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.
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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.