Learn how to leverage key metrics at your nonprofit to inform decisions on diversifying acquisition channels, testing new approaches, and assessing the success of sustainer investments

2. NET TO MISSION: USING SUSTAINER
ATTRIBUBTION TO DRIVE FUTURE GROWTH
Jennifer Minogue, ASPCA
Michal Heiplik, WGBH
February 15, 2019

3. 3
WHAT IS SUSTAINER ATTRIBUTION?
Identifying and assigning value to monthly donors
• Map donor paths to becoming a sustainer
• Plan touchpoints necessary to keep them active
• Determine costs and efforts of acquiring and retaining

4. 4
IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINER ATTRIBUTION
To evaluate investments and fundraising tactics
Sustainer revenue received throughout the year is the result of strategic
choices to acquire and retain monthly donors.
Multiple touchpoints from a diversity of channels impact future revenue.
Determining which combinations of fundraising activities yield the best
results is the goal of building an attribution model.

5. 5
FREQUENTLY USED ATTRIBUTION MODELS
Last Interaction: Regardless of prior engagement, the donor’s last gift
channel gets full credit.
First Interaction: The first engagement you can record on the donor’s
path gets full credit.
Linear: All the touchpoints that lead to the conversion are equally
credited.
Time-Decay: Most recent touchpoints receive higher credit than less
recent ones.

6. 6
INCEPTION VS. ATTRIBUTION
Tracking the inception is a critical first step.
The inception channel is the channel from which you acquired the
sustainer. Sustainers can join, rejoin, and rejoin multiple times.
While many investment choices can be improved by knowing the
inception channel, you may also want to include other influences in your
attribution model.

7. 7
OTHER FACTORS
Including attributes without specific costs
Some trackable factors may have an impact on conversion and
retention success but do not have associated costs:
• Payment type
• Survey responses
• Event attendance
• Volunteer history
• Petition sign-ups

8. 8
GRANULARITY AND ATTRIBUTION
Attempting to track costs back to individual donors
Sustainers engage with your organization before and after they join your
monthly giving program. Many of their touchpoints with your brand have
quantifiable costs, such as:
• A portion of a media spend
• The cost per letter mailed (CPLM) for mailed touchpoints
• Match back “organic” online gifts to a mailing or digital expense

9. 9
TAKING THE MACRO PERCEPTIVE
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted;
the trouble is I don't know which half.”
John Wanamaker (1838-1922)
In addition to the direct expenses you can track, other media spends
and branding efforts may impact sustainer acquisition and retention.
For example, you can observe lift from increase spending on DRTV
positively impacting in other channels, like digital.
The challenge is in calculating the indirect cross-channel lift.

10. 10
ASPCA CASE STUDY

11. 11
Mail
DRTV Organic Web
Digital
Telemarketing
Face to Face
ASPCA CASE STUDY – ACQUISITION CHANNELS
Sustainer Acquisition Sources

12. 12
ASPCA CASE STUDY – THE BIG PICTURE
We analyze our investments holistically.
Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
DRTV Web Digital Canvass Phone Mail Total Investment

13. 13
ASPCA CASE STUDY – OPTOMIZE THE BLEND
Total costs to acquire monthly / total monthly joins
Time
Our forecast model combines new and rejoining
sustainers in our total monthly joins.
Including all monthly joins allows us to average CPMD .
We track time to break even from each channel
independently as well as in aggregate per month.
Allows us to see channel specific impact and move spend
around
Revenue
Costs
$
Net

14. 14
ASPCA CASE STUDY – DRILL IN
Examine complimentary channels:
January February March April May June July August September October November December
DRTV Joins Web DRTV Spend

15. 15
ASPCA CASE STUDY – EVOLUTION OF SPEND
Channel investments have changed over the years
64%
30%
6%
2013 Sustainer Investments
DRTV Digital Acquisition
Telemarketing Canvassing
43%
31%
2%
24%
2018 Sustainer Investments
DRTV Digital Acquisition
Telemarketing Canvassing

16. 16
ASPCA CASE STUDY – CHANNEL INVESTMENT
Factors
• Fluctuations in DRTV costs
• Testing digital opportunities
• Scaling new mediums
• Decreased conversion pool
Impact
• Quantity of joins
• Variations in retention
• Demographic of file changes
• Max out prospects

17. 17
ASPCA CASE STUDY – MONTHLY GIVING KPIs
• Time on File
• New vs. Reactivated
• ROI & LTV at 12, 24, 36 months
• Monthly Activation Rates
400K Active Sustainers and Growing

