Entries in Nonprofit Benchmark Studies (16)

Thursday
Jul222010

Social Media Nonprofit Benchmarks 

DateThursday, July 22, 2010 at 01:13PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

One of the biggest questions nonprofits have been asking for the past couple of years, is what benchmarks should they be using for social media? The 2010 Nonprofit Benchmarks Report released by NTEN has some great data that nonprofits can use for guidance.

Nonprofit Social Media Benchmark Data You Need to Know

According to 1200 nonprofits surveyed:

  • Facebook is the number one used commercial social network by nonprofits. 86% said that they have a presence on Facebook, a 16% increase from 2009. However, nonprofits experienced a drop in their average community from 5,391 members in 2009 to 2,440 in 2010. 
  • 60% of Nonprofits are on Twitter as compared to 43% in 2009.
  • Twitter’s average community size (i.e. number of followers) grew the fastest and by 627%. In 2009 nonprofits had an average of 286 followers. In 2010 nonprofits average close to 1800 followers.
  • LinkedIn (largely used by education institutions and professional associations) and YouTube usage remained steady over the last year. YouTube moved up slightly from 46.5% in 2009 to 48.1% in 2010, and LinkedIn stayed steady at 32.9% in 2009 and 33.1% this year.
  • Not surprisingly MySpace suffered a 45% drop in popularity. Use dropped from 26.1% in 2009 to 14.4% in 2010.

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Thursday
Apr292010

2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study Reveals Surprising Stats

DateThursday, April 29, 2010 at 01:39PM | by AuthorSteve Peretz

Thanks to Allyson for inviting me to guest post.  I’ll try to keep it short and just sweet enough to fill you in on everything you need to know about the new 2010 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study from M+R Strategic Services and NTEN.

(This stuff fascinates me – which I guess is good since it’s my job. But I won’t be offended if you just want to skip straight to the report itself!)

If you’ve worked with us before at M+R you know we’re data nerds—and with this year’s benchmarks report we’ve embraced our inner nerds at a whole new level, working with 31 nonprofits to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and why it matters when it comes to online messaging, fundraising and advocacy. 

When we started analyzing the results of this year’s study, the nonprofit world was still licking its wounds from 2009.  True, it was a challenging year for online fundraising and advocacy – half of the nonprofits in this year’s study saw their online fundraising revenue stay even with or drop below last year’s revenue numbers. 

But our study revealed some interesting – dare I say surprising – results:

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Tuesday
Apr062010

2009 Nonprofit Benchmarks: How Does your Organization Measure Up?

DateTuesday, April 6, 2010 at 11:25AM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

If your nonprofit is not developing yearly benchmarks for its fundraising program, website visits, email and e-newsletter open and click-through rates, start now. Establishing benchmarks helps organizations better leverage supporters, engage activists and keep websites dynamic with compelling content that drives people to take action. While benchmarks should be set realistically based on each organizations goals and year-to-year metrics, it’s always important to know what the average benchmarks are for the nonprofit sector and compare how your own metrics measure up.  Don’t know where to look? Convio just released their latest benchmark report that examined over 500 nonprofit metrics in 15 sectors.

“Online fundraising and engagement continues to grow at robust double digit rates despite a challenging economy, where most other vehicles are in decline, said Vinay Bhagat, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Convio. “Capturing constituent interest is getting harder, as witnessed by lower website visitor to subscriber conversion rates.  Offering compelling reasons to join the file is critical.  It’s not sufficient to just offer an email newsletter – who really needs another e-newsletter?”

Online Fundraising

Even in this dismal economy, online donations grew 14% and 69% of nonprofits raised more in 2009 than 2008. The study also noted that 49%of online mid-level and major donors visited a nonprofit's website before donating money online or offline for the very first time. 92% of organizations that grew their fundraising in 2009 had an increase in the number of gifts they receive and 43% of organizations that raised more in 2009 had an increase in their average online gift amount. However it’s not all good news. The economy certainly took its toll. 61% of organizations’ average gifts dropped in 2009.

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Wednesday
Oct212009

New Study Reveals Nonprofits Still Need to Adapt Online Communications Best Practices

DateWednesday, October 21, 2009 at 03:18PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

After studying over 50 international nonprofit organization's email lists and response rates, the 2009 eCampaigning Review Study revealed that 60% of nonprofits present a compelling argument for supporters to take action, yet close to 70% of the organizations did not send a follow up email within one month. 37% of nonprofits did not even bother to send a thank you email. This surprised members of the nonprofit community because both thanking supporters and updating them after taking an action online is part of Online Advocacy 101. Both email strategies should be a part of any online communications cycle.

The study conducted by Advocacy Online, Duane Raymond of Fairsay and consultant Jess Day also noted that 50% of organizations' online lists had 40% or more inactive supporters. Only 9% had a strategy for reactivating dormant supporters. Yikes. What can we glean from this study? Nonprofits need to:

1. Segment their lists more and write separate emails that resonate with different levels and types of supporters.
In July, Frogloop posted an article on Five Symptoms that May Indicate that your Nonprofit Is Suffering from List Decay and suggested nonprofit’s consider asking themselves the following: How can members help the nonprofit and advance the mission besides signing petitions or donating money? Are their offline events they can sign up to attend? Can they volunteer? Write a letter to the editor?

