nonprofits to effectively drive a better experience for donors. WHO’S DOING IT It’s not just the young whippersnappers with iPhones who you might think are surfing the Web. Sure, among 18- to 24-yearolds, the percentage saying they look up the organization online doubled,from 31 to 64 percent. But among those older than 65, it almost tripled, from 8 to 21 percent. While almost three-quarters of the old- EXCLUSIVE NPT RESEARCH When you received a mail solicitation from a charity, which of the following places on the Internet do you look at before deciding whether to give money? First Column = Percentage in 2005 Second Column = Percentage in 2008 By age 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+ Look up 31 64% 31 54% 34 45% 27 40% 20 39% 8 21% Organization’s Web site 28 60% 27 52% 25 34% 17 31% 14 31% 3 15% Independent rating organization 8 30% 11 26% 13 25% 14 24% 12 24% 7 13% Online discussion group 5 22% 6 17% 5 7% 3 5% 1 6% 1 4% Blogs 3 20% 4 11% 1 9% 2 6% 1 2% 2 3% Do not look up 51 30% 56 42% 58 45% 63 51% 66 48% 74 60% Don’t know/none of these 18 5% 13 4% 8 10% 10 9% 14 13% 18 18% When you received a mail solicitation from a charity, which of the following places on the Internet do you look at before deciding whether to give money? First Column = Percentage in 2005 Second Column = Percentage in 2008 By income $25K $25-$35K $35-$50K $50-75K $75+ Dual Look up 14 41% 21 49% 29 37% 36 50% 37 51% 29 47% Organization’s Web site 12 40% 12 39% 20 34% 28 42% 29 39% 23 37% Independent rating organization 6 21% 13 19% 12 19% 14 29% 18 32% 11 27% Online discussion group 1 18% 3 14% 5 4% 6 16% 3 4% 4 9% Blogs 2 7% 0 11% 3 9% 4 10% 2 7% 2 7% Do not look up 69 46% 68 45% 61 51% 54 41% 55 43% 61 44% Don’t know/none of these 17 13% 11 7% 10 11% 9 9% 8 6% 11 9% When you received a mail solicitation from a charity, which of the following places on the Internet do you look at before deciding whether to give money? First Column = Percentage in 2005 Second Column = Percentage in 2008 By education H.S incomplete H.S College incomplete College grad Look up 9 29% 20 39% 23 41% 35 53% Organization’s Web site 7 28% 16 33% 17 36% 27 41% Independent rating organization 2 10% 8 21% 13 21% 14 32% Online discussion group 3 10% 3 8% 5 13% 4 8% Blogs 3 4% 1 12% 2 7% 3 6% Do not look up 77 48% 65 51% 66 49% 53 40% Don’t know/none of these 15 24% 15 10% 11 10% 12 7% “Direct mail costs more than it ever cost, and it’s going nowhere but up,” said Christ, imploring nonprofits to do whatever they can to help their direct mail package.A nonprofit’s Web site should try to support direct mail, but not replace it, he warned. “I don’t see online donations being yet so second nature to people, or as convenient as writing a check.That mail should be primarily a drive to the Web site. It costs so little more if you’re going to mail a package to stick a reply form and enveready know and are familiar with; it’s the ones they don’t know that they search out on the Web. “Given the numbers of people going online, it’s critical that nonprofits have a terrific user experience when someone hits their Web site, because it’s going to happen more and more,” said Vinay Bhagat, founder, chairman and chief strategy officer at Convio in Austin,Texas. He made the analogy of making sure your office or facility is looking its best when a donor tours the site, adding that there’s still a big est demographic said they didn’t look online three years ago, that figure improved to 60 percent. For the youngsters, more than half (51 percent) said they didn’t three years ago, and that now has dropped to 30 percent. A third of respondents younger than 34 years old said they don’t go online compared to 50 percent three years ago. Among older demographics, going online before writing a check ranged -- 42 percent among 35- to 44-year-olds, 51 percent among 45-54, to 48 percent for 55-64 – but all were down from 60 to 70 percent in 2005. All demographics, however, saw at least double-digit declines in that category. Typically, education and income are factors to Internet access and usage. For the most part, the survey results bear that out, however, respondents in the lowest income categories saw the highest increases for looking up the organization online.Among those with annual incomes of less than $25,000, only 14 percent said they went online in 2005 but that was up to 41 percent this year.Among those earning $25,000 to $35,000, the number increased from 21 to 49 percent. Wealthier demographics also saw increases, though not nearly as sharp, but still eclipsing half among those $50,000 and up. More than half (53 percent) of college graduates said they go to the Web to look up the organization, up from 35 percent in 2005, and considerably more than those who didn’t complete college (41 percent), have a high school diploma (39 percent) or didn’t finish high school (29 percent). All the categories, however, experienced increases from three years ago, especially those who didn’t finish high school, which rose from just 9 percent three years ago. Men are slightly more likely than women to reach for the Internet these days (46 percent versus 41 percent), but both said they are more likely than three years ago (26 percent versus 25 percent). The online sources they turned to also were consistently twice as high as in 2005 and strikingly similar for both genders. By race, whites, blacks and Hispanics all saw increases in the percentage saying they go online, though it wasn’t nearly as substantial a jump among Hispanics, with almost two-thirds saying they don’t look to the Web. Some 23 percent of those identifying as Hispanics said they went online to look up the organization in 2005, and that figure was up to only 30 percent this year. By comparison, among whites the figures went from 26 percent in 2005 to 44 percent this year, and for blacks, from 28 percent to 59 percent. For those who said they went to an organization’s Web site, Hispanics again rose only slightly, from 18 percent to 21 percent, while bigger jumps were experienced among whites (19 to 37 percent) and blacks (26 to 52 percent). Hispanics were one of the few categories where the percentage who said they don’t look up the organization online actually increased, albeit just from 59 percent to 60 percent. Meanwhile, in most every demographic, the percentage of people who said they don’t look up the organization online plummeted. For whites, it dropped from 63 percent in 2005 to 46 percent and for blacks, from 62 percent to 35 percent. BLOGS, BLOGS, BLOGS “Not only are people looking you up, they’re looking you up in more places, not just one,” Christ said. More people are looking at the Web site and going to a blog or a ratings site for more information, Christ said:“That goes to Web penetration but also to Web savvy, people know where JULY 15, 2008 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com http://www.nptimes.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008

The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008 Web Triggers Direct Mail Response Limited 'Face' Time Building Vs. Blowing Up Contents 'Mark'ed Man Who Are They? Making The Case Predictive Modeling Business Briefs Awards Calendar NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - July 15, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.