BY THE NUMBERS - ANA Nonprofit Federation · 2014-01-07 · with five testing strategies to...

OF THE DMA NONPROFIT FEDERATION

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Volume 17 / Issue 1 / January 2014

3 Letter from the Editor

4 Five Testing Strategies You Need to Implement Now

10 Ten Tips to Make your Monthly Giving Program a Success

14 Lots of Channels with Something Always On

BY THE NUMBERSStrategies, Tips and Recommendations for the New Year

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Members

Mr. Glen A. Beasley Arbor Day Foundation

Mr. Lane BrooksFood & Water Watch

Ms. Tracey BurgoonDisabled American Veterans

Mr. Brian Cowart Disabled American Veterans Ex Officio

Mr. Ken DawsonEleventy Marketing Group

Mr. Nate DrushellInfoCision Management Corp.

Mr. Steve FroehlichALSAC — St. Jude

Ms. Karen GleasonNNE Marketing

Ms. Jacqui GrosethUnion Rescue Mission

Mr. Tom HarrisonRuss Reid Ex Officio

Ms. Kimberly HaywoodMarch of Dimes

Mr. Roger Hiyama Russ Reid

Ms. Karin KirchoffMINDset direct

Ms. Gretchen LittlefieldInfogroup

Mr. Dennis McCarthyTarget Analytics, a Division of Blackbaud Inc.

Ms. Shannon McCrackenSpecial Olympics International

Mr. Matt Panos Feed the Children

Ms. Kyla ShawyerInternational Alliance — SCIA

Mr. Bryan TerpstraLW Robbins

Ms. Kim WalkerMemorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

DMA Nonprofit Federation Advisory Council

Chair

Mr. Angel AlomaFood For The Poor, Inc.

Vice Chair

Ms. Mary BoguckiAmergent

2014 Leadership

Staff

Xenia “Senny” Boone, Esq. General Counsel

Alicia OsgoodDirector of Membership & Communications

Malene Ward, CMP & CEMDirector of Education & Conferences

DMA Nonprofit Federation

@DMANF & @AliOzDC

Members Only

The world’s largest trade association dedicated to advancing & protecting responsible

data-driven marketing.

1615 L Street NW, Suite 1100Washington, DC 20036Phone: 202.861.2427

Fax: 202.628.4383nonprofitfederation.org

The Journal is published online three timesper year — January, April, and September.

Alicia OsgoodManaging Editor

[email protected]

Leslie Oakey Publication Design

leslieoakey.com

News ThursdaysA bi-weekly round-up of nonprofit-specific news & information direct to your inbox.

Nonprofit CareersThe latest jobs, delivered to your inbox weekly.

Get connected! Sign up for either newsletter (or both!) by emailing:

[email protected]

The DMANF has a Valentine for you — attend the 2014 Washington Nonprofit Conference: Building Stronger Relationships with Your Donors and non-profit dual members of DMA & DMANF exclusively receive a group rate of $499 on 3 or more registrations!

In a devastating blow to the nonprofit direct marketing community & ultimately in a ‘butterfly effect’ to those served by nonprofit organizations (less mail = less dona-tions = less resources to serve those in need), the Postal Regulatory Commission granted the United States Postal Service’s request for an exigent postage increase on Christmas Eve. They are mean ones those Grinches. Ruth Y. Goldway, Chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, will give the opening keynote of the 2014 Washington Nonprofit Conference.

The words of Advisory Council Chair & Food For The Poor Executive Director An-gel Aloma about the ‘butterfly effect’ are fitting when considered in tandem with the PRC’s decision & the continued threats to the charitable deduction… “The mathe-matical theory of chaos (the apparent unpredictability of nature) claims that a very small action may sometimes have horrendous consequences. It is often exemplified by what has been called ‘the butterfly effect’ — the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in some remote part of the world may one day be responsible for a mighty hurricane elsewhere. The moral being that one must be cautious of actions that at first seem somewhat harmless or even good, when the consequences could be horrible.”

We lost two fundraising pioneers & longtime friends of the Federation in 2013, Russ Reid of Russ Reid Company & Father Edward Cappelletti, SDB of Salesian Missions. Our heartfelt condolences to the family & friends they left behind & our thanks for lives well lived.

