In January of last year I wrote up a quick summary on how some of our clients’ end-of-year online fundraising campaigns did vs. the prior year, and I thought it’d be nice to repeat the exercise to see how nonprofits fared in 2011.

The results below come from aggregate data from 14 organizations we work with – a big thanks to them for letting us include their data in this post. These aren’t necessarily the same organizations we included in our write-up last year; this analysis compares two years of data for these 14 groups.

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This week, a client asked if I would help explain to their boss what goes into an online campaign. I actually get asked this question fairly frequently, so I figured maybe I should just quickly write up some thoughts to outline the anatomy of an online campaign.

Here’s what comes immediately to mind – and I admit that I probably am missing some tactics or maybe even big picture concepts – feel free to tell me what I missed in the comments and I’ll make an edit to the post. Hopefully this can serve as a resource to anyone who needs a good answer to that question.
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Stories are powerful — our brains seem to be hard-wired for this ancient method of sharing information. As a result, including stories in your emails may seem like a no-brainer. But there’s a problem: Non-profits are adding stories to their fundraising messages… and they’re not working.

How can smart organizations harness the power of stories to communicate with supporters and get them to donate? In M+R’s newest publication, we dig into what makes stories powerful, explain recent test results that can help non-profits avoid falling into the personal story trap, and offer concrete tips for crafting emails that successfully use stories to compel supporters to give.

Click here to read “Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing” now. (PDF)

Click here to download a webinar we held on this topic, ask questions, and follow the ongoing conversation!

We often think of online advocacy as a great to keep supporters engaged. But did you know online advocacy can also significantly boost fundraising performance?

I’m teaming up with Care2 and Blackbaud this week to host a free panel on connecting online advocacy and fundraising. Get tips on how to raise more money by using online advocacy. See recent examples of these best practices in action. Hear from Chris Burley from Defenders of Wildlife and Geoff Handy from the Humane Society of the US on how their optimizing their online fundraising program with online advocacy.
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So, how did the end of year season turn out for non-profits? With final results in, we decided to compare our clients’ end-of-year 2010 results to their 2009 figures. Here are the top findings on looking at aggregate stats from 13 clients we work with who conducted fundraising campaigns this past December as well as last December:
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