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.

We wanted to share with you a couple more case studies from Avalon’s MAXI Award submissions – the first is a direct mail donor acquisition test, and the second a multi-channel campaign.

 

While our primary objective was to acquire new and valuable donors for our client Farm Sanctuary, it was also important to know if an acquisition audience would be more responsive to tragic or cute animal images on the carrier. The control package focused heavily on the cruelty of the factory farming system and featured a bleak image of a downed pig on the carrier. Conversely, we had had much success with an email campaign featuring a cute animal.

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.

Avalon has run a number of successful tests in our marketing efforts recently, so I’d like to share a few of our best results:

 

• In an acquisition program for an environmental advocacy client, we created a new control package by borrowing from a successful online appeal to update our existing control. We designed a new, visually compelling carrier and a new lead for the letter that referenced the envelope photo. We saw a 27% lift in response and a huge increase in net per thousand – a terrific reminder that a fresh, winning prospecting package may be hiding among your non-acquisition materials…

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:

Two noteworthy accomplishments from the National Parks Conservation Association and the National Breast Cancer Coalition – two Avalon clients that have recently been in the news.  Their success stories are worth sharing …

Test, test, test – and tested we have. Each of our clients has had some interesting results this summer that have strengthened their programs.  There is one, though, that really stands out for me.

In the spirit of this year’s DMA Nonprofit Federation (DMANF) Conference theme: “Bringing Out the Best in the Big Apple: Best Thinking … Best Ideas … Best Solutions” we’re pulling out the best of the best in case you missed it!