In this edition of the Journal:

DMANF Advisory Council member & LW Robbins’ Bryan Terpstra with five testing strategies to implement now;

MINDset direct’s Erica O’Brien with 10 tips to make magic with your monthly giving program; &

Russ Reid’s Andrew Olsen with the what & why you should of attribution.

I hope you enjoy this edition of the Journal & thank you for your continued support of the DMA Nonprofit Federation. I hope to see you in town next month.

Warm regards,

Managing Editor [email protected]

Letter from the Editor

February 13-14th

Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel

Register: http://dc.dmanf.org

4 The Journal of the DMA Nonprofit Federation

Donors tell us what works and what doesn’t work by how they respond to our fund-raising efforts. To uncover new opportunities for success and drive breakthrough results, you need a rigorous and innovative testing program. Make testing a priority so you can continue to learn from and better serve your donors.

A fundraising program with a weak testing plan and budget will result in flat or declining performance. To re-energize your program and keep it healthy in the months and years ahead, here are five testing strategies you need to implement now.

1 Develop a solid testing methodologyTesting should be an ongoing practice in your constant quest for better results across your entire direct response fundraising program: acquisition, new donor conversion, retention and upgrading, and lapsed reactivation and planned giving lead generation.

A strategic testing program should encompass creative, list and audience segmen-tation, channel integration, communication sequence and timing, and more. Your goal is to continuously improve results by boosting revenue, reducing costs or both. And always seek breakthroughs rather than incremental improvements.

Follow these steps to build a successful testing program:

5Testing Strategies You Need to Implement NowRe-energize Your Fundraising Program in 2014 with a Healthy Investment in Testing

Develop a testinginvestment

budget

Include testcells in every

campaign

Focus onimproving results

and revenue

Review all testinghistory to inform

strategy

Rank test ideasby greatest

potential impact

Conductrevolutionary and evolutionary tests

Test 10-15% ofall your overall

mailing audience

Gain knowledge,improve results,

and achieve goals

Test continuouslyand react quickly

to results!

Volume 17 / Issue 1 / January 2014 5

Bryan Terpstra Senior Vice President of Fundraising, LW Robbins

2 Include revolutionary and evolutionary tests

Your testing methodology should include Revolutionary Tests. These are the “Big Things” like: new package formats, channel integration, and long term frequency studies, to name a few.

Your testing program should also include Evolutionary Tests. These are the “Little Things” like gift arrays, letter length, and outer envelope teasers. Sometimes the little things can have a really big impact on results!

3 Conduct strategic testsTests can be categorized into two large buckets: strategic tests and creative tests. Your testing program should include both types.

Examples of strategic tests include:

Acquisition list testing with a focus on long term value of lists versus response rates, and testing new lists, list categories, and list markets.

Example: Coast Guard Foundation tested a new list market, military/veteran charity donors, be-yond their traditional audience of boating enthusiasts. Tailored creative for this new audience was developed using patriotic themes, with campaigns timed around veteran holidays, like Memorial Day. This new approach resulted in 3X the response rate of the previous year acquisition campaign.

Audience segmentation such as new donors, initial gift channel, campaign responsive-ness, and mid-level donors.

Campaign integration and channel mix: Direct mail/phone, direct mail/email, direct mail/phone/email, digital one to one retargeting/ direct mail/e-mail, etc.

Example: One international relief organization de-veloped a multi-touch strategy to convert donors to monthly giving using direct mail, e-mail and telemar-keting, and tested and measured the performance of the different channel combinations. Results demon-strate the value of all 3 channels working together — a true breakthrough!

Communications schedules: sequence, timing, expansion/contraction of touchpoints

Predictive models: • For acquisition, examples include co-operative database list models targeting prospects most likely

to donate to your charity, and “strategic” merge/purge list optimization. • For house files: warm prospect models, lapsed optimization, and major and planned giving likeli-

hood models. 4

DIRECT MAIL + EMAIL+ TELEMARKETING

341% increasein monthly donors



DIRECT MAIL +TELEMARKETING

DIRECT MAIL +EMAIL

DIRECT MAILONLY BASELINE


Life cycle tests such as:• New donor conversion strategies and tactics to get the 2nd gift as quickly as possible

(to improve donor retention)• Proactive “pre-lapse” techniques to keep donors current• Special interest strategies based upon donor self-identified cause affinity, and other

characteristics and behaviors.

