It’s hard to believe, but springtime contains delights other than the return of Cadbury creme eggs! It’s also the time of year when the charitable sector’s major online and social benchmarking reports are released, typically in concert with the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) hosted by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).

NTC, and the complimentary mobile technology event Innogive, are two of the charitable sector’s best opportunities to learn from and share with charities and nonprofits across North America. This year’s NTC took place from April 3 to 5th in San Francisco, with Innogive leading in on April 2.

If you didn’t make it down, no worries! Here are some digestible pieces of insight to get you thinking about your upcoming spring campaigns. Read on as you finish off that half-priced Easter candy!

The power of email marketing

Social media is appealing, but don’t count out your email campaigns as a powerful force for good. The Convio Online Marketing Nonprofit Benchmarking Index reported a correlation between online fundraising performance and the size of an organization’s email file.

M + R Strategic Services‘ eNonprofit Benchmarks Study found that 35% of online fundraising in the organizations they surveyed could be sourced to email appeals.

For every 1,000 email addresses in their database, the average nonprofit had 103 Facebook fans, 29 Twitter followers and 12 mobile subscribers.

For every 1,000 of those Facebook users, nonprofits reported an average of 2.5 “likes” or comments every day. How does your organization compare?

You are likely not surprised to see that Facebook is outpacing other networks in terms of popularity, which leads us to the next insight…

Facebook: Still your network of choice

Facebook continues to be the most popular commercial social networking tool for nonprofit organizations. Ninety-eight percent of charities studied in the 2012 Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report have a Facebook page. The average nonprofit community size reported was 8,317 members.

Have you not yet reached that number and are wondering how your peers are growing their social networks?

Charities and nonprofits said they are primarily using website placement and email appeals to promote their social media properties, with paid advertisements ranking lower on the priority list.

How are charities and nonprofits using social media?

Advocacy, marketing and awareness efforts still rank as the most popular activities for causes on social media. Only 54% of organizations surveyed say they consider fundraising to be one of their social media goals.

While the amount of money raised directly through social media continues to be lower compared to other channels (only 3% of organizations raised over $10,000 through Facebook in 2011), nonprofits said they do place a high value on a Facebook “like”.

The rise of social login continues!

A few months ago we wrote about the growing number of websites offering visitors the choice to create an account using their existing Facebook, Google or Twitter credentials. “Social login” is a trend that’s gaining traction from charities and nonprofits.

In his session, 5 Biggest Trends in Online Fundraising, Steve MacLaughlin shared the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle project.

Seventy-five percent of participants in this online fundraising campaign chose to use a social network to register, rather than create a new username and password.

Surprised? Don’t be. This insight is inline with industry trends. Social login makes it easier for your supporters to engage with you online. It also allows for more accurate profile information in your records.

Learn how to set up social login with Facebook.

Online video: An essential toolkit item

One of the biggest themes at NTC this year was storytelling for nonprofits. Multiple sessions and workgroups shared strategies for crafting memorable stories to explain your mission, programs and goals. The hottest tool for telling a story is certainly online video.

If you’re looking for storytelling inspiration, check out the nonprofit video entries in the 6th annual Do Gooder Awards. The winning organizations were celebrated this year at NTC. YouTube is the most popular online video source for viewers, particularly in Canada, where a majority of us regularly watch videos online.

If your organization wants to share your cause-related video with the widest audience, YouTube is the platform for you.

Your YouTube channel provides a variety of useful statistics on the videos you’ve uploaded. You’re probably already noting traffic sources, viewer demographics and view tracking, but are you using the audience retention graph?

Whether your video is a 30-minute KONYesque epic, or a short, impactful 30-second spot, audience retention statistics tell you exactly where your audience stops watching your video.

Hello mobile web, goodbye text-to-donate?

With almost half of Twitter and Facebook’s users accessing social sites through mobile devices, the odds are good that your online supporters are using tablets and smartphones to interact with you.

Mobile strategy discussions now extend far beyond the advice to slap QR codes on your direct mail or to purchase a shortcode for SMS donations.

Clam Lorenz of PayPal Nonprofit’s $4 billion lessons from mobile commerce was a wake-up call session for organizations that have been ignoring their mobile visitors.

As Lorenz pointed out, with 11% of all web traffic currently coming from mobile devices, “Your website is ‘mobile’ whether you like it or not.” In the last three years, mobile web transactions via PayPal alone have grown from $0 to $4 billion.

The 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks report also delved into mobile when sharing a case study from a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) email appeal. In a one month period, mobile phones accounted for 17% of HRC’s email opens.

When sharing your appeals on social sites like Twitter and Facebook have you thought about what a mobile-optimized donation experience should look like for those supporters on smartphones?

“Picture it” with data visualization

Does it occasionally seem like the only way to get your data noticed is to produce a colourful information graphic or infographic? You’re not alone, many NTEN speakers recommended using infographics to make your organization’s insights more socially shareable (and pinnable, of course!).

In Picturing Your Data is Better Than 1,000 Numbers: Data Visualization Techniques for Social Change, blogger Beth Kanter explained the multimedia principle, the idea that we learn more deeply from pictures and words than words alone.

The first step is to determine what story you want to tell your audience through an infographic, chart or map. If you’re like most nonprofits, you are already sitting on a wealth of collected information. What’s most shareable?

The most popular data pieces shared by nonprofits are: program delivery statistics, financial information, success stories and growth metrics.

If you’re thinking about playing around with visualized data, consider Google’s Public Data tool as a way to get started. Google allows you easily chart open data sets from a variety of international sources.

And speaking of data, if you’d like to jump into all the latest reports released for 2012, check out this handy list:

Liked these insights and are eager for more?

Plan now to join us next year at NTEN 2013, April 11 to 13 in Minneapolis!

Claire Kerr is the director of digital philanthropy at Artez Interactive. A nonprofit veteran, Claire has worked for charitable organizations in the economic development, education, and fundraising sectors. Connect with her on Twitter or on LinkedIn, or in person over a double-double at Tim Hortons.