International Museum Membership Conference. IMMC 2016... · 2016-11-18 · 15 Membership Month...
Transcript of International Museum Membership Conference. IMMC 2016... · 2016-11-18 · 15 Membership Month...
1 Cover Page
International Museum Membership Conference:
Maximizing your Museum’s Online Fundraising Program
Presented November 8, 2016
Avalon Consulting Group, Inc.
All rights reserved, 2016
Avalonconsulting.net
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Here with you today…
David Saunders, Director of Membership
National Museum of the American Indian
John Perell, Director of Direct Response & Shared Services
Friends of the Smithsonian
Elizabeth J. Wilson, Assistant Director of Advancement
National Air and Space Museum
Allison Porter, President
Avalon Consulting Group
(also representing the National Museum of African American
History and Culture)
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In today’s session…
Find out how these sure-fire online
strategies can grow your program’s
revenue and level of engagement.
How to integrate online and direct mail
channels for the maximum effect.
Review actual case studies that cover
creative development, testing, and key
performance metrics.
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8.30%
9.20%
7.80%
8.00%
8.20%
8.40%
8.60%
8.80%
9.00%
9.20%
9.40%
Arts/Culture Industry
Online Revenue Growth
Arts/Culture Industry
Online Giving Trends –
Online Arts and Culture vs. Overall Industry Highlights from Blackbaud’s 2015 Charitable Giving Report
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Individual Giving Trends – The more channels a member
gives in, the higher their retention and income/member.
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
90.0%
$0
$20
$40
$60
$80
$100
DM, TM,Web and
DM andEmail
DM andWeb
Email andWeb
DM and TM DM Only
Income/Member Retention
Chart above represents members who gave at least four gifts.
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Yr 5, $234
$0
$40
$80
$120
$160
$200
$240
$280
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
Direct Mail Joins
FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13
Yr 5, $367
$0$40$80
$120$160$200$240$280$320$360$400
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
Web Joins
Individual Giving Trends – Web joins usually have much
higher member value than direct mail joins.
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Case Studies
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Situational Analysis:
Members and revenue increased dramatically
through the opening of the museum in 2004, and
then experienced a sharp decline.
NMAI has been hard at work to stabilize the
program since this time, with online outreach as
a key part of that strategy.
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As with most organizations, NMAI web joins have notably
higher values than DM joins, but there are very few of them
on file.
$0
$20
$40
$60
$80
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
Direct Mail Joins
FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13
$0
$20
$40
$60
$80
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
Web Joins $70 Avg
Cumulative Member Value Subsequent to Initial Gift by Channel and Join Year
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NMAI web joins have slightly higher retention than direct
mail joins.
23%
21%
15%
13% 11%
24% 23%
18%
16%
13%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
DM Joins Web Joins
Average Cumulative Retention of New Joins Over Five Years
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Successful Strategies Used to
Drive NMAI Online Revenue
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• The inaugural campaign collected 6,376 email
addresses and 9,597 signatures in two days.
• A three-effort follow-up Welcome Series
acquired 8 new members with a $46.88
average gift.
• In addition, 60 people in this group have
joined through DM acquisition efforts, raising
$3,175 (42% of the cost of the petition
implementation).
• While the immediate conversion rate is low,
this effort expanded the pool of leads for
future eAcquisition campaigns
eAcquisition List-Building Efforts: Online Petition Campaign
Focused on Stereotypes
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CALENDAR e-series includes 5 efforts:
1) Help us pick a photo for our calendar cover
(soft ask after voting)
2) Last opportunity to vote on cover
(forward of email #1)
3) Announce the winning image
4) Join/Donate/Renew to receive your
calendar
5) Last chance to reserve your calendar
Campaign has been mailed for 4
years now, raising more revenue
each year.
Multi-effort Calendar Voting Campaign
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Membership Month e-series includes 5
efforts:
1st of the Month – Kick off campaign
highlighting goals and end of month
deadline
Mid-Month – Update on progress,
reminder of deadline
Beginning of Last week of Month –
Increased urgency – close to goal and
impact of support on important work
2nd to Last Day of Month – Campaign
ends tomorrow – reiterate goal and
importance of support
Last Day of Month – Final chance to give
and be a part of Membership Month.
Multi-effort Membership Month
Campaign
Raises more revenue each year!
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Integrated eRenewals
• Copy and art correspond with direct
mail.
• 8 effort series helps drive online gifts
but also serves as a reminder for the
direct mail notices.
• 12% of renewal revenue comes from
online renewals (email and web).
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Situational Analysis:
After years of file and revenue growth, revenue and
file size had been on a slow decline from 2007 until
2014.
To meet higher revenue demands in 2015 and
beyond, the Friends program needed to return to
a revenue and file growth scenario – and online
fundraising needed to be a key part of that
growth.
