Engaging Millennials: Don't Give Up on Your Email Marketing!

By Juliet Davenport, Nonprofit Ambassador at DonationMatch

Do you remember being awed by the answering machine? (Does anyone still own one of those?) Or what about the cordless phone? Now it's all about smartphones and iPads. Millennials (those born between 1981 and 2000) are all about digital, and it can be challenging to keep them engaged with your cause or brand. As Cynthia Hamlin of B2C explains in her blog, "[d]espite Millennials' increased internet usage, when surveyed by Pew Research Center for MILLENNIALS A Portrait of Generation Next, there were no significant differences among Millennials, GenXers and Boomers when asked about the amount of email sent and received in the 24 hours prior to the survey. Millennials were more likely to have Tweeted, updated their online profile or sent a text message in that time period."  Millennials are still using email, but in conjunction with social media and text.  Here are some interesting numbers pointed out in her blog that are just as relevant now as they were then:

• 90% of Millennial use the internet or send and receive email at least occasionally
• Millennials are more likely than all other age groups to have a cell phone: 94% have one
• 88% of Millennials use their cell phones to send and/or receive text
• One-in-five Millennials (20%) have posted video of themselves online
• Three-fourths (75%) of Millennials have created a social networking profile
• Among Millennials, 65% say television and 59% cite the internet as their main source for news

As the numbers show, incorporating social media into your email marketing is a smart way to keep Millennials engaged. Ms. Hamlin's blog shares tips on how to accomplish this. How have you incorporated social media into your email marketing?

5 Minutes with DonationMatch Co-Founder Renee Zau

By Juliet Davenport, Nonprofit Ambassador at DonationMatch

When was the last time you experienced a pain and decided to devote your full-time effort to solving it? Co-founder Renee Zau became an accidental web entrepreneur when she wished for a product like DonationMatch and waited several years for "someone else to build it so I could be a customer." When that didn't happen, she and boyfriend Darryl took what they learned working for a VC-backed startup where they met, their savings, and advice from smart friends to get accepted into and graduate from the Founder Institute (a tech startup accelerator), which propelled DonationMatch into the premiere platform for reaching consumers through charitable events.

Here's what we learned in 5 minutes with Renee!

How did you come up with the idea for DonationMatch?

Inefficiency bothers me. I hated seeing myself and other wasting time typing the same information from the same donors over and over again for fundraising auctions. I also experienced the pain of not having an easy way to collect and track the requests my business was receiving. All the paperwork being mailed back and forth seemed wasteful, and I wanted a centralized place for both donors (companies) and receivers (nonprofits) to not just manage donation records, but make requests and seamlessly transfer necessary information easily. I waited four years before Darryl caught on to how frustrated I was and realized I wasn't alone in needing a solution.

What do you think charities can learn from the private sector?

I know that the ultimate goal of a charity isn’t to make money, but I think many fail to invest in practices early on that will help them become financially self-sustainable. When a charity can’t focus on its mission because it needs money and has to constantly fundraise, it ultimately hurts its ability to do good work. Just like a startup for-profit, I’d like to see nonprofits:

• Strive for long-term financial viability with an aligned business model,
• Identify whether their mission is unique and necessary (as opposed to initiating a project within an existing organization), and
• Plan for a bootstrapped success model based on partnerships and leveraging the help of others, in case funding doesn’t come easily.

Where would you like to be in 5 years?

In five years I’d like to be able to sign on to DonationMatch as a fundraising event chair in the U.S. or Canada, input my event details, and be able to fill my silent auction, opportunity drawings, and gift bags in an hour while having fun. This would be possible because of smart tools we're building into DonationMatch that help companies and brands want to donate goods because it's easy, cost-effective, and profitable. I can't wait for this day!

What is your weakness?

There’s always room for dessert. Even for breakfast.

What is another question you would like to ask Renee?

Capitalizing on Social Media to Expand Marketing Reach and Return

In a survey of nonprofits conducted by VerticalResponse, 80% of respondents post updates to their Facebook page multiple times a week, compared to 66% for businesses.  The survey also found that for nonprofits, social media marketing has become a “preferred marketing channel because it offers free content distribution.”  And according to a Brafton blog post, because of the potential to successfully maximize their reach and return using social media, even on a tight budget, businesses will invest more in updating their websites and social media presence. Did you know that DonationMatch is another excellent way for businesses and nonprofits to maximize reach and return?  Through our free service, a business can get products in front of hundreds of potential customers through just one charitable event.  For nonprofits we deliver companies interested in doing well by doing good, increasing the fundraising potential for your events.

According to Edelman's 2012 goodpurpose study, 72% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that are charitable.  For nonprofits and businesses, using both social media and DonationMatch are ways to gain the exposure you both seek in less time.

What tips do you have for maximizing your marketing reach and results?

Why The Founder Institute?

By Darryl Rettig and Renee Zau, Co-founders, DonationMatch Pretty much everyone is familiar with the movie The Karate Kid. The short story is that the protagonist, Daniel, was new to an area and was bullied by a bunch a local kids while trying to win the heart of a girl. Into his life steps a handyman, Mr. Miyagi. He instructs Daniel to wash and wax his car, then paint various items around his house. Daniel doesn't see how these tasks relate to effectively fighting back, but does them reluctantly. At a critical point in the movie, Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel that the tasks he performed were actually practice in disguise, not a waste of time. He was being taught the necessary tools of success.

Going through Founder Institute often reminded us of The Karate Kid. Our mentors and our facilitator Jeanine Jacobson played the role of Mr. Miyagi; and we (Darryl and Renee, co-founders of DonationMatch) were Daniel. Every week we had presentations to watch, pitches to give, and about 30 hours of homework. While reviewing the homework assignments we'd say to each other: "Don’t we already know this?" "How does all this busy work help us?" And sometimes, "This doesn’t apply to our situation." But while completing each assignment, we inevitably would discover some critical bit of information that could increase our chances of success. Every task had a valid takeaway, and we learned that some of our assumptions were completely wrong. Whether it was from interviewing our customers, completing a financial model, or meeting one-on-one with mentors, we made improvements that likely would never have happened, or would have come too late for our long term success.

In the end, with the tools taught at FI, DonationMatch will be a better product for our customers, a stronger organization financially, and ultimately a more successful company. As we apply these principles going forward, we certainly won’t have all the answers, but we at least we’ll have a better idea of the questions to ask. This is not only a win for us, it's a win for our customers.