Donors are Adopting Channels Faster than We Are
	Posted by at Mar 21, 2012 07:01 AM CDT

Email, Facebook, Twitter, mobile… Nonprofits should communicate using all the channels that donors use -- this will keep donors connected and increase each donor’s value to the organization. 

At the same time, new media channels present new opportunities. Growth of social media and mobile has been rapid, even among seniors, who make up a majority of the donor base for most nonprofits. Consider this:

• Smartphone use is growing all the way up the age demographic:
• 13% of all seniors (65+ years of age) have a smartphone.
• 32% of adults 55-64 and 44% of adults 45-54 have smartphones, and they’re not likely to give them up as they mature into their prime giving years*. 
• Remember, five years ago zero percent of adults had smartphones.
• Smartphone users do lots more than talk and text:
• 84% of smartphone users access the Internet on their phone.
• 76% send and receive email.
• 59% access social media.
• More than 50% shoot, send, receive and watch photos and videos and post them to online social media on their phones.
• 37% do some online banking on their phones (this indicates a willingness to use the device to conduct financial transactions like donations)**. 

So what does all of this mean? Here are three steps you can take now to ride this wave of new media while using all the channels that donors are using:

1. Use each channel to support the other:
• Improve your email performance by combining your email messaging with your social media presence. Use snippets of your email content to create Facebook posts and Twitter tweets.
• On the outer envelope of mail to prospect lists, print a QR code (an image readable by a smartphone) that links to a mobile-optimized web page (one that will show neatly on a cell phone). That page could continue the story you tell in the letter, and offer the assurances a potential new donor needs that their money will be well spent. It should include a link to a donation page that is also mobile-optimized.
2. Gently tease donors to cross channels. They may not stick with the one they first used to connect with you, so encourage them to connect via another channel.
3. Always try to tie all your donor data together into one donor record: postal address, email, home phone, mobile phone, Twitter handle, whether they are a Facebook fan. This will help you segment your file, but also will help you to validate the added value of contact through each of these channels. Amergent’s Vital Signs Analysis™ of clients’ donor files indicates that donors who have provided an email address to the organization give more often, and at a higher amount, than their cohorts without an email address. The result is usually two or two-and-one-half times the total donor value. This proves that it pays to converse with your donors across multiple channels.

Would you like more ideas? Submit your comments/questions, and Rick Christ will reply. 

*Pew Internet: “Nearly half of American adults are smartphone owners” Mar 1, 2012

**Pew Internet: “Americans and Their Cell Phones”   Aug 15, 2011