The IMAB Virtual Conference Wrap Up: 1 Day, 7 Sessions, and a Wealth of Insights for Nonprofits
	Posted by Guest Blogger at Feb 05, 2014 12:51 PM CST

This article was written by guest authors Bethany Bauman Maki, Vice President, Nonprofit Digital Strategy, PM Digital and Amy Sample Ward, CEO of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).

A seven hour phone call with a couple of thousand of your industry colleagues.  Sounds like torture, right?  The Integrated Marketing Advisory Board (IMAB) found a way to make it fun and engaging last Thursday with its inaugural free virtual conference for nonprofits.  Attendees were treated to six sessions about some of today’s most pressing nonprofit marketing and fundraising topics as well as a wrap up session moderated by Amy Sample Ward, CEO of NTEN.

Here’s just a sample of what we heard:

From Integrated Marketing and the Donor Lifecycle: Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Engagement for Greater Lifetime Value:

• Approach every project with a multi-channel vision for execution to reap long and short term benefits. 
• Test conventional wisdom – high-dollar donors give more, so we should mail to them less however, our program proves otherwise. 
• No one has figured out how to reliably monetize social media.  Change focus to building awareness for your institution that can have a benefit in other areas.  
• It’s not quantity, it’s quality.  If messaging goes back to mission and the original case for support, they will remain engaged.

From Who Is Your Nonprofit Missing? Using Integrated Marketing to Connect with Generations X, Y, & Z:

• Communications with Gen Y & Z won’t raise money (yet).
• Begin building relationships (It’s not too early).
• Be bold!  Experiment! (This is what Gens Y & Z are all about).
• Test your assumptions (and include testing time in your campaigns).
• Mobile is not optional for this audience (so get moving on that).
• Great images get shared (easy way to increase content sharing).

From Peanut Butter & Chocolate? Combining Digital & Traditional Channels for Integrated Fundraising Success:

• Playing to channel’s strength is key to successful integration.
• Know and understand your audience(s).
• Establish campaign goals and milestones.
• Cross-promote milestones among like channels to optimum impact, reach and UX.
• Track and measure what worked for an even better campaign next time.

From The New Rosetta Stone? Getting Your Fundraising and Non-Fundraising Departments on the Same Integrated Page:

• Adapt to the changing media landscape.
• Goal agreement trumps organizational structure.
• Conflict, if managed, creates excellence.
• Integrated campaigns allow you to package the same content/appeals across multiple channels.
• “Secondary” goals are valid, too (e.g., in social media, on home page).
• Optimize each channel based on what makes it unique.

From The Budgeting Balance: How Should Your Nonprofit Save and Spend Its Next Dollars?:

• Let results drive your decisions.
• Target your message to your audience.
• Present consistent format, measurements and historical data to make your case.
• Transition focus to revenue and net profit from expenses.

From Translating Corporate Success for the Nonprofit Sector: Creating a Balanced Scorecard for Integrated Fundraising Success:

• Balanced scorecards are being used to transform organizations, achieve strategic alignment and improve performance.
• Scorecards allow us to identify and create more meaningful performance measures.
• Balanced scorecard helps staff in all departments make decisions and evaluate programs or campaigns with a focus on ultimate impact.

In the final session of the day, presenters from all of the previous sessions joined Amy for a collaborative discussion. Budgeting and financial management came out early as important topics from the audience, and presenters highlighted the need for staff to identify ways to quantify and measure campaigns or appeals (even if they aren’t directly fundraising messages) and to work with the finance department to set goals and expectations early. Even if an appeal is focused on signing up for your organization’s newsletter or attending an event, the value of signing up, becoming a donor, and supporting your organization can and should be identified.

Similarly, the need to understand and strategically engage your list stood out as a critical theme. Many audience questions touched on the struggle of knowing whom to reach on which channels and finding the right messages to share. Speakers shared a number of suggestions including tracking what works and what doesn’t regularly across all channels, and the reminder that sometimes you’ll get a dud in your content, so you’ll need to plan for more than one option in your campaign.

Did you miss a session or the whole conference? Want to re-visit a topic?
Not to worry! You can view the session recordings at your convenience and share them with your colleagues.