How are Ministries Engaging Donors Online? (CSA Survey Results)

Mike Buwalda, CSA Stewardship Connections Editor

This month, I asked CSA members, “Has the Web been a helpful way for you to connect with your donors?”  Russ Nixon of Delaware County Christian School summarized the feelings of many in the CSA family: “Great for communication; okay for online giving.” As I read through the responses, three themes emerged (below). The actual responses of your peers will give you a sense for how other ministries are using the Web.

1. The Web provides powerful new communication options. Ministries love how e-mail enables them to deliver urgent prayer requests, news, and sound bites—instantly and cost effectively. The Web also allows them to reach a broader audience, which includes young adults, seniors, and international participants.

2. Online giving so far has been quite low. Ministries generally believe that a quality online presence is necessary in today’s environment, but are quick to point out that results have sometimes been disappointing. Possible factors include lack of promotion, staff time, and funding. Yet Christian nonprofits persist in developing their Web presence because they believe that it is a helpful option for some of their donors and that the potential of the Web will continue to grow.

3. There is great growth potential in online giving. Stewardship professionals see online giving as a relatively new but promising tool. As donors get more comfortable with the Web, many ministry development people believe that online giving will grow substantially.

From Your Peeers

E-mail has been very helpful in getting important information out quickly to donors such as prayer requests and e-alerts. The Web has been necessary for validating who we are as a ministry because many people do not see you as a viable ministry unless you have a Web site. The opportunity is how to tell about the ministry and what God is doing thorough it in a way that will not endanger the work that is being done in areas that Christians are being persecuted in. As a whole, this is a good venue, but it needs to be used responsibly.

Dave Bustraan
Mission India

Honestly, we have not taken advantage of online communication as much as we would like. We did see an increase in donor activity just by adding a secure place for them to give online and communicating this in print, but our future donor strategy includes the need for a comprehensive online donor plan. The only reason the Web has not been as helpful to us as it could be is because we have not tapped into this tremendous resource.

Joshua Oberheide
Teen Mania Ministries

E-mail has been a good way to contact certain donors. They prefer it because they can read it at their leisure. (It’s less imposing.) And they can reread it if it includes numbers or maps to an event. I have sent out general notices to maybe 15 donors regarding Estate Seminars in an all-in-one e-mail, “Blind Copy” of course. Never include a donor’s name that is visible to other donors. That’s like selling a file of prospects. I find this handy for reporting to my supervisor as well. At the end of the week, I just go through the folder of sent messages and can enumerate the contacts I made via the Web.

Karl Knudsen
Moody Bible Institute

We have seen a continuing increase in online giving and e-mail correspondence over the last couple of years. There is no question that the Web has more and more become the most cost effective way to raise and receive funds. Through online giving less staff time is required to accept and enter new donations. This does not at all diminish the need to communicate well with donors their significant role in the ministry and keep them informed, but gives donors the freedom to use the method that best fits their lifestyle. In addition, we have been able to share our newsletter all around the world with donors in other countries who can download it easily from our Web site. The Internet serves as a home for a wealth of information about our ministry and a cost-effective highway of communication.

Vickie Koth
Christian Freedom International

Great for communication...Okay for online giving! People want to read (hear) what is going on! Online giving has only been available for close to 3 years, so it has not “caught on yet” Many are using the Web for admissions purposes and to look at our 8-minute DVD!

Russ Nixon
Delaware County Christian School

The Web has definitely been helpful, and we do see the gift income rising gradually; however, our donors are still relationship oriented and the Web will not likely ever be a major fundraising tool for us. Its greater benefit is communication with our donors and especially our alumni. Through the “sound bite agility” of the instant e-mail message we are able to communicate, inform, and build awareness with a wide audience, thus enabling the next levels of fundraising through direct mail, telephone, and personal contact. We are able to learn much about our constituencies that would typically only happen over the course of many calls and visits; hence it shortens the fundraising cycle.

Anonymous by request

[The Web] has not [been a helpful way to connect with donors] because we haven’t invested in it yet. [We have] invested enough taking donations online.

Alon Banks
Amor Ministries

We have not utilized the Web as a means of contacting donors. We have talked about it, but due to my limited knowledge of the Web and having to rely on some outside source for information and implementation, it hasn’t happened. That isn’t a very good reason, but it is the truth.

Anonymous by request

Online giving is handled by an 800 phone number, and while I sometimes get names, it does not lend itself to personal contact.

