Your response to the hurricane is needed

Hurricane Katrina has inflicted terrible destruction on homes, businesses and families in several states. The slow pace of news coming from the scene, and the grim news that is flowing, is in start contrast to the almost festive post-hurricane reporting the talking heads on TV News normally give us. Things are bad, and they’ll be bad for a long time.

NPAdvisors has three requests of you:

If you have an email list or web site that will post banner ads and/or send chaperoned emails on behalf of our nonprofit clients who are raising funds to support Hurricane Katrina relief, please contact us and let us know. We have banner ad art and email copy to send you.

If you are a nonprofit raising funds for Katrina relief, and you need online strategic help, email copywriting, search marketing, etc. please contact us and tell us what you need.

If you are neither of the above, please make a generous contribution to Operation Blessing, a client of ours who is a lead agency in the hurricane relief effort.

Thanks.
Rick...

Is your PR department web-focused?

One organization we know collected $1 Million online during the Tsunami relief period, after collecting $1000 per month prior to that. A little research indicated they were very high on the Missionfish list of charities, which got a lot of coverage both within the EBay community and elsewhere. The lists of charities that were published by the news organizations, Network for Good, and US AID, were not comprehensive or identical. Your position on them (or absence from them) could have cost you $1 Million (see above).

In Katrina relief, it's happening again. One of our clients has prime position on a list of Hurricane relief charities, allegedly from FEMA (though I can't find the list on the FEMA site) and published by the AP. Unfortunately, the client's phone number is wrong.

However, just because the lists are published online doesn't mean this is a web marketing function. In fact, note that I used the term "collected" above instead of "raised." This is a Public Relations (PR) job with a web twist. Your PR department has to take into account that Amazon.com and E-Bay have bigger reaches, faster, than the New York Times.

So, educate your PR department that they need to cultivate relationships with the big web sites, and get on the right lists. This has to be done before the crisis, though updates during the crisis are just as important.
-Rick...

Landing Page Defined

With any disaster response, there are online marketing and traffic driving measures that must be landed someplace. A landing page is any page on your site to which you drive traffic. When a regular page on your site is suddenly vaulted to landing page status, you need to be aware that those landing on the page have a different point of view. They have read a single-issue email, or clicked a keyword ad. Maybe they actually clicked on a banner ad. Theoretically, all these options, banner, keyword ad and email ask the user to give, donate, help, support, or some other iteration of giving action.

A "landing page" needs to be assessed, edited or built with this particular audience in mind. The page needs to coordinate with the channel - whatever that is. A keyword clicker has already searched, chosen your ad and is expecting to help. An email reader has digested your compelling story and wants to give. Even those clicking a banner ad understand that there is some next action they will take. Very few people will casually reach this page by surfing your site. Traffic coming from your homepage was a result of a specific message there.

Therefore, any landing page should eliminate all barriers to giving. Eliminate all extraneous links and choices. Reinforce (don't repeat) the message for the campaign. Tell the potential donor you are a legitimate charity, and then add a VERY LARGE donation button as well as multiple text links that lead directly to a donation form. (In an ideal world it would be a campaign-specific donation form, but that is less important than a great, compelling, seal-the-deal landing page.)

Feed the Children actually has a good example at: http://www.feedthechildren.org/site/PageServer?pagename=usw_hurricane_katrina While we would like to see fewer links on this page, the important elements as well as general feel are there.

- Heather

To email or Not to email

Your nonprofit is not involved with Hurricane relief. You are scheduled to send your regular email newsletter this week. Do you send the email?

Don't. No, don't not send it. Don't send your regular email newsletter. If Hurricane Katrina wreaks the devastation they are predicting, it may seem strange to your donors to get a "business as usual" email. That's not to say that you have to abandon your planned content, but we suggest finding a way to mention the devastation. Here are some ideas:

Regional (unaffected) animal rescue groups can ask their subscribers to create an animal safety plan in case of emergency. Environmental groups can mention the devastation to habitats. Groups who with work with child psychiatry can suggest ways parents can help children who are seeing these devastating images on television.

We think this type of tie-in's will resonate with your donors. What has your experience been?

Starting

So, Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on the Gulf coast. NPA has several nonprofit clients who will be involved in the relief efforts. As we talked amongst ourselves today about the response by nonprofits, we had a bit of déjà vu. We had similar discussions the last week of December after the tsunami. We decided that now is the time to start posting our thoughts about disaster fundraising so that all nonprofits can participate in the discussion.