When it comes to writing an email that asks for a donation, people meticulously think about each word—hoping that their pitch will really resonate with the recipients. This medium is such a powerful tool that the Obama campaign generated approximately $500 million in donations (read more here) just through email marketing. Likewise, The Pew Research Center recently reported (see here) that among the thirteen percent of adults who donated to one of the Presidential candidates, fifty percent donated online or via email!
There are thousands of blogposts that share helpful tools and tips to help you with email (see for example our posts here and here) and in particular how to receive more online donations than ever before (see for example this one).
Recently, we had a post (see here) that explored six different ways to receive donations with and without a website. On Wednesday, May 15th, Google held an event called the Google’s I/O Conference where they announced updates to many of their products. Here is a link to everything announced at the Google I/O keynote in one handy list. Arguably the most important update as far as a nonprofit is concerned, is that getting people to send you donations just became easier than ever before!
As the video below explains, Google has now made sending cash to a friend or charity as easy as sending an email!
How does this work?
Well, you can now attach real money to your Gmail, just like you would attach a photo or a Word document by clicking the dollar-sign icon that appears for Gmail attachments above the content box. All that needs to be done is type in the amount you want to send, and with that one click, it can transfer cash via Google Wallet. Plus, the recipient doesn’t even need to have a Gmail address to receive funds!
At NLEResources.com our goal is to bring you great tips, tools, and trends that will help you educate and run your organization. We think that nonprofits should consider this new tool when it comes to sending out their next email campaign. In fact, David J. Neff, the author of The Future of Nonprofits, is already tweeting (see here) and encouraging nonprofits to consider integrating Google Wallet as well!
Hatzlacha rabba!
