Perform an audit that provides a clearer profile of the types of supporters who donate to the organization.
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting wanted to know more about their supporters, so we performed an audit that provided a clearer profile of the types of supporters who donate to the organization. One common theme that stood out was the strong correlation between advocacy actions taken and donations made. Based on this finding, we worked together to create an advocate-to-donor conversion series targeting advocates who had never donated.
First, we looked for a common issue that most non-donor advocates had take action on to create content we knew would resonate with these supporters. Next, we set the bar low for our fundraising ask ($5) and tied it directly to an exclusive benefit for these donors (an "ask me anything" session with the Executive Director). Finally, we created three distinct messages that allowed us to test the most effective approach - a direct ask, a petition with an after-action donation page, and a "personal message" designed to look like it came directly from the desk of the E.D.
Our goal was to convert 100 advocates to donors through this experiment - and we did! By far, the most effective email in the series was the personal note from the E.D., converting 44% of the donors. Thanks to the success of this campaign, we've setup a marketing automation in Engaging Networks that will identify non-donor advocates in an ongoing basis and target them with the series.
