1

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

Introduction

Why Digital Fundraising is Changing the Way We Acquire and Upgrade Donors

How to Create a Powerful Digital Fundraising Campaign

The “Secret” to Digital Fundraising Success

The ROI of Digital Fundraising ― Donors, Dollars, and Data

Conclusion

Next Steps

About the Author

Additional Resources

3

4

6

10

12

15

16

17

18

3

I N T R O D U C T I O N

There has always been a need for nonprofit organizations to acquire new donors and find ways to upgrade existing donors to give more. However, the fundraising landscape has changed significantly over the past decade. We live in a world that’s noisier than ever. Earning the attention and interest of existing and potential donors is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge for many nonprofits.

Despite the challenges, the growing shift towards digital provides nonprofit organizations with new opportunities to achieve their fundraising goals. In fact, digital fundraising campaigns have proven to be more effective than traditional campaigns for many nonprofits.

A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Fundraising While most nonprofit organizations have recognized that engaging their audience through digital channels is no longer optional, few have figured out a way to leverage them to make a significant impact in their overall fundraising efforts.

That is the purpose of this paper.

In the next few pages, we’ll unpack why digital fundraising has changed the way many nonprofits are acquiring and upgrading donors. We’ll also dive into the five steps for developing an effective campaign and share the secret to achieving success. Finally, we’ll unpack the benefits that digital fundraising offers nonprofits that are willing to invest in it as a way to acquire and upgrade donors.

If you’ve been intrigued by the idea of digital fundraising but aren’t sure where to start, this resource will guide you through everything you need to know in order to effectively increase donors and dollars in today’s changing landscape of fundraising.

Digital fundraising campaigns are most effective when they accomplish two goals:

•Educate participants about a nonprofit’s mission through a compelling case for support.

•Entertain participants with an experience that makes them want to engage and share with others.

Whether you’re looking to grow the number of donors in your file or increase the contributions of current donors, your digital fundraising campaign should always be based on the idea of educating and entertaining your audience in a way that inspires them to take action.

4

W H Y D I G I TA L F U N D R A I S I N G I S C H A N G I N G T H E W AY W E A C Q U I R E A N D U P G R A D E D O N O R S

Digital fundraising is not just a fad. In fact, it’s completely changing the way many of today’s nonprofit organizations are acquiring and upgrading donors.

If you’ve ever played a game on Facebook or taken a quiz on websites like Buzzfeed, you know how addicting digital campaigns can be. But why is it such an effective way for nonprofits to engage potential and existing donors?

Here’s the underlying principle…

When it comes to inspiring potential donors to act and move donors up the pyramid, responses are often driven by catalytic events. These events are designed to purposefully drive constituents towards a common goal by capturing their attention and activating them through personal, compelling interactions.

Digital fundraising campaigns have become an innovative way for nonprofit organizations to create these type of catalytic events as a way to engage donors in the 21stcentury. While increasing awareness and creating a “viral” movement might be part of digital fundraising, the ultimate goal is to intentionally engage your audience in a way that enables you to overcome the fundraising challenges you are trying to solve.

Here are three things nonprofit organizations that have made the decision to invest in digital fundraising have learned:

Reason #1: Digital fundraising provides nonprofits with an opportunity to engage donors in a way that’s both educational and entertaining.

Whether it’s an interactive quiz or online competition, digital fundraising campaigns provide a fun way to unpack a nonprofit’s case for support and help prospective donors learn about facets of the organization they may not have been aware of previously. When you combine these various engagement opportunities, it creates a personal experience for every prospective donor. This has allowed nonprofits to create a unique donor-centric experience for each donor in ways that aren’t possible through traditional acquisition strategies.

Digital fundraising is not just a fad. In fact, it’s completely changing the way many of today’s nonprofit organizations are acquiring and upgrading donors.

5

Reason #2: Digital fundraising creates an opportunity to develop a coordinated communications strategy that engages donors through their native consumption habits.

Most nonprofits realize the importance of using multiple communication channels (i.e. direct mail, online, mobile, social media, SEM, phone, airwaves, etc.) to engage today’s donors. However, the challenge is finding a way to coordinate each individual channel and drive donors to action.

Until now, many nonprofit organizations have leveraged cross-channel methods to drive donors from one communication channel to the next. For example, non-profits will run a direct mail campaign that leads donors to give online. Multi-channel methods that send one specific message or call-to-action through multiple channels have also become a popular approach.

