Before starting a capital drive or sending out a direct-mail appeal, most fund raisers rigorously research a campaign’s potential to decide whether it’s worth moving forward.

But many nonprofits don’t apply the same sort of tests to their online fund-raising efforts, says Matt Howes, writing in Frogloop, an online marketing blog. As a result, they invest considerable time and money to create Web sites and other marketing devices that end up failing.

Mr. Howes says that charities should take a page from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and systematically test their ideas for online fund-raising campaigns.

 ”I’ve happily killed projects after initial testing—and thereby prevented important resources from being wasted. While I might have thought the campaign ideas were strong, my target audience clearly didn’t agree.”

Mr. Howes offers links to more information about testing, including a handful of low-cost online testing tools. Among them: Performable, which allows organizations to test campaign landing pages, and UserTesting.com, which provides feedback on projects from people a campaign is designed to reach.

Have you tested your online campaigns? What have you learned? Share your thoughts with our readers.