Bruce McIntosh
Development Director
The Salvation Army (Canton, OH)

First and foremost, we have established online giving through our Web site. Every one of our 300-plus line items in our mission budget has a short project description posted on the Web by world area. On each project description page there is a “give now” button. When clicked, the button takes the reader to a giving page where they can make an immediate credit card gift. They get an immediate e-mail receipt with a copy going to the director of development. We have just started a quarterly electronic newsletter (one page) to donors who prefer e-mail communications. There is a soft ask in the newsletter. We are not doing direct solicitation via e-mail yet. Our March direct mail piece has an insert with 30 five-line summaries of how donor gifts have been used this past year with “the rest of the story” (full details with photos) for each summary available by going to our Web site and clicking on an artwork bug that is the same as the letter teaser.

Ronald E. Nelson
Director, Mission Donor Communications
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod Foundation

We’ve increased communications significantly to donors and prospects. We also have reduced direct mail transferring savings to video production to create more compelling stories and to build a stronger case for support with donor groups. We also have used video to thank donors.

Ron Kuehl
Trinity Western University

We instituted our Web-giving program in October. We received many donations over the holidays. We are in the process of putting together a pledge package, and the Web-giving portion will be a portion of that package.

Shirley F. Fierro
Director of Development
Washington City Mission

[The Web] is becoming increasingly more helpful. We have a weekly e-newsletter based on the format provided by Crescendo. We also have online giving that continues to grow as a method. We are updating our Web site later this year with an intent to increase visibility and capabilities for donors as well.

Cindy Davis
Miracle Farm

Yes, the Web has been very helpful in increasing the communication to our donors through e-mail and eNewsletters. We use this form of communication to drive our donors to our Web site. Donations through the Web have not caught on yet. We receive very little in dollars that way. That will probably increase as time goes on and alums get more comfortable with the process. That is not to say that the e-mails and eNewsletters have not increased gifts. That is difficult to measure however we believe it is part of the moves management process.

Jim Barth
Bryan College

We send a monthly newsletter via e-mail that seems to be much appreciated—we get good, positive feedback. It’s available in both text and HTML versions. We attempt to drive the readers to our Web page for more details on the snippets that we put in the newsletter. We anticipate contacting with our nongiving alumni via e-mail/Web in some manner this spring. Traditionally, we used a telethon each spring, however, due to the rush to cell phones many of the phone numbers in our data base are no longer accurate. We do have an online giving page for our donors to refer to if they wish to make a gift that way.

Dr. Calvin Hawkins
Central Christian College of Kansas

We would rate the Web as a very important tool in our tool box. It is a very efficient way to convey data and info including updates and other communications.

Greg Ring
PhilanthroCorp

We are fledgling at this dimension today. We are in the process of moving into it on a more aggressive scale and will have a better feel for it in 6 months or so.

Gary McCauley, ACSE
LifeWay Christian Resources

We have had some success with the use of a Web site. It has been helpful in communicating with younger people and seniors who have ventured into the use of the Web. Our site is not really elaborate, but it has afforded us the opportunity to make information available in a cheaper way and in a form (printed) that various people would not receive or read. We will soon be expanding the use of our site, venturing into online donation and e-commerce.

Bob Stephenson
Churches of God General Conference

Increasingly donors like to connect in some ways with organizations online. It doesn’t replace face-to-face relationship building as the key path to partners.

Ted Barnett
U.S. Director
Africa Inland Mission

Our primary connection to our donors is by telephone and face-to-face contact. We also have information about giving on our Web site. We have some contact via e-mail with our donors.

Anonymous by request

Absolutely, [the Web] is a fast, cost-effective vehicle to provide information to our donors as well as offer online giving, and online registration for our golf outing.

Robin Bright
Special Events Coordinator
Bethany Christian Services

Our online giving is a slowly growing process as we have more visitors to our Web site. As more people use the Internet as a daily activity and become more familiar and comfortable with the mechanics of searching and giving, I expect our online giving to continue to grow.

Anonymous by request

[Submitting foundation requests online is] time-consuming and annoying. On one of them, there was a glitch that they later admitted lost information for several people. I had one bear of an online proposal recently and have been working on a couple of other ones in which you must stay within their allotted boxes, which I find frustrating. Some of the space I don’t need so much of and others I want more of, but I can’t adjust it. For one of them, you can make one box a little less and another a little more and stay on the same page. One even had a specific word count. So I wrote it and checked the count and then had to go into it and keep deleting what got me down to the maximum count. It’s nice that they accept proposals via the Internet for those who prefer that, but there are the above drawbacks; plus you can’t attach additional information. If you have to mail it separately, it would be preferable just to send all of it by mail. On one you can’t even print off what you wrote. If you wanted to retain a copy of it, you had to know ahead of time that you needed to write it on a Word document and then copy it to the online boxes so you could later see what you sent. Even the part that you could see online wouldn’t print if you didn’t have a certain version of a certain software.

Anonymous by request

Calvary Church completed an overhaul of our Web site and included online giving. While participation has started slowly, it has been gradually picking up, and we have three times as many users as we did 30 days ago. As far as communications in general, we direct people to our Web site constantly. It is becoming the primary communication tool for our Church.