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Friends program saw more than twice the industry average
growth in online fundraising in 2016
FY15 FY16 % Growth
Total $ $1,619,316 $1,948,851 20%
Total # Gifts 11,703 12,981 11%
Avg. Gift $138 $150 9%
Note: Friends of the Smithsonian online fundraising is managed by their
online strategy and implementation consultant, M+R
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Growth was driven by Email and Web campaigns
FY15 FY16 % Growth
Email-driven $489,279 $641,889 31%
Web-driven $456,283 $636,264 39%
DM/TM-driven $673,754 $670,698 0%
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Successful Strategies Used to
Drive Friends Online Revenue
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eList Building:
History Quiz
Promotion Channels:
3 emails to current
member file
1 email to other SI
units
Social media
promotion
2,580 new names
11,407 quiz takers
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eList Building:
Science Quiz
Promotion Channels:
3 emails to current
member file
1 email to other SI
units
Social media
promotion
2,525 new names
11,310 quiz takers
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eList Building: Wild Wonders Quiz
Co-branded with The
Nature Conservancy
Promotion Channels:
3 emails to
current member
file
The Nature
Conservancy
Other SI units &
Social media
promotion
~10,000 new names
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Email sign-up lightbox #1
404 names
(all new
subscribers)
194,882
unique
visitors
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Email sign-up lightbox #2
704 names
(all new
subscribers)
198,883
unique
visitors
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Search Advertising is a growing source of gifts and revenue
FY15 FY16 % Growth
Ad Spend $26,723 $45,798 71%
# Gifts 364 703 93%
Attributed
Revenue $55,977 $85,152 52%
Avg. Gift $154 $121 -21%
ROAS 2.1 1.9 -10%
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Calendar Year End Campaign
• Promotion Channels:
9 emails
Si.edu banner & lightbox
• $207,782 raised
• 1,229 gifts
• 67% growth YOY
• Highest drivers of revenue:
Email appeals
Si.edu banner & lightbox
Email Renewals
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24 Hour Campaign
• Promotion Channels:
3 emails
• Contrived urgency during a
typically slow month
• $10,585 raised
• 143 gifts
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Fiscal Year End Campaign
• Promotion Channels:
6 emails
Si.edu banner and
lightbox
• $60,446 raised
• 524 gifts
• 20% YOY growth
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Transactional-style Email
in Fiscal Year End Series
Highest response rate and
revenue of the fiscal year end
series
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Quick Donate Button Test
• Control
• Test -- Winner
Response Rates:
Test: 0.082%
Control: 0.070%
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Call to Action above the Masthead Test
• Control
• Test
Response Rates:
✳ Test: 0.04%
✳ Control: 0.04 %
Click Rates:
✳ Test: 0.25%
✳ Control: 0.25 %
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Homepage Test
• Control
• Test
✳ No statistically significant results for overall audience for conversion rate, avg. gift or revenue per recipient
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Donation Form Test
Test to see if more case on
the donate page would
drive higher response.
No statistically
significant difference for
conversion rate, avg. gift
or revenue per visitor
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Situational Analysis:
Program was looking to integrate online best
practices into its strategy.
As an added challenge, the program
experienced a very successful Kickstarter
campaign in Summer 2015 that required rapid
adjustments as response took off.
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Successful Strategies Used to
Drive NASM Online Revenue
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National Air and Space Museum and
Kickstarter: A Campaign to Conserve Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Spacesuit
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What is a Kickstarter Campaign?
Kickstarter is a global fundraising platform that helps bring
creative projects to life.
Project creators set a fundraising goal
Offer rewards for gift amounts ranging from $1 to $10,000
30 day campaign uses video, e-mail, social media platforms, and
media outreach to gain attention
Projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money
Opportunity to reach a new and diverse audience
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The Project: Conservation of the Armstrong Spacesuit
Project aimed to raise funds to conserve, digitize and display
Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit
Project Goal: $500,000
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“Reboot the Suit” Campaign: Advance Planning
Advance Prep Work:
create video messages
announcing and promoting
the campaign
create a schedule for email
and social media messaging
conduct media outreach
Secure matching gifts
create rewards and plan
fulfillment
Planning and implementation require significant staff time and resources!
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“Reboot the Suit” Campaign: Advance Planning
Partners and Collaborators:
Kickstarter
SI Office of Advancement
NASM Board of Directors
Smithsonian Enterprises
SI Digitization Team
Astronauts
Celebrities
NASA
Existing Donors
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“Reboot the Suit” Campaign: Advance Planning
• time messaging as major
milestones are reached
• set new stretch goals
• encouraging participation
if donations are lagging
Need to be nimble once campaign starts to:
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Campaign Launched!
