Non-Profit Groups Try Using Technology to Pep Up Their Annual-Fund Drives

As non-profit organizations try to come up with ways to breathe new life into their annual-giving campaigns, some are turning to technology.

Mississippi State University has a Web site (http://msuinfo.ur.msstate.edu/annual) that includes an annual-giving page that allows donors to give on line by credit card. The site assures donors that it offers a secure way to give because it scrambles credit-card information as it travels over the Internet.

So far, the site, which has been available for a year, has brought in $19,000 in on-line donations, including two $1,000 gifts.

University officials said they expected young alumni to be the most responsive to on-line appeals, but that was not the case.

“The donors’ ages are all over the spectrum,” says J. Mark Hutchins, director of annual giving at Mississippi State. “Not all of the folks are recent graduates. Some are 40 and 50 years old. More interesting to me is the time of day they do it — 11 at night, 2 in the morning.”

The Mississippi State site offers donors a wide array of programs to which their gifts can be designated, but most donors choose not to restrict their giving, says Mr. Hutchins.

The university is considering promoting its site through e-mail, inviting alumni to go on-line and make a donation.

“We would send out mass e-mails that tell people we’re trying this because it’s cost-effective, and we would encourage comments if they didn’t like it,” says Mr. Hutchins. “I already did a test of about 50 and did get a lot of comments back saying, ‘This is great.’ ”

Mr. Hutchins says he got no angry replies, but he adds that he also did not make a direct request for money.

Notre Dame College in South Euclid, Ohio, does not yet solicit gifts on the Internet but recently used e-mail to ask for pledges. The e-mail addresses were collected by the company that compiles and updates the college’s list of alumni.

“We had 150 addresses, of which probably a third were no longer any good,” says Robert Burdenski, chief development officer at Notre Dame. “And of the remainder, half made a pledge. We asked for $75 because it’s the college’s 75th anniversary, and the average gift was about $68.”

The e-mail also invited recipients to reply with any comments. One person responded that she did not want to get any more requests by e-mail, but the rest of the replies were positive, says Mr. Burdenski.

“It’s been a real kick to read people’s responses,” he says. “It’s the first situation I’ve ever seen where the solicitation medium is actually a positive reflection on the institution.” The fact that someone is getting solicited by e-mail suggests that the institution is keeping up with the times, he says. One 1965 graduate wrote: “Congratulations on an extremely clever and cutting-edge communications and fund-raising tactic.”

Those who pledged got an immediate follow-up letter through the mail, and within a month 75 per cent of the gifts were already in — far more than would be expected in traditional campaigns, says Mr. Burdenski. Telephone campaigns usually bring in 55 per cent of the pledged gifts in the first 30 days, and direct-mail 40 per cent.

As pleased as he is at the response, Mr. Burdenski is not sure whether people will continue to feel good about being solicited by e-mail. “It remains to be seen,” he says, “if the novelty wears off.”