See3 will be well-represented at the 2009 Bridge Conference and we hope you can join us! July 21-23 in Washington DC.

We are sponsors and I will be presenting about using video for fundraising.

We made this video for the conference. A fundraiser’s dream! (Watch in HQ.)

You can register for the conference here.

See3 Communications Names Shirley Sexton Director, Interactive Marketing and Fundraising


Leading provider of new media services to nonprofit community adds experienced online fundraiser and strategist to manage expanded service offering.

Chicago – April 3, 2009 – Continuing its growth as a national provider of interactive services to the nonprofit and cause community, See3 Communications proudly announces the addition of Shirley Sexton to its team as Director, Interactive Marketing and Fundraising.

Sexton joins See3 from Easter Seals, the 8th largest nonprofit organization in the United States, where she served as Assistant Vice President, Interactive Marketing. Sexton lead the creation of Easter Seals online infrastructure of over 140 Web sites, and established their Online Fundraising program, bringing their online income from virtually nothing to over 1.5 million dollars in just six years. Under Sexton’s leadership, Easter Seals’ presence online has became a leading model in the nonprofit sector for innovation, integration of headquarters and local chapters, and accessibility. In her position, Sexton managed a staff of seven employees and oversaw all online communications, including website development, email fundraising and outreach. During her tenure at Easter Seals Sexton also contributed to the nonprofit community by serving on the Convio Advisory Board, the ePhilanthropy Board of Directors and the Network for Good Advisory Board.

“We are thrilled that Shirley is joining See3 and bringing her vast knowledge of online fundraising and her sector leadership to our organization,” said Michael Hoffman See3 CEO. “Shirley is the anchor to our expansion of services, including comprehensive interactive assessments and email communications plans. In today’s environment it is especially critical that organizations optimize and coordinate all of their fundraising activities. At Easter Seals, Shirley was running an interactive program in a complex organization with a massive direct mail background, major corporate partners and large federal grants. She knows how to integrate channels and collaborate with stakeholders to optimize outcomes.”

Sexton has long been a trailblazer in utilizing online and direct marketing for social causes. Sexton’s online experience includes serving as principal strategic consultant for engagements with hundreds of national nonprofit clients at AppNet/Commerce One and managing the ground-breaking online experiment of marketing online subscriptions for Slate.com at iXL. Her direct mail portfolio includes work for Highlights Magazine, The New York Times and AOL. In addition, Sexton worked for nine years as art director in the direct marketing department of the National Geographic Society.

About See 3 Communications

See3 is a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits, foundations, associations, and social causes. See3 specializes in online strategy for fundraising and advocacy. They use their skills in video production and web development combined with their experience in strategic communications.

See3 creates compelling media and online initiatives for causes, from national organizations to community-based programs. They approach each engagement with a fresh eye, take the time to consider the clients’ audience and goals—fundraising, recruitment, education, awareness—and execute tailored video, web, and outreach campaigns to achieve maximum impact.

On a popular email list I am on there was talk about how effective fundraising emails still are. This came up in a recent conversation with a large nonprofit we were talking to here at See3.

Sarah DiJulio, Executive VP at M+R Strategic Services — a terrific online fundraising/marketing/PR firm and increasingly frequent partner with See3 on client projects — had this to say about email. She based her comments on real data from nonprofits:

Open rates, have fallen much faster than other rates. Response rates have also declined a bit over the past few years, but not nearly as fast as open rates. I simply wouldn’t read too much into open rates, because of all of the oddities around how they are calculated.

On response rates, these have been gradually declining, but part of what we’re seeing is that the non-urgent emails are performing extremely poorly, but emails that are near the deadline – ie DEADLINE TONIGHT kind of emails – are performing better than previous averages, and actually making up for shortfalls in other email messages. My experience so far is that email is still working, but some email is working better, and other email is going more poorly.

So the regular stuff is working less well, with the authentically important and urgent stuff doing better. Pay attention – you just can’t keep doing the same old same old here, especially in this environment.

“With the economy currently in crisis, your support is needed more than ever.”

If you haven’t read these words, you probably will. Every organization is feeling stressed by the economy, wondering how they will make their budgets in these tough times. And because everyone is feeling it, it makes sense to talk about it, right? We should remind people that it’s particularly important in a tough economy to support us, right?

Wrong!

M+R Strategic Services has done some important research with their client testing language about the economy.

Here’s the money quote:

What are other nonprofits doing to stay the course? One M+R client recently tested two versions of a special appeal: One simply stated the need for funds for many reasons, but did not make mention of global financial crisis. The other appeal led with a brief sentence stating that the current global financial crisis has made the need even greater. Both email messages had identical open rates, but the email with the mention of the financial crisis received 20% fewer click-throughs, and a 12% lower response rate than the email that did not. The lesson learned? Reminding your constituents of the current economic crisis, even when it is topical and strengthens your case for giving, does not make donors more likely to give, and may actually turn them away from giving.

Link [M+R Strategic Services Report]

Tweetsgiving was one of the first Twitter campaigns designed to raise money. Built around Thanksgiving, the idea was for Twitterers to tweet (post) something they are grateful for, and at the same time post a link to Tweetsgiving where a donation could be made to build a classroom in Tanzania. The goal was $10,000.

