I’m definitely pumped about writing my next email appeal, and I hope you are, too. Steve and I had a few thoughts that we wanted to share with you coming out of the event, and we also promised we’d answer all the questions we didn’t get to during the webinar itself. Okay! Here goes:

Sharing our number 1 take-away
The big lesson is to make sure you cast the donor as the hero of your emails. Not your organization or your staff or your partners – your donor. Make sure you’re presenting the choice to donate as a meaningful chance to improve the world and a chance to participate in a positive shared story. It may seem counterintuitive, but this approach is more compelling to potential donors than the most vivid, heartbreaking story you have in your organizational collection.

Downloading the slides or the full presentation
If you’d like a copy of the slides for reference, or to share with your colleagues and friends, you’re in luck! You can download the slides right here for a handy guide to:

• The data around using stories in your emails
• Our top 3 recommendations on how to use stories
• 4 reasons why people donate
• 7 tips on how to effectively use stories when you’re sitting down to draft your appeal
• 4 gut-check questions to ask yourself after you’ve finished writing

Or if you can’t get enough of Steve’s and my melodious voices, you can also download the full recording here.

If you didn’t have a chance to attend, and have any other questions about the webinar, just comment in the post below! We’d love to hear from you.

And, just to make sure you’re fully operational next time it’s time to write an appeal, here’s the link to our storytelling whitepaper.

Answering your storytelling questions
We got a lot of seriously great questions during the Q&A section, and we didn’t have a chance to answer all of them – so, as promised, here are the answers to your questions:

Q: I have heard that stories about individuals are compelling for low-dollar donors, but that solutions to big problems works for major donors. What have you found as a difference between low-dollar and major donors?

Q: Have you tested whether different donors respond differently? For example, do major donors respond differently from regular, recurring, lapsed, etc.?

SD: Our testing and analysis is primarily around low-dollar donors and activists. I think our work is a cautionary tale about assuming any story will be useful – and I’d take that caution to heart when thinking about how to use stories with major donors. You either need to test or, at a minimum, get some feedback from your target audience on what types of stories strike a chord.

Q: How do you work donor testimonies into stories? More important, how do you find donor testimonies?

SW: I assume that this is in reference to testimonials from regular donors, rather than celebrities. The pitfall to watch out for is making those other donors (the ones whose testimonials you have) the hero of your story, which muscles out your reader from that role. For that reason, we’ve seen messages quoting donor testimonials in the lede of the message underperform client benchmarks. I’d suggest that if you have donor testimonials, that you work it into your email as a way of describing how your donor would be part of a larger movement of people all working towards the same common goal (this is a great opportunity to apply peer pressure with a light touch), rather than relying on a donor testimonial to compel someone to donate – for example, don’t use your donor testimonial to try to remind someone that they, too, have a family member with the disease or that they feel the same about your issue and thus, should donate. Much like an explaining story, donor testimonials should play a supporting role.

You can get testimonials in a few different ways: emailing a survey (or landing donors on it after they’ve given or taken action), asking your donors why they support you or what they find important about some of the issues you work on; through Facebook, especially with the comments that people may already be leaving on your wall; and during thank-you phone calls to donors. For most organizations, surveys are probably the best option. Make sure to talk to your lawyer about how to obtain permission to use their stories, though!

Q: Will these citations of studies be available to us?

SD: “The power of stories (I): a discussion of why stories are powerful” by John Sadowsky and Loick Roche. September, 2003. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1360346.1360352
“The Science Behind Our Generosity,” by Peter Singer. February 28, 2009. http://www.newsweek.com/2009/02/27/the-science-behind-our-generosity.html
“What Makes Donors Give,” by Ruth Wooden. Chronicle of Philanthropy, Dec 8, 2005. http://www.publicagenda.org/articles/what-makes-donors-give
“The Secret to Happiness? Giving.” by Elsa Youngsteadt. Science, March 20, 2008. http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2008/03/20-02.html
“Mass Suffering and Why We Look the Other Way,” by Shankar Vedantam. The Washington Post, January 5, 2009. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401307.html
“Changing Minds and Changing Towels” by Noah Goldstein, Psychology Today, August, 2008. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/yes/200808/changing-minds-and-changing-towels
(*Correction on the towels stat: 26% improvement for the first test card and 33% improvement for the second test card)

Q: If you really can’t find a good story, do you recommend the more institutional appeal to get better results?

