Cybergifts - using the Internet in library fund-raising

Library Trends, Wntr, 2000 by Adam Corson-Finnerty

So a second area of online fund-raising is "taking off." Even so, periods of high gift motivation are unusual for most charities most of the time. Clearly however, when such periods occur, a charity should be prepared to handle them. What might be examples of such times? Consider these situations:

* Your organization was just given a glowing segment on "60 minutes."

* You have just announced a breakthrough treatment discovery for a major disease.

* Your come-from-behind football team just won the Rose Bowl, and your alumni are delirious with joy.

* Your library has just experienced a disastrous flood.

* It's December 31st.

The year-end giving phenomenon is common to most charitable causes. Some donors wait until the last minute to make their gift and still be able to take advantage of a this-year tax deduction. When Brown University set up a donation site, they received a spurt of gifts in late December. They also noted that donors made gifts at unusual hours, such as 3 a.m. Someone will certainly come up with a "night owl" gift strategy beyond the obvious benefit that Web sites are available at all hours.

The trick, of course, is to work with the opportunity that is presented by a high-profile event, using well-known techniques: do a quick mailing, make phone calls, run ads. But the most immediate way to get the word out, and to suggest a related gift, is by e-mail.

There is much to be said about e-mail as a major fund-raising tool, and it will be said in due course. For the moment, however, note this advice: Use every opportunity to collect e-mail addresses from constituents and would-be constituents. Even if the library's development organization doesn't yet have a Web site, it will, and those e-mail addresses will be institutional "gold." If your current printed information forms don't have a line for e-mail addresses, throw them out. It will be worth the expense to print new ones.

A REASON TO VISIT

Having a good Web site with a "donate now" button is just the "beginning" of online fund-raising, not the culmination. A library can create the most attractive, most easy-to-donate, Web site in the world, but that doesn't mean that anyone will visit or that visitors will make gifts or pledges in support of the library's mission.

Librarians must ask themselves this question: Why would anyone want to visit my site? If there is not a good answer to that question, the library development effort has encountered a big problem in its use of technology to reach prospects.

Some charities assume that, if they create a Web site describing their mission, large numbers of people will surf over to see what they are about and that a percentage of those visitors will donate. This assumption could not be more wrong. Cyberspace is awash with tens of millions of Web pages. People will need a "reason" to visit your lemonade stand or you will end up with a lot of melting ice and watery lemonade.

PULL AND PUSH

There are a few simple concepts that are worth keeping in mind as we review Internet-based fund-raising. One is "Pull." The other is "Push." Pull and push are the two ways to get attention in cyberspace. A pull strategy draws your prospect to your site. A push strategy takes your site or your message and puts it directly in front of your prospects.