Stewardship vs. solicitation: Testing communications that do not include an appeal for donations (thank you phone calls without asks, for example) vs. fundraising. How does this effect long term retention and revenue?

Engagement strategies: A broad category that includes programs like “telephone town halls,” conference calls with organization field staff or leadership, social media interaction, advocacy campaigns, and surveys.

Multi-part digital campaigns: Timing, frequency, sequence — how many touches within a campaign and what is the cadence? Day of week, time of day, etc. This is an active area of testing right now.

Gift ask arrays. This area of testing can have a big impact on response and average gift. Elements to test include:

Ask amounts

Gif t arrays forspecif ic audience

segments

Monthly giving and matching gif t ask

techniques

Number of asks

Highlighting specif icgif t amounts

(circles, asterisks)

Gif t linkagesto specif ic

programs/impact

Order of asks

Gender basedask strategies

And many more!

Example: A social services organization found that a nuanced change in the gift string on the reply device raised its average gift. In this case, an odd array improved results.

• The previous array was $10, $15 and $20. • The new array, after testing, is $12, $18, $24.

Another example: One organization lowered its initial ask amount in its acquisition program from $50 to $25 to increase response and donor participation. The average gift declined slightly, but the response rate and number of new donors brought on board increased significantly.

Online lead generation programs: for example, petitions on Care2 or change.org. Test strategies to convert these leads into donors.


Online incentive programs to drive list building: Test offering a back-end premium item (digital or physical) with online sign up and/or a donation. Physical incentives (like a keychain or wristband) require people to provide their postal address, so you can communicate with them via multiple channels.

4 Conduct creative testsCreative tests include:

Copy: letter length, gender, personalization, localization, letter signers and myriad other techniques

Themes and package formats (size, shape, inline formats with extensive personalization, etc.), “kitchen sink” premium packages, high velocity premium packages (high perceived value upfront premiums like blankets, gloves, t-shirts, etc.), coin packages (penny, nickel, dime, combination of coins, faux coin stickers), “lumpy” packages

Package elements:• Letter sizes and formats (individual sheets vs. folio for longer letters, for example),

typefaces and type size, inserts, lift notes, etc.• Outer envelopes: teasers/no teasers, blind, return address treatments, window size,

number of windows, and window placement• Charity watchdog endorsements, fundraising cost pie charts, etc.

Incentives: • Front end and back end premium offers• Type and number of premiums (test adding and removing premiums if you use several

in a package)• Address label formats: number of labels, mix of stickers, designs, printing treatments

(like foil), etc.• Mission packages vs. premium packages, etc. “Mission-based” premiums that are closely

tied to your mission.

Response deadlines, graphics, photos, videos

Postage treatments (first class postage, live stamps, indicia, etc.) on outer envelope and reply envelopes (Business Reply Envelopes vs. courtesy reply envelopes, vs. live stamps on reply envelopes, etc.)

Email: Subject line, From line, signer, signer photo, copy length, graphics, photos, video, links (number and placement), html format vs. regular outlook style, donation links number and position, etc.

Plus many more techniques across all channels.

4


5 Study your own testing history and the efforts of your industry peers for new testing ideas

We are very fortunate to work in an industry that so freely shares program results in trade publications and at conferences and workshops. Take advantage of these resources whenever you can. Also donate to and track a variety of other fundraising programs – both in your own sector and beyond, to see “what’s out there.”

Here are a few success stories that may provide testing ideas for your own program:

Acquisition and renewal breakthroughs revive program with downward trending metricsA national charity had a large, mature fundraising program in need of a re-boot. The new fundraising agency team devised an aggressive testing program involving innovative list strat-egies and creative testing. The primary goal was to attract higher quality donors from the start, with stronger connections to the mission, higher retention rates and better long term value. An additional goal was to reduce program costs to boost net revenue.

The fundraising team gradually moved acquisition efforts away from a long-standing strategy of acquiring incentive-driven donors using upfront premiums (greeting cards) to a mission-based creative and list approach. This involved:

• Shifting volumes to mail heavier in the non-premium environment based on list universes and seasonality.

• Aggressively testing new packages and tweaks to the existing control within the mission-based appeals.