However, the best digital fundraising campaigns are based on an omni-channel approach that strategically coordinates each channel to engage donors in a way that creates one single experience.

Digital fundraising campaigns are also becoming a more effective way to engage older constituents. While many people might believe that digital fundraising campaigns are only effective for engaging younger audiences, the truth is that every generation of donors is active and involved online. According to a 2013 Pew Research study, 77 percent of Baby Boomers are active online. This is the generation that contributes nearly half of all giving, according to a Blackbaud study.

Reason #3: Digital fundraising allows for a deeper engagement with the nonprofit, driving donor behavior beyond a single campaign.

Finally, digital fundraising allows nonprofits to continue engaging donors throughout the stewardship process in ways other strategies cannot. Once one campaign is complete, nonprofits can leverage new campaigns to move donors up the pyramid. For example, one campaign might exist to move newly-acquired donors towards becoming sustaining givers. Another might enable your cause to engage active donors who have the capacity to give to a higher level.

The best digital fundraising campaigns are based on an omni-channel approach that strategically coordinates each channel to engage donors in a way that creates one single experience.

6

H O W T O C R E AT E A P O W E R F U L D I G I TA L F U N D R A I S I N G C A M PA I G N

Now that you understand why digital fundraising campaigns are changing the way nonprofits acquire and upgrade donors, it’s time to move to “how.” Whether it’s a social game or online quiz, digital fundraising campaigns provide nonprofits with an innovative opportunity to engage donors in unique ways.

If you want to successfully acquire or upgrade today’s donors through a digital campaign, here are five steps to effectively executing an effective experience.

Step 1: Plan Strategically for Maximum Impact

An online campaign can be an effective way to bring new names onto the file and involve existing constituents with the brand. However, thinking strategically through the timing of your campaign is critical. Any digital acquisition campaign should be integrated into your nonprofit’s overall fundraising rhythm. If you’re thinking about engaging potential donors through an digital experience for a year-end or another major fundraising campaign, you should consider the amount of time it typically takes to cultivate those new relationships. If you want to maximize the results from your digital strategy, think about how you can leverage it to achieve a greater response for your future fundraising efforts.

Step 2: Set Quantifiable Goals

Deciding to engage donors through a social game or quiz because it’s trendy is a bad strategy. Every digital campaign should exist to solve a fundraising problem (e.g. slow acquisition, a lack of digital engagement, or poor donor understanding of the brand). Without taking the time to think through the problem you’re trying to solve, your nonprofit has the potential to waste a lot of time, energy, and effort.

Setting clearly-defined, quantifiable goals beforehand will help ensure the campaign features help to solve a tangible problem your nonprofit is facing. Digital fundraising can be a valuable way to build a healthier and more sustainable funding model, but only if you know why you’re using it.

Deciding to engage donors through a social game or quiz because it’s trendy is a bad strategy. Every digital campaign should exist to solve a fundraising problem.

7

Step 3: Maximize Opportunities to Develop a Pre-Launch Buzz

The weeks before the campaign begins are an important time to raise awareness and encourage signups. A digital fundraising campaign isn’t effective when no one knows it exists.

When it comes to generating awareness about your online campaign, here are a few common strategies:

● Personal URL postcards. Sending prospects a postcard that includes a personal URL is a great way to engage donors who prefer direct mail. It’s also an opportunity to capture valuable information and data for donor stewardship.

● Promotional emails. Because of the digital nature of online campaigns, promotional emails are a natural opportunity to create awareness and excitement about your upcoming campaign.

● Partnerships. Banners, emails, blog posts, and Facebook posts by partner organizations can be another valuable way to spread the word. Finding an organization that can help spread the word about your digital campaign can be a great way to engage thousands of new potential donors.

● Social media. Because of the viral nature of the various digital fundraising, tools like Facebook and Twitter can provide your current donors with an opportunity to invite others in their sphere of influence leading up to the campaign.

Step 4: Design an Engaging Experience

As the famous advertising executive David Ogilvy once said, “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.”

If you truly want to leverage a digital campaign as a way to acquire or upgrade donors, it needs to be appealing. When it comes to developing a successful online campaign, here are two things you need to remember in order to maximize your opportunity for success.

