25 ways to kick start your cross-channel fundraising

25 WAYS TO KICK START YOUR CROSS-CHANNEL FUNDRAISING

Mike Johnston – HJCJuly 27th, 201011:00 – 12:152010 Bridge Conference

Mjohnston@hjcnewmedia.comPresident and Founder, HJC

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A VIRTUAL TOUR

CROSS CHANNEL FUNDRAISING

The use of multiple channels (online, direct mail, telephone, mobile) to support one another to raise more money and build better donor relationships

CROSS CHANNEL FUNDRAISING

Why do it?

GEN Y GEN X BOOMERS MATURES

48% 57% 52% 48%

26% 43% 54% 77%28% 35% 32% 30%

29% 35% 31% 25%

22% 28% 28% 31%

22% 22% 27% 35%25% 27% 17% 12%

8% 10% 16% 25%11% 17% 14% 11%

14% 13% 4% 2%

9% 6% 4% 2%

Giving Channels% donated this way in last 2 years (total)

Emerging Channels

Solicitation Channel (From charities/nonprofits with established relationship)

% say appropriate solicitation channel (rank ordered by very important –blue)

TOTAL GEN Y GEN X BOOMER MATURE

84% 87% 89% 82% 76%

77% 77% 79% 74% 77%

65% 76% 69% 60% 51%

47% 69% 60% 38% 17%

42% 51% 42% 39% 34%

23% 38% 25% 16% 13%

• Fundraising is profoundly multichannel• Causation may be impossible to track• Traditional donor databases are dinosaurs• Remove the silos within your organization• Direct mail and telemarketing need

to evolve

What does it mean?

Integration opportunities or threats?

Area One: Direct mail and email

Web Triggers Direct Mail Response

When you received a mail solicitation from a charity, which of the following places on the Internet do you look at before deciding whether to give money

All respondents 2005 2008Look up 25% 44%

Do not look up 61% 47%

Don’t know/none 13% 10%

2005 2008Org’s web site 19% 37%

Independent rating organization

11% 24%

Online discussion group

3% 10%

Blogs 2% 8%NPT Research: 1,000 calls

If 37% of direct mail donors who get a direct mail solicitation go to the charity’s web site before giving then shouldn’t cross-channel integration look like this?

Press Advertisement

12

Cross-channel integration

Magazine Advertisement

Visitors were asked to fill out petition including mailing address and email…

Direct Mail integration (coordinating messaging)

There were three test cells:

1. RECEIVED ONLY MAILING. 2. RECEIVED EMAIL BEFORE THE MAILING. 3. RECEIVED EMAIL AFTER THE MAILING.

Direct Mail integration (coordinating messaging)

Pre-DM

Direct Mail integration (coordinating messaging)

Post-DM

Direct Mail integration (coordinating messaging)

18

PAPER CATALOGUE IN SUPPORT OF AN ONLINE SYMBOLIC GIVING CAMPAIGN…

In 2005, an online only symbolic gift catalogue was introduced, it raised approximately $48,000 in its first year.

The second year, a simple catalogue was sent to direct mail donors in November of 2006 introducing them to the symbolic giving catalogue.

It was sent to approximately 10,000 donors and raised an additional $74,180.00

And a comparison of Nov 05 dm donors receiving a holiday appeal without a catalogue the month before vs. the 06 donors who received the catalogue showed a $15,000 reduction in income vs. $74,180 increase – for $59,180 net return on more integrated offline/online approach

Giving Year Giving Channel Number of Donors Percentage

2007/2008Mail GTM Specific

3176

Tracking specifically these 3176 Mail 07/08 GTM donors by channel in 08/09

2008/2009 Online GTM specific39

1.23%

Mail GTM Specific 1073 33.78%

combined both channels GTM specific 1112 35.01%

Giving Year Giving Channel Number of Donors Percentage

2007/2008 Online GTM Specific 400

Tracking specifically these 400 online 07/08 GTM donors by channel in 08/09

2008/2009 Online GTM specific 146 36.50%

Mail GTM Specific 16 4.00%

GTM Specific - both mail online and mail 162 40.50%

Gaza conflict early 2009: Save the Children UK run National press campaign - text support for a ceasefire.

Call to action – text CEASEFIRE’ - pass details onto friends and family .

Campaign goes viral - 182,000 people text - petition taken to Downing Street.

All supporters were called on their mobile phones and prior to the call we had no information (name, address, etc) about these prospects.

