Three things for your union or non-profit’s digital spring cleaning

(photo credit: Wikimedia)

Spring is here, and with the flowers (at least in Vancouver) starting to bloom, it’s a great time to take stock of your digital work, and start to make plans for 2018.

Here are three things your team can commit to as part of your “Digital Spring Cleaning”:

1. Up your email game

Despite being 47 years old (the first email was sent in 1971 on ArpaNet), email remains the gold standard for supporter engagement, communications, and mobilization.

Email is a truly personal medium that drives supporters to take meaningful action — but only if it’s done right.

Ask yourself: does every email my organization send have a clear moment, theory of change, and action? If you can’t answer that question, it’s probably time to break out the whiteboard and workshop a new email program.

Think about personalizing your mail program by introducing real people as senders, each with a distinct style. Create a simple action for your supporters in every email — rather than just informing them.

2. Get in the texting game

The 2016 Democratic primaries moved text-messaging forward in a big way, putting this 20-year-old technology back on the front burner.

Both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns made innovative use of texting to mobilize their supporters, and more and more orgs are adopting texting as a way to engage their members.

Consider re-vamping all your online actions and sign-on forms to require a mobile phone field, and opt-your supporters in.

If you use Nationbuilder, ask your supporters to RSVP for events by text message.

You can get started with an affordable peer-to-peer tool like relay.txt, or even take advantage of Nationbuilder’s super basic text-blasting tools.

But most importantly, keep your texting genuine, and your calls to action simple. That was the key to SMS success for both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns.

3. Everyone’s gone mobile. So should donations.

The 2018 State of Email report from Litmus shows that solidly 50% of emails — that’s one out of every two! — is opened on a mobile phone.

Yet many donor-funded organizations require that their supporters key in credit card information every time they want to donate. Because, you know, I’m definitely pulling out my credit card while I’m squished in between strangers on a skytrain.

There is another way. Several eCRMs support a form of saved payment information, where supporters who’ve previously donated can store their credit card info secure to donate in a single click.

Bluestate Digital Tools provides QuickDonate using Stripe, and Engaging Networks offers One-Click donations.

Any step you can take to make it easier for your donors to give will increase your online fundraising. This is big!

Michael Roy is the Senior Director of Strategy and Research at Point Blank Creative. He previously set national fundraising records as Digital Director at Canada’s NDP.