SD: Yes, if the story isn’t good, I would go back to a more traditional institutional appeal. Our testing definitely showed that the quality and type of story used can make a dramatic impact on the performance of an appeal, and you should trust your gut if you’re reading a story and aren’t personally moved by it.

Q: If you have many stories, how do you choose one? For example, if your organization is a federation and allocates their budget to many different organizations, how do you even tell a story?

SW: Having a lot of stories is a good problem to have! And the simple answer is: use the best one!

By “best one” I mean the one that best illustrates a problem, is simple to explain, has a place for your donor to come in, is memorable, and has details that make the story feel real to your reader.

If you’re a federation or a membership organization made up of other organizations, stories are a good way to consolidate the work you do in a way that’s clear and simple to understand. Start out by illustrating what you do – you may need to choose one aspect of what you work on, especially if you, your member organizations, or chapters work on a diverse range of issues. Depending on the setup of your organization, you may need to mention in the email the range of work that your organization does further down in the body of your email.

Additionally, it’s no bad thing to write about different aspects of your work in different emails. It gives you a flexibility that single-issue organizations may not have.

Q: Can you elaborate more on how an already credible institution can build credibility through storytelling?

SD: Many organizations tout their high marks on various third party agencies’ scales – but like statistics – these figures aren’t always memorable. A simple story about change that happened because of the organization’s work can make a more lasting impression. One example comes from my work with UNICEF. Last year, during the peak of the famine in Africa, newspapers published a picture of a little boy named Minhaj. The image was incredibly jarring – he weighed less than 7 lbs at the age of 7 months (you can see before and after shots here). He miraculously recovered – thanks to the work of IRC, UNICEF, and others working in the field to feed and save starving children. The story proved that feeding programs and relief efforts were working – even in the most dramatic and desperate cases. These kinds of stories can help show tangibly the difference your organization is making and thereby lend credibility to its programs and work.

Q: For this question the humanitarian issue is hunger (e.g.), can you speak to how to make the choice between using a story/image that illustrates the dire situation (e.g. a malnourished toddler) vs. a story about the impact (e.g. a well fed child who is now able to go to school)?

Q: We can’t tell stories of those waiting to receive our services, but we can tell our success stories. Suggestions around ways to turn a success story into a “compelling story” with an unresolved ending etc?

SW: If what you have available is a success story, you can still tell that success story. You just have to make sure to highlight the current need more than you highlight the success. Use the success to demonstrate that by working together, you can help the current need. The general feel that the reader should get from your email should be inspired – there’s this problem, but I know we can tackle it, because we’ve done it before. Make sure that you’re giving adequate attention to the problem, clearly explaining the remaining need and how your reader can help solve it.

If your organization is comfortable with it, the other alternative would be to take the stories you have of the successes, and simply not tell the ending. You open with the circumstances that your beneficiary faced, and never mention that they have, in fact, already been helped – you simply pivot to saying “stories like these are why we need your help.”

As for which is better – a malnourished toddler versus the well-fed child – there’s no simple answer. As we mentioned, you don’t want your reader to feel as though you’ve already solved the problem. It’s more compelling to open with the existing problem and immediately relate why you need your reader’s help; you might include the story about impact further down in the message, being sure to frame it as an instance of proving that we can help solve the problem. However, there are a few reasons why you might, instead, open with the story of the well-fed child. For instance, if you have donor fatigue on a particular subject, you’d want to use a slightly different angle. You may also have a list which responds better to a hopeful or inspirational message which highlights how it’s possible to solve the problem than they do to a message that is solely focused on the problem. (You’d want to test that to find out for sure.) We’ve also seen anecdotally that hopeful messages sometimes perform really well at end-of-year, when you have a little more leeway with talking big picture instead of immediate-solve-it-now problems.

Q: Would you say that giving because you care would fall under “to be happy”?

SD: Caring about a cause could be an additional reason why people give. The four reasons we gave are certainly not exhaustive. It does feel like caring is a bit more like a pre-requisite for giving – because even if you care you don’t necessarily give – there often needs to be an additional factor that triggers the gift.

Q: Can you define “story?” so far I haven’t heard you actually tell one. You’ve just described something in vivid detail.

SD: By “story” we simply mean something that recounts a sequence of events. Those events may be very limited and it might end up being just one sentence, but it’s formulated in a narrative structure. For example… “when you’re a child and you’re thirsty, you don’t care if water is polluted, you’ll drink it.” Of course it could also mean something more than this, but I’m assuming this shorter version of “story” is what you’re questioning.

Q: How long should a story be in an email?

