New Management Tips From The Bridge Conference

With The NonProfit Times attending the recently concluded 2011 Bridge Conference, we had the opportunity to pick up some new management tips based on the information presented at the event.  As such, we updated our site with three new tips in Research, Database, and Online.  Here is one on the subject of online fundraising:


With online fundraising, content is important. Don’t forget the content.


With online fundraising, technology is important. Don’t forget the technology.


So, which is more important? Both are important. During the recent Bridge Conference, Shabbir Imber Safdar of The Safdar Group tried to put things in perspective.


He gave this advice: When you have consistently put out a small, original email every other week for four months that talks about your work without being repetitive or tired, you’ve conquered the content beast. That done, you probably have enough experience producing content to look at your technology.


Once you do that, there is the minimum functionality you need:


• You have a constituent relationship management (CRM) system that understands basic nonprofit donor management.


• People who come to your website can sign up for your email list without your manual intervention.


• You can easily create donation forms and link them.


• You can place a piece of Javascript code on the donation form, the donation Thank you page and other pages of your website.


• You can compose an email (without using HTML); you can send an email and track opens and clicks.


He also said that an organization at this stage might also have to suffer with:


• Manually adding people from your donation forms to your CRM or your email list, and;
• A website that doesn’t look all that great.

To read the other tips from the Bridge Conference, visit NPT's management tips page.