Be Your Donors’ Favorite Charity: Why Engagement Matters

1. Be Your Donors’ Favorite Charity: Why Engagement Matters NTENConference 2013 #13NTCSurvey

2. 92%

3. >30%

4. What we’ll be talking about:

5. Key Findings - Donor Engagement Study • 1,022 donors • Gave at least $25 in the last 12 months & accept emails from nonprofits. • Asked about current donation & engagement activities, focusing on how they interact with their “favorite” charity (BCF) • Asked about preferred online methods for engaging with BCF.

6. Participant Demographics

7. Participant Demographics

8. Participant Demographics

9. Respondents

10. How many charities do you think your supporters are donating to over a year? • 1 • 2 - 3 • 4 - 6 • 7+

11. Key Finding: How many charities do they donate to in a year?

12. Key Finding: How is that $ divided? • Donors gave 67% of their annual amount to their favorite charity.

13. Do you have metrics in place to measure the relationship with your donors?

14. Key Finding: Are they being thanked for their donation?

15. Key Finding: How are they interacting with their “favorite” charity?

16. Key Finding: How would they prefer to interact with their “favorite” charity?

17. Key Finding: What is motivating them?

18. Key Finding: How else are they supporting their favorite charities? * They report doing this at least once a year

19. Key Finding: Age impacts the types of activities they engage in

20. Key Finding: How easy is it to do these activities?

21. Key Finding: How are they being your champions? * Doing these things at least a few times a year

22. Are you empowering your champions?

23. Becoming their BCF (Best Charity Forever) A guide for long term donor cultivation

24. Why Cultivation Matters Over the 10 years, there has been a shift in key fundraising metrics. As many as 3 of 4 new donors never make another gift Cost of donor acquisition is on the rise

25. Why Cultivation Matters Over the 10 years, there has been a shift in key fundraising metrics. As many as 3 of 4 new donors never make another gift Cost of donor acquisition is on the rise

26. Why Cultivation Matters Over the 10 years, there has been a shift in key fundraising metrics. As many as 3 of 4 new donors never make another gift Cost of donor acquisition is on the rise Lower ROI = reduced investment in finding new donors

27. Why Cultivation Matters • By understanding your most engaged supporters and giving them the relationship THEY want to have, you are better positioned to stem the “leaky bucket” phenomenon.

28. How? Be the constituent’s BCF BCF

29. BCF Benefits • 67% of $s go to the BCFs • 30% of constituents fundraise for their BCF at least once a year • Constituents with a BCF tended to leverage multiple digital access points (website, email and social media)

30. How do I become the BCF? Take Stock: Assess the current state of your organization’s assets and audience Make It Real: Identify where your focus will be and create your strategy Measure, Refine, Repeat: Understand what is working, adjust, and try again

31. Take Stock: How good is your web site? Where To Start: • Recognize the in and out doors of your site • Understand how visitors move through your site • Identify content types that receive more engagement • Be aware of the visuals you offer 35% of donors report visiting a charity’s Web site from a few times per year to daily.

32. Donor Centric Web Copy

33. Take Stock: Are you being social? Where To Start: • Track your social metrics over 12 to 18 months to see if spikes in engagement tie to other marketing efforts • Analyze your social content to see if it is formatted to fit the social medium • Look for content that received high engagement to identify the best content types 54% of donors are willing to talk to friends and family about their favorite organization.

34. Take Stock: Are your emails working? Where To Start: • Look back over the last 12-18 months to determine averages for open, conversion, and participation rates • Identify messages that performed well and determine why • Asses your use of automated email series and their effectiveness 51% of donors get information about their favorite charity from an enewsletter.

35. Welcome Series 35

36. Take Stock: What message are you sending? Where To Start: • Analyze the content of all your channels to be sure it includes statements of your impact • Be sure you content speaks directly to your main segments • Try A/B testing to identify the best possible messages • Use analytics to measure the most engaging messages 21% of donors say they were never thanked.

37. Make Your Thank You Memorable • Email “thank you”employing video

38. Make Your Thank You Memorable

39. Make Your Thank You Memorable

40. Take Stock: Are you using all channels? Where To Start: • Analyze each of your media assets for fit on multiple channels and devices • Compare the audiences for each media channel to identify overlaps and gaps • Identify any missing content types and channels that appeal to your audiences 13% preferred learning about volunteering via visiting Web site from mobile device.

41. Pulse Check • Understanding your Website Traffic • Understanding Email Effectiveness • Messaging • Leveraging Social Media • Multi-Channel Which “Take Stock” Area is Your Highest Priority Right Now?

42. How do I become the BCF? Take Stock: Assess the current state of your organization’s assets and audience Make It Real: Identify where your focus will be and create your strategy

43. Make It Real: Campaign Calendar • Start with you own organization’s calendar • Flag major holidays • Add seasonality to your engagement offers • Stay flexible and nimble 6 Months 12 Months 18 Months Today

44. Make it Real: Segmentation Example

45. Make It Real: Tailored Campaigns A tailored approach will enable you to explore how different segments are performing in terms of acquisition, attrition, engagement, and conversion

46. Make It Real: Start Measuring Succeed or Fail, Informatively Before you do anything, know how you’re going to measure it and what success looks like

47. How do I become the BCF? Make It Real: Identify where your focus will be and create your strategy Measure, Refine, Repeat: Understand what is working, adjust, and try again

48. Measure, Refine, Repeat: Look Back Periodically, step back and evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts thus far. After all, you established your baselines for just this comparison • Measure the response to your engagement campaigns • Compare to your benchmarks to understand growth • Segment the people who responded • Note the characteristics of the people who engaged and what they engaged with • Look at past behavior of this segment alongside past marketing efforts to identify opportunities

49. Measure, Refine, Repeat: Most/Least Ever heard the saying, “I wish I had 10 more like him?” Well, you have to know who he is before you can say that. • What does your most engaged segment look like? • How do they prefer to engage with you? • How did they evolve over time? • What does your least engaged segment look like? • How is that different from the most engaged? • Can you affect change on them?

50. Measure, Refine, Repeat: Look Closer Look hard to find the cross-promotional and upsell opportunities that take campaigns to the next level • Upsell • One time donors to monthly sustainers • Event donors to event participants • Event participants to team captains • Cross-promote • Ask activists to donate • Ask donors to share • Ask sharers to act