Amp Up Year-End Email Fundraising

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It's 11 weeks until the end of the year. Are your year-end email campaigns ready to rock and roll? Or are they sounding more like a polka? Four email fundraising pros present fresh ideas and case studies in this October 2013 DMFA (www.dmfa.org) Strategy Clinic to help you turn your online fundraising up to "11" in these critical final weeks of the year. Speakers: Dane Grams Director of Direct Response and Monthly Giving Human Rights Campaign (http://www.hrc.org/) Marc Abanto Senior Communications Strategist Blue State Digital (http://www.bluestatedigital.com/) Lesley Hostetter Director of Integrated Marketing Lautman Maska Neill & Company (http://lautmandc.com/) Moderator: Moira Kavanagh Crosby MKDM (http://www.mkdmc.com/)

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Year-End Fundraising Strategies to

TURN IT UP (Online)DMFA DC Brown Bag Lunch 10.21.13

• Lesley Hostetter LAUTMAN MASKA NEILL & COMPANY

• Dane Grams HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

• Marc Abanto BLUE STATE DIGITAL

Moderator: Moira Kavanagh Crosby MKDM

Reinforce a Sense of Community and Interaction at Year-end

Improve Response Rates by Engaging Donors BEFORE the Ask

Create a 1-1 connection. Authenticity works.

Not best practice: emails sent in Outlook!

Blue State DigitalEnd of Year successes and strategies

How to break through in EOY

• Volume• Urgency• Optimization

Volume: Send a lot of email

• The more you send, the more chances to give• Try different tactics to engage• Ramp up to big pushes in the final days of the

year

Urgency: Do it NOW

• Goals and deadlines: They work– Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund: 500 donors in

four days• Beat goal by 46.8%

– Civil rights organization: One day, $12,000 fundraising goal.

• Beat goal by 48.6%

Testing urgency

• A health organization tested two emails:– Email 1: A story about the great work they do

around the world– Email 2: An urgent ask focused on a potential

budget shortfall• The winner: Email 2 brought in 11 TIMES as many

donors, and raised 20 TIMES as much revenue.

Optimization

Quick donate

Streamline the user flow

Optimize landing pages

Email segmentation

VVMF: Bringing it all togetherFirst sustained EOY campaign

Eight emails and website optimizations

100% increase in donations

83% increase in donors

New Way Forward Campaign

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• 34 total versions• $462,515 raised• 3,533 new donors• 5,227 renewals

• 44 total versions• $492,387 raised• 3,700 new donors• 6,622 renewals

• 40 total versions• $482,288 raised• 3,321 new donors• 6,657 renewals

• 38 total versions• $515,987 raised• 2,297 new donors• 6,568 renewals

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Message #1 (12/27)

Message #2 (12/31)

Message #3 (1/8)

Message #4 (1/14)

Message #5 (1/17)

Message #6 (1/21)

Message #7 (1/22)

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

$120,000

2013: New Day New FightRevenue by Message

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Promotion Results

 

New Day New Fight (2013)

  # Gifts Avg. Gift Total Raised

HRCnews (Dec) 28 $75 $2,105

HRCnews (Jan) 58 $51 $2,935

Web 4 $48 $190

Lightbox 793 $94 $74,514

Social Networks 305 $32 $9,878

Text Message 121 $41 $4,948

Facebook Remarketing 6 $33 $195

TOTAL 1,315 $72 $94,765

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Lightbox

20

Text Message

More from Lesley

Logistics

• Our clients send 4-5 December emails

• In November, emails tend to support year-end

mailing. In December, emails “stand alone” and

focus on 12/31.

• Simple segmentation is helpful:

• Donor vs. Non donor

• DM vs. Non DM recipient

• Low Dollar vs. High Dollar vs. Sustainer

• By Affinity

More from Marc

End of Year: How we plan

Why do we test?

Worth $7,000 more PER MONTH

More from Moira

As part of your multipart year-end campaign be sure to email on the last day of the year. (Or campaign.)

Twice.(10% of total revenue to this campaign came in to the 8:26pm resend.)

Subject line je ne sais quoi

• Campaign deadline today VS. Last day

• Quick question VS. Watch my video message

• 8 days left VS. Merry and bright

• Choose your membership VS. What works for you?

• 10 reasons VS. Ten reasons

• It only takes one word VS. A message of love and support VS. One word

• A big night to cap off a big week VS. Tonight

Subject line je ne sais quoi

• Campaign deadline today VS. Last day

• Quick question VS. Watch my video message

• 8 days left VS. Merry and bright

• Choose your membership VS. What works for you?

• 10 reasons VS. Ten reasons

• It only takes one word VS. A message of love and support VS. One word

• A big night to cap off a big week VS. Tonight

Subject line je ne sais quoi• Light touch• A little unusual• A little mysterious• A little casual (“Hey”)• Short• Doesn’t scream fundraising• Something a real person would really write in an

email subject line• Different vernacular & pacing applies to body copy

too

Home Page Sync-Up

Home Page Sync-Up

No lightbox? No sweat.

THANK YOU!

• Lesley Hostetter lhostetter@lautmandc.com LAUTMAN MASKA NEILL & COMPANY

• Dane Grams dane.grams@hrc.org HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

• Marc Abanto mabanto@bluestatedigital.com BLUE STATE DIGITAL

• Moira Kavanagh Crosby mkcrosby@mkdmc.com MKDM

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