Don Akchin

Want to get free advice from highly paid experts? Last month I interviewed three consultants who advise nonprofits on fundraising and marketing. The interviews appeared on the Nonprofit Marketing 360 blog. Here are links, along with a taste of each interview:   Toby Bloomberg writes the Diva Marketing Blog and hosts Blog Talk Radio. She talks about how social media can help nonprofits perfect “corner grocery store” relationships with donors and constituents.   Michael Stein, a senior executive at Donordigital, co-wrote a groundbreaking book about online fundraising. He discusses the intersection of direct mail and social media.  “People can organize revolutions on Facebook and Twitter, so why not fundraising?”   Mike Kujawski, who blogs at Public Sector Marketing 2.0, talks about building engagement strategies within the risk-averse cultures of government and nonprofit organizations.  “By the end of 2012, over 50% of world Internet access is going to occur via mobile device. Yet today, less than

More nonprofits are trying to raise funds using mobile technology, according to research from Kaptivate and the Associaton of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). (It’s still only 9% of nonprofits, but that’s doubled from a year ago.) But what seems to be most promising is not the text-to-give campaigns, which worked brilliantly for disaster relief, but the mobile web, and for several purposes besides fundraising. In an interview with Jocelyn Harmon, study author and Kaptivate CEO Ron Vassallo explains the advantages and drawbacks of text and web, and the start-up costs for each. Then there’s the contrarian view: Consultant Ted Fickes makes the case that “the quickest and most cost-effective place to focus your mobile strategy is your email.”  

  Flurry, a firm that analyzes mobile device applications, released a survey in June showing that more time is being spent on mobile apps than on browsing the web. OK, consider the source. But still, this may be an omen. Are you prepared to make another Paradigm Shift?

A look at a recent report suggests that what’s really happening with email is a shift in how users access it. In short, email on mobile devices is on the rise.