As kids, most of us were trained to say “thank you.” Some of us even had parents that required us to write “thank you” notes to relatives that gave us gifts.

So why don’t we say “thank you” to our donors? The very people that fund our mission. That give out of their hard earned money to support our cause. Could we really be arrogant enough to feel entitled?

Kivi Leroux Miller recently posted some very distressing news: 70% of the nonprofits she donated to didn’t send a thank you.

70%

You can read about her test on her nonprofit marketing blog.

Anyone that’s been to one of my seminars knows that we’re supposed to say “thank you” seven times between asks.

I’m embarrassed I even need to write about this.

Please. Say thank you to your donors. All of them.

Thank you.

Did you see this free "Movie Mondays" by 501 Videos on How Funders are Changing the Game?

(Sorry. I haven’t figured out how to embed these videos into my blog.)

If you want to get the free movies each Monday, sign up at:
Movie Mondays.

Hurry, a new movie gets posted tomorrow!

Q: Hi Marc! You seem to know much about fundraising…any great ideas on a fundraiser for Cub Scouts…we need to raise $1500 for a new pinewood derby track…however the pack is in an area that the people don’t have tons of money…HELP! I need a jump start. TY Katherine

A: Well that seems perfect for corporate sponsorship! You could ask 5 businesses to contribute $500 each and give them recognition on the track (logo or something).

Or better, ask one for $1000, 2 for $750, and 3 for $500!

I’m sure you can use the extra money for something.

Any business fits since this will be seen by many over the years. But automotive parts stores and car dealerships may be a cool fit for this project.

If you do ask for more than the cost of the track, be sure to ask them to support your Cub Scouts with a gift, not the track. That way the money is the troops money, not solely dedicated to the track. But I’d recommend all the recognition go right on the track since that is very visible and something even nominal Cub Scout families remember.

Marc

PS Studies consistently show that poorer people are generally more generous then wealthier folks.

Q: Marc, I’m embarrassed to admit that we don’t yet have a website. But do you have any advice about choosing a domain name?

A: Great question! Getting a memorable domain name is a very important step in online fundraising. All fundraising, really. Donors often check out an organization’s website before making a gift. So putting thought into your domain name can help you raise more money.

Generally, of course, you’ll want to choose the name of your nonprofit. But here are some things to think about as you decide.

1. Keep it simple
   Try saying it aloud. Pretend you’re on a conference call and you say, “Hi, this is [your name] from [your website].”

   Can all the other callers remember it right away? Or do you need to explain anything?

   Your domain name is your best advertising sound bite, so make it work for you.

2. Try to avoid repeated letters that end one word and start the next
   For instance, if your name were Mel and you gave salads to the homeless, naming your organization “Mel’s Salads” makes great sense. It looks fine in print. It’s easy to remember.

   But www.melssalads.org can make for a confusing web domain. Those repeated “s”’s can make it hard for people to enter the web name correctly into a browser. It might be better to try something like www.saladsbymel.org or something quirky like www.tossedbutnotforgotten.org

3. Avoid numbers
   This goes with rule number one. Numbers in a name–”4″ instead of “for”–can look cute in a domain name. But if you were being interviewed and gave your website as “www.salads4you.org,” you’d probably feel compelled to explain that it’s the number not the word.

   Or the interviewer might say “F-o-r?” Then you’d say, “No ‘four’ but the number not spelled out…”

   People would be more apt to remember “confusion” rather than your mission. Not good.

4. Try to get the “.com” name
   As a nonprofit, you’ll want the “.org,” but go ahead and get the the .com too. No matter how familiar .org may be, people still default to .com when typing in a web address. So help them find you!

   While you’re at it, try getting all three .com, .org, and .net. Wish I’d done that for FundraisingCoach.com! The other two are now taken.

   These extensions (.com, .org, and .net) have a lot more credibility with people than .info or .me or .us do. On the web, credibility is essential. So you might as well start strong.

5. Register other web names
   Web domains are cheap. So registering multiple names can be a cost effective way to protect your web presence. One great strategy is to register possible common misspellings of your web address just to make sure people get to their site.

   For instance, many people mistakenly spell my last name with two “t’s.” So in addition to MarcPitman.com, I’ve registered MarcPittman.com.

