Nonprofit internet strategies phần 5

130 ONLINE ADVOCACY Increasing Prevalence of Web Forms versus Acceptance of E-mail Submissions Nonprofits should pay close attention to the shift by legislators to block e-mail and instead force constituents to submit information via Web site forms. More members of Congress are shifting from receiving constituent communications through e-mail to relying on Web-based forms: 66 U.S. senators and 226 representatives are not using public e-mail addresses, and are directing constituents to their Web sites to send messages.10 The aim is to reduce spam from nonconstituents and automated messages, and reduce the workload for internal staff. The challenge Web forms have created for nonprofit groups is that almost every Web form is different, so automat-ing message delivery is difficult. However, advanced online advocacy tools solve this problem by automatically entering data into a legislator’s Web site in the correct for-mat. This capability will become increasingly important to nonprofit organizations to ensure effective message delivery (see Exhibit 10.9 for an example of a legislative Web form used by the White House). EXHIBIT 10.9 White House Legislative Contact Form Source: https://sawho14.eop.gov/PERS?verified=1 Trends and Predictions 131 Measurement of Activist Participation, Segmentation, and Moves Management Most fundraisers actively measure or estimate the value of donors over their lifetime, based on a calculation of their average gift size, giving frequency, and years of support of the organization. Many fundraisers then group donors according to value segment and target communications accordingly to advance their relationships and increase donor value. Historically, advocacy functions have not measured the participation lev-els of individual activists en masse. Participation levels in a paper world are difficult to measure. Early online tools tracked aggregate response but yielded little to no in-formation about individual constituent response profiles. Consequently, it was not very easy to actively advance advocate relationships through a sophisticated segmen-tation approach. New online advocacy and constituent relationship management tools make measuring constituent engagement much easier. Such tools allow an ad-ministrator to assign different “scores” to advocacy-related activities—such as taking action online, signing a petition or forwarding messages to friends—and correspond-ingly measure an advocate’s value. An organization then can use this information to create segments for differentiated communication. The American Humane Associa-tion has recently started an engagement measurement and rewards program for its activists. Every time an activist takes action, he or he accumulates points. This en-ables the association to track its best activists. Also it’s able to create rewards programs to encourage higher response rates or other actions. Divisions between Fundraising and Advocacy Will Be Eliminated Some nonprofit organizations are starting to break down the barriers between ad-vocacy and development for list sharing and constituent communications. Although not every advocate wants to become a financial donor and vice versa, coordinating advocacy and fundraising efforts makes inordinate sense, and modern, integrated eCRM tools make that goal much easier to achieve. New approaches to measuring and managing constituent relationships in an integrated fashion greatly aid in cross-marketing from advocacy to giving, and vice versa. Leading online constituent rela-tionship management tools allow nonprofits to target messages to constituents based on their profile (e.g., this person is a donor, but not yet an activist). New tools also allow a group to measure constituent engagement in a holistic fashion, ascribing value to both fundraising and advocacy contributions. Increased Reliance on and Automation of Peer-to-Peer Marketing Growing adoption of online grassroots advocacy has created a tremendous opportu-nity to reach new constituents and get them involved in supporting a cause. Viral mar-keting, which occurs when constituents distribute an organization’s messages to their friends and relatives, is already having a big impact. As consumers become inundated with electronic marketing messages and spam, expect to see more emphasis in this area because a message from a friend is more likely to be read. Specialized tools are being built to make it easier for activists to resend messages to their personal networks, and recruit other activists. One of the best illustrations of this concept in action today is actually a political example—the GOP Team Leader Web site by the Republican Party 132 ONLINE ADVOCACY (see Exhibit 10.10). The Democratic National Committee also has developed a similar capability called eCaptains. In both cases, the party rewards loyal activists with points for outreach and actions, and they can redeem the points for party merchandise. Building Activist Engagement through Community— Online and Offline Today’s progressive organizations are using the Internet to market to activists so they will take action and contact their friends. Increasingly, organizations will create op-portunities for activists to interact directly to build communities and more powerful advocate networks. As activists have a chance to interact with each other through on-line community forums or physical meetings in the offline world, they become more engaged and passionate. Political campaigns and advocacy groups such as Dean for America and For Our Grandchildren, respectively, use online blogs, or online diaries, (see Exhibit 10.11), to build community. Many groups also are encouraging their ac-tivists to coalesce in person through services like Meetup.com. CONCLUSION The Internet has already transformed online advocacy for many nonprofit organiza-tions. New advancements in online technology are only pushing the potential further. Nonprofit professionals in other functions aside from advocacy should not only be EXHIBIT 10.10 GOP Team Leader Peer-to-Peer Marketing System Source: http://www.gopteamleader.com/ Summary 133 EXHIBIT 10.11 Online Blog at For Our Grandchildren supportive of the role of online advocacy within the organization, but also should determine how to most effectively integrate efforts—key for maximizing the synergy between functions and, in turn, constituent involvement. New online tools now make the notion of measuring and managing constituent relationships in an integrated fash-ion (factoring advocacy and fundraising participation, for example) a real possibility. 134 ONLINE ADVOCACY ABOUT THE AUTHOR Vinay Bhagat, ePMT, is founder, chairman and chief strategy officer for Convio, Inc. Before founding Convio, Vinay was director of e-commerce at Trilogy Software where he shaped Fortune 500 customers’ thinking about developing their Internet strategies, and was the product visionary for customers facing e-commerce applications. Before Trilogy, Vinay was a consultant and team leader at Bain & Company, the leading strategy consulting firm. Vinay graduated from Harvard Business School with high distinction as a Baker Scholar. He holds an MS from Stanford in Engineering-Economic Systems, and MA from Cambridge University in Electrical and Information Sciences with first class honors. Vinay is also a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and a frequent speaker on eCommerce panels, and seminars on applying Internet technology to nonprofits. You can e-mail Vinay at vinay@convio.com. ENDNOTES 1. Interview with Stephen McConnell, senior vice president, Advocacy and Public Policy, Alzheimer’s Association (October 7, 2003). 2. Pew Internet and American Life Project, The Rise of the E-Citizen: How People Use Gov-ernment Agencies’ Web sites, (April 3, 2002), http://www.pewinternet.org. 3. Interview with Carter Headrick, manager of Grassroots, Tobacco-Free Kids (October 2003). 4. Convio client data analysis—Million Mom March united with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. 5. Convio client data analysis. 6. Convio client data analysis—regional advocacy/social services organization. 7. Michael Birkin, “Non-Profit Brands: Friend or Foe?” OnPhilanthropy.com newsletter (February 7, 2003). 8. Sarah Durst, “Target Analysis Group—Benchmarking Trends in Nonprofit Giving,” Tar-get Analysis Year 2000 Cross-Industry Study. 9. Pew Internet and American Life Project, The Rise of the E-Citizen: How People Use Gov-ernment Agencies’ Web sites. 10. Ibid. ... - tailieumienphi.vn