Nonprofit Internet Strategies: Best Practices for Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising Success

I use this book as my primary guide. I highly recommend it! I like the way each topic is approached.

Frankly, I was feeling a bit out of touch. The most frequently asked questions in my workshops were about Internet fundraising, and I didn't have good answers. My quick fix: reading this book and coming away amazed, astounded, and shocked. First, by all the profitable Internet strategies out there (the book is packed with examples of stuff that works). Second, by the thoroughness of this book. Another reviewer said it was like a textbook. Don't think academic, though; think "everything you need to know between two covers" comprehensive. And practical as soup on a cold day. If I had to limit my library to just six books about fundraising communications, this title would be among them. I haven't had the privilege of hearing co-author Michael Johnston speak, but I have heard both Ted Hart and Jim Greenfield present at conferences. Purely useful, well spoken, based on vast experience.

Those of us who manage nonprofit organizations have learned to use the Internet as a powerful communications medium. We invite the public to learn about us via our web sites and even to donate to us from a web browser. We've learned that this is just the beginning of the cultivation process, not the end. We've learned how to keep them coming back to the site. More importantly, we've learned to move them into our traditional cultivation processes once they make contact. Our development officers have become accustomed to following up with those who've knocked on the door of our web site. We know that a donor who makes an on-line donation is often open to going deeper with the organization, and of increasing support -- if asked. We've learned to take these new-found supporters into our fold, and how to encourage more significant contributions from them. Here's what else we've learned. We've learned to manage information in complex, server-based relational databases -- ours or those provided by firms who do this for us on their hardware. We share information internally via local networks and Intranets, and tie discrete offices together via virtual private network secure tunneling. We use extranets to facilitate strategic alliances with other organizations. To save money, we use voice over IP to replace traditional telephone circuits. We've even gone wireless. Throughout all this, we gather information on our supporters and prospective supporters. We do so at Internet speeds, and with the organizing and retrieval efficiency of computers. We've learned to treat the information we gather with great care. The public support, we know, is a fragile thing. Yes, we've learned a lot. If we haven't yet put all of what we've learned into place, we suspect that would if we had a clear, sensible roadmap to doing so within the confines of our budgets. The simple truth is that the use of technology is one of the more challenging aspects facing those who manage nonprofit organizations. First, it's complicated. (Virtual private WHAT?!) Second, it's hard to have a clear idea of how to think about technology in the unique context of running a nonprofit organization. Third, it's hard to determine the best way to implement technological solutions when there are so many being thrown at us. Lastly, how can we be sure we're following best practices? We need help to sort all of this out -- even those of us who are not exactly new to all of this. As it happens, I've been deeply immersed in technology in the nonprofit context for years, having designed and lead the team that created one the first on-line systems utilzing the donor-advised fund gift methodology as the means to enable the public to donate to any 501(c)(3) public charity from a single web site donation portal. I designed and built some of the first on-line charitable donation systems for nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. I am a programmer and a web site developer. I am a computer sc

The book provides a great overview of fundraising, communications and marketing online. Each chapter is a separate essay by an expert in the field. Topics include ePhilanthropy Strategy, Multichannel Marketing, Integrating Online and Offline Databases, Building Online Communities, Reaching & Inspiring Donors Online, Advocacy, Staffing, and ePhilanthropy Regulation and the Law. The field of ePhilanthropy is evolving and many organizations are seeking answers to implementing online programs. This book offers great perspectives on how nonprofits can take advantage of technology to increase their effectiveness. (Eve Fisher, Eden Web Consulting, M.S. Technical Communications)

The Internet is a new form of communications that never existed before. I believe that the changes the Internet and associated technologies such as e-mail will bring to the nonprofit sector is as big as was the printing press or the computer. It's hard to imagine an organization of any size, be for-profit or non-profit that isn't using a computer to keep track of doners, interested people, maintain the mailing list, and of course word processing and budgeting. There was a challenge that organizations had to face when computers came out, and now there is a challenge in what to do with the Internet. This is a book intended to give managers an insight into what the Internet can do for their organization. It talks about what can be done using the Internet to give you ideas of how it might fit into your organization. In some areas like connecting your database to the web site, it doesn't get into the technical ways to do it, just the concept. It's a good way to get started, and it's something that you're going to have to do sooner or later.