• Rolling out a breakthrough new format: after careful testing, a smaller calendar format replaced a long standing large calendar renewal mailing, achieving significant cost savings in both postage and materials. In addition, average gift improved 19%, and net revenue increased 60%.

Outcome: This program is now acquiring better quality donors with a higher average gift and stronger lifetime value. Net income and cost per dollar raised have improved dramatically as well.

And due to the aggressive testing, two new mission-based control packages have rolled out within two years — quite a breakthrough, especially in this tough acquisition environment.

Lapsed donor reactivation breakthrough with analytics and targeted messaging strategyVietnam Veterans Memorial Fund had a very large and untapped lapsed donor population. To increase reactivation, the new fundraising agency team applied lapsed reactivation models to identify those lapsed donors most likely to become active, valuable contributors moving for-ward. A new creative strategy to re-engage with these donors was also developed to augment the new modeling and analytics.


A lapsed reactivation creative track was launched using the acquisition control as the lapsed control to start. Then the team aggressively tested against the acquisition control with differ-ent formats, messaging and timing. Within one year, two new, successful packages focused specifically on lapsed donors were identified. Both packages are now roll-outs with much continued success.

Inserts boost response, but keep them freshThird party inserts, like news article reprints or testimonials, serve as a reference or endorse-ment, and enhance your organization’s credibility. But over time, a news article can fatigue, so test against it. For the acquisition control of a faith-affiliated, social services organization, a news article insert showcasing the mayor’s hands-on involvement at the facility had aged. The team tested a new insert with a testimonial by a nun, which lifted the response by 19%.

Matching gifts are very powerful — every program should test one, then twoIf your organization does not mail a matching gift campaign, make it a priority this year. If you already mail one matching gift campaign, consider testing a second match campaign with a five to six month gap. Many organizations have seen tremendous success with multiple matches. Make sure the match offer stands out as the primary offer in your campaign. Avoid muddling the offer by adding in other themes like Annual Fund which can confuse the donor and depress response. Focus on the match and consider using a strong graphic treatment in your campaign across all channels to give the match opportunity more substance.

An effective testing program is essential to the long term success of every direct response fundraising program. Insist that an ongoing investment is included in your overall program strategy. This investment should include both a financial budget and the staff resources re-quired to conduct, analyze and act upon test results.

Prioritize your testing plan based upon greatest potential impact on your program. Where are the greatest opportunities for breakthrough results? Remember, you may discover break-throughs in the little things as well as the big things. And continue to learn from your failures and your successes. Testing is the essence of the great work we do as fundraisers! 7

Bryan Terpstra is Senior Vice President of Fundraising at LW

Robbins, which provides integrated, multi-channel direct re-

sponse fundraising services to national and regional nonprof-

its across a wide variety of sectors. He welcomes your ques-

tions and feedback. Contact him at [email protected] or

800.229.5972 ext. 171.

Make testing a priority so you can better serve your donors


Monthly giving. Everyone wants it. A loyal group of committed donors who can be counted on month after month and year over year…who wouldn’t want to add this to their fundraising portfolio? But really — how do you make it work? Where do you even start?

Perhaps more than any other fundraising strategy, monthly giving or sustainer programs require an integrated approach to messag-ing, the ability to sell and service these valuable donors online, and a coordinated effort to manage the relationship for the long term. Whether you’re just starting your program or looking at taking your monthly donation strategy to the next level, you need to look at these 10 tips to best integrate your communications with these important supporters.

1 Maximize your home page presence.Sit with someone unfamiliar with your cause and website and watch how difficult it is for him or her to navigate through to your month-ly giving offer. If possible, reduce this navigation to no more than two clicks, ideally with a highlight and link on your home page. Donors should not have to search around for what they want to do. Remember, the average person is going to spend less than 10 sec-onds searching for what they need — make their job easy, and your organization will be rewarded.

2 Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.While you’re working on your homepage, screen for what might be confusing information for potential monthly donors. Limit the total clicks that a donor needs to make to make a monthly pledge — and think intuitively of how it makes the most sense for the offer to be presented. Think about what donation page donors looking to give monthly are going to land on. Many organizations fail to link the

Testing Tips to Make Your Monthly Giving Program a Success10


monthly gift radio button to a unique donation page, and therefore the donor ends up giving a onetime gift, vs. a continual monthly gift. There are many layers to a developed program, so to properly ensure streamlined communications you may consider process mapping the donor experience. Remember: if it is hard, diffi-cult, confusing or even tenuous for you, it is going to be more so for the amateur user. The easier you make the process, the more monthly donors you will have.

