Detailed Content Description | Related Reading | Faculty | Delivery Options
 

The Internet has the potential to bring the art and science of fundraising back into balance, restore the confidence and trust of donors, and deeply enhance the relationships our organizations have with our stakeholders. Or it can be yet another way to alienate our supporters and disempower our fundraising professionals. The Frictionless Fundraising workshop will help you avoid the easy pitfalls and set you on a path of success.
 

Many organizations are ready in both spirit and practice to aggressively take advantage of the opportunities of online fundraising, but they are severely limited by one thing: They don't have email addresses for enough of their supporters. This seminar will cover:

• five ways to convert web visitors into prospects
• evaluating the Return on Investment from converting to email
• effectively integrating conversion to email into your regular communication flow
• using the single message, direct mail model of conversion to email
• using other methods, such as telemarketing
• using incentives and other campaign mechanisms to boost conversion rates
• avoiding the risks of converting to email

This seminar is right for you if you have a large proportion of small and medium sized donors or members for whom you don't have email addresses, if you spend more money on postage and paper communicating with your supporters than you would ideally like, or if you want to build a stronger platform for online cultivation and stewardship of your existing donors.
 

The greatest opportunity presented by online fundraising is not seamless financial transactions, but the chance to get to listen and respect our supporters and so build the kind of deep relationships with them that leads to lifelong giving. This seminar will cover how to implement ten powerful strategies for building those relationships online, including:

• capturing the power of authorship and ownership
• cost effective personalization: Finding the sweet spot
• responding to email and basic listening practices
• how to develop metrics that matter
• six low cost cultivation ideas you can apply immediately
• where to find other cultivation ideas

This seminar is right for you if you either have or will have a base of supporters with whom you want to build a deeper relationship through online means.
 

Email newsletters are a baseline strategy of online fundraising and relationship management. It's the online glue that keeps you connected on a regular basis to your supporters. But some newsletters are more effective than others at building relationships. In this seminar, we will cover:

• three examples of how to deconstruct and revise a newsletter
• building an efficient flow of content for your newsletter
• choosing the best format for your newsletter
• troubleshooting your existing newsletter
• developing an ongoing testing cycle for continuous improvement
• integrating your newsletter into your communication strategies
• deciding what goes into your newsletter and what doesn't

This seminar is right for you if you either already have an email newsletter, are committed to launching one, or want to evaluate what would be involved in doing it right.
 

Here are a couple related articles by Michael Gilbert:

• Online Donor Cultivation: The Quest for Metrics
• Frictionless Fundraising: How the Internet can Bring Fundraising back into Balance

These seminars will be taught by Michael C. Gilbert, the author of "Frictionless Fundraising" and "The Email Newsletter Marketing Model", the editor and contributing author of "21st Century Fundraising Resources, 2nd Edition", the Editor of Nonprofit Online News, and the Founding President of the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. For more information about Mr. Gilbert, please see his bio.
 

Our pre-packaged online seminar here consists of three 90 minute sessions.

Live Online Seminars: These are presented at a scheduled date & time, broadcast live, and include live Q&A time with the instructor. Live online seminars presented by The Gilbert Center are open registration seminars, which means that anyone can attend. Please see our calendar for upcoming events. You can also read technical requirements and other basic facts for this seminar delivery option. (Please note that our calendar of live seminars only goes out a couple of months and not all topics will show up there.)

On-Demand Online Seminars: On-demand means you can attend at a time that is most convenient for your schedule. It consists of the recordings of the most recent live presentation, and comes packaged with a 30 minute phone consultation with the instructor so you can ask questions about the seminar materials and how they can best be put to use in your particular situation. You can also read technical requirements and other basic facts for this seminar delivery option. The catalog of seminars available on-demand is listed down the right-hand side of that same page, and also the calendar page. (Please note that not all topics are available yet for on-demand viewing. See the On-Demand Info page for a complete list of current options.)

Private In-House Sessions: If you have a group of people to whom you would like to offer training, please consider our private, in-house seminars. Which means you can hire us to present this and any of the seminars listed on this site, as well as custom sessions, for your group privately; online or in person at your location. Please contact us for more information if you're interested.

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