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Opportunities Missed From Too Many Fundraising Channels

Most fundraisers (68 percent) use four or more channels to engage constituents, and the most popular engagement channels are email (86 percent), website (72 percent) and in-person events (71 percent) and direct mail (68 percent).

While most nonprofits use multiple channels to engage their supporters, there still are missed opportunities when it comes to online fundraising and the time it takes to acknowledge donations. Some 60 percent of organizations have only one online fundraising page or no fundraising page at all and 76 percent of organizations take 72 hours or more to acknowledge a donation.

Those are among the findings of a Fundraising Advisor Report released by Abila, maker of nonprofit financial and accounting software. “What we’re seeing based on this data is that many organizations push a tremendous amount of content to their constituents through many different channels,” said Rich Dietz, director of fundraising strategy for Abila. “But that basic opportunities might be missed in the mad scramble to simply do more through as many channels as possible.”

Key findings from the data include:

* 37 percent of respondents said they know only the most basic information or nothing about their constituents;

* Email (86 percent), website (72 percent), and in-person events (71 percent) are the most popular means of engaging supporters;

* By contrast, TV/radio (11 percent) was the least popular;

* The most popular strategy for online fundraising is a single donation page (44 percent) followed by multiple donation pages (21 percent);

* Most organizations (68 percent) use four or more channels to engage supporters; and,

* Peer-to-peer event/fundraising is done by only 10 percent of organizations.

For the full report, go to http://www.abila.com/FundraisingAdvisorBenchmark