Non-profit fundraising

SUMMARY: Not every fundraiser uses email (alone or as part of their marketing mix), but it's a tactic worth testing -- especially with rising printing and mailing costs, not to mention lagging response rates.

See how one organization pitted a series of emails against their usual direct mail package and tripled the number of donors and walkers for their annual fundraiser. Using email, they signed up three times as many participants and increased ROI 30%. read the complete case study

SUMMARY: With limited marketing budgets, nonprofits are always struggling and looking for ways to stretch those dollars to boost their exposure and bring in more donations.

See how UNICEF doubled the exposure for its video content using MySpace and other social media outlets, which cost nothing. Plenty of tips, steps and strategy for anyone to try yourself. read the complete article

SUMMARY: "The survey found that online sources are among the top three media choices for election information for 80% of online voters." "Among these online voters, 44% use search engines to find election-related information, and more than a quarter also say they use sponsored links that appear in search-engine results pages." "Very few respondents said they are likely to change their opinion between now and November, but if they do it is very likely that they would change... view the complete research record

SUMMARY: Over the past two weeks in a blitzkrieg of online research, Rick Stratton, President 1871 Media, visited almost 500 political campaign Web sites. He was hoping to find inspirational best practices. Instead on site, after site, after site, he found textbook examples of what not to do. Stratton says, "It's amazing in this day and age how some notable candidates and elected officials can have terrible web presences."  Click here to learn what the seven most common campaign Web site mistakes are, and how to create a powerful site on a lower budget than you might expect: read the complete article

By Anne Holland, Content Director

My husband types two-three words per minute (it’s true, I timed him once).

So, late last Tuesday night, when he decided to donate to Barack Obama’s campaign after watching a bunch of speeches on TV, he got me out of bed to go online and do it for him.

The donation form wasn’t anything unusual -- much like most charity and political sites. But, the next page, that ‘Thank... read the complete blog post