3 Talk to donors where they are.While you’re working on that website, make certain you have an explanation of your monthly giving pro-gram on your Ways-to-Give page to provide any donor who is making a single gift, or may be visiting, with a case for joining at this level. Also consider adding monthly donor giving information on the most visited pages on your website. For example, for one organiza-tion, a ‘game page’ was a highly trafficked page. Placing a monthly donor button on that page increased over-all giving as well as individual leads. If you target do-nors where they are, and test other placements as well, over time you will find the secret sauce that is right for your organization.

4 It’s all about location.Where and how the monthly giving offer is ‘sold’ throughout the website is critical. Work with your internal web teams to negotiate valuable web real es-tate on a regular basis. Establish a schedule for when monthly giving is going to be featured ‘above the fold’ each month. The greater internal priority this is, the more likely your organization is going to reap the re-wards of a robust monthly giving program. For those with a more developed program, add an additional “sell” page with a full explanation of the monthly giv-ing features and benefits. This is great real estate where you can include testimonies from donors, background

on the gifts at work, and other ways for these support-ers to get involved like petitions and volunteering.

5 Sell. Sell. Sell.As your program grows, a specific monthly giving mi-

crosite is a great place to feature your “DRTV without the TV.” And before you say, ‘my organization doesn’t do TV’ — you don’t have to! This sizzle reel may be as simple as editing your annual meeting video or special event video assets, edited to include a monthly giving offer. And if you know your organization is going to be capturing video in an upcoming event, ad, etc. — be thinking of ways to edit the piece to suit monthly giv-ing recruitment. Be creative with the footage you have, and don’t be afraid to make the ask.

6 Make giving monthly easy. Ensure there are various ways for donors to make their gift monthly on your website. Shopping Cart function-ality can be limiting for today’s multi-faceted programs. But most platforms allow you to use, at the very least, a radio button that offers donors the chance to “make my gift monthly.” A pop-up with another chance to make it monthly after the acknowledgement screen is a good conversion technique, even after the web gift is complete. And once they are giving monthly, you’ll want to improve the functionality on your website for “virtual donor services.” These donors, more than single-gift donors, will want to interact with you via your web page. This means, if possible, providing a way to give by credit card, upgrade a pledge amount, or change an address or preference for contact infor-mation. Be cautious, though, about making this “do-nor services” function too easy. Require a phone call to your representative for a cancellation or a decrease in the monthly gift. Remember — ease is good, but for complete changes to donor status, having the ability to speak with your donors is priceless. 4

Erica O’Brien Senior Account Director, MINDset direct


7 Monitor their diet. While monthly donors will want to interact with you through a variety of channels, make sure you moni-tor their “diet” of digital communications. This sim-ple management of the email calendar won’t cost you anything, but not monitoring it can cost you plenty! One of the organizations we monitor recently sent 64 emails on 11 different topics in fewer than 45 days, and not one of them recognized the monthly donor or stated they had been specially selected for one of these important messages. Their unsubscribe rate must have sky rocketed during this inundation! Let this be your cautionary tale, and take heed to protect these loyal donors.

8 Recognize, reward & reap. Monthly donors are special. Recognize these donors’ generous monthly pledge by using a monthly giving “wrapper” for your e-newsletter. This includes a dis-tinct subject line with your monthly giving club or brand, if you use one, as well as graphic elements in the digital template. If you’ve got more than 1,000 month-ly donors with email addresses, you have critical mass for taking this small step toward digital distinction. And if you don’t have email addresses on most of your monthly donors, you should.

9 Maximize contact information. Ask for an email address — and then, once you have it on file, confirm it and ask for corrections from your monthly donors in at least three offline communica-tions a year. Preferred email addresses change more often than street addresses, and no one can ensure you have the right information on file better than the donors themselves. And since you’ll be talking to them digitally. . .

10 Create exclusivity. Use a specialized email box for your sustainers to communicate with you. While these emails may be di-rected to the same person who responds to the rest of your donor emails, a distinct inbox for those who have

pledged monthly gifts, like [email protected], creates a feeling of exclusivity and service that these valuable supporters merit.

