The Biggest Mistake made on many nonprofit websites

Is your website working for you?  If not, you may have made The Biggest Mistake.

I’ve looked at a lot of nonprofit websites.  Many look as though they were thrown together at the last minute or were done in response to someone saying “We need a website”.  Some are design nightmares – hard to read with too many fonts and too much text on each page.  Others haven’t been updated in years.

The Biggest Mistake you can make when it comes to websites is not being clear about the website’s purpose and desired results.

What is your website’s purpose?  If your website is simply to provide information, then put all the basics on it and make it easy to read and navigate.  If you want to raise money with your website, then tell stories about those you are helping or the good you are doing, and offer an easy way for people to donate.

You must post fresh content regularly (monthly is ideal).  If repeat visitors to your website see the same stale, out-of-date information every time they visit, they’ll stop coming.

Your website is no different than any other communications tool.  If you are clear about what you want it to do, it’s much easier to be successful with it.

What Fundraising Season are you in?

Just like time and the weather, fundraising has seasons.  We plant seeds hoping to grow donors.  We nurture them, cultivate them, and coax them to bear fruit, right?

If you work in a small nonprofit, you might think of the seasons like this:

• Spring is a great time for special events and these are good ways to gain a few new donors and cultivate the ones you have.  You can successfully mail an appeal in the Spring, although your results won’t be quite as good as in the Fall.
• Summer is a good time for planning your Fall activities.  Don’t mail appeals during the summer – statistics show they just won’t perform. Keep in touch with your best donors and get to know them.
• Fall is prime fundraising season!!  October is the #1 month for direct mail, so spend September getting yours ready.  If you have a good story to pitch to the media, now’s the time. Get Holiday cards ready to go in the mail after Thanksgiving.
• Winter can be a great time for planting early seeds.  Put together a Gift Summary for your donors in January so they can use it for their taxes.  As your donors to start the new year off right by joining your Monthly Giving Club.

Sprinkle in good newsletters and volunteer opportunities along the way, and you’re well on your way to a year of fundraising success!

How goes the fundraising this year?

Since today is February 1st, it seems like a good time to take stock of the year so far.  Just one short month ago, many of us were making plans for the year.  So how’s it going?

If you haven’t made plans for the year, it isn’t too late to start.  Set 3 goals for things you’d like to accomplish (maybe the number of dollars you want to raise, the number of new donors you want to get, and the numbr of current donors you want to renew).  Then for each goal, write out the action steps it will take to reach each goal.

If you’d like more help, I’ll be leading a teleseminar on Feb 19th to cover the basics of strategic and fundraising planning.  Check it out at www.sandyrees.com/training.html.

What’s Your Mission?

One of the most important pieces of your organization is your mission.  Not only does it need to be crystal clear, everyone needs to be able to recite it when asked.  This includes staff and Board.

Need to work on your mission statement?  Consider these points:

• Make it a single sentence long.

• Use an action verb.

• Include what you do, who you do it for, and the geographical area you serve.

Post it in lots of places around your facility to remind you and your colleagues about what you do.