• Original goal to reach $500,000 was achieved in Day 5
• Stretch goal of $700,000 was added in Day 8
• 9,477 responses, almost all new donors to NASM
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Now what?
Work continues once
campaign goal is reached:
Fulfill rewards
Provide regular project
updates
Conserve and digitize the
spacesuit
Convert supporters into on-
going NASM donors…
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Converting Kickstarter Supporters to NASM Membership
Post-campaign engagement
• Kickstarter Outreach
– Several update emails per week during campaign
– Monthly emails after end of campaign
• NASM Outreach
– Donors under $99
– $100+ Donors who were given complementary NASM memberships
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• $100+ contributors
asked for an
additional gift
• $99 and under
asked to join NASM
membership
All contributors sent 3-part
Welcome Series
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Included in direct mail
acquisition
– Received 1 gift of $50
Also included in Membership
Month, Anniversary, and Wall of
Honor e-acquisition campaigns
– Received 60 totaling over $5,000
Under $100 Contributors
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Included in calendar, annual fund,
and wall of honor direct mail and
email appeals
– 13 gifts totaling $2,000
Renewals
– Sending 1st and 4th direct mail notices
– Sending all email notices
$100+ Complimentary Membership Recipients
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Situational Analysis:
NMAAHC, the 19th Smithsonian Museum,
opened on the National Mall on September 24,
2016.
Maintaining a strong and stable base of
membership support beyond 2016 is a
priority for the new museum, and using a
multi-channel strategy is critical to
minimizing the drop-off in revenue and file
size post-opening.
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As with the other Smithsonian programs, NMAAHC’s
web joins have a higher value than direct mail joins
$0$20$40$60$80
$100$120$140$160
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
Direct Mail Joins
FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14
$147 avg. (Year 5)
$0$20$40$60$80
$100$120$140$160
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
Web Joins
Cumulative Member Value Subsequent to Initial Gift ($25 or More) by Channel and Join Year
$205 (Year 5)
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Successful Strategies Used to
Drive NMAAHC Online Revenue
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• Online display ads run in August
on Facebook and various
websites targeting visitors to the
Membership web pages as well
as people in the general DC area
• 1,093 new people were added to
the email list.
To date 60 people have
donated total of $3,475
• 1.4 million ad impressions were
made
• Facebook conversion rates were
above industry standard.
• Paid advertisements had more
reach than organic posts
eAcquisition List-Building:
Online Advertising Campaign
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:
eAcquisition List-Building:
ePetition Sites
• Online petitions were run on
Change.org and Care2 petition
sites on:
Black History Month
50th Anniversary of the
March on Selma
50th Anniversary of the
signing of the Voting Rights
Act.
• 49,524 new emails added
• 259 donors contributing $18,226
in less than one year
• Also added to direct mail
acquisition resulting in additional
$2,890 from 62 new members
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:
Interactive Welcome eSeries engages prospects
within three weeks of securing an eMail address
A 3-effort Welcome Series is sent to
new member prospects, including
outside list building efforts and
organically acquired eSubscribers.
• Effort #1: sent as an auto-
response to eSubscribers,
including a video
• Effort #2: sent one week later,
and includes a survey
• Effort #3: sent two weeks later,
as an Acquisition effort
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:
eRenewal Series Drives 12% of Yearly Renewal Revenue
6 effort series helps
drive online gifts but
also serves as a
reminder for the direct
mail notices.
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• Goal of 100 new members by
June 30, but surpassed goal
after the third email new goal of 225 was set for the
remaining emails
• Campaign acquired 382 new
members
• Also sent to current members
asking for additional gift
• Raised almost $150,000
Membership Month
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:
eCultivation efforts serve as
engagement tools throughout the year
• THANKSGIVING: an e-card was sent on day
before Thanksgiving wishing people a happy
holiday.
• BIRTHDAY: an email was sent on December
16th, marking the anniversary of legislation
creating the Museum, including a soft ask in the
callout, raising $2,385.
• BESSIE COLEMAN: an email on the first
African American female pilot was sent during
Women’s History Month in March, raising
$3,015.
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In Conclusion…
Members who give online are very valuable – make sure you’re maximizing
your online opportunities!
Consider new ways to grow your online list:
Petitions
Homepage overlays
Crowdfunding
Once you have an email address, engage the warm prospect through a
welcome series
Once they join, continue to engage through a variety of online and offline
campaigns with the right mix of solicitations and cultivation
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Questions?
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Maximizing Your Museum’s Online Fundraising Program
David Saunders Director of Membership
National Museum of the American
Indian
202-633-6602
Allison Porter President
Avalon Consulting Group
202.429.6080 x 102
John Perell Director of Direct Response &
Shared Services
Friends of the Smithsonian
202-633-2027
Elizabeth J. Wilson Assistant Director of Office of
Advancement
National Air and Space Museum
202-633-2606