● Provide Engaging Content. Have fun. Design something you would actually want to play and share with your friends. Look for ways to connect your game to your organization’s mission. Whether you’re developing a social gaming campaign or a social quiz, ask yourself, “What would motivate and inspire me to participate if I knew nothing about your organization or case for support?

8

● Make it Easy - But Not Too Easy. Most people who engage through a social game or online quiz participate during “in between” moments, so your campaign needs to be simple enough to be performed in a few minutes. If it is too difficult or time-consuming, people will become frustrated and opt out.

However, if it is too easy, participants will quickly lose interest. For example, if you’re developing a social game, have participants answer questions that can be found by exploring a specific webpage or after watching a brief video. Finally, make sure the rules for your campaign are clear and each activity is relevant to the brand.

Step 5: Leverage the Native Benefits of the Internet

The Internet can turn a single campaign into a “viral” sensation in ways that other fundraising strategies cannot. In order for your digital fundraising campaign to truly take off, you need to make sure your campaign is built to leverage the native “viral” benefits the Internet provides.

● Make it Social. Integrate social sharing throughout the experience and encourage participants to share the campaign with their spheres of influence. The process should be simple. Donors should have the opportunities to send emails and share through social media within the experience. Encouraging donors to recruit friends is a valuable way to expand the influence. To be an effective acquisition tool, the digital campaign must reward both sharing and recruiting.

Providing incentives for your audience to participate and share is a key component in the overall marketing effectiveness of any social campaign.

Whenever you’re developing a digital fundraising campaign, it’s important to remember Mechlab’s formula for online marketing effectiveness:

Online Marketing Effectiveness = (Offer + Incentive) – (Friction + Anxiety)

You need to incentivize people to not only engage with your game or quiz, but also share it with their social networks. This also means making it easy to share. The “viral” effect of your campaign is directly proportional to the incentive you offer and how easy it is for participants to share. Social recognition is an obvious incentive, but the best strategy is to offer something your participants truly value (i.e trips, VIP access, dinner with the leader of your organization, etc.).

The “viral” effect of your campaign is directly proportional to the incentive you offer and how easy it is for participants to share.

9

Another social incentive, especially for a social gaming campaign, is competition among friends. For example, a leaderboard showing the player’s position within their own social group of fellow players provides a more meaningful connection than a generic leaderboard of strangers. Any action your participants take should be rewarded with some sort of incentive.

● Leverage Multi-Channel Communication Early and Often. Passive landing pages and daily emails are a good start, but incorporating the campaign’s messaging into social media, texting, and other communication channels provides continual reinforcement. Don’t rely on one communication channel to motivate a prospective donor to participate.

From acquiring new prospects to upgrading current donors, digital fundraising has become a valuable solution for nonprofits looking to engage today’s donors in more personal and meaningful ways.

10

T H E “ S E C R E T ” T O D I G I TA L F U N D R A I S I N G S U C C E S S

For many nonprofits, digital fundraising is an innovative way to create a catalytic event to drive future donor behavior. A social game or online quiz can be hugely successful in terms of acquiring and upgrading donors during the campaign.

However, the real secret to success is having a premeditated follow-up strategy to create a long-term impact for your fundraising efforts.Without the proper follow-up strategy to translate the new interest and names into increased donor support, the impact of your digital fundraising campaign can only go so far.

How to Maximize a Digital Fundraising Campaign Through Strategic Follow Up

If you want your experience to create a long-term impact for your fundraising efforts, here are five things you need to remember when the campaign comes to a close.

1. The End of a Campaign is the Beginning of Cultivation. The first few post-campaign interactions should serve as a bridge between the experience itself and ongoing cultivation. Send an immediate thank you to any donors who gave during the campaign. If you’re running a social gaming campaign, conducting a survey is a great and subtle way to show respect and appreciation while garnering feedback for future campaigns. Both pieces should reiterate the nonprofit’s case for support in a clear and concise way.

2. Optimize Behavioral Data for Your Donor Stewardship Strategy. When viewed as an integrated part of the larger fundraising plan, digital campaigns can become an excellent way to gather behavioral data about your donors. How your organization decides to leverage that data is what makes the difference when it comes to moving them through the process.

Rather than simply adding their names into a generic mail stream, here are a few ways you can optimize the engagement data you collect from participants for ongoing stewardship:

The real secret to success is having a premeditated follow-up strategy to create a long-term impact for your fundraising efforts.