Developing a strong monthly giving program takes work, as well as the committed buy-in from stakehold-ers enterprise-wide. And to be frank, the recruitment of donors is often the ‘easiest’ part. The ‘back of the shop’ mechanics of the program is arguably where do-nors are made or broken. So before you embark on this journey, sit down and ensure that everyone is in it for the long haul. If you do, and have a ‘stick with it’ men-tality, your organization will likely look back in a few years and realize the tremendous success they have had in developing this critical group of donors. 7

Erica O’Brien is a Senior Account Director

at MINDset direct, a firm that specializes in

creating programs and managing experienc-

es for high value donor segments. She can be

found at www.mindsetdirect.com when she’s

not off auditing monthly giving programs for

one of the many organizations she supports.

Contact her at [email protected].

Presented annually at the Washington Nonprofit Conference, The Max Hart Nonprofit Achievement Award recognizes career accomplishments by an exceptional fundraising professional with a track record of service, leadership, innovation and integrity.

The recipient of this award exemplifies the following:

• Served as a professional fundraising practitioner in either nonprofit organizations or service providers

• Career has been characterized by innovation and leadership within the direct marketing community

• Has an outstanding record of achievement within the direct marketing industry

• Served as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others by exemplifying the highest standards of excellence and integrity in his/her work

• Respected authority in direct marketing fundraising practice and issues

• Committed to the professional development of others through shared knowledge and mentorship

Director of Direct Response, American Heart Association

on her selection as the recipient of the 2014 Max Hart Nonprofit Achievement Award

Congratulations to

Sherry Minton

GalaConference LuncheonFebruary 13thto honor Sherry


Attribution: What is it, and why

is it important?

Attribution is the process of al-locating credit to one fundraising

channel or another. This process (in theory) allows you — the fundraiser —

to make data-driven decisions to most effec-tively plan, allocate and spend your fundraising

expense budget.Firstly, a caution. Attribution is difficult. I mean, really

difficult. If you don’t have good data it is next to impossible to accurately understand how each of your media channels interacts with another, and how the overall mix drives performance. In fact, even nonprofits that have invested heavily in sophisticated data management and analytics have a hard time truly understanding and leveraging attribution.

So why do it? Simple. In today’s environment where donors are consuming and interacting with multiple media sources and chan-nels on an ongoing basis, you can’t afford not to understand the impact that your media channels have on one another. Ultimately, leveraging attribution allows you to make smarter use of your fund-raising expense budget, improve the timing of your campaigns and increase the average value of your fundraising efforts.

There are two frequently used attribution methods. The first, and most frequently used method is called Full Attribution. In the Full Attribution model credit is given to the last channel — the channel that captures response. This is a highly inaccurate way to attribute performance because it doesn’t give you vision to the impact that any other channel(s) had in driving the response that was captured by the last channel.

For example, one of our clients —a major national nonprofit med-ical charity conducted a radio campaign in five U.S. markets. The goal of the campaign was to drive response to their call center.

The campaign generated just two calls. Using Full Attribution, this campaign would be considered a failure, and the client would never invest in something like this again.

Lotsof Channels with Something Always On

Andrew Olsen, CFRE is group ac-

count director at Russ Reid where he

oversees the agency’s fundraising and

communications efforts on behalf of

75+ food banks and food rescue or-

ganizations across the U.S.

During the past 14 years he has

served such organizations as Save

the Children, Special Olympics, St. Jo-

seph’s Indian School, Boys Town, Best

Friends Animal Society, and numerous

Rescue Missions, Food Banks, Chil-

dren’s Hospitals, Catholic Charities,

agencies, advocacy organizations and

political campaigns/committees.

He is co-author of Rainmaking: The

Fundraiser’s Guide to Landing Big

Gifts, and is frequently sought after to

speak and write on various topics im-

pacting the nonprofit sector. His email is

[email protected].


BUT…analyzing their online performance in just one of the five markets showed that they achieved a 300% increase in web traffic and a 180% lift in web revenue year-over-year during the time the radio campaign was running.

This process of giving credit not only to the final channel but to all channels that could have in-fluenced response is called Partial Attribution. While still not perfect, Partial Attribution is much more accurate than Final Attribution.