Brad Janowski
Calvary Church (Muscatine, IA)

A very positive “yes” to your question about Web communications with donors. We use e-mail to a great extent and a Web site that allows us to post our Financial Planner Newsletter, which is a great tool for our churches, their pastors, and member/attenders. Much of our work is in the estate planning arena. Without the Web, I don’t know how we would get along, especially in the one-on-one activity. I just received a communiqué from two folks in California last evening. My location is on the East Coast, and I was able to answer their questions and, in turn, received a very gracious “thank you” this morning saying that what we had discussed was exactly what they had wanted to know. God Bless in all your work.

Bud Barger
National Director; Grace Brethren
Financial and Estate Planning

We haven’t had much response to our online giving options from our Web page. I’m not sure why. We may need to “advertise” more so donors know about the option. It is VERY helpful having our donor software online. I can send an e-mail or letter directly to the donor from the program and an entry will be placed in their journal page. That entry links directly to the message that was sent. It is a great way to stay on top of all communication. Thanks for all you are doing for CSA!

Georgia Mauller
Director of Development
New Horizons Youth Ministries

The Web has definitely been a helpful tool for us to share what God is doing at Trinity Christian College. We also do get occasional gifts coming in through the Web site. We don’t see it as the new way to get any kind of major gifts but it is a great development tool to have in your toolbox.

Rick Van Dyken
Executive Associate to the President for Development
Trinity Christian College

Connecting with donors via e-mail is becoming the communication vehicle of choice for many of us. I rely on it more and more. I see online giving become more important as we all get more comfortable and trusting with such things as paying our bills online. Also, I use the Web for donor research too. What did we do without it?

Linda McCabe
Overseas Council International

We have not used it yet except for registration for events. We plan to use it in the future—the upcoming online seminar I’m sure will help us.

Stephen Drury
United Pentecostal Church International

We don’t use the Web that much for fundraising so I have no helpful hints. We do have a section on our Web site that provides information on giving and the ability to make donations by credit card, but it hasn’t had that much response.

Diana Watt
Brethren Village Retirement Community

I am a Church stewardship committee chairman. Although we have a church Web site, we have not yet starting using it for stewardship messages.

Norm Vaughn

We are, unfortunately, not where we would like to be in terms of online communication with our donors. We have done a very poor job of obtaining and keeping e-mail addresses updated. We would like this to be a major thrust in the future and would certainly welcome any helpful information from those who are successfully using e-mail as a major means of communication.

Kent McElroy
HCJB World Radio

We set up a site 2 years ago and are starting to market it as a venue for resources and giving. The hard part is keeping it regularly updated. We have seen some new donors come through the Web.

James Lewis
Coachella Valley Rescue Mission

The Web has absolutely been a great boon for nonprofits to connect with donors—both as a communications channel and as a donation channel. We regularly see average gifts online of $100 and the online donors are younger.

Lenny Esposito
Director of Internet Marketing
Grizzard

We at The Orchard Foundation have a very well developed Web site—www.theorchard.org. It has been very helpful. We are the funding arm of The Christian and Missionary Alliance—www.cmalliance.org. That Web site is very sophisticated, with online giving, e-community newsletter, blogs, just about anything we can think of. So, I think the answer to your question is yes, the Web has been a very helpful way for us to connect with donors. Many people use the Web, and I think most people underestimate how many seniors are on the Web. It gives a good way for people to check us out for additional information, do research on giving options without having to engage with a person right away. People like anonymity. In addition, many people seem to prefer corresponding through e-mail because it is more consistent in reaching people. You don’t have to worry if someone is out of the office or on the phone.

Tim Stephenson, ChFC
Assistant to the President for Funding, the C&MA
Vice President for Development, The Orchard Foundation

We have not used the Web due to lack of personnel mostly. I am sure it could be a more effective tool, but as with myself, I am overloaded with incoming e-mail and Web opportunities. There is no doubt in my mind that online giving is rising especially with the younger generations.

Ron Collins
OMS International

The Web has been helpful primarily in answering the questions and concerns of donors and other inquiries. For greatest impact with donors, however, nothing beats a personal hand-written note, a phone call, and/or a visit. Thanks for all that YOU do for CSA and His Kingdom.

Major John Jordan
The Salvation Army

We are just getting our Web store up and running and people are responding. As far as donations, more and more people are using an automatic monthly withdrawal from their credit card. However, most of these were initiated during our banquets, not via our Web site. We continue to use print materials and our radio programs to alert people to our Web site.