11

• New names should receive a follow up engagement/welcome series specifically recognizing their participation in the campaign. The primary goal is to secure a first gift.

• New donors (those who gave their first gift during a campaign) should receive an engagement series recognizing and appreciating their decision to give. The primary goal is to secure a second gift.

• Re-engaged lapsed donors should receive a similar series expressing appreciation if they chose to renew their support. The primary goal is to transition them into a consistent giver.

• Active donors with a record of past giving (three or more times in the past year) should receive an engagement series showing appreciation for their faithfulness. The primary goal is to secure sustaining giving, or auto-giving.

3. Leverage Engagement to Prioritize and Identify Opportunities to Upgrade Donors. Digital fundraising campaigns are an incredibly effective way to prioritize the donors in your file. Involvement indicates engagement. If a donor is extremely engaged in a campaign, you now have some behavioral indicators of interest to coincide with the giving data (recency, frequency, monetary value) and marketplace data (wealth and demographic data) you have. Leveraging observational and engagement data acquired through your campaign is an incredible opportunity to augment mid and major donor reports and further prioritize your outreach efforts.

In order to truly leverage your digital campaign as a way to upgrade donors, you need to realize that turning that engagement into an opportunity will require different areas of your development team to work together as mid and major donors engage in the campaign. For example, your mid and major donor officers should be looking for participants with a high wealth score and higher income score. Even if a prospect hasn’t given a major gift, their interaction with the game can indicate a level of engagement you can leverage to upgrade their giving.

4. Develop a Long-Term Strategy for Engaging Participants. While a digital fundraising campaign can provide a valuable opportunity to engage prospective donors in new ways, the real value is experienced in their long-term commitment to your organization. When it comes to the long-term benefits of the engagement created by digital campaigns, both the short-term and long-term benefits speak for themselves.

12

T H E B E N E F I T S O F D I G I TA L F U N D R A I S I N G — D O N O R S , D O L L A R S , A N D D ATA

There’s no denying the fact that digital fundraising has become a hot topic for many nonprofit organizations, especially with the recent success of other viral campaigns. Awareness and engagement are common byproducts of digital fundraising campaigns, but how do they impact your organization’s overall mission?

Here are a few of the immediate benefits your organization can experience by investing in a digital fundraising campaign.

Short-Term Benefits of Digital Fundraising Campaigns

1. They offer a quicker return on investment than offline acquisition and upgrade campaigns. It can take three to five years for nonprofits to see a return on investment from a traditional offline acquisition or upgrade campaign. From our experience, most organizations that invest in a digital fundraising campaign experience a return on their investment within 30 days of one-day digital blitz campaigns and 90 to 120 days for larger scale campaigns.

2. They create a cost-effective way to acquire new prospects and cultivate them into donors. Digital fundraising campaigns are an extremely effective way to reactivate and upgrade existing donors. From our experience, the contributions made by reactivated or upgraded donors often help offset the cost of the initial investment to run the campaign. In turn, digital fundraising campaigns can be one of the most effective ways for nonprofit organizations to acquire new names because the investment can be covered by the contributions from current donors in your file.

However, acquiring new names for “free” isn’t the only benefit. They also provide an opportunity to cultivate your new prospects into donors. By following your campaign with an ongoing digital welcome series experience, you can naturally engage potential donors, continue to educate them about your organization, and guide them towards making their first gift.

From our experience, the contributions made by reactivated or upgraded donors often help offset the cost of the initial investment to run the campaign.

13

3. They provide natural and easy ways for participants, donors, and amplifiers to engage others. Digital campaigns have the potential to go viral in ways that offline campaigns cannot. According to a 2012 study conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, nearly half of the American population has learned about a cause or nonprofit through social media or online channel.The social nature of digital fundraising campaigns creates viral opportunities in ways that traditional offline acquisition campaigns cannot.

Long-Term Benefits of Digital Fundraising Campaigns

In addition to being a more cost-effective and viral opportunity to engage donors, digital fundraising campaigns also offer a distinctive set of long-term benefits.

1. They allow your organization to engage and cultivate the next generation of major donors earlier.

Finding a way to engage and cultivate Millennials is top-of-mind for many nonprofits today, at least those who are thinking about developing a long-term impact. Digital fundraising campaigns provide the opportunity to start building that relationship earlier through a channel where they are actively involved.

