Many successful nonprofits are turning to the Internet to better differentiate their organizations, increase fundraising, and operate more efficiently. Indeed, with the average American spending 11 hours a week of personal time on the Web, there is a great opportunity to capture the attention of new potential donors and provide the opportunity to give online.

However, many organizations still take a passive approach to using the Internet to raise money and build relationships. It's no longer good enough to just put a "donate now" button on your Web site and expect the donations to pour in. In reality, the Internet in general, and your organization's Web site in particular, should be part of a broader, organization-specific strategy.

More important than the number of Web visitors is the degree to which online activities complement and communicate other activities within the organization. Because every nonprofit is different — with specific missions, goals, resources, and constituencies — there is no one strategy that will work for every organization. The unique fit of a strategy to each nonprofit is essential to its success.

Strategic planning should always begin with the mission — the purpose and reason for being of every nonprofit. Properly deploying the Internet requires viewing a nonprofit holistically, with fulfilling the mission as the paramount goal of every activity, department, and program. Additionally, every activity should be accompanied by clear, quantifiable objectives to measure the relative success of efforts, as well as to demonstrate return on investment.

Nonprofits must identify and respond to the wants and needs of constituents in order to build and sustain a loyal donor base. Just as with direct mail, program deployment, marketing, or any other offline activity, Web presence must closely match constituent needs. Information must be relevant and timely, services must be useful, and the overall experience must be user-friendly. Having a Web site that lacks timely and interesting content, for instance, discourages visitors from returning.

To be effective, the use of technology must be revisited from time to time as activities evolve. The impact the Internet will have on fundraising and the nonprofit community is far from certain, and nonprofits will need to adapt their strategy to take advantage of ever-improving technology and online marketing practices. The results and feedback from strategically planned activities will inform and drive decision-making going forward, significantly increasing results over time.

Excerpts reprinted with permission from Nonprofit Internet Strategies: Best Practices for Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising Success, John Wiley & Sons, 17-25, Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. All rights reserved.

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