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 are our Top Six Testing Tips:

To continue Avalon’s 10 essential elements of direct marketing testing:

To kick off our new Best Practices section of FYI, let’s run through Avalon’s 10 essential elements of direct marketing testing, and tips for setting up a good test:

Having recently submitted Avalon’s Maxi entries (the Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s Marketing Award for eXcellence and Innovation), I’d like to share a few of our client success stories we’re most proud of:

 

Kennedy Center

 

Avalon’s always believed that the personal touch of telemarketing is the best way to approach deeply lapsed donors, and the Kennedy Center’s target audience was no exception, with 13-96 month lapsed members and the majority of the file (73%) inactive for three to eight years.

 

Knowing how long these donors had been away, and to create a natural conversation, we timed the campaign to coincide with the Kennedy Center’s new season announcement. The script piqued the prospects' interest by highlighting upcoming Kennedy Center performances first, and then presenting the philanthropic case for support. We also discounted membership levels by 20% to reactivate those members who might have missed the benefits of membership.

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.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts just announced its new season – and as always, there’s something for everyone: a thrilling mix of opera, dance, classical music, contemporary performances, and Broadway shows, including the Tony® Award-winning musical The Book of Mormon and the blockbuster play War Horse. For more details about the upcoming season, and a brief video featuring one of the incredibly lifelike seven-foot-tall horse puppets from War Horse, click here.

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.

Our new address as of April 30 will be:

2030 M Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036

Phone numbers will remain the same:

Phone: 202-429-6080
Fax:202-429-6090