How to grow your monthly donor program beyond the first year

How to grow your monthly donor program beyond the first year

Erica Waasdorp Katie Valvo

Erica Waasdorp

• Philanthropoholic

• President A Direct Solution

• Raised $$$$ with monthly giving

• Wrote the book

• Monthly donor

• Associate Director, Monthly Giving

• Acquisition Background

• Face-to-Face Fundraising

• Fanatic Monthly Donor/Subscriber

Katie Valvo

Growing your Program to

GREATER

Give Thanks and Involve

Retain and Reactivate

Elevate (upgrade)

Acquire

Test

EFT

Reporting

Growing your Program to

GREATER

Give Thanks and Involve

Preferred Recognition by Donors

Source: Penelope Burk Donor Survey

Welcome- Offline

Welcome - Offline

Welcome - Online

Conservation Champion Branded Thank you/Welcome Video – Auto Responder

http://www.nature.org/membership-giving/donation/monthly-giving/conservation-champion-video.xml?src=e.auto_d&lu=4344283

Welcome – Online Video

Branded Appeals

Most Successful Appeals @

Peak Times of Year

• Response aligned with balance of audience;

• Avg Gift significantly higher than those in similar MRC groups;

• Branded Offers

Recognize in Appeals

Monthly Donors Who Give

Additional Gifts When Asked

57%

Other ways to recognize

Thank you calls

Version of donor appeal

Version of email

Annual report and events

Newsletter

Testimonials

Keep Communicating!

Growing your program to

GREATER

Retain and Reactivate

“Retention is the new acquisition.

Customer service is the new

marketing”

- Joe Connelly

III. Retain and Reactivate

NO End Date EVER!

January 27, 2015

Improve Donor Service

Prevent Lapsing

Before card expires

Telephone

Email

Letter

As soon as possible!

Account updater/recycling

Source: Vantiv

Recovery (Acct updater/Recycling)

Pick Up the Phone!

Survey

Prevent lapsers

Coverage Ratio

New + Reactivated

________________ > 1

Lapsed

Growing your Program to

GREATER

Elevate (upgrade)

Current average gifts

Sample Upgrade Ask

IF Monthly Gift > =6

INCREASE1 = 2

INCREASE2 = 5

INCREASE3 = 7

Most successful

Upgrade During Conversion

Again, thank you so much! As you know, rapid development is one of the biggest threats to wildlife habitat and our forests, rivers and coasts. In fact, here in the U.S. we are losing 1.5 million acres of land to development EACH YEAR! That’s why we’re on-the-ground in places where development is the #1 danger, like the Sierra Nevadas where we’re working to protect 188,000 priority acres. Would you be willing to add $_______to your gift today to help fund these and other programs?

Upgrade Results

Descr. # of appeals Pledge Resp. rate

Avg. monthly upgrade

Annual gross new

DM 10,000 3.86% $8.00 $7,526

TM 2,176 24.03% $5.08 $10,471

Growing your Program to

GREATER

Acquire

Acquisition 1. Expand existing program

2. Add additional program

Monthly Giving Front and Center

Make it easy

First option

Add additional media

Challenge and urgency

Testimonials

On Home Page

Online

One Page

Last Chance Light Box

Easy to Find

First Option

Challenge, Goal and Deadline

Another Type of Challenge

Use email

Welcome Email

Mobile

Google Adwords

Branded Web Ads

Crowd Funding & Social Sites

Don’t Give Up Control

Direct Mail

Welcome Pack and Thank Yous

Example Welcome Message

Thank you so much for your gift of xx$mrgxx to [name of

organization]!

[Focus on why the gift is important for you and the impact

it’s making on the people/animals/mission you serve].

That’s why I’d like to invite you to join a privileged group

of special supporters, called [name of program].

[Focus on benefits and ease of program for donor]

Initial Gift and Response Relate

Description

One Time

Response

rate Average gift

Monthly

Response

rate Average gift

New $5-$14.99 4.6% $ 10.77 1.4% $ 8.38

New $15-$24.99 4.5% $ 16.60 1.6% $ 10.42

New $25+ 4.4% $ 24.49 2.0% $ 13.31

Front and Center on Reply

Telemarketing

Target by Payment Type

Descr. # of calls

# MGs Resp. rate

Avg. gift Annual gross

% on CC

Previous CC gift

2,530 354 13.99% $8.56 $36,362 18.4%

NO previous CC gift

24,834 2,234 9.00% $8.23 $220,629 6.49%

Face-to-Face Fundraising

Program Objectives:

Reach a larger/diverse audience

• 61K Donors Acquired to-date

• 37 - Avg age of canvass acquired donors

Generate more monthly donors

• 22K Monthly Donors Acquired to-date

Creative

Welcome

Add

Additional

Program

Results TM Cross Sell

Segment # of calls % resp. Avg monthly gift

Annualized

Existing EFT MGs

2,233 22.39% $7.27 $3,635

Existing CC MGs

736 20.79% $7.63 $1,167

Non MGs 6,476 7.86% $6.74 $8,232

Growing your Program to

GREATER

Test

Appeal

Premium

Ask Amount (Telemarketing)

Segment # of calls % resp. Avg monthly gift

Annualized

Control ask ($7)

2,704 10.58% $7.60 $2,175

Test ask ($10)

2,748 7.82% $9.99 $2,148

Growing your Program to

GREATER

EFT

Offer EFT Online

Add Form on Web

Add Option on Reply

Convert Pledge Reminders

Growing your Program to

GREATER

Reporting

ROI

2/24/2015 74

Look for Opportunity!

Calculate Long Term Revenue

Join

Year

Monthly

Type

Number

joined

Total Gifts

Per Monthly

donor

Total Monthly

Gifts Per

Monthly donor

2005 Bank 1,084 $936 $772

2005 Credit Card 757 $628 $449

Monthly Donors Source

# of monthly donors acquired

Average gift Average Yearly Gift

First year Cume

Totals 170 $10 $120 $20,400

Annualize Results

Calculate Coverage Ratio

New + Reactivated

________________ > 1

Lapsed

"Go the extra mile. It's never crowded."

~ Author Unknown

Thank you!

Erica Waasdorp

508 428 4753

[email protected]

facebook.com/ewaasdorp

@ericawaasdorp

Erica Waasdorp

President, A Direct Solution

www.adirectsolution.com

Thank you!

Katie Valvo

703.946.5451

[email protected]

Associate Director, Monthly Giving

Nature.org/champions

Katie Valvo

Bonus: A Monthly Giving Video

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=saturday+night+live+cents