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High-Value Donors: Rejuvenate Your Mid-Level Program
- 1. Rejuvenate Your Mid- Level Program! DeAndra Hicks, Ocean Conservancy Lester Smiley, PETA Peter Schoewe, Mal Warwick Donordigital
- 2. Special Premium Offer! Live tweet your questions or comments—and win a prize at the end of the presentation! #rejuvenate
- 3. Rejuvenate! How did PETA & Ocean Conservancy achieve record growth from their established mid- level programs? Target Upgrade Cultivate & Retain Integrate Innovate
- 4. What is a mid-level program? Many different definitions, starting from $100 to $1,000, cumulative or single gift. For purpose of this presentation: Highest previous contribution of $100 or higher Not actively managed by a major gift officer
- 5. Case Study—Mid-Level Upgrades 77% 22% 1% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Direct Mail Online Telephone For Ocean Conservancy, over 2/3 of mid-level upgrades still come through the mail.
- 6. 44% 29% 12% 12% 4% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Appeal Invite Acquisition Renewal Other Case Study—Mid-Level UpgradesOnly 29 percent of new mid- level donors are acquired through dedicated invitations.
- 7. Case Study—Mid-Level UpgradesMost donors have given at least $100 before they upgrade to mid-level, but a quarter of donors are directly acquired as mid-level donors. 2% 4% 9% 60% 25% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% <$25 $25-$49 $50-$99 $100-$249 First Gift
- 8. Case Study—Mid-Level Upgrades Mid-level upgrade efforts should not be seasonal. Over half of new mid- level donors upgrade outside of year- end. 16% 17% 23% 44% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Jan-March April-June July-September October-December
- 9. Targeting Takeaways Mid-level upgrade strategy is not for invitations only Work to upgrade all year long Best prospects are new donors—or donors already close giving at the mid-level amounts
- 10. Strategies for Upgrade Success
- 11. Strategies for Upgrade Success
- 12. Strategies for Upgrade Success The less aggressive upgrade test ask: Upgraded 18 percent more donors Increased overall revenue by 44 percent
- 13. Strategies for Upgrade Success To invite or not invite, that is the questionGuardians of the Sea ($250-$999) launched 2006
- 14. Strategies for Upgrade Success Dedicated upgrade effort for $50-$249 prospects in the summer and year-end More aggressive ask strings starting at $250 Promoted the giving club and benefits
- 15. Strategies for Upgrade Success Take advantage of what works
- 16. Strategies for Upgrade Success Results: Number of GOS upgrades increased by 57% 45% increase in revenue from GOS upgrades Cut expenses
- 17. $500+ Planned Giving $100-$499
- 18. Sarah’s Circle
- 19. Sarah’s Circle
- 20. Multichannel campaign using direct mail and phone 52% of kickoff responders joined Sarah’s Circle
- 21. Sarah’s Circle
- 22. It’s Not All about Upgrades Acquisition of New Mid-Level Donors Don’t acquire transactional donors, and prioritize low-performing lists with high average gifts Use best DM techniques for high dollar exchanges Make sure online donation forms are optimized for mid-level giving
- 23. Cultivate Champions for Sea Change ($1,000+) –launched in 2008 and managed in development –received quarterly mailings but very high touch What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
- 24. Communicate Effectively July August September October November December January February March April May June DM Appeals Fall Challenge Year-End Campaign Year-End Follow-Up First, Second & Third Renewal Spring Challenge & Follow- up Scientist Appeal DM Cultivation Calendar Splash & Deep Dive Holiday Card & Splash Survey Splash & Annual Report Splash & Deep Dive Online Appeals Fall Challenge Integrated Year-End Campaign Integrated Year-End Campaign Member- ship Spring Challenge Scientist Appeal Online Cultivation Deep Dive Year-End Greeting Annual Report Deep Dive FY2015 Mid-Level Communication Matrix
- 25. Communicate Effectively— Results Increased the number of new $1,000+ donors by 40 percent—to a record high Revenue from this group grew 36 percent Overall retention increased by 11 percentage points
- 26. Cultivate Donor Visits and Events
- 29. Integrate 34% 20% 23% 21% 2% <1% 0% Newsletter Updatesthrough the mail Email newsletters Email advocacy alerts UpdatesviaFacebook/Twitter Contact viaphone Text messages In a donor survey, half of mid-level donors preferred the mail, half preferred email.
- 30. 0.0% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% Multichannel Single Channel Multi Donor Integrate For PETA, multichanne l donors are almost 5x more likely to upgrade to mid-level giving.
- 32. Innovate—Failure Ocean Conservancy mid-level donors are not interested in benefits. A mailing focusing on benefits lost money and upgraded a record low number of donors.
