THUMBS UP?
This week, the New York Public Library plans to take a new step to win gifts from people who visit its Web site by adding a “thumbs up” button that reads, “Like it? Support it!” on its research and information pages.
Clicking on the button triggers a pop-up donation page.
On high-traffic pages, like the card catalog’s search page, the library is adding buttons that ask teaser questions, such as, “What is 19?”
The answer—the average cost of a new library book—is also accompanied by a pop-up donation page.
USING SOCIAL NETWORKS
Last year participants in 1,000 of the American Cancer Society’s 5,000 Relay For Life events were offered the option of putting badges on their Facebook pages that linked to their personal fund-raising pages for the event.
Participants brought in $800,000 through the badges, and people taking part in the charity’s other events raised an additional $1-million using them.
This year, the cancer society is making the badges available to all participants in its events. The Facebook badges have helped charities of all kinds raise more than $15-million since the beginning of 2009, according to the company that helped the society mount the badge effort.
SEEKING COMMENTS
Fund raisers at the Nature Conservancy are trying to use information gleaned from behavioral research to improve their online fund raising.
For example, studies have found that people are more likely to follow through on commitments they have put down in writing.
So after donors have made an online gift, the environmental group encourages them to explain why they made the contribution, in the hopes that those donors will be more likely to make additional gifts.