2. Survey their list at least once a year and ask supporters what issues do they think the organization should take on?
The key is to make online members feel like their opinions count and that your organization cares. Also ask members what motivates them to take action and donate money.

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Sunday
Jun282009

Fundraising Dips In First Quarter Of 2009

DateSunday, June 28, 2009 at 07:44PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

The struggling economy hit nonprofits hard in the first quarter of 2009. According to the latest Target Analytics Index of National Fundraising Performance, the number of new donors dropped by almost 13%, as compared to 2008. The study analyzed 79 nonprofit organizations and their fundraising campaigns via direct mail, online fundraising, telemarketing, and canvassing.

The study also showed that for the first time since Target Analytics released its initial study in 2002, overall revenue per donor declined by 2.1%. Prior to this study, the Index of the National Fundraising Performance had only been showing a gradual decline in donor numbers since the US Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005. However, things rapidly changed from Q4 2008 to Q1 in 2009. The decline in donors accelerated even faster due to the recession and a 13% decrease in new donors.

While these numbers may seem alarming, it’s common to see a decrease in donations and donors in Q1 since it’s the slowest fundraising period in a calendar year. In addition, nonprofits are competing for donors attention in a dismal economy, which many fundraisers have not had to face before. Furthermore, this is the first time in 8 years that we have a Democrat in the White House who is very supportive of major issues such as health care reform, ending the war in Iraq, etc so fundraising asks are not as “fight the right” focused as they were during the Bush administration. By the way, if you have not checked out Frogloop's recent article on converting new activists into donors, now would be a good time to do so since it’s packed with great tips and resources.

Other key metrics from the study include:

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Thursday
May142009

Highlights from the 2009 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study

DateThursday, May 14, 2009 at 02:15PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

M&R and NTEN just released an impressive benchmarks study that analyzed 32 nonprofits online advocacy and online fundraising programs in 2007 and 2008. The Nonprofit eBenchmarks study also analyzed specific list segments, such as donors vs. non-donors, geographically targeted audiences, surveys and tell-a-friend emails. Here are the highlights.

Email:
While more than 35 percent of American adults now have a profile on at least one social networking site – the best way to reach supporters is still email. However, as online programs have matured, the decline in the performance of email has slowed. Email open rates declined 1% while a past study found a 3% decrease between 2006 and 2007. Don’t be too alarmed though. Open rates can be an unreliable metric due to spam filters, preview panes, image blocking which have little to do with whether someone is actually opening (or reading) an email.

Other interesting findings include:

  • For email newsletters, open rates and click-through rates fell slightly (1-2%) in 2008, though the changes were not strictly statistically significant.
  • Email lists are continuing to grow, though the rate of growth was 17% in 2008. This is down from 19% in 2007 and 21% in 2006.
  • The average subscriber on each email list received about 3.5 messages per month. However, since many organizations are segmenting their lists and targeting messages some people may be receiving 10 emails monthly from an organization while others may only receive two or three.
  • Emails sent to activists who had recently taken action on a given issue received 3x the response rate of regular full-list actions.
  • The annual churn rate, or the rate at which an email list “goes bad” in a year, held steady at 19% between 2007 and 2008.
  • For most organizations, almost one-third of all online actions are taken by the most active subscribers who comprise about 7% of the list.

Online Fundraising

  • While online giving was up in 2008, as the economy tanked, year-over-year returns flattened and those who did donate gave less in the fourth quarter.

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Saturday
May092009

On Frogloop’s Radar

DateSaturday, May 9, 2009 at 08:41PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

New Benchmarks Study Coming Out May 14th

Mark your calendar. M+R Strategic Services and NTEN are releasing the updated eNonprofit Benchmarks Study for 2009. The new study is packed with solid analysis of the latest online messaging, fundraising, and advocacy data from 32 leading nonprofit organizations.

They will be doing an overview of the study on May 14th and will give you the low down on updated, industry-wide metrics and discuss how the financial crisis is affecting online fundraising as well as helpful tips to fine tune your online communications strategies. Sign up here to participate in a webcast of the release.

New Organizing Institute’s Summer New Media Training

Want to find out about the latest new media tools and how to use them to launch hard-hitting online advocacy and fundraising campaigns? Check out the New Organizing Institute’s (NOI) New Media Training happening June 25-26 in Washington, DC.

NOI’s New Media Training offers an introductory track for all you newbies and a more advanced track for you seasoned pros. Topics covered will range from writing emails, online fundraising, and social networking (introductory) to making the most of your CRM, fighting list stagnation, and creating an innovative online strategy.

NOI is also offering some scholarships. They will go fast, so definitely apply soon.

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