   I have a blast registering many other names too, things that sound fun or might be domains I can use at some point. If you think of a tag line for your organization, or a motto, or anything else, it can be useful to register it as a domain, just in case you’ll want to use it in the future.

BONUS: Once you’ve registered your URL, try writing it with “camel back” or “mixed-case” spelling. For instance, instead of www.fundraisingcoach.com, I usually write www.FundraisingCoach.com. The first is elegant in symmetry. The lower case letters can make it look almost sleek.

But the second is generally easier for people to remember. What would you prefer? To look good? Or to have people remember your site?

Those are my tips. Use the comments below to make your suggestions.

[Do you have a question about nonprofits or fundraising that you'd like considered for Question Marc? Send it to marc@fundraisingcoach.com.]

Q: Do you know of the best way for my web site www.aidsadvantage.org to come up on search results when people type in the words “Aids, South Africa, Africa”? I wish to increase traffic to my web site and since this is unfamiliar territory I thought you could help me with this.

A: Great question! I’m not an SEO expert, and I’ve never played one on TV. But here are some tips I’ve learning along the way. They’ll help raise your nonprofit website’s visibility with search engines so that people will find your site much more easily.

1. Figure out what search terms people are currently using to find your site.
   You could use Google keyword search or sites like SpyFu.com to see what similar sites to yours are using for keywords, how often people are using those terms, and how high they rank in search results.

   Once you know what people are searching on, you can determine if the words you thought were the best keywords are really the best or if you can tweak them a bit.

2. Use those likely search terms in the “keywords” meta-tags.
   This is an HTML thing so you might want to check with someone a bit more technical in your office.

   If you’re using WordPress like I do, check out the very handy All In One SEO Pack plug in. This let’s you easily modify your site’s meta tags. More importantly, it helps you easily create meta titles and descriptions for each blog post or page you put up. (The meta description is the part that shows up in a Google search. It’s also what is grabbed when you post a link to Facebook.)

3. Strategically use those key in the verbage on your site.
   I’m not advising creating garbage content. You’re not trying to “trick” search engines. You are trying to help them find your site when people search on terms related to your cause.

   When I looked at the pages on FundraisingCoach.com in light of search terms I was interested in, I was shocked to see that I talked alot about seminars and trainings but never used the terms “fundraising seminars” and “nonprofit trainings.” People searching on “seminars” could be looking for just about anything. Obviously people that searched on the “fundraising seminars” were a better fit to my site than people just searching on the generic “seminars.” So I tweaked my pages to say “fundraising seminars”!

   You can do the same thing with the terms that would help you. Instead of “AIDS,” you might want to try “AIDS prevention.” According to Google’s Keyword Tool, there were 5,000,000 searches on “aids” last month; only 22,000 on “aids prevention.” That could mean that the field for “AIDS prevention” is a lot less cluttered than just “AIDS.” It’s easier to be found in a less cluttered field!

4. Write articles on your site, and post them on a regular basis.
   When it comes to search engine optimization, content is king. If you have interesting content, people will link to you and search engines will crawl your site.

   Apparently you have some ability to “train” the “spiders” that roam the web for search engines. They’ll learn to check your site more frequently if it’s updated more frequently. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a blog that you post to on a regular basis. Blogs are an easy way to keep your website fresh.

   Once you’re written an article, you can re-purpose it by posting it to sites like EzineArticles.com. These sites let you link back to your site, which helps build credibility with search engines too.

5. Google Analytics
   I HIGHLY recommend you sign up for Google Analytics. It’s free and offers a very robust set of tools to help you understand how people find and use your site.

   After signing up, you simply insert a piece of code on each page you want tracked and you get to see who’s visiting, what browser’s they’re using, where in the world they are, what search terms they’re using to find you, how long they’re on your site, what pages are most viewed. It’s pretty amazing.

That is a great starting place. Hopefully I didn’t get too technical!

If you want more, people I listen to on Twitter, folks like @fmbillwatt, @tassoula, @DJNoRequest, recommend checking out:

• @seobrien
• @alexschultz
• @TheNextCorner
• @mattmcgee
• @monicawright

[Do you have a question about nonprofits or fundraising that you'd like considered for Question Marc? Send it to marc@fundraisingcoach.com.]