2. National 4-H Council
• Ashley Lusk, Manager of Marketing and
Communication
• Donna Arriaga, Manager of Online and
Mobile Fundraising
Got Q&A?
Tweet us using the hashtag #4HMCON
4. Imagine what we can
do if we connect 60
million 4-H alumni to
our movement?
5. Alumni State of Affairs
National
• No national program
• Opt-in for quarterly newsletter
• Receive 2-3 donation appeals annually
State/County
• Various programs and incentives by state
• Appeals often focus on estate planning
6. Step 1: Recognize
• We began our first directed approach to
engage alumni: 4-H Alumni Month
• Honored successful alumni as part of our
annual Legacy Awards Gala
• Corporate Volunteer Opportunities
8. Step 1: Recognize
• We began our first directed approach to
engage alumni: 4-H Alumni Month
• Honored successful alumni as part of our
annual Legacy Awards Gala
• Corporate Volunteer Opportunities
9. Step 2: Personalize
• We added a self-
selecting option to allow
users to designate
themselves as alumni
when signing up for more
information.
• Placed emphasis on
segmenting audience
and creating national
registry of alumni
10. Step 3: Perspective
Partnership with Achieve
• Focus groups of young
alumni
• Testing new donation
appeals
• Grow email house file
through targeted
campaign
11. Millennial Alumni Focus Groups
Met with three focus groups:
Young adults aged 18-35
Group size: 5-25
Past participant in the 4-H program
Met at State or County Fairs and at
4-H State Congress
12. Donation
• They don’t have expendable cash
• They want micro-giving opportunities—the ability to
give in small denominations
• They are looking to give to specific, tangible causes
13. Communication
&
Community
• They are interested in
• Facebook and Twitter
ways to stay local
and email are preferred
to direct mail • Want to serve as
ambassadors for the
• They want visually
mission
stimulating content that
is both personalized and • Want to meet and
geographically specific network with other young
alumni
14. 4-H Focus Groups
4-H alumni have a strong loyalty
to our brand.
However, they don't understand
what it means to be a 4-H alum.
They want to know the benefits
and opportunities of participating.
15. Engagement: Welcome Series
Three-Part Welcome Series
1. Thanks for Joining the Community!
• Content: Intro and welcome into the alumni community.
• Call to Action (cta): Soft cta with Twitter and Facebook icons/links in
email body.
2. iPad Winner Announcements
• Content: iPad winners, alumni spotlight, poll.
• Call to Action: Active cta with a poll asking alum how they would
like to get involved.
3. Step Up & Share Your Talents
• Intertwined Content & Call to Action: All content focused on driving
the cta. Strong cta asking alumni to respond to the following
question: ―What talent or skill would you share with the 4-H
Community?‖
16. Engagement: Fundraising Appeals
Fundraising Appeal
• Overview
– The alumni welcome series wrapped up just as the end of year (EOY)
fundraising campaign was about to kick off.
– Council’s 2011 EOY email campaign consisted of 3 appeal messages:
2 leading hard asks and a closing ask with end of year urgency.
• New Alumni + EOY Fundraising
New alumni were…
– Suppressed from the first appeal message.
– Included in EOY appeals 2 & 3
Appeals contained…
– Alumni-targeted messaging
– A/B subject line testing to explore message efficacy
17. Engagement: Fundraising Appeals
ALUMNI RESULTS GENERAL AUDIENCE
• EOY Message 2 • EOY Message 1
– Open Rate: 21.02% – Open Rate: 12.57%
– Clickthrough Rate: 0.33% – Clickthrough Rate: 0.54%
• EOY Message 3 • EOY Message 2
– Open Rate: 18.31% – Open Rate: 10.45%
– Clickthrough Rate: 0.41% – Clickthrough Rate: 0.29%
• EOY Message 3
– Open Rate: 13.16%
– Clickthrough Rate: 0.4%
NPO Benchmark Averages for Fundraising Messages
Open rate: 12%
Clickthrough rate: 0.5%
Source: NTEN and M+R, 2012 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study
18. 4-H Alumni Community
• Two channels:
– Facebook
– Postcard
• 4-H Alumni Month
• iPad incentive
• Total Alumni
Acquisitions: 2,592
22. Onboarding
• Purpose
– Communicate with and cultivate newly opted-in alumni through frequent,
targeted, interactive communications designed to usher them up an
engagement ladder.
• Approach
– Re-setting communication channels with an onboarding/re-entry email
series, targeting alumni.
– Aligning social media and email editorial calendars.
– Leveraging email as a starting point for conversations as well as an
aggregator for the latest news across 4-H online channels.
• Each message contains…
– One core message.
– One strong call to action aimed at driving continued engagement on
social media channels.
23. Lessons
Challenges Opportunities
• States often don't have • National alumni database
resources to create a • Content pulled from local
sustainable alumni programs
program • Giving opportunities at
• However, alumni are the local level
most interested in local
participation
24. 4-H 2.0
• Testing other
scalable
engagement
opportunities—
tweet chats, live
streaming, guest
blogging,
collegiate
engagement