SW: If you’re opening an email with a story, then you want to make sure your story isn’t pushing the first link down too far. You still want to make sure that link is above the fold, which means that someone who opens your email will be able to see the link without scrolling down. And if it’s an explaining story, don’t forget that it won’t be enough to compel someone to donate – you still have additional work to do in the lede. That means that if you open with a story, it should be quite short: 5 or 6 sentences at most.

If you’re going to use a story below the first link, especially because you want to explain your services or where a donor’s money is going, then you can make your story a bit longer. As long as there are enough opportunities to click on a link to the donation link or action page, length is less important than having good content.

Q: My organization has only 1% of revenue from contributions. This seems to make it hard to make the donor the hero. Any advice?

SD: Maybe it’s not just your donors that are heroes, but other types of supporters. I’d think about who your supporters are – it could be activists – or maybe there are institutions or partners that play a critical role in your success. Some of the concepts we reviewed could be used with other audiences. I’d be mindful to make sure however you use these concepts that the stories you tell feel real and authentic.

Q: How do you also extend an email message into direct mail to tell the story across mediums but without sounding repetitious?

SW: One of the big differences between email and direct mail is that direct mail is often significantly longer. And when you have stories available, your direct mail pieces have several stories, where your email will likely just have one. Repetition across channels can help reinforce a story as well – so it isn’t necessarily a bad thing to reuse a story in direct mail and in email.

This is also one of those instances where the craft of language can work in your favor. If you frame or phrase your story in a different light (hopeful versus determined, focusing on the mother’s plight versus the child’s plight, etc.), it’s unlikely that your supporter will remember the name or identifying information from one medium to the other, as long as the mail piece isn’t dropping at exactly the same time as your email is launching.

Additionally, as we mentioned, you don’t need a story. If you feel like you’re reusing stories several times because you simply don’t have enough stories, try a different tactic! Your story is serving a specific purpose, but it’s not the reason that people are donating.

Q: How do you retain donors with stories that already know your story and have been donating over the past couple of years?

SD: We all need reminders. I know my sister loves me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need to hear her say how much she loves me, or why. I don’t see any harm in expressing gratitude to your supporters over and over – even if they know they’re heroes already. Maybe they’re having a bad day, maybe they’ve forgotten what amazing things they’ve helped accomplish. I think you can reuse great stories – but also look for new stories – sometimes that’s as simple as making a list of the top 5 successes your organization had last year and then translating that into a story.

Q: How do you see the difference in use of stories v. testimonials?

SW: Stories can be used for a wider range of purposes than testimonials can. Stories can explain a problem, explain how you’re solving it, show your impact, demonstrate how you’re a trustworthy organization, and grab attention.

Testimonials can be used to demonstrate that you’re effective and trustworthy, though you have to be careful not to use them at the expense of bragging about your donors. Testimonials can also be an effective way to peer pressure your donor.

Overall, testimonials should be used somewhat sparingly; telling a story (or using story-like language) can be used much more frequently without seeming as much like a “tactic.”

Q: Would you use some of the compelling stories in thank you letters after the donor gives?

SD: I’d be more inclined to save those compelling stories for appeals. Remember, compelling stories are unfinished stories that have unresolved tension. You don’t want to tell that kind of a story without giving your donors a way to change the outcome. That kind of narrative wouldn’t happen in a thank you letter. Rather, I’d use explaining stories in a thank you letter – something that can illuminate in a unique way how they are helping make change by donating to your organization.

Q: Do you recommend this approach with corporate donors?

SW: Corporations obviously don’t provide grants based on quite the same reasons that your supporters donate. Still, the tactics of using vivid language (to explain things to people who are far from experts or insiders in your field – even more so than your supporters!) and demonstrating explicitly that they are serving a need that’s not yet filled is useful for them internally. More than that, it’s useful for them to demonstrate to their customers that they’re doing good in the world. Those things can only help you.

Q: Does this approach work for corporations?

SD: We don’t have a ton of experience working with corporations, just with mission based non-profits. I think it’d be hard for me to credibly extrapolate that what we found in these tests would definitely work for corporations as well.

Q: What is the best way to tell stories: from the 1st person or 3rd person?

SW: I’m not sure one way is better. Third person is probably easier to pull off well. When it’s first person, there’s always the chance that the story will focus too much on the narrator (whether the narrator is a staff member or a beneficiary), and not enough on the reader. But I suspect that having a first person narrator can sometimes be more powerful and better at grabbing attention, especially if they have a unique voice that stands apart from your more standard non-profit way of writing.