2. They create new opportunities to collect factual data that inform future engagements. Gathering factual data is an important part of any digital fundraising strategy, but what you do with that data is often more important. Here are a few ways digital fundraising campaigns allow nonprofits to collect factual data as a way to improve their future fundraising efforts:

• Collecting phone numbers through the campaign greatly increases the likelihood of setting a face-to-face appointment with mid or major potential donors.

• Because Boomers and Seniors have a very different relationship to online versus offline giving than Gen X and Gen Y, gathering age data enables you to develop future communications tailored to the persona of each donor profile.

Ultimately, digital fundraising campaigns allow you to augment an abundance of factual data (giving and marketplace analysis) to improve the way you communicate with your donors.

14

3. They provide valuable behavioral data that enables you to further prioritize your donor file and increase your ability to upgrade those donors.

While factual data gathered during the campaign is precious, digital campaigns provide an opportunity for you to collect an even more valuable source of data — observational insights. For example, at the end of your campaign, your organization has the ability to define which branch of your nonprofit’s mission is most appealing to a donor, their interest and involvement with your cause, and more based on how they interacted and engaged with the campaign.

By combining this behavioral information with the giving and marketplace data mentioned earlier, you can effectively prioritize donors based on their interest and engagement and increase. It also increases your ability to upgrade donors through more informative and intentional conversation with each individual donor as you continue to engage them through both offline and online communications.

Digital campaigns provide an opportunity for you to collect an even more valuable source of data — observational insights.

15

C O N C L U S I O N

Digital fundraising has become one of the hottest topics among nonprofit leaders and fundraising professionals. But it’s more than a fad. Online campaigns have proven to be a valuable opportunity for nonprofit organizations looking to engage potential and current donors in the 21st century.

The key to acquiring and upgrading donors online is simple: create an educational and entertaining way to inspire your audience to take action.

However, your nonprofit shouldn’t launch a digital campaign simply because it’s the trendy thing to do. You should have an intentional strategy for planning your campaign, developing a pre-launch buzz, and leveraging the native benefits of the Internet to maximize the impact.

The campaign itself is just half of the formula for a meaningful digital fundraising strategy. The real “secret” to an effective digital fundraising campaign is what you do next.

If you want to experience the benefits that a digital fundraising campaign can provide, you need to think through your campaign from beginning to end:

• What is your organization currently doing to acquire and upgrade new donors? Are your current strategies producing the results you want?

• What fundraising problem are you trying to solve through a digital campaign? Are you using it as a way to support your donor pipeline or generate short-term revenue?

• How does it tie into your overall fundraising strategy? • How can you connect your case for support to an entertaining experience that people want to join and share?• What is your strategy following the campaign to steward new names and current donors into deeper levels of engagement to

your cause?

Digital fundraising isn’t just about “going viral.” Whether it’s an interactive social game or engaging social quiz, digital fundraising is about creating an engaging experience that allows you to build stronger relationships with current donors, add thousands of new potential donors to your file, and overcome your most significant fundraising challenges.

The campaign itself is just half of the formula for a meaningful digital fundraising strategy. The real “secret” to an effective digital fundraising campaign is what you do next.

16

C O N N E C T W I T H P U R S U A N T

Check out our entire list of fundraising resources for more content papers, fundraising tools, and webinars.

Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Subscribe to The Digital Drip, our daily blog featuring valuable insights and best practices around today’s most important fundraising topics.

Call us at 214.866.7700.

Contact us to discuss your organization’s fundraising needs.

17

A B O U T T H E A U T H O R

With leadership experience spanning over two decades, Rebecca Gregory Segovia has a strong vision and passion to help nonprofits reach donors and raise dollars to further their mission. Currently, Rebecca serves as executive vice president of client strategy at Pursuant. Her strength is to come alongside nonprofit organizations regardless of size or tenure and help them achieve their long-term vision and goals. Her specialties include integrated marketing, direct response fundraising, and leveraging technology to achieve results. You can connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn or Twitter (@GoConnectServe).

18

R E C O M M E N D E D R E S O U R C E S

19

R E C O M M E N D E D R E S O U R C E S

20

R E C O M M E N D E D R E S O U R C E S

21