Post by landytd on Oct 9, 2014 9:32:40 GMT -5
Heifer International is an international non-profit founded in 1942 whose goal is to end poverty and hunger while caring for the earth. As pointed out in the lecture and Google Hangouts one of the first things I noticed was that the homepage was dry and there wasn't a direct link to donate. There is a "what you can do to help" link but as pointed out this week a direct donation link could make a potentially large difference in the number of donors.
The fundraising area of the site is more up-to-date than the homepage but is also a bit confusing as there is almost too much information to process quickly. The into a more complex and modern fundraising page does not seem to play into recent success. According to Charity Navigator, a non-profit ranker, Heifer has had a consistent decrease in revenues since 2011 and a consistent increase in expenses as of late. With a high transparency rating at 97 out of 100 it seems they are lacking in effective fundraising campaign strategies.
The current strategy most visible via first impression is that fundraising is started by individuals who join teams by signing up through the website. The fundraisers are all unique although featured fundraisers are located at the very bottom of the page. Another factor that could be limiting efforts is too much background information at one time. The extensive mission detail in combination with poor placing of fundraising links and related information is a lot to scroll through on a mobile device as well. In comparison with other organizations, it would be beneficial to Heifer to simplify their design for normal and mobile browsing.
According to Fundraising Success Mag, they received the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2010 'Nonprofit of the Year' award. The most likely reason Heifer's contributions have been declining is the lack of an updated strategy for today's world. The creation of more fundraising campaigns using updated social media strategies would contribute to an increase in donations and awareness. Their Facebook strategy is mostly stories with visuals and posts of different campaigns. As covered in the lecture it seems they are asking for contributions to campaigns more than they could be engaging with their supporters. A simple remedy would be a higher engagement to donation ration. Heifer's Twitter is similar to their Facebook strategy and needs to be more engaging with donors. With 224,000 followers they should be able to get more than an average of 10-20 favorites per tweet. Tweaking their social media presence is necessary for more engagement and awareness of the superb work they've been doing the past 70 years.
The fundraising area of the site is more up-to-date than the homepage but is also a bit confusing as there is almost too much information to process quickly. The into a more complex and modern fundraising page does not seem to play into recent success. According to Charity Navigator, a non-profit ranker, Heifer has had a consistent decrease in revenues since 2011 and a consistent increase in expenses as of late. With a high transparency rating at 97 out of 100 it seems they are lacking in effective fundraising campaign strategies.
The current strategy most visible via first impression is that fundraising is started by individuals who join teams by signing up through the website. The fundraisers are all unique although featured fundraisers are located at the very bottom of the page. Another factor that could be limiting efforts is too much background information at one time. The extensive mission detail in combination with poor placing of fundraising links and related information is a lot to scroll through on a mobile device as well. In comparison with other organizations, it would be beneficial to Heifer to simplify their design for normal and mobile browsing.
According to Fundraising Success Mag, they received the DMA Nonprofit Federation's 2010 'Nonprofit of the Year' award. The most likely reason Heifer's contributions have been declining is the lack of an updated strategy for today's world. The creation of more fundraising campaigns using updated social media strategies would contribute to an increase in donations and awareness. Their Facebook strategy is mostly stories with visuals and posts of different campaigns. As covered in the lecture it seems they are asking for contributions to campaigns more than they could be engaging with their supporters. A simple remedy would be a higher engagement to donation ration. Heifer's Twitter is similar to their Facebook strategy and needs to be more engaging with donors. With 224,000 followers they should be able to get more than an average of 10-20 favorites per tweet. Tweaking their social media presence is necessary for more engagement and awareness of the superb work they've been doing the past 70 years.