Q: The proof of your tests seems to very strongly go against stories for fundraising. Yet you seem to have blasted past this and assumed it’s the wrong story that was the problem in each case. Is it possible that institutional messages simply do better?

SD: We blasted past this mostly because scientists have proven time and time again that stories are powerful, that they are how humans retain and process information, and that they can often influence people to act or make different decisions. We didn’t think our testing debunked all of the available research out there – and assumed that there was something we’re doing wrong with stories. We’ll go back to see if we can publish additional data on story versions of appeals performing better – and we’ll also put it on our testing list to try this year.

Q: Given documented underperformance of stories, we need more advice on what kinds of stories DO work. Is there documented success of explaining or compelling stories? And what exactly is the difference?

SD: The primary difference between explaining and compelling stories is that compelling stories are those that are unresolved, that have a problem, and that present a solution where the reader can do something to change the outcome of the story. Explaining stories are simpler – and tend to describe something in a narrative format – and this helps present information in a way that helps the reader retain and better understand the issue and the organization’s work.

I’ve asked our team here at M+R to see if we can publish more data on stories that have worked. For now – I don’t have anything that we can share. We’ll definitely put this on our list of possible tests and white papers to publish this year – it seems there is some interest in seeing more data.

If you’re interested in joining us and our partners, NTEN and Ad Council, there’s still time to register! Click here to RSVP.

And if you’d like to read our storytelling whitepaper you can download the PDF right now by clicking this link.

Hope to talk with you soon!

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.

So without further ado, here’s the scoop:

A lot more money – Every organization in this data set raised more money online in 2011 than they did in 2010.

A ton more gifts – 93% saw an increase in the number of gifts made. Overall gifts in this group increased by almost 25% over 2010.

Lower average gifts – 79% had lower average gifts in 2011 vs. 2010. Compared to last year’s report, this is the one downward trend. Last year, this figure was pretty much split down the middle with half having higher and half having lower average gifts than the year before.

Better response rates – 71% had the same or higher response rates to their email appeals than last year. Of the organizations that had higher response rates, a majority (63%) had larger lists and sent to more people. Last year, most organizations saw lower response rates compared with the prior year.

More emails – 71% sent more appeals this year vs. last year. Last year this figure was 85%, so this trend may be slowing a bit.

Overall, this performance feels sunnier than last year’s. I’m particularly encouraged by the response rates to email appeals. When you look at M+R’s eNonprofit Benchmarks reports, industry-wide fundraising response rates have been falling regularly year over year. I don’t want to jinx it, but after looking at this data set, I thought, could the trend finally be halting or maybe even reversing? We’ll have to wait until the new eNonprofit Benchmarks report comes out in April to know for sure (you can sign up here to make sure you receive the report as soon as it’s released) – but fingers crossed!

Things that helped…

So what played into the generally good performance? When I polled our staff who work with these clients, here is some of what I heard:

• Other email drove revenue – several advocacy organizations used actions during December that landed action-takers on a year-end donation form. Some organizations also used surveys earlier in December which landed respondents on year-end donation forms. These types of emails helped pad the bottom line figures.
• Compact appeal schedule – a few staff believed that a more aggressive scheduling of appeals in the last week of the year helped boost overall response rates. Last year we saw early December appeals do pretty poorly. As a result, some clients pushed their appeals later this December while others kept the earlier emails but used them as a vehicle for other engagement devices like actions and surveys.
• Matching gifts – the most successful campaigns in this group offered matches. A few organizations kicked it up a notch this year by ratcheting up the match – either doubling or extending the amount – in the final days of December.
• “Donor as hero” copy – a few of us felt our clients benefited from messaging that framed the donor (or potential donor) as the hero of the appeals. Don’t miss the free webinar we’ll be leading on February 8th with NTEN and the Ad Council on storytelling and fundraising. My friend and colleague, Sara Wolfson, and I will share tips on how to use the “donor as hero” approach in your fundraising appeals.

Things are looking up

Overall, this data makes me hopeful that whatever ongoing challenges our economy is facing, people are feeling a bit more secure psychologically and are more responsive to appeals for money (though maybe we just write really amazing copy ).

Here’s what I’d suggest you think about when it’s time to plan your 2012 year-end campaign. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that inboxes are becoming increasingly crowded each day, so prioritize testing whenever you can. Even small improvements in open and response rates can make a huge difference when you’ve got a large email file. Beyond testing, push yourself to step out of the box when writing appeals, whether that means trying something completely new, or psyching yourself up to advocate for more emotionally vivid language.

