Notes from the Chicago NTEN Conference

Last Tuesday I attended the Chicago NTEN Conference (N-Ten stands for Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network) In fact, I had the opportunity to organize a session and present on the topic of taking an integrated approach to online fundraising. Liz Nielsen from Easter Seals and Avi Janssen from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago presented with me. They did a great job and both organizations are doing some great work. We all shared some ideas about taking an integrated approach. Here are a couple of ideas:

1.) Encourage website visits by printing the URL and a short sentence on every direct mail piece. Easter Seals uses: “Learn more about our life changing work at http://www.easterseals.com”

2.) Offer clear options for making contributions and fulfilling pledges so donors can interact with your organization in the way that is most comfortable for them: Contribute online here, call, or mail in your donation. On the Easter Seals website it says to mail your donation to “Online Donation Coordinator” and then gives the postal address. This way they can track how many donations came in via the mail that were actually prompted by the website. The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago has found that often when people make a pledge offline, they like to fulfill it online.

I’d love to help you integrate your online and offline strategies so you can raise more money!

In another week or so, NTEN will have all the presentations from this conference posted on their website. I encourage you to take a look and plan to attend the national conference which will be in Chicago in March.

I wanted to jot a few notes from some of the other sessions I attended.

I attended a session entitled “Leap of Faith: When and How to be Innovative with Technology” An important concept I walked away with from this session is the need for good project management. Most nonprofits don’t have someone on staff who is trained to manage a project from start to finish, make sure that everyone is on the same page with the project, and ensure that the project doesn’t turn into something completely different than it was in the beginning. Risk can be minimal as long as the risks are watched closely and managed. The speakers suggested keeping a list of top 10 risks and looking at it every week to see if it has changed. They suggested a book called “Software Project Management Survival Guide” by Seve McConnell. I’m going to pick it up on Amazon.

Another Session I attended was called “Advocacy and Fundraising Lessons from Social Networking Tools.” Martin Kearns from Green Media Toolshed and Andrew Stocking from Care2 both gave presentations that really got me thinking about the power of the social network and how much more successful we can be if we focus on tapping into those networks. The idea goes beyond “tell a friend” campaigns to really put fundraising and marketing tools in the hands of your organization’s donors (or those likely to become donors because they have shared values) to spread your mission.

Finally, I attended a session on online collaboration tools for effective communication. Jeanne DeVore from the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre gave a great presentation about their extranet. This allows their staff, board members, and others to tap into important information about the organization from anywhere. I really like the idea of using this as means to keep board members informed.

Overall the conference was very informative. Hope to see you at a future NTEN conference.