*Green Doubts: Green advertising may be ubiquitous these days, but that doesn't mean consumers are buying into the messages behind it. According to a Burst Media survey,
consumer recall of green advertising is very high--37% of respondents say they frequently recall messaging, and 33% do so occasionally--but their belief in the claims is not so
sturdy. Among the findings:
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23% of respondents seldom or never believe green claims made in advertisements;
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65.3% of respondents say they "sometimes" believe green claims made in advertisements;
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12.1% say they "always" believe green advertising claims;
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41.6% of consumers frequently or occasionally research the claims made in green advertisements; and,
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30.1% refrain from any further research.
When it comes to said research, the results revealed that:
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80% of respondents use the Internet to conduct personal research on green initiatives and products;
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42% rate corporate information as only average;
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21% rate the information as fair; and,
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17% rate it as poor.
Source: Burst Media
*Removing the Training Wheels: According to the fifth annual Volunteer IMPACT Survey by Deloitte, the overwhelming majority of human resource professionals view skills-based
volunteerism as a cost-effective professional development tool, yet very few companies are leveraging volunteer programs for this purpose. Among the findings:
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91% of respondents agree that skills-based volunteering would add to the value of training and development programs, particularly in terms of fostering business and
leadership skills; however, only 16% make it a regular practice to offer these opportunities;
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87% of responding HR managers agree that their company's training and development program is under pressure to develop the next generation of leaders;
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70% indicate their budget remained flat or decreased in the last year; and,
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Only 2% believe that incorporating skills-based volunteering into talent development programs would cost more than traditional training/development options.
Given the suggested tightness of HR budgets, the findings indicate that execs should consider training alternatives offered by skills-based volunteerism.
Source: Deloitte
*Nonprofits Engaging Consumers Online: The second annual Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmark Index conducted by Convio highlights valuable online marketing metrics, and helps
evaluate how organizations can determine future goals. The findings show that:
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Nonprofits' Web Site Traffic Continues to Grow. The total number of unique visitors to Web sites of nonprofit organizations with fewer than 250,000 e-mail addresses on
file (and fully hosted by Convio) grew 11%. Nonprofit organizations with more than 250,000 e-mail addresses on file, with Web sites fully hosted by Convio, grew their Web site
traffic by 34%.
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Registration Rate Improved Slightly. The overall conversion rate of unique Web site visitors to subscribers grew from 2.8% to 3.0%.
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E-mail File Growth Supported Offline. E-mail file growth is nearly three times that of Web site traffic growth. This finding suggests that online activities complement
offline activities as a way to engage more constituents.
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Revenue Growth. Total nonprofit online revenue grew at 25% across the study organizations.
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Average Gift Remains High. The average online gift was $60, up from $56 in the last report. This is higher than the typical average gift achieved through most other direct
response channels such as direct mail and telemarketing.
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Opportunity to Expand Cross-Promotion between Advocacy and Fundraising. For organizations engaged in online legislative activity, 9% of online advocates also supported the
organization financially. Conversely, 14% of online donors engaged in online advocacy. While illustrative of the fact that donors can be advocates and vice versa, the report's
authors believe this suggests that there is significant upside for cross-marketing.
Source: Convio