YMCA Of Greater Toronto Building An Online Village

Building an Online Village

May 1, 2008

Sandra Luther, Solutions Engineer – Blackbaud Canada

Ann Edmonds, Vice President, Information Technology – YMCA of Greater Toronto


Rules of Today’s Game:

� Rule #1: Let’s make this fun!

� Rule #2: Your participation is encouraged

� Who We Are:

– Ann Edmonds – Vice President Information Technology, YMCA of Greater

Blackbaud’s Conference for Nonprofits — Montreal | Sandra Luther & Ann Edmonds | Page #2

– Ann Edmonds – Vice President Information Technology, YMCA of Greater Toronto

– Sandra Luther – Solutions Engineer, Blackbaud Canada

� Rule #3: Let’s make this fun!


Today’s Objectives:

� Gain a better understanding of online communities and their benefits

� Explore various online community-building tools and features

� Learn from one organization’s experience in designing, developing, and implementing an online community


implementing an online community

� Provide you with a starting point to begin to build or to enhance your online community


What Do These Sites Have In Common?

� Some of the most visited sites on Web

– High-value services and features

– Engaging, highly personalized content

– Relevant, up-to-the-minute information

– Easy-to-use, self-service tools


– Easy-to-use, self-service tools

– Security and privacy options

� Their #1 goal is to build a sense of loyalty and community

� Their customers are your constituents…


Benefits of an Online Community

� Offers exclusivity through registration or membership

� Purpose is meaningful to the organization and community members

� Builds loyalty, enthusiasm, and involvement


involvement

� Enables multi-directional communication

� Creates both click and mortar scalability


Why Offer Online Services?

� Your supporters and donors have a personalized experience when banking, shopping, and connecting with each other online

� The bar has been raised! Your nonprofit organization is no exception

� Supporters and donors expect “on my time” access to self-service


Supporters and donors expect “on my time” access to self-service capabilities (e.g. donations, event registrations, address changes, subscriptions) and exclusive members-only information

� Other nonprofits are already doing this!


� Build on traditional programs and activities

– Develop online counterparts for initiatives

– Leverage cross-marketing opportunities

– Dramatically expand your audience

� Promote a consistent image

– Build on and supplement traditional branding

Expand Your Organizational Mission


– Build on and supplement traditional branding

– Coordinate communications and marketing

– Distribute highly targeted materials

� Improve fundraising results

– Create highly segmented appeals

– Interact with donors through their communication preferences

– Provide a convenient, 24/7 donation option


� Provide valuable online services

– Ability to communicate with other supporters

– Multiple channels to engage with you

– Distribute valuable information and services

� Create a personalized experience

– Member registration, profile and directory

Build a Network of Loyal Supporters


– Member registration, profile and directory

– Targeted content based on history and preferences

– Exclusive, members-only access

� Empower users

– Provide tools for advocacy and interaction

– “On my time” self-service features and tools

– Contact with other users with similar interests


� Integrate systems

– Make real-time updates to information

– Improve gift management and data integrity

– Convenient, secure donation process

� Automate operational activities

Streamline Operations


� Automate operational activities

– Eliminate redundant information

– Provide key activities online

– Reduce communication costs

� Develop metrics

– Determine quantifiable criteria

– Analyze results and decide where to focus resources


How Non-Profits Are Leveraging the Web

� Volunteer Portals

– Providing dynamic and targeted content for volunteers allows organizations to connect valuable supporters with fun projects and share information about new programs

� Self-Service Access

– Using a dynamic online community offers constituents the convenience of online event registration, donations, and enhanced information, as well as


online event registration, donations, and enhanced information, as well as secure, members-only access to board meeting minutes and more

� Multi-Channel Communication

– Integrating website design, email marketing, and offline communications provides an improved perception of the organization’s mission and intent

� User-Driven Content

– Personalizes your mission and allows your most loyal supporters to express the impact of your organization on their lives


Case Study: YMCA of Greater Toronto



These are Toronto’s Objectives

� Increase awareness of YMCA programs and services

� Increase participation in YMCA programs and services

� Enable better service of YMCA members, volunteers, donors and key stakeholders


� Increase the number of members


These are Toronto’s Objectives

� Increase revenues online through registrations and donations

– Increase opportunities to donate and make it easy

– Increase the average gift size

– Increase the number of donors

� Increase volunteerism


� Increase volunteerism

– Increase the number of volunteers recruited

– Increase volunteer engagement and involvement

– Increase awareness that volunteerism is a critical component of their mission


Crawl… Walk… Run

“Put House

in Order”Crawl Walk Run

Channel

Stakeholder Expansion

Take all initiatives to the next level 5. Contact

Management

6. e-learning

7. Contact Us


Foundationalre-design of

website

New partner hosting

relationship

Consolidate member

information

1. Timely Information

2. Registration & Account

Maintenance

3. Donations

4. Trigger based email

Channel Expansion


Determine Your Opportunities and Objectives

� Crawl (Alignment)

– Establish web infrastructure and support arrangements

– Implement content management tool, processes and defined governance roles and responsibilities

– Focus on site design with information architecture, look and feel, standard and guidelines

– Incorporate content and functionality deemed “must have” for Release 1


– Incorporate content and functionality deemed “must have” for Release 1

� Walk (Expand Content and Function)

– Expand content for secondary, tertiary audiences

– Expand and modify content based on user feedback

– Expand functionalities

– Allow more decentralized control over content


Determine Your Opportunities and Objectives

� Run (Integrate with email marketing)

– Integrate email marketing initiatives with website

– Exploit additional online capabilities

– Implement online donations


Consider using a similar phased approach, and be realistic when planning each phase. Don’t take on too much at once.


It’s Not Too Late

� Studies show that online marketing has demonstrated promise for nonprofits, but it is far from achieving full potential

– Most organizations raise <5% of funds online

– Email files are generally a fraction of your direct mail files

� Important reasons to focus more on the Internet


– As we’ve seen today – more people are going online not just to donate, but also to become more engaged with your organization

– Internet communication is growing in effectiveness

– Americans donated over $6 billion in 2006, a 51% increase over 2005 estimates*

– Global giving is estimated to have surpassed $13.2 billion by 2010*

*Source: ePhilanthropy Foundation, 2007


When You Get Home…

� Define goals and objectives

– What are you trying to accomplish?

– What does success mean to you?

– What are your donors and stakeholders asking for?

� Evaluate current programs

– Could you mirror current offline activities?

– Where could you support, improve, or streamline activities?


– Where could you support, improve, or streamline activities?

– What new initiatives could you implement online?

� Implement IT infrastructure

– Data – prospect research and modeling / scoring

– CRM – database tools for tracking and reporting on interactions

– CMS – dynamic web content management for personalization and security


Thank you!

Ann EdmondsVice President, Information Technology

YMCA of Greater [email protected]


Sandra LutherManager, Internet Solutions

Blackbaud [email protected]


Additional Resources

� onPhilanthropy - www.onphilanthropy.com

� ePhilanlthropy Foundation – www.ephilanthropyfoundation.org

� http://ymcastrongkids.ca/

� http://interactive.blackbaud.com/


� http://interactive.blackbaud.com/

� Ann Edmonds – [email protected]

� Sandra Luther – [email protected]

YMCA Of Greater Toronto Building An Online Village

Technology

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