Eighty-four percent of nonprofits, including many of the nation’s largest charities, haven’t made their donation websites easy to read on mobile devices, one of several flaws that can cost them significant contributions, according to experts who studied 150 charities and other organizations.

Included in the group of 151 organizations surveyed were 100 charities big enough to appear on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 400, the annual list of groups that raise the most from private sources. The study, conducted by the consulting group Dunham and Company and the fundraising think tank Next After, says charities aren’t doing enough to persuade supporters to sign up for their emails, and the emails don’t give enough direction: They don’t suggest what action the recipients should take, such as donating or signing a petition.

Last week, the White House made something of a splash with its Big Block of Cheese Day, encouraging internet users to ask members of the Obama administration and the White House staff questions on social media.

A new platform officially launching Monday hopes to provide voters with the opportunity to pose questions to elected officials and other prominent figures every day of the year, in some ways echoing an ongoing Ask Me Anything concept.

AskThem is a new non-profit, open-source project from the Participatory Politics Foundation, the same group behind OpenCongress, which tracked congressional legislation and campaign contribution records. Through AskThem, users can pose questions to elected officials who have signed up and to any verified Twitter user. Once the question reaches a certain signature threshold, AskThem will submit the question via e-mail to officials who have signed up and via social media.

The 2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report was released last week and one of the more interesting findings was that donor retention remainsa lower priority.

As my colleague Frank Barry mentioned, most nonprofits stink at donor retention. Nearly 3 out of 4 new donors never make a second gift. Over the past 10 years, donor retention has fallen from 33% to 27%.

But…donor retention isn’t one of the top three communications goals for 2014, according to the report. Acquiring new donors, engaging our community and general brand awareness all rank ahead of retention.

And while only 34% of executive directors picked donor retention as a top 2014 goal, just 16% of nonprofit communications directors said the same.

Donor retention is often overlooked and, because of this, nonprofits aren’t using email as a key retention tool. That likely means more email “asks” this year (donations, event registrants, advocacy actions) and fewer retention emails, like reporting back to donors and building relationships.

Say you’re launching a new political campaign or organization. What’s the first way people will try to find you? They’ll go to their trusty search engine and type in your name. It’s critical that your official website shows up in the first page of results, in the top few choices above the fold if possible. How do you make that magic happen? Here are some search engine optimization tips that will help you land at the top of the heap.