I think about how much easier it is for me to put in a CC # online and not pay for a stamp or cut a check, and I would prefer it that way.

However the charities that I give to send me DM all the time, with no mention of how I can receive the same incentives online that I would get it I sent them a check. So, I give offline out of necessity, not of preference.

Acquire a donor online + Poor/inconsistent/infrequent online cultivation + Good/frequent direct mail cultivation = Online donor migrates to direct mail

We saw this with a client of ours a couple years ago perfectly. We looked at donors acquired online and sure enough by the end of year one they had “migrated” to giving offline. BUT the client had a very young online communications stream at the time. So in my mind, no wonder those first gift online donors “migrated” to direct mail – that was the channel the ministry was best at asking in! We have spent years and years fine-tuning the best direct mail campaigns, but relatively little time in figuring out the best new media campaigns – so of course donors are going to migrate to offline, if only because that is the channel they are being best cultivated in.

Now, I’m willing to admit that perhaps online is really good at influencing gifts, and direct mail is really good at being the channel the donor actually responds in, but still, I think I’ve got a pretty good theory here…

My experience in Latin America is some organizations like Greenpeace (Argentina and maybe Brazil and Chile) is that the process of conversion of online donors in regular giving mean over 30% of new donors (some of the times is over 70% over total).

So, that charities in the research are not doing well the job and they need follow improving the process and using offline strategies in the online world.

In my experience charities are still, wrongly I think, treating their online donors exactly the way they treat their offline donors, ie by communicating with them by mail ( if at all).

I have no doubt that a combination of communication media – and choices for the donor – will over time emerge as the most cost effective, convenient and easy way to maintain and develop donor relationships and that online will have its own quirks and foibles, just as different forms of offline – like newsletters and appeals – have now.

The challenge for charities is to listen to donors and give them options, trial different ways of communicating and staying open to possibilities, not just channeling everyone into the same channel.