By Bridget Rosenberg

Online newsletters have helped the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) more than double its average monthly giving from 2002 to 2003. HSUS decided to redouble its online marketing efforts with an eye toward advancing its mission and raising more donations.

HSUS went from one general online newsletter with 16,000 subscribers to more than 140,000 email subscribers with a variety of newsletters. The organization's electronic communications are more powerful since it decided to stream audio and video into them. "Being an advocacy organization, one of the advantages we have is that our visual imagery is so strong and compelling," said Geoff Handy, acting director of the Washington, D.C.-based organization's eCommunity department. "Our mission is to protect animals. While we can describe the suffering of animals, nothing is as powerful as the visual image."

During the 1990s, HSUS invested heavily in video technology and has an extensive video library. "With the broadband penetration continuing to grow, we really decided to leverage our extensive video assets and pair it with our written content," said Handy.

To move to the streaming media platform, HSUS contracted with Exciting New Technologies, a New York City-based company that streams emails, embedding audio and video into them. The company will assist organizations in creating and sending emails that include video, allowing them to communicate with supporters on another level.

"Organizations can put out a message that is really understandable and has a call to action, as opposed to 50 lines of type and a graphic. In 30 seconds, you know exactly what it is about," said Ben Chodor, ENT's chief executive officer.

In addition, the company provides valuable tracking information including who opened an email, when it was opened, how many times it was opened, if it was forwarded, and if any buttons were clicked. The fee for a one-time program that lives for 180 days is between $7,000 and $10,000. This fee includes creative design, incorporating video, sending emails to up to 500,000 people, and complete tracking. ENT can create the program in less than 30 days. The company modifies and updates the email by keeping the main template, but changing the video.

HSUS has had tremendous success implementing this technology to grow its emailing list and raise funds. The organization has also sponsored paid placements through Google.com and launched a pop-up box that encourages home page visitors to sign up for newsletters. It uses Flash technology to incorporate still images that are created in-house and has created Web sites dedicated to specific campaigns.

Organizations are using other types of services to launch email campaigns. "Nonprofits are the best direct marketers using direct mail," said Janine Popick, CEO, founder of San Francisco-based VerticalResponse. "They really needed a tool to be able to start communicating the way everyone is communicating now, via the Internet."

Through the company's iBuilder program, organizations can create an email, manage their mailing lists, and have campaign reporting. The program also offers an opt-in tool where organizations can collect data that is fed right into their VerticalResponse accounts.

To promote and coordinate its Light the Night Walk, which consists of eight walk sites across North Texas, the North Texas chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) launched an e-campaign through VerticalResponse. Previously, the organization sent a paper newsletter to walkers on a monthly or quarterly basis. "We thought we could get rid of the paper version, which costs too much in postage, paper, ink and everything else, and design an e-newsletter, which is much more cost-efficient and increases communication," said Jason Vincik, the chapter's campaign coordinator.

The organization sent out eight issues of The Walker News online totaling 53,403 emails between July and October 2003. After subtracting unsubscribed and bounced addresses, there were 50,121 giving the organization a 99 percent retention rate for its list.

Of those, 13,267 emails were opened and 515 people clicked on the registration button, giving the organization a 3.9 percent response rate. "It is actually tremendous considering we convert each response into a team of 10 walkers. After conversion, we have a 38.8 percent response rate, which is phenomenal, especially from an e-campaign," said Vincik.

The emails served as a resource center for walkers who could download materials and access a question-and-answer section, acting as a virtual coordinator. It also served as a recruitment tool for additional walkers.

The iBuilder program is inexpensive and efficient. With costs varying between 0.75 cents and 1.5 cents per email, an organization can set up an account in about five minutes and create an email using the template in about 10 minutes. Organizations also have the option of using their own layout.
The campaign tracking is a valuable tool. An organization can download a list of who opened the email and who didn't, allowing for specific follow-up. "The reporting system allows me to see who is reading it, what they are looking at and what information they are requesting," said Vincik.

LLS used this first campaign as a vehicle to gather data to find out where people are clicking. Next year, it plans to sell advertising space. "That will be another avenue to get sponsorship that we never had before," said Vincik.

