Selecting an Online Fundraising Technology - Large(r) Organizations - Thurs, April 5 1:30PM

Breakout: Selecting an Online Fundraising Technology - Large(r) Organizations - Thurs, April 5 1:30PM
Panel: Mark Sirkin (Int'l Rescue Committee), Erin Anderson (Am Cancer Socity), Jeff Heron (Beaconfire), Carolyn Pizzuto (March of Dimes)

Top Questions:

• Needs Assessment
• Build vs Buy
• Organizational Structure
• Who owns the donor
• How to build the relationship
• Hosted?
• Ease of use for - staff, users, etc

Needs Assessment:

MS: To do it right, needed to get Buy In from across the organization. He found it very helpful to have taken a course on how to do "requirements development". Research what the user really needs. Find out what is the staff experience. Watch for increases in productivity, easy of use, and training.

Requirements take a lot longer than you really want them to too.

CP: Started by interviewing people, included influencers, squeaky wheels, decision makers. Then make sure you close the loop, "This is what we heard. Is this true? What did we miss?" Gives you a strong base for implementation too.

JH: Must be driven by problems you're trying to solve. Who owns the outcomes and results. How do they get those results. Recommends sometimes considering changing processes to leverage tools.

MS: Build vs. Buy/Choice discussion can't happen until you have the 'requirements'. Used a internal site to keep transparency with end users on what was happening product development and implementation.

Organizational Structure:

EA: Organization departments need to work closer or merge (Marketing and Development) so it appears unified to outside world. The existence of online donations has helped this happen as it brings IT, Marketing, and Development together.

Who owns the donor?:

CP: Answer, the organization owns the donor. Chapter offices have to know that the national office will treat the donor with respect.

JH: Need to set up rules on who contacts who, when, how its documented. Software makes it possible to do so much now, so the organization has to carefully set up the rules and get everyone to agree on them. It's useful to talk about it from the view of the constituent.

How to Build The Relationship:

Take it audience by audience. Someone has to be in charge of relationship management to make sure that we don't over reach and lose the relationship. Tracking and metrics are key too. Try using Google Analytics to insert trackable URLs, set goals, etc.

MS: Consumers have all the power. So look directionally. Are we building relationships en mass. We don't have the technology to track as with as much detail as we want. Really recommending situational (aka A/B) testing to find what works on websites, enewsletters, etc.

Question: Do panelists have user accounts like amazon. Sort of a 'MySite'.

MS: Had idea for it, collected data, but never used it. So turned off the customization. But still let's user log in and get their own data, donation history, tell a friend, etc.

That's all for this one folks. I'm still looking for great resources for the needs assessment process. Thanks to the presenters, especially those who stepped in late.

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