I’d love to hear how your end of year campaign went. If you want to share, shoot me an email at sdaigneault AT mrss DOT com, and depending on the response I might do a follow-up post with readers’ submissions.

First of all, this news means that it is more important than ever to post content that your fans will actively engage with by “liking”, commenting or sharing. Your fans’ activity will show up in News Feeds and News Tickers where your posts may not. So continue to ask questions, share images and videos, encourage comments, and post content that people will “like” and share with their friends.

Second, it’s probably time to start thinking about having staff and spokespeople represent your organization online through their Facebook profiles. Organizations and businesses have been doing this for quite some time on Twitter. Now, thanks to the introduction of the “subscribe” function, Facebook is finally catching up.

This change may be a little frustrating for organizations that have been concentrating on creating a strong fan page, but it presents a great opportunity to engage with fans in a more personal way. Organizational representatives can use social media to provide an inside view of your work and interact with advocates and supporters on a more personal level – all the while giving your organization a real face. It will deepen your connection with existing fans and help you find new supporters. Asking your supporters for something will also likely be more effective when it comes from a person rather than an organizational presence.

But before you get too eager about the newest thing on Facebook, remember that this is not the best idea for every organization. If your organization doesn’t have staff or representatives with the right personality or enough time and knowledge to engage on Facebook, you shouldn’t force it. If you only have the resources for one presence on Facebook, you should stick with the fan page which offers a lot of benefits that individual profiles do not – like Insights, landing pages, custom tabs, and Facebook ads targeting. And, after all, who knows what the future holds for fan pages.

Ready to get started? First, make sure you understand Facebook’s subscription and privacy settings so you know exactly how to broadcast to your subscribers. There is no need to friend your new supporters – just have them subscribe to your public feed. Beth Kanter offers more details on these first steps here.

Once your representative has his or her profile set up, it’s time to start recruiting subscribers. You can do this through the Facebook community, and also by putting a ‘Subscribe’ button on your website. It’s very simple – as easy as putting the “Like” button on your website.

Remember that this profile is not just a place to re-post everything from your fan page! It is a way for your representative to show their personality and interact with your supporters on a human level. The posts are a good place to express emotion, and share anecdotes and opinions. You can also use the profile to interact with people and pages throughout Facebook by “liking”, sharing, and commenting on content publicly. It may take some time to find your unique voice – try out different types of posts and pay attention to what your audience likes.

It is still early in the game but the tech and journalism sectors are already hopping on board – see Pete Cashmore of Mashable and Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times. Non-profit directors and staff have also been doing this for some time on Twitter – look at Kevin Donnellan of AARP and Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood.

Do you think this is good news or bad news for organizations on Facebook? Does your Executive Director or other staff already represent your organization through a public profile? Let us know in the comments below, through Twitter, or on our Facebook page!

What if you found out that one-quarter of your subscribers were reading your emails on their mobile phones?

There’s a good chance they already are. (And if they’re not, they will be soon!)

As of November 2011, 89.6 million Americans now use their mobile phone to access their work or personal email. That’s an increase of 28% in the last year alone.¹

So is the rapid rise in mobile email changing how subscribers engage with our email campaigns?

In 2011, we worked with several national non-profits to answer that question. We wanted to know how many people were opening emails on a mobile phone — and compared to those who opened an email on their computer, how many were clicking, donating, or taking action?

Mobile phones accounted for between 12% and 17% of emails opened. But on the day an email was sent, that number could be as high as 24% (with more opens coming from desktop users in the days following).

From there, we saw that mobile users were less likely than desktop users to take the next steps of clicking and donating or taking action. Mobile users were reading – but they weren’t engaging as much as desktop users.

For example, while mobile users may have accounted for 17% of opens for a fundraising appeal, they would only account for 5% of those who actually made a donation online.

The discouraging conclusion: mobile phones were negatively affecting how supporters engage with email marketing.

And when you think about it, that’s not so surprising. Lots of organizations use email templates, and those templates make text look really tiny on a mobile phone. Links become scarcely wider than a fingernail, and reading email on your phone means a great deal of scrolling, pinching, swiping, flicking and so on. Not fun.

So what could we do about it? Simple: we could make sure our emails and landing pages looked fantastic on mobile phones.

Mobile Email: Before and After

Here’s an email from the Human Rights Campaign viewed on an iPhone.

As you can see, while the email is displayed just as it would be for a desktop user, it doesn’t make for a great user experience on a small phone screen.

