Don Akchin

T.S. Elliott said April was the cruellest month, and this is especially true for trees. April seems to be launch month for a flotilla of surveys, reports and data dumps on the state of all things online. This year we had the 2012 Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index(TM) Study, the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report,  the Sage Nonprofit Solutions Email Marketing Report, and possibly some also-rans.  Feel free to read them. Or just away these highlights: If your nonprofit does not have a Facebook page, you qualify as a Conscientious Objector; 93% of nonprofits are on Facebook, with an average community size of 8,317 fans. 73% of nonprofits staff their social networking with the equivalent of one  half-time employee. 43% have a social networking budget of zero ($00.00). Online fundraising is growing at a healthy clip. The median growth rate was 15.8%, versus 20% in 2010 – a

“Multi-channel marketing” is the latest buzzword to proliferate and pollute all the multiple channels of communication. (See item below for a good example of why.) Convio has published a survey (produced by Edge Research, of Washington and Baltimore) that looks at how well nonprofits are doing and at what seem to be the  success factors. Blogger Joanne Fritz offers a succinct summary of the findings. One essential element for multi-channel success, the survey suggests, is the technology to synchronize online and direct mail databases. To get you started, blogger John Haydon has six good suggestions for integrating your email list with social media.