Ask The Experts 2018 Building Resilient Communities

1. Ask The Experts2018Building Resilient Communities Fundraising in the Face of Adversity Amy Ragan, Chief Development Officer Houston Food Bank Presented By June 15, 2018

2. Fundraising (Before and) During Disaster

3. (Months) Before Disaster • Internally walked through several disaster scenarios cross-departmentally • Pre-planned hurricane/flood email and direct mail creative and rough outline of content with vendor

4. Before Disaster • Ratings on charity “watchdog” sites still matter • Relationships with local influencers (traditional media, social media, elected officials, etc.)

5. Internal “Classification” Determines Response • Classification (Define Levels 1-4): • Natural (vs. man-made) • Media coverage (number, channel, type, duration) • Predicted Damage (Saffir-Simpson scale, structure type, weather severity, casualties) • Geographic Area (single county, entire branch, multiple branches, entire footprint) • Population Affected (number of residents) • Response: • How channels & audiences for the fundraising efforts will expand with each level • Digital strategies by level (some included in all Levels) • Print strategies by level (only in Levels 3 & 4) • Quantify staff/agency time allocation

6. Hurricane Harvey - Disaster Classification • Natural Disaster • Media Coverage - hurricane and subsequent flooding generated national and international media attention • Estimated Damage – around $125 billion • Geographic Area - flooding covered an enormous portion of the greater Houston area – estimated at 1/3 of Houston • Population - estimated 144,485 homes flooded in Harris County alone Source: Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University http://Kinder.rice.edu

7. Pre-Disaster Digital Communications • August 25 (Day Before Landfall) • Resend of 6/1 email (updated copy only) • Specific to the situation • Subject: Tips to Help You Prepare for Harvey • 9.7% open rate • Raised $4,070 • June 1 (Start of hurricane season) • Email to all registered users – sent annually on June 1st • Talked about previous disaster relief and gave tips for being prepared for this year • 9.93% open rate • Raised $1,245

8. Before Disaster • Be transparent on donation form • Plan for eventual restriction release (plan to raise more than you can spend)

9. Before Disaster • Plan for VOLUME: • At its peak, we received nearly 24,000 online gifts in a single day – and more than 3,000 via snail mail • Overall, received two years’ worth of gifts (by gift count) in one month

10. Before Disaster GoFundMe: vs. • Know your crowdfunding sites and their fees – where do you want to send fundraisers? • Facebook Payments vs. Network for Good Crowdfunding/P2P and fees

11. During Disaster • Check in with key staff and leadership (daily calls, group texts) • CONSTANT social media monitoring & responding • Personal thank you emails for online major gifts ($1K+) • Put technology to work (text subscriptions) Bottom of volunteer emails – raised ~$1,800

12. Post-Disaster (Response) • Update language on general donation form • Update autoresponders – general and disaster • Update language on acknowledgement letters (include restriction release once needs met)

13. Post-Disaster (Response) • Set up lightbox on home page as soon as possible • Link directly to donation form • Left up two weeks (Aug 28 – Sep 13)

14. Post-Disaster Fundraising Communications

15. Post-Disaster (Response) • Created webpage to house all info in one place (houstonfoodbank.org/Harvey) • Sent all inbound requests to one place

16. Post-Disaster (Response) • Very helpful documents created and regularly updated by Communications department

17. Post-Disaster Major Donor Communications • Email from SGOs to Major Donors on September 7 • Detailed info about pre-storm preparations, during storm operations and post-storm relief efforts.

18. Disaster Donor Impact Series Intention of emails was to be purely stewardship; did not include donate button on emails

19. Post-Disaster (Response) • Used volunteers from local nonprofit Development departments to help with phone calls • Created “cheat sheet” with quick answers and necessary forms (including wire and ACH info)

20. Post-Disaster (Response) • HUGE increase in calls about cause marketing campaigns, 3rd party events and food/fund drives to benefit HFB • Food drives being conducted by organizations nation-wide – calling to ask how to get the items to us Number of Events (Sept – Oct 2017)

21. Post-Disaster (Recovery) • Used vendor to send pre-recorded thank you message from our CEO to all Harvey donors • Calls placed in mid-October

22. Post-Disaster (Recovery) • Donors out of service area • Added paragraph to acknowledgement letters, encouraging them to get involved with their local food bank, included FB name and website – VERY positive response from donors!

23. Employee Support Child care and pet sitting onsite 3 meals per day for first month Cookie break! Disaster Assistance Fund and application process Disaster “bonus” for salaried employees HFB NewsFeed – daily email to all staff

24. Post-Disaster (Recovery) • FEMA “Hotwash” • Initially by department • Preparation, Response, Recovery – what went well and what would have been ideal? • Reviewed/discussed as a leadership team for future disaster planning

25. FY18 (and Beyond) Revenue Outlook • Anticipated decline in revenue for the remainder of FY18 • Actual: • Events revenue down ~$215K (Houston Restaurant Weeks, Taste of the Texans) • Food/Fund drive revenue up ~$340K (cause marketing, workplace giving) • Direct mail revenue down $270K • Monthly giving revenue up $15K/month since storm • Unsolicited revenue WAY up $5.3M • Major gifts down $585K • Grants revenue down $350K • Major takeaway – overall, increase in Unsolicited continuing to outpace declines in appeal-specific revenue each month

26. Questions & Comments?

27. Contact Info:Amy RaganChief Development Officeraragan@houstonfoodbank.org713-547-8629Heather Icenogle, CFREDirector of Annual Giving and Eventshicenogle@houstonfoodbank.org713-547-8636