- 33. Innovate— Success By trying something different from the typical high- production mid- level mailing, Ocean Conservancy increased revenue by 45 percent.
- 34. Innovate—Failure For PETA, a rolling mid-level invitation to new and renewed $100 members was costly and ineffective. When replaced with bi- annual efforts, Vanguard Society joins jumped by 61 percent!
- 35. Innovate—Success PETA asked donors to sponsor a doghouse by mailing the blueprints in a tube. Revenue was 156 percent above the prior year.
- 36. Rejuvenate—Results Ocean Conservancy: Record number of mid-level donors in past FY 14 percent more revenue than Gulf Oil Spill year PETA: Revenue up 45 percent in the past five years Average mid-level donor value increased by 63 percent
- 37. Thank you! Rejuvenate Your Mid-Level Program! DeAndra Hicks Managing Director Resource Development Operations—Ocean Conservancy dhicks@oceanconservancy.org Lester Smiley Direct Response Assistant Manager—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals lesters@petaf.org Peter Schoewe Vice President—Mal Warwick Donordigital peter@malwarwick.com
Editor's Notes
- What is the level? $250+
- Focus on the takeaway that you need to diversify—not necessarily the detail of this particular example. Low dollar acquisition effort
- Add $1,000+ slide
- Describe how we started classic mid-level invitation program that went gang busters but saw over subsequent years that results declined. Long-standing program of $1k, wanted to develop a mid-level program at $250 that would serve as a feeder pool.
- But we were seeing FLATENING results over time…needed to make a difference so we went back to the drawing board.
- Year-end Summer, pre-tested a mid level upgrade amount on every ask string; saw upgrades, didn’t hurt response rate Slowly we peeled away things we intentionally branded as Guardians (give examples) Swung for the fences at year-end – decided to roll out to all $50+ members. Initially we didn’t think this level of donor wanted a premium. But turns out, everyone loves free stuff. At least for our membership, we’ve found that techniques that work for low dollar members work for this level too.
- Number of GOS upgrades increased by 57% 45% increase in revenue from GOS upgrades Less money spent on expensive invite packages
- Branded campaigns based on animal stories – vs: deep-sea diving-chamber experiment by the U.S. Naval Research Center in Maryland. AC – macaque used in silver springs. Sarah – another ss monkey – 8 years in Taub’s lab, relocated to another research facility where she was a surrogate mother for baby monkeys
- Talk about SC origin and the first program launch appeals
- Review incentives for upgrading within sarah’s circle - have some numbers
- Although this is a new kickoff – it shows signs that it could help bridge the gap to the VS giving level with 52% of responders to the program kickoff campaign (DM series plus TM) giving at the sarah’s circle level. Just one year after the program launch we have over twice as many SC members as who came in off the program launch Program Launch US – 30K US mailed. 2.7% upgrade rate (SC join $100 + gift). 833 combined – 16 new VS members ($500 plus) 450 from initial appeal 295 from follow up 88 from TM
- Calendar – both invite and cultivation Sarah’s Circle doubled in size one year after launch!
- This program was launched in 2008. This group was managed within the development department. Received “special” treatment and limited mail that did not have the look or feel or other mail they’ve received within the membership program. Great results in the beginning and then hit a plateau about 2012 and had noticed people who once gave $1k would drop down again the following year and we started seeing diminishing returns. We knew a change was in order. Solicited advice from colleagues Worked with the internal individual units Decided to move this program and treat it like a higher-end mid-level direct RESPONSE program
- The first immediate change was in the frequency and type of communications this group received. Went from a quarterly schedule to mas monthly touches; mix of cultivation and asks, both DM and online, with both renewal and appeal messaging. We’re working on segmenting the file to respect the donors wishes on communication preferences (online donors might receive less DM).
- Transition – although we moved the management of $1k+ group to membership, we kept the development high touch.
- It’s not possible for a membership department to develop personal relationships with each member, so working with our development colleagues, we hired two regional philanthropy officers. Their job: visit $250+ donors personally thank members for their gifts quantify for increased potential develop personal relationships Although difficult to quantify because the work we do is team–oriented, we suspect that these extra personal touches help in our success.
- SC and VS invited to Teletownhalls via retargeting ads and emails. Also – The Naked Truth Events – VS get special nametags. Innovative ways to cultivate donors across channels Special cultivation efforts that improve retention and upgrading of current mid-level donors
- The Naked Truth – mid level with major donors… intermingling programs. Leveraging the founder to connect.
- Facebook sidebar ad and email both branded. We strive to brand our communications with midlevel donors across all channels.