The Real Costs Of Online Fundraising
Here is a terrific "must read" article on the true costs of online fundraising, courtesy of Fundraising Success.
Apart from its thoughtful content, what I like about this article is that it’s written by a development director, not an online whiz kid, so it offers valuable perspective. I question how many development directors could be this thoughtful on the subject of online fundraising.
The author is Steve Kehrli, development director at PETA. He gets it.
He talks about the less obvious costs of handling online donor feedback, staff training and development, and R&D.
Here’s a passage I enjoyed … haven’t we all been here?!
"So, you listened to the sales pitch and decided you really had to buy that new e-mail platform that can do all those amazing things. But did you really expect Suzie to jump ship a month later to go on that personal quest she secretly waited for her entire life? Now you have a fancy platform, and you’ve spent your training dollars on a person who’s currently walking with a stick through the north of England."
Can you feel the pain?!
Great insights, Steve. You deserve a raise!
Tom
One response to “The Real Costs Of Online Fundraising”
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Heh. A common situation indeed. But isn’t high turnover related to the massively unsustainable cultures at so many nonprofits, rather than having anything to do with online fundraising?
Turnover threatens all of an organization’s tacit knowledge, not just its online tools knowledge.