Converting campaigners to donors

Tony Fawcett, Web ManagerCampaign to Protect Rural England

CPRE - what we doCampaign for a beautiful and living countryside, protecting green spaces for everyone to enjoy, while enhancing towns to make them better places to live

Countryside loss• Threat of changes to

planning rules would make it easier to build more housing in the countryside

• Local democracy weakened

Previous campaigns…• Occasional emails, with a fundraising ask,

limited success, at best 20 donations

• Using separate email and campaigning software

• Could we do better by integrating online campaigning with fundraising?

Editable MP letter

Data capture, opt-ins to mailings

E-newsletter• Mailing list, 17,085

• Previously, used separatee-newsletter software

• Trial Engaging Networkse-newsletter software

• Trial Engaging Networks Net Donor software

Link frome-newsletter to campaign action

Contact details pre-filled - quicker to complete action

Thank you page, donate option

Contact details captured from campaign page,

quicker to donate

Initial email results• Results email sent to 17,085

• Open rate 35% (sector average 20%)

• Letters sent to MPs 1,904 (11.14%)

• 98 donations (0.57%)

• Donations total £1,832

• Average £18.69

• 5.14% taking action donated

Reminder email• Segmented the list:

- thank you to those who did the action- reminder to those who didn’t

Changes to donate• Added donation thermometer

to thank you / donate page

Second email results• Emails sent 15,147

• Letters sent to MPs 829 (5.47%)

• 86 donations (0.56%)

• Donations £1,468

• Average £17.06

• Campaigner to donor conversion:10.37% taking action donated

Both e-newsletter results• Tracking urls allows us to analyse different

sources and what works

• Emails sent 17,085

• Letters sent to MPs 2,733 (15.99%)

• 184 donations (1.07%), average £17.93

• Campaigner to donor conversion 6.73%

• Donations £3,300

More results• Promoted on website, and

Facebook

• Total letters sent to MPs 3,273

• Campaigner to donor conversion 7.24%

• 237 donations, average £18.30

• Total donations £4,338

Donations overall result• Online donations 1.07% of mailing list

• Sector average 0.07%

Surprises• One supporter said the email prompted

them to restart their monthly giving

• A cheque for £1,000

What we learnt• Use reminder emails to increase results

• Segment lists to send different messages depending on supporter history

• We got an extra 5.47% campaign actions

• Plus, 0.56% extra donations

What we learnt…• Experiment, test out new ideas,

donation thermometer, and different email messages

• Donation thermometer seemed to persuade more people to donate

What we learnt…• Campaigners make good donors

• Integrating a campaign with a donation, relates a cause with an donation ask

• Using pre-populated contact details from emails to action to donor page, cuts barriers, and improves results

cpre.org.uk