donor journeys

25th March 2013

Donor journeys and the

Running a major appeal gives lots of direct marketing opportunities, but what happens with the new donors once the appeal has finished?

This session will look at the donor journeys that

RLSB put in place after their Little Heroes Nursery appeal finished in October 2012.

With donors recruited via SMS and direct mail,

we'll look at how we kept in touch and put in place a communication strategy that has massively increased lifetime value compared to previous recruitment activity.

What are donor journeys? Why are donor journeys important? Key principles of good donor journeys The Little Heroes campaign

What are donor journeys?

A series of donor communications that are designed to form a coherent and logical progression.

Donor journeys should inspire and emotionally connect with donors so that donor loyalty, commitment and long term value is increased.

Your task

Turn to the person next to you. Describe a donor recruitment campaign or product that you currently use. What is your current communications plan for these donors? At the end of the session, I will give you some more time to chat about how you can improve the donor journey for his campaign or product.

Why are donor journeys important?

Why are donor journeys important?

Bluefrog video

Source: www.Bloomerang.co

53% of donors stop giving due to lack of communication or poor service.

Every donor you move from low to high commitment is worth an extra £50 per year over a three year period

Source: Donor Voice

Key principles of good donor journeys

Key principles:

Make journeys personal and memorable.

No one I know was ever bored into donating...

Image source: http://3oneseven.com/26/superhero-team/

Key principles:

Make the donor a hero.

Establish an emotional connection between the donor and beneficiary.

Key principles:

Listen, engage and involve donors.

Actively seek ways to get

feedback and genuine donor involvement.

Image source: http://www.carolinegardner.com

Key principles:

Reinforce the idea that they are good people and

have made a good decision.

We all love a bit of

flattery!

Cold direct mail donor journey

First gift – thank you letter & invite to open

day

Yes – attend open day

Face to face ask for regular gift

Yes – thank you card & handwritten letter

No – thank you for attending and survey

Survey response – record

preferences/thanks for any donations

Survey non responders – general programme

No – not attend open day

Send letter about open day and survey

Responders – record preferences/thanks for

donations

Non-responders – general programme

Results based on small numbers and so aren’t statistically significant.

Results

Cold Mailing - no welcome process - 15 months later

• 64% of donors have given once • Average income per month, per donor is £1.12 • Average income per month, per active donor is £3.08 • No donors have a regular gift.

Cold Mailing - welcome process - 6 months later

• 70% of donors have given once • Average income per month, per donor is £1.56 • Average income per month, per active donor is £5.29 • 8% of donors have a regular gift • Every donor who visited the nursery has given again

Room for improvement

• Could work harder to capture phone numbers and make better use of the phone.

• Still have 70% who have given only once – need to get this below 50% by end of year.

One –off SMS donations

Panels on trains and poster campaign - £3 donation ask Followed up with an advocate ask Then converted to direct debit

First text – receive a thank you message and link to appeal

website

Advocate call – ask them to spread word

about the appeal

Yes – sent e-mail and relevant info

Update e-mails and reminders

No – thank you for texting in

Sent update texts about appeal

Unable to contact for advocate call

Sent update texts about appeal

End of appeal – advocates thank you

& DD ask

Yes to DD – personalised thank you & invite to visit

nursery

Personalised Christmas card

designed by nursery children

No to DD

Sent regular giving by text ask for Christmas

appeal

Results

• Advocators were 15% more likely to set up a direct debit

• No direct debit attrition after four months

• Had 5% response rate to one off donation requests

• 1.5% converted to regular giving by text

Room for improvement

• Could have done more with the outbound texts – with our limited resources it was hard to keep on top of this.

• Should have called people quicker – ended up having to outsource advocate call.

• Still need to work on maximising value of prospect pool.

Your task – part two

Your task – part two

For the donor recruitment campaign or product that you discussed earlier, think of three things that you could to improve the donor journey and experience.

Conclusion

• Donor journeys are an integral part of your donor recruitment strategy.

• Remember the four key principles.

• Effective donor journeys massively increase the lifetime value of your donor base.

Any questions?

Craig Linton

Director of Fundraising

craig.linton@rlsb.org.uk

@frdetective

0208 808 6115