Comments on: It Makes Me Cringe http://www.theagitator.net/communications/it-makes-me-cringe/ Fundraising and advocacy strategies. Trends, tips ... with an edge Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:53:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jay Love http://www.theagitator.net/communications/it-makes-me-cringe/comment-page-1/#comment-10954 Jay Love Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:16:17 +0000 http://www.theagitator.net/?p=1279#comment-10954 Tom, Cringing is my normal reaction too. I have signed up for more than 300 NPO e-newsletters to see what happens and to have fodder for the many speeches I give around the country. (I am sitting at the airport heading to one now!) The big disconnect for most NPO’s is that they do not connect their email program to their database. I know that sounds to simple but here are the facts from my perspective. 1. Most NPO’s have finally moved to an email vendor rather than using their Outlook 2. Once they did that, they thought they had handled their email needs 3. Most commercial email programs do not connect to the popular fundraising database programs 4. Therefore they cannot match up with other fields or giving data which we all know is essential for PERSONALIZATION 5. Sadly, most of the database vendors like Blackbaud and eTapestry have commercial email functions now integrated with the query and communication merging functions at the same price or less than third party email programs. It is sad to see that most NPO’s personalize letters, but not emails. Surely one simple A/B test would prove how powerful it can be! Let’s hope that there is large awakening in 2010 . . . Tom,
Cringing is my normal reaction too. I have signed up for more than 300 NPO e-newsletters to see what happens and to have fodder for the many speeches I give around the country. (I am sitting at the airport heading to one now!) The big disconnect for most NPO’s is that they do not connect their email program to their database. I know that sounds to simple but here are the facts from my perspective.

1. Most NPO’s have finally moved to an email vendor rather than using their Outlook

2. Once they did that, they thought they had handled their email needs

3. Most commercial email programs do not connect to the popular fundraising database programs

4. Therefore they cannot match up with other fields or giving data which we all know is essential for PERSONALIZATION

5. Sadly, most of the database vendors like Blackbaud and eTapestry have commercial email functions now integrated with the query and communication merging functions at the same price or less than third party email programs.

It is sad to see that most NPO’s personalize letters, but not emails. Surely one simple A/B test would prove how powerful it can be! Let’s hope that there is large awakening in 2010 . . .

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