Now look at that same email after it was optimized for mobile phones:

Which version do you think your subscribers will be more likely to read and click?

When we tested a mobile-optimized version of an email against a non-optimized version of the same email, the optimized version resulted in more readers clicking on the email links.

OK. You’re sold. Emails perform better when they’re optimized for mobile users. So what do you do?

How to Make Your Email Mobile-Friendly

Code alert: If code makes your eyes cross, stop reading this right now and send this article to someone on your staff who’s techier than you. Otherwise, join me, and let’s dive in!

The key to making your HTML email look better on mobile devices is the CSS @media query, which allows you to define a different set of styles for your email based on screen size.

The @media query is supported by iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads), Android’s default mail client, and WebOS. Devices and email clients that don’t support the @media query, such as Android’s Gmail app (and Gmail in general) will display your email with your default styles.

Here’s the basic @media query structure:

@media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) {
[define your mobile-friendly styles here]
}

The above example will tell email clients to only apply the included styles on screens that are 480 pixels wide or less (480px being a common width for smartphones, such as the iPhone). For those familiar with the iPhone, while the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S have a screen resolution of 640×960 instead of the 320×480 size found in the earlier models, they still behave as though their screen resolution is 320×480.

For example, let’s say you have a 600-pixel wide email with a wide logo at the top:

<html>
<body>

</body>
</html>

To make this email mobile-friendly, we’ll want to make both the containing table and the logo much narrower so they fit nicely on a mobile screen. To do this, we’ll define a few mobile-only CSS classes in the @media query and apply those classes to the table and image.

<html>
<head>

</body>
</html>

Two important things to note about this example:

1. The “!important” declaration is included in the mobile-friendly CSS to ensure those styles overwrite any other styles that may also apply to those elements.
2. Unfortunately Yahoo! Mail will ignore the @media rule and instead apply all of your mobile-specific CSS styles, regardless of the screen size. This means desktop users of Yahoo! Mail will see the mobile-version of your email. To avoid this, use the attribute selector format for defining CSS styles.

For example, change this:

.logo {
  width: 300px !important;
  height: 50px !important;
}

…to this:

img[class="logo"] {
  width: 300px !important;
  height: 50px !important;
}

Email on Acid has an excellent article on this and other Yahoo! Mail quirks for mobile email.

For a more an in-depth example of optimizing email for mobile devices, including sample code, I highly recommend checking out Campaign Monitor’s review of how they optimized their eNewsletter.

Now this is just the beginning of what’s possible for mobile email. If you’re really gung-ho, you can change the layout of your email, crop or replace images, or even hide or display text for mobile readers.

Good luck and happy optimizing!

1. http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2012/01/u-s-mobile-email-audience-grows-by-nearly-20-million-users-in-the-past-year/

Find out when you join us and our partners, NTEN and Ad Council, for a free storytelling webinar led by M+R’s Steve Daigneault and Sara Wolfson.

It’s Not You, It’s Your Stories:  How your fundraising appeals can tell better stories

We’ll cover:

• Why not all stories work in fundraising appeals
• The basic requirements to telling the right story
• Concrete tips you can use every time you draft an appeal

Click here to register for this free webinar.

Feel free to spread the word! We hope to see you there.

Looking back on the last 12 months here at M+R, we had a lot of fun, too. So without further ado… hey girl, here are the top 11 projects we had the most fun doing in 2011.

1. Name the Missing Cobra! (Wildlife Conservation Society)
When the Bronx Zoo’s Egyptian cobra went missing, the snake became the talk of the town (thanks in large part to a hysterical fake twitter feed – which we cannot claim credit for, unfortunately.) After it was safe and secure back in its home, the Wildlife Conservation Society teamed up with the New York Daily News to run a cobra naming contest, generating over 60,000 votes. By responding quickly, WCS took advantage of the missing cobra’s newfound celebrity to find itself a bunch of new online supporters… and name Mia the cobra, all at the same time!

2. “Barbie, It’s Over” Campaign (Greenpeace)
This past summer, we saw the end of an era when Barbie’s sweetheart Ken dumped her because her packaging was destroying the rainforest. Ken made it clear he doesn’t “date girls that are into deforestation.” Using a creative combination of animated videos, social media accounts, and offline actions, Greenpeace challenged Mattel to stop destroying rainforests to provide materials for its toy packaging. This campaign garnered widespread media attention, and compelled Mattel to change its practices. And most importantly, Ken and Barbie got back together. Phew!