18. 18
ASPCA CASE STUDY – Match Back to Origin
• Inception gift credited to the
Sustainer Acquisition Channel
• Subsequent sustainer revenue,
including recurring payments,
recapture, upgrade and statement
gifts, are entered in database
under sustainer fund code
• Any rejoins thru an Acquisition
Channel credited to that fund
Attribution to Most Recent Pledge

19. 19
ASPCA CASE STUDY – RETENTION PRACTICES
Retaining is not Maintaining
Some donors need an extra “push”
Welcome Thank You Call
Don’t assume channel exclusivity
Consider prior giving channels
Segment on payment type
Conversion vs. extra gift ask
Don’t customize for its own sake
Identify cultivation efforts

20. 20
ASPCA CASE STUDY – RETENTION COSTS
Being an active sustainer is not free.
Remember: Not all costs are financial
Processing and retry fees
Monthly caging expenses for check writers
Statements, premiums, and acknowledgements
Recapture campaigns
Monitoring and reporting services

21. 21
WGBH CASE STUDY

22. 22
WGBH: program focused on monthly giving
• Sustainers are 40% of file
• Acquisition: on-air pledge, canvassing,
organic web and “Passport” (member
video on demand)
• Conversion: telemarketing and email
20% 21%
26%
28%
33%
35%
40%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
WGBH: % Sustainers

23. 23
How important are sustainers to us?
9% 10%
17%
21%
26%
31%
37%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
All PBS stations: Sustainers as % of active file
2012: 60%
2018: 69%
Donor
Retention
Revenue
Retention
2012: 61%
2018: 79%

24. 24
What gets measured gets done…
Metrics that that drive long term ROI
Size of program:
% of sustainers
% by original gift size
% by original channel
Quality of file
Retention
Revenue Retention
% EFT sustainers (by effort/channel)
% upgrading/add gifting

25. 25
Sustainer attrition levels define long term value
Attrition targets reveal acceptable investment

26. 26
Acquisition math informs investment
Year 1 retained revenue and its proportion
* Cost of premium severely impacts NET
Net Cost to Acquire
Average
Gift
Year 1
Retention rate
NET Retained
Revenue after Year 1
Direct mail $60 $30 55% $24
Pledge
non-sustainer
Unknown $170* 17% $29
Pledge Sustainer Unknown $140* 80% $112
Canvass Sustainer $55 $160 85% $136
Digital Unknown $100 25% $25

27. 27
Should we keep sustainers in original source?
Yes, but who cares?
WGBH keeps sustainers in original source (6 year old decision)
Complete elimination of “unsourced recurring” category
Driving channel managers towards the right goals…sustainers
Acceptable for channels to decline in year 1 revenue

28. 28
Diversified fundraising portfolio
On-air fundraising informing future strategy
Broadcast is fast declining (faster than mortality rate)
Most lucrative donors of the past are gone
No longer the largest source of new donors
Strategy shift – focus on long term revenue instead of quick income

29. 29
Diversified fundraising portfolio
On-air fundraising informing future strategy
Average gifts remained largely constant
17% 20% 22%
35%
40% 41%
45%
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Fist Year On-Air Revenue retention

30. 30
Changes in fundraising portfolio
View by original source changes the picture
0%
-7% -5% -6%
-11%
-19% -19%
-28%
-3%
5% 5%
-3% -2%
5% 5%
-30%
-25%
-20%
-15%
-10%
-5%
0%
5%
10%
FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017
Campaign performance Donor performance (sustainers original source)

31. 31
Changes in fundraising portfolio
Understanding ROI changed the strategy
Sustainers

32. 32
Canvass ROI and impact
Heavy investment into long-term growth
Sustainers are key (now 70% of the revenue)
EFTs rule the day
Bonus culture to focused on specific KPIs
Data modeling as key support to overall strategy
Household prediction
Message customization and targeting

33. 33
Canvass ROI and impact
Would you bet $500k and lose $120k in year 1?
5 year cash flow of “canvass-born” donors

34. 34
Canvass ROI and impact
Would you bet $500k and lose $120k in year 1?
10-year ROI for continuously running program

35. 35
Membership video on demand: Passport
Different strategy for different channel
Targeting sustainers at low entry levels
Highly retaining donors
Largest source of new donors (quantity)
Benefit of collected data factored as part of the investment

36. 36
Passport data: additional ROI consideration
Offering customized experiences enhances value of sustainers
Data visualization CRM View

37. 37
Passport data: additional ROI consideration
Offering customized experiences enhances value of sustainers
Drama Interest General Interest

38. 38
Retention needs investment too
EFT sustainers at the top of our pyramid
Retention difference dictates investment
converting a single donor to EFT results in $35 gain
EFT sustainers give more gifts
CC vs EFT (10.5 vs 11.3 gifts per year)
Best practices in recapture
87%
93%
CC EFT
First year retention (Sustainers)

39. Q & A