J. Mark Horst
Heralds of Hope, Inc.

Our Web site is very instrumental in our radio ministry. Has it been a huge contributor to date in fundraising? No. However, we are developing a database/fundraising program that we believe will dramatically improve online giving. We will have it ready by July and plan to offer it to ministries at a very low cost.

Mike LeMay
Q90 FM

Yes, the Web has been very helpful. A good number of our prayer partners opted to receive Medical Ambassadors International monthly e-mail update, many use the links on the update to connect to our Web site resulting in some instantaneous gifts!

Henri Haber
Medical Ambassadors International (MAI)

Yes, the Web is an excellent tool for giving. We don’t have online bank arrangements, but donors are able to provide their credit card info. It is also very helpful for our friends to get info on all sorts of aspects of our ministry (e.g., if one of my colleagues is set to preach at a Church, they can get the person’s profile from our Web site). How did we cope before Web sites?!!

Malcolm Graham
African Enterprise

We have only had a Web site since 2003. We bit the bullet and put online giving in 2005. It has paid for itself and then some. We are educating our givers that they can use online giving. We put a notice in every newsletter. We have seen a tripling of visitors in the first year with an expanded Web site. We now include newsletters and articles we write bimonthly for the local newspaper.

Bob Flournoy
Louisiana United Methodist Children & Family Services, Inc

Historically no. However, we are working to change that situation. We are currently looking to purchase a quality donor database software to help with e-mails. Also we do offer online giving but only a handful of people use this option.

Joe Spelic
Camp Id Ra Ha Je

We have just recently redesigned our Web site, and, yes, we are noticing a huge difference in connecting with our donors and especially the community. Echoing Hills Village just underwent a major communications plan since I was hired. This will continue to be a main focus with our ministry for community awareness and communications. We also included a gift catalog that has been very well received with our donors. I believe with today’s donors that online giving is a must! We must continue to make giving as easy as possible for our donors, especially with our younger donors.

Amy Stockdale
Development & Communications Manager
Echoing Hills Village

We do accept online giving through credit card and EFT. The EFT is a good income monthly for PRM credit card does okay but, not as well as EFT. The EFT amounts to about $600 to $800 per month.

Mark L. Hutchison
Stewardship Director
Peoria Rescue Ministries

The Web has been a great tool for us and I discovered in a constituent questionnaire that e-mail is a preferred means of communications by our donors. I think the key reasons for this are (1) timeliness; (2) cost efficiency, which donors appreciate; and (3) the ability to update easily.

Amber Davidson
EQUIP

The Web has been a great way to communicate with our donors as well as our volunteers. We also offer online giving through our Web site www.acu.edu and are doing well with that. Recently, we purchased a digital camera for our office and are sending pictures to our donors of the projects and students that are benefiting from their gifts.

Kristi Thaxton
Abilene Christian University

The Web is a great way to connect with donors. We are able to create and post material online that we could never afford to do as print collaterals. Having video and audio capacity enhances how we tell the story, and blogs and forums are ways to make the “reading” experience more interactive. Donating online is useful for many donors, especially when they want to donate in a hurry.

Becky Graninger
Vice President Direct Marketing
World Relief

[The Web] has not been helpful to me at this time. The reason is that we have no vehicle for people to access. We are beginning to develop our online giving page. Help would be appreciated.

Steve Prudhomme
Grace Adventures

The Web is still like a “new” tool in the toolbelt of ministry for many of us in development. Some of us are using it successfully and others of us have a long way to go. Considering the significant rise in online banking, e-commerce, added security for electronic transactions, and easy access of the Web these days, I trust we will learn how to use this tool more effectively so we can serve our donors better. Here at Calvin Seminary, we’ve used online giving for about 1½ years. Though used sporadically by donors, it’s something they appreciate and often go out of their way to say “thanks!” Looking ahead, here are some things we’re pondering: Since so much of our work hinges on building healthy relationships between our donors and our institution/organization, we want to use all possible means to accomplish this. Without getting complicated, our role via the Web is to (a) allow people to step into the mission and vision of our organization (stories can be very effective here); (b) allow them to interact with our mission/vision by providing them opportunities for feedback/input; and (c) offer clear opportunities for people to support what we’re doing (via electronic giving). Do we have all this in place today? Not fully. But we’ve started and are pleased with the results.

Nate Vander Stelt
Director of Development
Calvin Theological Seminary

We haven’t taken advantage yet of all of the Web possibilities. I hope to eventually through a Web newsletter, etc. Our donors do use our Web-based, grant-making ability a great deal!

Randy Veltkamp
West Michigan Christian Foundation

The Web has been a helpful way for Biola to connect with its donors. In addition to online giving, we utilize e-mail to push a variety of communications to our donor base. Most recently, we have been utilizing e-mail to invite donors to events. The response has been great.

Adam J. Morris, PhD
Senior Director, University Development
Biola University

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