Pinterest is dead – already? Weren’t we just talking about how nonprofits are jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon? Pinterest was the third most-popular social network by the end of 2011, then dropped like a stone this spring. But is it over? Two blogs (of many on this subject!) examine what’s going on here and here.

The following are some highlights from the recent annual eNonprofit benchmark study, authored by M+R and NTEN, as well as the Convio online benchmark study. 

 

First, some interesting stats:

 

• Online revenue is up over the past year, with M+R/NTEN showing a 19% increase and Convio a 15.8% increase.

• M+R/NTEN and Convio both report increases in the number of gifts given and the average gift amount over last year, with M+R/NTEN showing a slight decrease in the average gift for the wildlife/animal welfare sector.

• Both studies show that advocacy/e-Fundraising crossover is increasing – proving that nonprofits are getting better at managing the multi-channel integration between advocacy and fundraising.

Here’s what we’ve seen and heard this month:

 

• Pinterest – the online bulletin board – is getting lots of buzz in the nonprofit community as organizations find ways to use this fastest-growing social network. Beaconfire’s take on Pinterest includes links to some nonprofit pins here - there's a really interesting diversity of content.
• This M+R Researchblog has collected the current thinking on nonprofits’ use of Pinterest, including how to determine if your nonprofit is right for Pinterest and how to develop your strategy for using Pinterest to your organization’s advantage.

Avalon’s Allison Porter, Amy Padre, Bill Tucker, and I attended this year’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference – always an interesting gathering of charities and techies – here are some of our takeaways:

 

• The session Five Biggest Trends in Online Fundraising was based on Blackbaud’s benchmark study showing that while online revenues are growing, they’re still a very small piece of the pie. Which is why we continue to promote multi-channel marketing all the way! The Blackbaud slide deck is available here.

It’s that time of year again – the annual eNonprofit Benchmark study, authored by M+R and NTEN, will soon be released. The full report will be released at the NTEN Conference on April 5, but here is a teaser infographic released today. Print it out, tack it to your wall, let the pretty colors soothe you…

Some of the items I’ve Seen and Heard and found interesting online recently:

 

Consumers view social marketing as invasive: Online Media Daily’s Mark Walsh reports on a study by Insight Marketing Group. Some highlights: “…nearly two-thirds (64%) of people say they “hate” when a company targets them through their social networking profile.” BUT, “…A majority of those surveyed (55%) believe social networking sites are the best way to give a company feedback and that posting about a product or service on a social site can have a strong impact on a brand.”

 

Walsh says the bottom line for marketers to keep in mind is that “…people like being able to provide feedback to marketers via social media -- but they don’t necessarily want to be followed by them.” For more insights, see the full report.

There’s so much happening online this month – here’s what we’ve Seen and Heard:

 

• How diverse are social networks? Care2’s nonprofit marketing blog, frogloop, recently put together some statistics. Did you know that there are 10% more females than males on Facebook? Twitter is also used by more women, but the sexes are split 50/50 on YouTube. Frogloop’s stats cover gender, age, and ethnicity.

Now that we’ve caught our breath after the rush of year-end fundraising, here’s a summary of the ups and downs of our online efforts in December:

Here’s what we’ve recently seen & heard:

• Google announced on September 20 that Google+ is now open to everyone. As the post goes on to say, “Brand pages are expected to be launched sometime this fall. In the meantime, nonprofit staff can prepare for the launch of the new brand pages, also known as Google+ Entity Profiles, by creating a Google Account and then setting up your personal Google Profile…these best practices will be a work in progress and updated regularly. To be alerted of when new best practices are posted, please subscribe to the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 e-Newsletter.

Held October 3-5 in Baltimore, the Convio Summit brought together hundreds of nonprofits and vendors to share what’s happening in the online space.  Geared towards touting the benefits of integrating mail, phone, web, mobile, and other channels, the Summit offered numerous sessions on how best to coordinate direct marketing channels while staying on message.