We have conversations all the time with nonprofit organizations that want to slash their direct mail budgets because they see web revenue increases and believe that by investing more heavily in web and less so in the mail they can drive greater revenue at lower costs. We’re in favor of op-timizing the media mix to generate more net revenue too. But the greatest value of attribution is that it helps you understand what NOT to cut.

And what we’ve found is that most nonprofits can’t cut their mail programs and expect to main-tain the same (or increased) web revenue. Why? Because mail is a primary DRIVER of web revenue. In fact, for some organizations, direct mail is driving 20%-30% of their web revenue. While cutting the mail might help by reducing some costs, it will result in huge revenue decreases — both from the drop in web revenue, as well as the drop in revenue directly attributable to the mail program.

Some quick cautions about attribution…

1 It’s not easy. If you’re going to undertake attribution modeling (and we think you probably should), you need C-level buy-in.

2 It will NEVER be exact. In an integrated environment you have to be comfortable with some degree of fuzzy math, and estimation, because you’ll never be able to see

1:1 channel interaction across all channels.

3 Attribution within digital channels (i.e., email to SEM, Display to SEM, etc.) is much easier to track than cross-channel attribution. In fact, you’ll never be able to

tell with certainty how DRTV or radio impact your mail program, etc.

4 It’s dynamic. Any change in media mix, timing, time of year, etc., will impact your attribution model.

5 Beware the politics. As you begin to understand channel interaction and cross channel donor behavior this may lead to redistribution of marketing and fundraising budgets

across your organization. That could lead to infighting in your organization. Have a plan to manage this risk before you jump into attribution. 7

Andrew Olsen, CFRE Group Account Director, Russ Reid

Article courtesy of The NonProfit Times

v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

IN MEMORIUMv v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v

Russ Reid1931-2013

Russ Reid, a marketer who determined that nonprofit organizations could benefit from a modern, professional approach to raising funds, died Saturday, December 7 at his home in Sierra Madre, California. He was 82 years old. Reid started the agency that still bears his name in 1964 to assist nonprofits raise money. That company continues to help nonprofits raise millions of dollars a day, every day.

Fr. Edward J. Cappelletti, SDB1921-2013

Fr. Edward J. Cappelletti, SDB, long-time director of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle, New York, and a pioneer of fundraising through direct mail,

died on Thursday, December 12, at St. John’s Hospital in Yonkers, New York. He was 92 years old and had

been a Salesian for 73 years and a priest for 63 years.

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The Source for everyThing fundraisingLearn more @ www.FundRaisingSuccessmag.com

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eLEARNINGInteractive, educational events for fundraisers both seasoned and new the industry, our webinars and virtual conferences are can’t-miss events! Go here to learn about upcoming webinars www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/webinar and here to learn about our virtual conference www.virtualshow.fundraisingsuccessmag.com

TodAy IN FuNdRAIsINGOriginal content, latest news and informed commentary delivered daily.

FuNdRAIsINGsuCCEssMAG.CoMFundRaising Success’ website is the fundraiser’s complete source for multi-channel strategy and integration techniques.

FuNdRAIsING suCCEss Stay in the know with FundRaising Success magazine, considered by many to be the source of choice in the industry.

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it starts with passion. if your organization is lacking it, it’s time to (re)kindle the flame that will

spark major-donor gifts and engagement.

Major-Gifts Giving

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LIvE EvENTs This year, Engage is going bi-coastal. Join us to learn how to best engage your donors and supporters. With speakers and case-study sessions, you will have the opportunity to get all your questions answered and leave with a ton of newfound knowledge.

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Let’s tell his story.

Together, we can help your donors remember why they give. In good times and bad.

Strategy. Creative. All-media integration. Find out how Russ Reid can help you achieve your fundraising goals. Contact Mark Rhode at 626.463.9540 or at [email protected]


Yes, we have a PAC. Get the Facts.

The Direct Marketing Association’s Political Action Committee (PAC), Direct Voice PAC, is the marketing industry’s leading PAC. Its sole purpose

is to elect candidates for federal office who support policies and legislation that advance and protect responsible data-driven marketing.

Learn how YOU can make a difference at www.directvoicepac.com

BY THE NUMBERS - ANA Nonprofit Federation · 2014-01-07 · with five testing strategies to...

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