Building Donor Relations Through Online Communities

By David Best, President & CEO, Agilon, LLC

Fundraising strategies are increasingly embracing the Internet as an important communication channel. Analysis of the 2004 political campaigns offers compelling evidence that the Internet is rapidly becoming a productive tool for acquiring and cultivating donors:

- Donors that gave online contributed at a higher rate ~ about 24%.

- The cost of raising money online was only about 3 cents of every dollar raised.

- Online contributions on average were about three times that of direct mail ~ $108 compared to $35 for direct mail.

- Many online donors used the Internet to make their first donation.

As people continue to become more comfortable with financial transactions over the Internet, online donations will increase. Online donations to organizations serving Tsunami Relief and Hurricane Katrina victims have achieved record levels.

Creating and maintaining donor relationships is a key element of successful online fundraising. The results from a survey sponsored by the Donor Trends Project, highlights some important aspects of donor loyalty:

- Loyalty is highest among people with knowledge of the organization they support.

- People engaged online have higher levels of knowledge than those who are not.

- Online isn’t yet about giving, but it is about engagement and knowledge building.

Engaging donors through an online community offers a number of tools for creating and cultivating donor relationships. In his book, Hosting Web Communities, Cliff Figallo highlights important benefits donors realize when they participate in an online community:

- Making connections

- Feeling part of a larger social whole

- A web of relationships

- An exchange of commonly valued things

- Relationships that last through time creating shared histories

To be successful, an online community needs to attract and retain its members by providing them with benefits for participating. In their study of Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online, Ridings and Gefen site four principle motivations people have for participating in online communities:

1. Information Exchange: The most frequently cited reason.

2. Social Support Exchange: The degree to which a person’s basic social needs are gratified through interaction with others.

3. Friendship: A way for individuals to search for and to communicate with others for the purpose of establishing and continuing friendships.

4. Recreation: Internet as a form of recreation, like TV, and new forms like online gaming.

Online communities for educational institutions should be designed to provide information, social exchange and recreation geared to the needs and desires of their alumni. A rich alumni community needs to include the following functional areas to service its members:

- Alumni Directory: Search for friends and find contact information.

- Events Calendar: Notification and registration for events.

- Class Notes: Notification of life events and personal happenings.

- Groups & Clubs: Directory of group and chapter websites.

- Career Center: Search and post jobs and resumes.

- Business Directory: Search and post business listings.

- Volunteer Opportunities: Opportunities for volunteer positions.

- Online Giving: Donations and pledge payments.

- Membership Purchase: Renewal, upgrade and gift memberships.

- Custom Content: Information specific to the sponsoring institution.

The table below maps these core functional areas and their relationship to people’s motivation for participating in an online community.

	Information Exchange	Social Exchange	Friendship	Recreation
Online Directory	X	X	X
Events Calendar	X	X	X
Class Notes	X	X	X	X
Groups & Clubs		X	X	X
Career Center	X	X
Business Directory	X	X
Online Giving		X
Membership Purchase		X
Custom Content	X	X		X

The overall image and presentation of content within an institution’s online community must also blend seamlessly with the other elements of their Internet presence. The software used to implement the online community’s features should be customizable to incorporate images, colors, fonts and a screen layout that integrates with the institutions overall web presence.

Another important consideration is whether to use an outside service provider to host your online community, or to host the community on the institution’s network. Outsourcing can limit the options for configuring and customizing an online community, requires that your alumni data be exported to a third-party provider, and adds cost for the hosing and management services.

Agilon provides online community solutions that can be installed within your network and interface directly with your fundraising database. This approach places all aspects of the community under your control, and eliminates the need to send alumni data outside the institution. This approach can also be more economical than using a third-party service, leveraging existing resources already in place at the organization.

For more information on Agilon’s online community and fundraising solutions, visit Agilon’s web site at www.MyAgilon.com or contact Charlene Wyatt at 1-800-480-9015.

About Agilon

Agilon is dedicated to providing products and services that empower non-profit organizations to develop life-long relationships and effective communications with their constituents. Agilon is focused on helping its customers achieve their philanthropic goals through the application of information management and communication technologies. Its fundraising software is web-based and provides secure access to information for its clients and their constituents.