Based on the success of this e-campaign, other chapters will launch such campaigns. The North Texas chapter also plans to expand its uses, converting the quarterly chapter newsletter to an electronic version. "It's all about the overhead. Wherever you can cut corners is the name of the game," Vincik said. "This is a no-brainer for me. If I can send the same information through email, get reporting on it and save $60,000 per year, why wouldn't we do it?"

At this point the savings are not what most impressed Vincik. LLS has cut costs from a $1,200 paper newsletter to an $800 e-newsletter. "We're gaining much more. We're able to capture a new market; we're able to capture a new team. This is developing as well as offering information. It has more than paid for itself," said Vincik.

Some organizations have the option of using more specialized companies in developing their online presence. New York City-based Patron Technology offers site development and hosting focused on marketing arts organizations online. "The bulk of our clients have been quick to understand the tremendous benefits of building email-based relationships with their patrons," said Eugene Carr, president Patron Technology, LLC.

Geva Theatre Center has been sending out its GevaTalk E-Newsletter and E-Postcards through Patron Technology for the past year and a half. "As a visual medium, we are able to achieve the professional look with our emails that we have with our other printed materials" said Bob Russell, the Rochester, N.Y.-based theater's director of marketing. "This really pays off when patrons receive the information, complete with color photos from our productions," he said. "We have been able to increase the number of patrons who are signed up for the service, and we find that they will forward it on to others. We also get more click-throughs from the newsletters driving people directly to our online ticket sales page."

Patron Technologies also provides streaming audio and video. The company charges a one-time set-up fee of $100 per video or audio clip of 60 seconds or less, which includes producing, encoding and placing the media on its servers. A monthly streaming media fee of $100 covers 500 plays for all audio or video clips that it has encoded and is hosting for an organization. Each additional 250 plays per month costs $50.

"If we sell three tickets a month from our email efforts, then we cover our cost -- which we've easily exceeded with online sales consistently," Russell said. "The program is very cost effective and fits almost any size budget. On the whole, it's a better return than many other forms of marketing we use."
In addition to establishing online marketing efforts, organizations are using other technologies to communicate with supporters and grow their organizations. CD Advantage takes an organization's content, adds graphic design, animation, music, voice narration and Web links to create a compact disc.

"Most of our clients are using the CDs as a direct mail piece, sales force handout and tradeshow handout," said Sam Swingle, president CD Advantage.

The Jacksonville, Fla., company can provide unique packaging, shapes and sizes for CDs including one that is the size of a business card. Depending on the amount of content and the number of optional enhancements an organization might choose, most CDs range from $7,000 to $12,000. "If an organization has a tight budget, they can always start with a basic CD for under $5,000 and add more content and optional enhancements to the original CD each year," said Swingle. The price for replication and packaging varies based on quantity. 1,000 CDs in full-color packaging cost $2.25 a piece. At 10,000 units the price drops to 89 cents.

Organizations can also save money on postage through the use of CDs. "If you were to mail a videotape, you would spend over $2 a unit on postage. If instead you mailed the video on a mini CD, your postage would drop to 37 cents," said Swingle.

An organization considering outsourcing for the creation of a CD should ensure the CD autoplays with no required installs and that it is dual compatible, playing on both PCs and Macs.
Lynn Rothman-Venus, director marketing and public relations at Dade City, Fla.-based Pasco Hernando Community College, has found the technology particularly useful for recruiting. "They are lightweight, have the promotional material so you look cutting edge, and are easy to mail. For a promotional vehicle, they are very good. I think they will replace the campus video," she said.
However, organizations need to really define their purpose for investment. The college hoped to eliminate the use of paper catalogs. "It is about half as much to print it on the CD, but the students still want the paper," said Rothman-Venus.

Though many donors are still drawn to paper pitches, nonprofits must take advantage of developing technologies in order to communicate and raise funds. "If consumers are 'trained' to receive information through certain vehicles and we're not there, then we are missing out on the opportunity to reach them with our message," said Russell of Geva Theatre Center.

      Bridget Rosenberg is a reporter for the Denver News Bureau.           

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