November 27, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
Nonprofit organizations can improve their online fund raising by better timing their appeals to news coverage related to their work or cause, according to a new report.
In a survey of visitors to Atlantic Monthly Online this summer, more than 80 percent of respondents — 493 out of 600 — said they would be “more likely” or “much more likely” to make an online contribution after reading a positive news story about an organization or its cause. On the flip side, 539 out of 591 respondents said they would be “less likely” or “much less likely” to make an online gift after a negative story about an organization or its cause.
Of the respondents who said that they would be likely or very likely to give online, none said that their gift would be less than if they made it offline, and one in five said that it would be higher. Of those who said that they would not be inclined to make a contribution electronically, 38 percent cited concerns about the security of their personal or financial information as a reason for their reluctance.
More than half of survey respondents reported that they have signed up to receive e-mail from organizations they support. When asked how often they prefer to receive e-mail from those organizations, 133 of 364 respondents said weekly, 102 said when there is really important news, 81 said daily, 25 said biweekly, and 23 said monthly.
The survey was conducted jointly by Atlantic Monthly Online and Mindshare Internet Campaigns, a company in Washington, as part of a larger readership survey. The survey received a total of 719 responses, although not every respondent answered every question.
For more information: Go to http://www.mindshare.net.
