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US non-profits don't resolicit online donors via e-mail
Howard Lake | 10 September 2000 | News
A survey has found that US non-profits often accept donations online, but don’t follow up via e-mail.
American Internet fundraising consultancy donordigital.com
and Mal Warwick & Associates have conducted a survey into how non-profits follow up online donations. They found that “major nonprofits are generally good at accepting online credit card donations but they don’t bother to resolicit their online donors via e-mail.”
They donated online to 37 groups but only 1 non-profit and three political campaigns bothered to resolicit them by e-mail over the next two months. Under half sent any kind of instant or automated e-mail acknowledgement. Most non-profits simply added the donor’s details to their paper-based direct mail database.
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The Red Cross showed how it should be done. When they contacted the donor again via e-mail they suggested a donation to their local organisation, demonstrating a sound use of direct mail.
The average postal thank you took more than three weeks. Environmental Defense’s postal acknowldgement took 56 days.
- Apocalypse now fundraising online (12 September 2000)
- Online donation calculator for dot com millionaires (13 September 2000)
- Lastminute.com benefits Save the Children Fund (14 September 2000)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.