Daily Tips for Non Profit Website Promotion

Measuring your website's success
It's all about working out the goals you have for your site in order to measure its success. So many non profit and charity sites look as though they are there "just because we thought we ought to have one". This is fine if that is true, but you can do so much more with your piece of cyber-space than just "having it there". In order to test the effectiveness of your site - look at it against the following measures: Mission Focus, Usability, Interactivity, and Design (from an article in the Charity Channel). The terminology may be a bit American but it's a useful exercise.
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Online Purchasing Growth
A recent survey of consumers' attitude to buying online has found that the acceptance of online ticketing is still growing. A survey by online ticketing supplier ts.com found that 97% would recommend buying tickets online to their friends, 58% buy more frequently if they can buy online, 70% would prefer to receive promotional offers by email rather than by any other means. Interestingly 97% of performing arts bookers found the online process as good or better than the phone.
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Website Coding Tip
Your website designers will know how to code an email address into a Web site so that visitors can click a hyperlink to send an email. It's simple and effective and lets the user define his or her mail message without having to fill in any forms.

However, did you know that you can pre-assign both the subject and the body text by using some simple coding? It's really easy and can help you quickly identify messages as they come in.

introducing the "Subject" variable. For example, if you want people to submit a job application, you can pre-code the subject. This is important if you get lots of mail as it will quickly let you know the subject of these messages.

So, you would code the "mailto" part like this: < a href="mailto:youremailaddress?Subject=Job_Application">ADDRESS < /A>

Note: no spaces are allowed so use underscore (_) instead

Now, what if you wanted to pre-determine the Body Message as well? You may wish to do this if you have an offer that is always the same, such as a request for information. Let's say you're offering an annual report. You can code the subject as "Free_Annual_Report" and the Body Message as "Please send me your annual report."

You would code the mailto this way:
< a href="mailto:youremailaddress?Subject=Free_Annual_Report&Body=Please send me your annual report.">ADDRESS < /A>

There you go, now you can save your visitors some time, and save yourself the anguish of strange email enquiries. Confused? Email us for help

Specialist Online Directories
Specialist directories can be a great source of traffic. Although they do not list the millions of sites and get the levels of traffic of major search engines, as their specialist means that you can be surer that the people who then visit your site are more likely to be interested in your site.

The Art Directory - D'art is a perfect example, and arts organisations and museums would find it an excellent place to submit their sites. Read more...

Free Gift Aid Calculators for your website
Gift Aid can add an extra 28% to donations made to your organisation by UK tax payers. You can use this handy online calculator on your site to show what effect this has on your supporters' donations. Charities currently using this calculator include Cancer Research UK, The National Austic Society and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The calculator can be personalised to match the colour scheme and fonts on your site. Read more...

Website building for Non Profits
Article from Guidestar
Good starting point if you don't even have a website at the moment or about about to re-vamp the old one. Has useful tips on how to maintain a successful relationship with your web developer and remain friends with them after the job is done! Read more...

Training Event
Charities and the Internet Briefing - 19th September 2003
The Directory of Social Change invite you to meet a range of experts who will brief you on the key legal and practical issues of having a website and email communication. Speakers include - Bates, Wells & Braithwaite Solicitors, on the important subject of website domain name registraton and data protection and Howard Lake on online fundraising.
Cost of the briefing starts at £115. Read more...

Regular Email communication can help reduce increase income and reduce customer attrition rates
Article from Professional Fundraising
A study by Greenpeace International shows how attrition rates were reversed with a “well-managed renewals programme with plenty of reminders” and an automatically-triggered email to donors whose credit card was about to expire requesting their new details. Credit card expiry was one of the biggest forms of attrition for Greenpeace renewals. Read more...