3. I Am Not a Pushover (AARP)
Mad Libs aren’t just for kids anymore! When Congress contemplated throwing aging Americans under the bus and making them pay for Wall Street’s economic recklessness, AARP members across America used this cool Mad Libs-esque action form to tell Obama and their Members of Congress that enough is enough, I am not a pushover.

4. Happy 65th Birthday, President Clinton! (Clinton Foundation)
How do you help President Clinton celebrate a milestone birthday? We made this year’s special day one to remember by getting thousands of his supporters to send him a birthday card. His daughter Chelsea unveiled the ambitious plan to supporters, and after he got thousands of cards, President Clinton was so touched that he made a Thank You video for everyone who sent him a card. It was meaningful, and fun, and really successful!

5. Maps
OMG, who doesn’t love a map? Especially maps that highlight widespread support for marriage equality or social security. After marriage equality passed in New York, Human Rights Campaign supporters texted their support, and we populated a map based on their locations to show that this was a national victory. To show solidarity across the country for Social Security and Medicare, AARP supporters who sent messages to Congress were added to a map.

6. Facebook Image Shares
To keep everyone on their toes, Facebook changed its Newsfeed algorithm to emphasize photos even more than before. We wanted to make sure our clients’ campaigns continued to reach as many supporters as possible – so we helped create Facebook image shares to promote these timely campaigns. Some were funny, some tragic, and all quite compelling. Plus, who doesn’t want an excuse to “check Facebook to see how the image share is doing”…

7. Budget Reallocation Calculator
Sick of Congress wasting your tax dollars on things you don’t support? Drug Policy Alliance was, too – so we helped them create a budget reallocation tool that lets YOU decide where you’d rather spend the $51 billion that’s being spent on the fruitless war on drugs this year. Plus, when you’re done pretending you have the power to right that wrong, the tool lets you share your choices with friends on Facebook.

8. Infographics
Most people’s eyes start to glaze over when they’re confronted with a lot of numbers. Luckily, infographics can save the day! They’ve been around for a long time, but they’re still a great way to get a point across to supporters. We had a blast creating an infographic about vaccines for the GAVI Alliance – especially when the office of British Prime Minister David Cameron retweeted it! Plus we were able to show people our favorite takeaways from our 2011 Benchmarks study with this infographic.

9. Facebook Apps
César Chávez’s lifelong advocacy on behalf of working people is an inspiration… which is why we were inspired to work with United Farm Workers to create a Facebook application that would honor his legacy. Users could donate their Facebook status with a Chávez quote to honor the historic organizer’s passing – and bring farm workers’ struggles from the fields into the homes and offices of people all across the country. What could be more fun – and powerful – than that?

10. Stop Contractor Bailouts
It feels good to win, particularly on behalf of public sector workers, who have become the right-wing’s latest boogeyman. Together with American Federation of Government Employees, we launched StopContractorBailouts.com – a campaign to cap outlandish contractor compensation funded by our tax dollars (currently as high as $700,000, nearly double what the President makes!). But what really made it so fun? Passing the compensation cap in the Senate. Take that, Tea Party.

11. Taking on Amazon.com
“Your Amazon.com order has shipped – from a sweatshop?!” – That attention-grabbing subject line kicked off American Rights at Work’s campaign to challenge internet behemoth Amazon.com’s horrific working conditions (we’re talking people-passing-out-from-heat-in-their-warehouses bad). This David and Goliath story culminated in thousands of consumers across the country pledging not to shop at Amazon this holiday season.

• If you need a refresher on the big picture strategy for your campaign, like why you should send email appeals, when to send them, and what to say, then check out this recording of the End of Year fundraising webinar we held last month with Salsa Labs!
• Still stuck on what to say in your emails to supporters? Here’s one tip you should definitely use.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel: find out what tests and tactics worked for our clients in 2010 and 2009.

Wondering how these changes will affect your organization’s Twitter account? Look no further! Here’s the low-down on the best new features and why they matter.

1. Brand Pages: As with Facebook and Google+, Twitter will now have brand pages for companies, which allow for more functionality and interactions with followers. Initially, these pages will be exclusive to a select group of partners, charities and individuals, but will be rolled out to a wider audience in the coming months.

   Why it matters: Brands will now be able to customize their pages with larger logos and extended taglines. You’ll also be able to promote one tweet to top of your organization’s timeline, helping to control what message visitors see when they arrive. These tweets will also show any media (like a video) that accompanies the tweet – no clicking required! Nonprofits could easily use this feature to highlight a recent advocacy action or fundraising campaign.