USE THE TELEPHONE WITH ONLINE!

Responsibly and strategically

The Phone can be irritating…

“The bathtub was invented in 1850 and the telephone in 1875. In other words, if you had been living in 1850, you could have sat in the bathtub for 25 years without having to answer the

phone”

Bill DeWitt

But it can have power and resonance

“The telephone, which interrupts the most serious conversations and cuts short the most weighty

observations, has a romance of its own”

Virginia Woolf

What do we mean by the telephone?

The phone and online?

0102030405060708090

100

1 2

Perc

enta

ge o

f Goa

l Rai

sed

(%)

1: without call; 2: with call

Percentage of Goal Raised - without and with a call

Percentage of Goal Raised

Further tests…

• A phone test was conducted a second year with online event registrants…

• The test group that received a phone call (2.5 minutes in length) raised $131.42 more than a registrant who did NOT receive a call

Online pledge pages and calling….

High touch…high gift amounts…

• 20 board member pages• $237,534 raised ($143,000

by one board member)• Phone used to stimulate,

manage, and help board members with their personal pages

The next step was to call convert these donors. We did not breakout the different online warm lead sources to compare telephone conversion rates.

UK

7.25% conversion to monthly givingNo single donations – not askedAverage gift: $6.5 per monthCost to convert the online warm via the phone: $68.00Breakeven ROI: 23 months

North America – this is the estimated return

Average gift: $15 per monthCost to convert the online warm lead per donation: $65.00Breakeven ROI: 12 months

Mobiles Factsheet

• 3 billion people text message• 1.3 billion send picture messages

(MMS)• 1 billion can access the internet via

their mobile.

One million text “votes” in 51 days.

800,000 new contacts

9.65% conversion 9.65% conversion to monthly giving: to monthly giving:

15,38815,388

170,658 called on 170,658 called on their mobile their mobile

phonesphones

50% converted to 50% converted to monthly givingmonthly giving7.6 million 7.6 million

dollars LTV dollars LTV (over 5 years)(over 5 years)

Average gift 3.28 Average gift 3.28 dollars/monthdollars/month

Medécin San Frontiers Austria

5% of total 5% of total donations to donations to

tsunamitsunamiMSF AustriaMSF Austria

50% converted to 50% converted to monthly givingmonthly giving60% said YES60% said YES

50% converted to 50% converted to monthly givingmonthly givingVoice and text Voice and text

to build to build relationshipsrelationships

282,000 Euros in 282,000 Euros in single giftssingle gifts

Medécin San Frontiers Austria

Italy Emergency Response

• Dec 2002, Italians

donated €2.2 million for the earthquake in Molise, via SMS

• Dec 2004 Italians donated €18 million in 24 hours for SE Asia Tsunami via SMS

• 182,000 SMS prospects

• 9% Conversion onto monthly giving

• £73.80 average gift at 1.8 year 1 ROI

• £350,000 raised

The results

TV and mobile phone – Prospect donors

• Spanish prospect donors generated by personalities asking people to send in SMS to demonstrate support

• Prospects called within 7 days (only information is name and number)

• Conversion to monthly giving.

JESÚS VÁZQUEZ, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador

Ringtones from UNHCR

• Over 50,000 downloads • Over 110.000 Euros raised• 8.7 % conversion rate via

telephone conversion call

Source: Francesco Sciacca / UNHCR Spain

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AIM & CONCEPTTo convert more charity website visitors to new supporters

Optimising your website to generate supporters

Prospective charity

supporters visit and

browse charity website

Software identifies likelyprospect and

when to engage to collect contact

details and permission

Supporter

Prospects are telephoned/contacted at a

later date to convert into a regular giver

Pop up’s – Integrating Web and Telephone

Banners and Pop up’sIntegrating Web and Telephone

• NGO web sites• Sports (e.g. Real Madrid FC)• Women and family sites

International Development NGO

• 25% Positive response• Annual average per donor:

115 euros• 94% monthly donors • ROI 1:2.5

UNICEF Pop Up - Spain

International Development NGO

• 58% positive response• Annual average per donor: 233 euros • 99% monthly donors • ROI 1:12

Spanish Results - Childrens Charity

• 25% Positive response• Annual average per donor: 115 euros• 94% monthly donors • ROI 1:2.5

Why we have to get this right...Catholic Relief Services – when someone made a text donation during the Haiti earthquake aftermath they were given a chance to connect to a call centre. The organization believed that “calls could build a stronger bond with donors”. They are right – and we’ve shown you.

