making advocacy pay: understanding the link between activism & giving

Making Advocacy Pay

Understanding the Link Between Activism and Giving

Presented by: Vinay Bhagat, Convio Yvonne Garrett, OMP

Randy Paynter, Care2.com Ryann Miller, Care2.com

March 24, 2011

For Audio Call: 1-408-792-6300 Meeting Number: 668 671 770

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For Audio Call: 1-408-792-6300 Meeting Number: 668 671 770

Agenda

•  What is online advocacy? •  What does advocacy have to do with

fundraising? •  How does it work? •  Making the economic case.

What is online advocacy?

Advocacy – The active support of an idea or cause etc.; especially the act of pleading or arguing for something

 Defini'on from: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn 

What does advocacy have to do with fundraising?

Advocacy starts the conversation.

NRDC Activist Conversion

Finding New Supporters

•  73,000 new wolf activists through paid and organic sources

•  $40,000 spent on paid sources

One Year Later…

•  31,000 took another action

•  700 converted to donors online

•  1,325 converted to donors via mail

•  Break even – 15 months

Advocacy builds relationships.

Actions Increased Donor Value

Advocacy keeps donors engaged.

Analysis of Advocacy’s Impact on Fundraising

Activists: 2+ actions Sept – Nov = 4x more likely to give at year end

Emails Action TakersOnline

ConversionOffline

Conversion UnsubsMoved into 2+, Highly Responsive: 6,172 9.0% 1.0% 0.2% 1.9%Stayed in L: 88,293 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 2.0%

Prior 2+ Action Takers: 66,239 12.2% 1.0% 0.3% 1.9%

Moved into L: 30,817 2.3% 0.4% 0.1% 3.7%

Donors: 2+ actions Sept – Nov = 26% more income at year end

Emails Action TakersOnline

ConversionOffline

Conversion UnsubsMoved into 2+, Highly Responsive: 6,172 9.0% 1.0% 0.2% 1.9%Stayed in L: 88,293 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 2.0%

Prior 2+ Action Takers: 66,239 12.2% 1.0% 0.3% 1.9%

Moved into L: 30,817 2.3% 0.4% 0.1% 3.7%

How Does it Work?

Activist Relationship Management

Recruit Engage Convert

Deepen

Recruit •  Be thoughtful about form of ask

–  Pledge vs. contact your legislator –  Constituent relevance

•  Multiple venues in addition to your website –  Paid online (e.g. Care2) –  Social media –  In the field

•  Strong user experience

•  Viral marketing including social media

Engage •  Acknowledge returning Web visitors

•  Send tailored updates/ stories

•  Related appeals

•  Multi-channel appeals - email, text, social

•  Rewards/ incentives

Convert •  Campaign specific donation forms

•  Email welcome/ conversion series

•  Follow up in timely fashion with mail, TM

•  Apply filters to prioritize investment

•  Select appeals based on advocacy actions

Website Activist to Donor Conversion

Food for Thought

•  Major donors frequently active

•  It’s increasingly critical to track messaging intensity/congruency across programs and channels

Making the Economic Case

Online Advocacy Increases Dona2ons 

No Online Ac2on  Took Ac2on Online 

.07% 

.47% 

Source: : Charitable Memberships, Volunteering and Discounts: Evidence from a Large‐Scale Online Field Experiment. May 2009, Na2onal Bureau of Economic Research, A. Lange, A. Stocking. Sample size =  > 700,000 subjects. 

How do you measure economic value?

•  Time to pay back investment •  Cost per donor •  Cost per dollar raised •  Return on Investment

Online Recruitment: It’s a Relationship

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50

100

150

200

250

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Cumulative Donation Income (over 36 months) 

Source: M&R Strategic Services

Return on Investment = Lifetime Value!

* * Source: 2010 Convio Online Benchmark Study of roughly 300 nonprofits. Email addresses are “usable” only (approx 50% of total addresses) Years 2 through 5 assume 50% per year drop off in donations.

Annual Donations

Human & Social

Services

Environ-ment & Wildlife

Public Affairs

Animal Welfare ALL

Year 1* $17.18 $4.81 $3.36 $15.91 $11.68

Year 2 $8.59 $2.41 $1.68 $7.96 $5.84

Year 3 $4.30 $1.20 $0.84 $3.98 $2.92

Year 4 $2.15 $0.60 $0.42 $1.99 $1.46

Year 5 $1.07 $0.30 $0.21 $0.99 $0.73

Avg Lifetime Value Per Email $33.29 $9.32 $6.51 $30.83 $22.63

Value of an Email Address

Online Recruitment: Multi-Channel Returns

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Cumulative Donation Income

Online Direct Mail Telemarketing

Source: M+R Strategic Services

Fully Load Your Expenses •  Direct Expenses

–  Campaign costs (fixed and variable) –  Search Engine Marketing (SEM) –  Email appends –  etc.

•  Indirect Expenses –  Consultants (fixed and variable) –  Social Media Outreach (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) –  etc.

The True “Cost per Lead” If I spent $1,000 to acquire 1,000 new leads, I spent $1.00 per lead. Great price! But what if… •  100 leads have bad addresses; and 200 leads unsubscribe within first 3 mo. •  Now I’ve only got 700 leads, so the real cost per lead rises to 1,000/700 = $1.42 And what if… •  Only 30% are opening my message. •  Now I’ve got only 210 active leads, and the real cost per lead is 1,000/210 = $4.76 And what if… •  Only 10% of these people click through and only 10% of those donate? •  Then I paid $1,000 to buy two (2) donors, and my true cost (“Investment”) was $500

per donor.

Quality Matters!

List Growth: Speed vs. Value

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Low Quality

High Quality

Rapid Growth (>10k/month)

Targeted List Swaps

Niche site e.g. Democrats.com

Google Adwords

Collecting Opt-ins on your site

Banner Advertising

Social Networks Canvassing

Name Acquisition Large, General Audience

List Append

Paid Acquisition from targeted audiences

Viral Campaigns

Slow Growth (<1k/month)

Calculate the Value of your Leads

SocialNetworkCalculator.com

Ryann Miller Director, Nonprofit Services 416-651-9098 ryannm@care2team.com

Randy Paynter CEO & Founder, Care2 randy@care2team.com

Yvonne Garrett Partner, OMP ygarrett@OMPDirect.com

Vinay Bhagat Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Convio vinay@convio.com