2. Embedded Tweets: You can now embed tweets on an external webpage, with the same functionality as Twitter’s website. All you have to do is go to the tweet’s permalink page and click “Embed this Tweet.”

   

   Why it matters: Rather than taking a screenshot of a recent tweet, your organization can embed the actual tweet. Fans can respond and retweet on the webpage (a Twitter box will pop up), rather than looking at a static image. A blog post or homepage feature about a recent campaign could include a tweet to a target, and fans could retweet it, or you could pose a question and fans could reply with their answer.

Wondering how your #nonprofit can benefit from the #newnewTwitter redesign? ow.ly/7ULz8 Our post gives the low-down: #sm4np #nptech

— M+R (@MRCampaigns) December9, 2011

3. Twitter Buttons: In addition to the “tweet” and “follow” buttons, Twitter has introduced the hashtag and mention buttons to place on your website or blog. The codes are here.

   Why it matters: It’s easier than ever to get your fans involved in a cause. With the click of a button, they can follow your organization, share your campaign hashtag, mention or engage with your organization.



4. Overall: The changes have affected nearly every aspect of Twitter’s design, including the navigation.

   Why it matters: It’s easier than ever to get your fans involved in a cause. With the click of a button, they can follow your organization, share your campaign hashtag, mention or engage with your organization.

• The “home” page is the new timeline, which now features media on the timeline itself so that videos and pictures are easier to view.
• The “connect” page shares mentions and interactions.
• The “discover” page includes stories relevant to who you follow, and also suggestions new people to follow.
• Additional profile information is now on the left side of the page.
• The impact of these changes will be dependent on how new users access Twitter in the future, since they only affect Twitter-related platforms, and it’s unclear how these changes will be reflected in third party platforms.

Hope this helps! When your organization’s account gets the new design, let us know what creative ways you find to take advantage of the new redesign.

For more on the changes, visit fly.twitter.com.

But my pants weren’t the only thing busting from the seams – so was my inbox. Every year, more and more organizations send out “thank you” emails around Thanksgiving. I got at least four emails with the exact phrase, “we’re thankful for you.” While it’s important to thank your supporters, is there something else you can do to make your organization’s Thanksgiving message stand out?

We saw a lot of Thanksgiving emails last week. Most of them were nice – but some of them really caught our attention. Here are the top 4 tactics we saw that had us pondering even when we were down to the leftovers.

1) Don’t just thank your supporters – give them something they’ll appreciate.

This year, MoveOn didn’t just express their gratitude to supporters… they actually provided something progressives could use during the holiday. Members were sent a short guide to dealing with conservative family members during the holidays, including five conservative myths of the moment and how to debunk them at the dinner table. A mission-centric message that was actually practical!

2) Show your supporters what they have accomplished… and what still lies ahead.

I’ve been a long-time supporter of NARAL Pro-Choice America, and they targeted their Thanksgiving message this year to folks like me. They made me feel proud of my efforts: “As one of our top activists, I thank you for being the backbone of our organization… Whether you are responding to our email alerts, sharing something about choice on your Facebook wall or on Twitter, or talking with a friend about why we must remain vigilant, you are standing up for your values. Thank you.” And they also reminded me about the ongoing attacks on reproductive choice and justice, while reinforcing that I’m part of a community of committed, pro-choice activists.

3) Make it look different and genuine.

Organizations try to mix it up with their Thanksgiving emails by sending less text or including a photo of their staff. But sometimes it’s important to go even further and take a step away from your normal message format. This year, the Human Rights Campaign and St. Joseph’s Indian School used some different tactics to help convey their organizations’ sincere gratitude.

The Human Rights Campaign dropped their logo, HTML formatting, and the callout box and sent something that felt a little more personal from their President, Joe Solmonese.

St. Joseph’s Indian School featured a photo of one of their actual students holding up a two-sentence thank you note.

4) Hit me with an emotional gut punch.

Okay, GetUp! Action for Australia didn’t say their beautiful marriage equality video was for Thanksgiving, but they sure made me feel thankful to live in Massachusetts. And their video didn’t just resonate with me: it generated nearly 3 million views in its first week online. What made it so successful? It told the story of two people who meet, fall in love, move in together, quarrel, experience loss, and then finally get engaged. But only until the very end do you realize that the video is about a gay couple (throughout the video, you only ever see one of the two people – the other is “behind” the camera). The video is a reminder that what really moves us – and motivates us to share content and take action – is not statistics or rational arguments, but stories that resonate with our own experiences and values.