The document outlines key strategies and best practices for digital fundraising, emphasizing the importance of a well-integrated digital presence that includes a website, social media, and email. It discusses components, functionalities, and tools essential for effective fundraising, alongside specific tactics for optimizing conversion rates. Additionally, it addresses challenges in understanding audience engagement, campaign strategy, and the need for a cohesive approach across all digital channels.

1. DIGITAL 101

2. SETTING THE STAGE
Who We Are:
Debbie Young, The Engage Group
Liz Murphy, RedEngine Digital
Peter Kaizer, Digital Consultant
Heather Marsh, ABD Direct

3. (SOME) ORGANIZATIONS
WE’VE WORKED WITH

4. SETTING THE STAGE
What is Digital Fundraising
Web Best Practices
Finding and Acquiring Donors
Campaign Strategy
Social Media
Integration

5. WHAT IS DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING?

6. WHAT IS DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING?
Components
Website
Email
Social Media
Peer to Peer
E-Commerce
Text
Video
Event Registration

7. WHAT IS DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING?
Types of Functionality
Host a website
Send email
Process credit cards
online
Maintain a database of
contact info
Purchase items
Membership
Event registrations
Advocacy
Survey/poll
Evaluate metrics
Run tests
Process Donations

8. WHAT IS DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING?
Types of Tools
eCRM
CMS
Data/Analytics
QC

9. WHAT IS DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING?
eCRMS
Blackbaud/Convio
Salsa
Salesforce
Engaging Networks
NationBuilder
CMS
Drupal
Joomla
WordPress
Luminate CMS
Specialty tools
Cvent, Razoo, WildApricot, Shopify, and on and on…

10. WHAT IS DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING?
Data/Analytics
Google Analytics
 eCommerce, Tag Manager
A/B/V Testing Tools
 Optimizely
Google Experiments
QC
BrowserStack
Litmus
Email on Acid

11. WEB BEST PRACTICES

12. WEBSITE BEST PRACTICES
Homepage Opportunities
Use your real estate wisely
Advanced Tactics
Lightboxes, lightboxes, and more
lightboxes!
Responsive Forms
Intercepts

13. HOMEPAGE REAL ESTATE
Recommended Items:
5-10 second statement about the charity
Emotion-generating imagery
Prominent email signup
Prominent donation call to action
Any third party endorsements (Guidestar,
Charity Navigator, etc.)
Information on how donations are spent or a
link to it
Engagement opportunities (share, tell us, act)
Section for constantly-changing content

16. HOMEPAGE REAL ESTATE
Global Navigation
Primary Nav
Email sign-up
Donation (general donation)
Ways to give, FAQ’s about donations
Shop/eCommerce
Action – engagement opportunities such as
volunteering, personal fundraising, advocacy
Event calendar (if applicable)

18. HOMEPAGE REAL ESTATE
Global Navigation
Secondary nav
Mission statement
Links to social media
Postal address & phone number
Privacy Policy
Contact Us

20. RESPONSIVE DESIGN
Responsive web design (RWD) is an
approach to web design &
development aimed at crafting sites
to provide an optimal viewing
experience—easy reading and
navigation with a minimum of
resizing, panning, and scrolling—
across a wide range of devices (from
desktop computer monitors to
mobile phones).
- From Wikipedia
Uses a single code base
Only one site to maintain
- no separate mobile site
Typography can be
scaled dynamically based
on the viewing device
Content can be hidden
programmatically for
optimal viewing on
smaller devices

21. WEBSITE BEST
PRACTICES
Advanced
Tactics

22. HOMEPAGE DONATE
DROPDOWN

23. DONATION FORM STARTER -
FOOTER

24. ADVANCED TACTICS – SIGN
UP LIGHTBOX

25. ADVANCED TACTICS – SIGN
UP LIGHTBOX

26. ADVANCED TACTICS –
SUSTAINER LIGHTBOX

27. ADVANCED TACTICS –
LIGHTBOX (PARTIAL
DONATION)

28. Landing Page w/Embedded Form
New landing
page raised 42%
more revenue,
39% higher avg.
gift and 2.28%
increase in
conversion rate

29. WEBSITE
CONVERSION TACTICS

30. ADVANCED TACTICS – FULL
DONATION PAGE

31. CONVERSION (TO DONOR,
PURCHASER, ACTIVIST) Email subscribe
 Welcome series

32. CONVERSION TO DONOR -
ECOMMERCE

33. CONVERSION TO ACTION
TAKER/ENGAGEMENT

34. CUSTOM DONATION PAGE

35. CUSTOM DONATION PAGE

36. CONVERSION – ASK STRING
TESTING
Custom Donation Page

37. CONVERSION – LANDING
PAGE
Visitors sent to the
splash page were 47%
more likely to donate
and had an average
gift $69 higher than
visitors sent straight to
the donation form