Sprint Nextel shut the service down.

Charities need to fight for the FCC to make sure that texts, like telephone calls, cannot be interrupted by phone companies. You can see why it’s important!

Sending a recorded message works too!

Sending a recorded message works too!

•$250 set up

•.05 to .10 cents per message – depending on volume…

• It’s worth testing!

Thank you – Member get Member

• 4 months into the donor relationship• Call just to thank donor and make sure

they are happy with the charity, its communications etc

• Ask them to recommend the charity to friends, family, colleagues

Thank you – Member get Member

• Normally 40% give names and telephone numbers of 3-4 people

• 40% of those called convert to monthly donors!

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

“When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully”

—Samuel Johnson

Integrated campaign over 44 days, summer 2009

Advocacy Page

• 10,974 emails sent to City Council Members• Over 20,000 written letters sent• Gross revenue $50,058.68 • 1,000 donors• 584 new donors

“The main reason we stopped the cuts was this online campaign. I would be the first to say otherwise, but it's true.”

Results

The Library Online

Creating an integrated schedule

What did we learn about making cross-channel work with New York Public Library?

1. Get buy-in at the senior level2. Have departments work together (maybe for the first time)3. Create an integrated team4. Create an integrated goal (with different metrics of success for each department)5. Create an integrated plan6. Matrix reporting structure MAY make sense with individuals temporarily reporting cross-department

I’m going to come back to this at the very end!

Online and Video

Banners and email rentals drove traffic to a landing page that asked people to watch a video and donate…

Banner Email

An acquisition test online:

QuickTime™ et undécompresseur TIFF (non compressé)

sont requis pour visionner cette image.

Bannière Email

page appel à donpage vidéo

Online acquisition that works… our approach

DM test: In the end, the dm appeal found 528 single gift donors, 29 monthly donors and invested 79,000 euros to find those donors.

vs.

Online test: In the end, the online appeal found 256 single gift donors and 62 monthly donors and invested only 4,100 Euros.

Online will be increasingly important for major gifts and legacy giving

Country Legacies revealed

Legacy leads

Canada 15 103

Canada 22 232

United States 52 164

Mexico 9 1,043

Four Legacy Online Surveys

General - Major Donors

General - Prospect

Emergencies

Special Event

Website

Grand Total

6 $ 51,303.68

5 $ 130.00

2,425 $ 394,985.27

38 $ 5,602.01

7,729 $ 412,635.22

10,204 $ 864,656.18

Do people make major gifts online?

Proprietary and Confidential

• tracking the impact that sites like Facebook make to fundraising and campaigning

What’s your credit card limit?

Success Factors for Transforming an online and integrated fundraising operation

• Strategic and Tactical development– Integrated multi-channel approach

• Alignment of structure, culture and skills with strategy

Phasing/Milestones

Phasing/MilestonesJuly – December 2010• Create Online Working Group• Hire Online Coordinator/Manager• Short-term website improvements• New donation forms• Annual communications schedule• Social media strategy & execution• Convio Fundraising module implementation• E-newsletter design/deployment• Welcome series design/deployment• E-appeal design/deployment

Phasing/MilestonesJanuary – December 2011• Regular e-newsletter, e-appeals• New/improved website sections• Advocacy Online e-Activist• Website redesign • Convio CMS• Intranet(s)• Convio TeamRaiser / Convio Personal Fundraising• Online ShareLent & ThinkFast campaigns• Emergency preparedness template• Alternative giving catalogue

Phasing/MilestonesJanuary – April 2012• Constituent database migration

Resource Requirements

Resource Requirements

• Online Manager• Online Working Group• Executive Director• Departmental Directors

– Education, Advancement, IP, (Admin)• HJC

One department’s recommendation:

A new staff person is being put into the fundraising department who will coordinate ALL web related activities

They will report to the Director of Advancement - Fundraising

Umm….

Oh-Oh!

A VIRTUAL CONCLUSION

•Cross channel fundraising: increases response, increasing average gift and the number of gifts?

• What’s stopping you? Senior leadership, departmental rivalry and silos, or just having a plan?

• Time to start now! Your donors are already cross-channel supporters…

Embrace Change

• Take Personal Responsibility – #1 Mistake is to “decide not to change.”

Thanks for joining me today!