The highlights:

* $11,021 raised from 364 donations

* 15,830 Total Pageviews from 7,563 Unique Visitors in 101 different countries

* over 100 press and blogger mentions

Not bad! This all happened over a very short period of time.

Some thoughts on why it was successful. It was designed FOR Twitter — not just something put on Twitter. The goal was SPECIFIC — a classroom, not support of an organization. (Don’t forget that no one gives to your organization, they give THROUGH your organization to make change.)

It cost almost nothing to do this, just the guts to try and the time.

I am sure we will see more on this front. What are you inspired to do now?

Link [Tweetsgiving and MeshugAvi Blog]

Vinay Bhagat, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer over at Convio has a new blog post about why to invest online in the tough economic times we are having.

A couple of points he makes:

“Direct mail-based donor acquisition has been getting more difficult and more expensive due to postage rate increases, mailing list fatigue, postal mail delivery challenges, and shifting consumer preferences.”

“As direct mail-based fundraising has become less effective, online fundraising has grown significantly.”

“Much of the online fundraising growth has come from new, younger donors. Online donors are typically 15 years younger than direct mail donors.”

[Younger doesn't have to mean young. Often this age gap means that online donors are in their 50s while direct mail donors are in the their 70s]

“If there is a silver lining in the economic cloud, it is that consumers and nonprofits are aligning around the online channel. Given its growth, it is imperative that nonprofits invest appropriately in the online channel to realize its full potential.”

And a very important point:

The value of online marketing should not be measured solely by money raised online. There is increasing proof that online marketing attracts new donors and influences existing offline donors to give more. At the 2007 Convio Client Summit, Jeff Regen, VP Online Marketing & Communications at Defenders of Wildlife, shared how the organization uses online advocacy as a way to attract new constituents, and subsequently deploys a multi-channel approach using email, direct mail and telemarketing to convert non-donor activists to donors.

At See3 we are more and more managing campaigns designed to use compelling creative (often including video) to reach people and get them to affiliate first. It is then the job of the email strategy — primarily — to deepen the engagement leading up to an ask for a gift.

Link [Convio]

I am on the Board of Directors of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps. Part of being a member of the board involves helping the organization raise money. Boards should have a requirement for gift giving — at the very least the requirement should be that the organization in which you serve is at the top of the list of charitable gifts you make.

AVODAH has a modest give/get. The idea behind a Give/Get is that not everyone has the same amount to give, but everyone can get from others what they can’t give themselves.

Yesterday, AVODAH’s Associate Executive Director and fundraising guru Ilanit Gerblich Kalir, sent a document to all the board members called Top 10 Fundraising Tips. I liked it so much I wanted to share it with you all. The language here is about AVODAH, but the ideas can be adapted to anyone. If you aren’t providing your Board — and for that matter other closely connected constituents — with documents like these you are not maximizing your opportunities.

Top 10 Fundraising Tips

1. Ask. So simple, yet so often overlooked, feared or avoided. You can raise significant sums when you ask for it – and when you don’t ask, you rarely get the support you deserve. Here’s a little trick to remember: Right before you ask someone for a donation to support you and your year in AVODAH, remind yourself of all the good things that will come from that donation. It will go to provide you with the opportunity to help people in need, and to ensure that AVODAH can continue its work too. Remember, you are asking on behalf of others who may not be able to ask for themselves.

2. Start now. Get your fundraising done early so you aren’t scrambling at the last minute. It’s never too soon to ask for a donation! Once you’ve met your goal, keep on asking!

3. Tell your story with passion and enthusiasm. Remember why you are involved in AVODAH. The more excited you are, the more excited your donors will become. It’s infectious!

4. Expand your audience. Include everyone you know on your solicitation list. This is even true for people you haven’t spoken with for awhile. Consider colleagues, friends, family, business acquaintances etc. No one is off limits!

5. Know your facts. Educate yourself about AVODAH and the organizations we work with (not just your own placement). Read all about the extraordinary things our alumni do after their time in AVODAH. The better you understand and can speak about AVODAH and what you’re doing makes such a measurable difference to people, and the more you will attract donations and generate critical awareness.

6. Never make the decision for a donor. Especially when it comes to money, it’s human nature for us to think we know what someone else is thinking or what their circumstances may or may not be. Let each person you solicit make up their own mind as to how (and ultimately how much) they are willing to contribute. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to try and make that decision for them, or worse yet, not even ask: “I know they couldn’t donate. They just don’t have enough money.” You never know who has strong connections to poverty, how it might have touched their lives, or how someone would like to spend his or her money, especially to support you and the work you’re doing! Remember, no one ever gave away their last dime!

7. Ask at least one person for a $1000 donation. Challenge yourself (and have some fun) find at least one person amongst your group of family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances who you believe can make a contribution of $1000 or higher. Plan your ‘ask’ and strategy well, take a deep breath, and make the request. More often than not, you will be surprised by the result(s)!

8. Ask for help. You don’t have to do this alone! The AVODAH staff is available to help answer your questions and support you in ways that we hope will lead you to easily attaining (and exceeding) your fundraising goals. Also, consider turning to your Board members to learn how they are becoming so successful.

9. Take your donors with you on your journey. Remember to send thank you letters to each and every donor. Expressing your gratitude for their generosity will help support future giving.