38.  A/B Test: Control image only vs. Variant w/embedded form
 Site-wide implementation vs. selected pages
 Responsive form
CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION
TESTING

39. DEVELOP YOUR OWN BEST
PRACTICES
To increase...
Revenue
Conversions (body count)
Average gift
Sustainer Joins

40. FINDING AND
ACQUIRING
SUPPORTERS

41. BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING PROGRAM
It’s all about your Email File!
“Free” Opportunities
Website
Social Media
Direct Mail
Events

42. BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING PROGRAM
Search Engine Marketing
Google Grant
Paid ads

44. GOOGLE GRANT

45. BUILDING YOUR DIGITAL
FUNDRAISING PROGRAM
E-appends
Petition networks
Ad placement and buys
And ask everywhere

49. DISPLAY ADVERTISING
Contextual
Behavorial
Retargeting

50. PAID ADVERTISING

51. PAID ADVERTISING

52. PAID ADVERTISING
 Integrated
Display and
PPC (same
messaging
theme as email
and website)

53. PAID ADVERTISING
Paid advertising

54. PAID ADVERTISING
Display Advertising

55. SMART GROWTH
Tracking ROI
Setting Goals for Campaigns
Monitoring Engagement

56. CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

57. DIGITAL GOVERNANCE
YOU CAN’T TALK TO EVERYONE ABOUT
EVERYTHING
Know your audience
Who are they
What will they respond to
You will not speak to everyone all at once
Are there times of the year that are ripe for a
conversation

58. YOUR DIGITAL PRESENCE IS
MORE THAN A WEBSITE
All digital channels should work together
Email is still the primary driver
Know how supporters/constituents are
finding you
Social is still not a fundraising
platform, it’s about a conversation

59. WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT YOU
Are there events in the media that relate
to your organization
Calendar events
Are there opportunities to cross promote
with your organization

60. COMMON CHALLENGES
Decisions About Options, Limitations, and
ROI:
Staffing
Build in-house vs outsource?
Platforms
How to outmaneuver your system? How to data sync
your systems?
Investments
Acquisition? Channel? System Upgrades?
Customer service
Fulfillment, donor service, acknowledgement

61. MAGIC FORMULA
Audience + Offer + Messaging
ID Key Audiences on your file
Develop offers to engage them
Create appropriate messaging
Timing | Tone | Copy | Creative

62. TYPES OF MESSAGES
APPEALS
ACTION ALERTS
EVENT INVITATIONS
ENEWS
CULTIVATION
SPECIALIZED MESSAGING

63. APPEALS

64. APPEALS

65. APPEALS

66. ACTION ALERTS

67. ACTION ALERTS

68. EVENT INVITATION

69. EVENT INVITATION

70. ENEWS

71. ENEWS

72. ENEWS - RESPONSIVE

73. CULTIVATION

74. CULTIVATION

75. CULTIVATION

76. SPECIAL MESSAGES –
HOLIDAYS

77. AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION
LOW DOLLAR
MID-HIGH DOLLAR
PROSPECTS
ACTIVISTS
SUSTAINER
LAPSED

78. INTEGRATION

79. CHANNEL INTEGRATION
Bringing it all together

80. OMNI-CHANNEL
Data Syncing
Coordinated Messaging
Tracking the Donor, Not the Channel

81. INTEGRATION

82. RENEWALS/LAPSED
RECAPTURE
DM
OnlineTM
Plan Renewal and
Lapsed Recapture
Campaigns to Target
Based on Cost and
Donor Responsiveness

83. RENEWAL CAMPAIGN

84. SUSTAINER UPGRADES
Upgrade
Email
DM
Online
TM

85. ACTIVISTS
TM
DM Online
Drop Activists into
Telemarketing
Campaign for
Immediate Conversion

86. DATA APPENDS/HYGIENE
DM
OnlineTM
Append or Request
Email, Mail, and/or
Phone Data to Donors
and Prospects to Allow
for Multiple
Communications
Pathways

87. THE INNOVATION
CONTINUUM
Operational Improvement
Technology
Improved
Technology
Innovation
True
Innovation
Small Changes
Low Risk
Low Reward
Low Resistance Factor
Easy to do
Easy to Identify
Radical Changes
High Risk
High Reward
High Resistance
Factor
Hard to do
Hard to Identify
Digital Fundraising

88. QUESTIONS?