Special Report: Multi-channel Fundraising
Seamless Integration: Multi-channel is the sexy buzzword in development these days, but you’ll ruin the allure if your strategies don’t work together to preset consistent, single-minded messaging.
July 2007 By Abny Santicola
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Nonprofit direct-response fundraising programs historically have centered around one channel, usually direct mail. But as other channels become more viable and new ones emerge — can you say W-E-B? — innovative organizations have become aggressive in incorporating them into their fundraising mix.
But it’s more than a simple matter of adding on. As fundraising has evolved, organizations have found that multiple channels must be integrated — and integrated well — to work. The messaging must be the same, or at least purposefully complementary, and the look consistent to create the deepest resonance and best possible response across all channels, thus boosting overall response.
Multi-channel integration isn’t rocket science, but it does require leadership buy-in, planning, testing, follow-through and measurement. And despite the headway the nonprofit sector is making into the multi-channel stratosphere, even the most advanced organizations are still laying road and smoothing out rough spots.
Here, weaved in with advice from professionals at some of the top fundraising consultancies in the country, are some anecdotes from the field.
Channel cohesion
In late 2003, the Chicago Metropolitan Division of The Salvation Army ran an awareness advertising campaign on television, radio and bus shelters, but there was no direct response, no way to gauge the effect or enlist new direct-response donors.
Lt. Col. David E. Grindle, divisional commander for the regional organization, decided he wanted a fundraising campaign with a singular message integrated across all the mediums the organization used — PSAs, billboards, bus stop signs and direct mail.
In 2004, the organization teamed with the Grizzard Agency to launch a multi-channel acquisition campaign for the holidays called “Please Don’t Forget,” built around the theme of remembering the poor. The idea was to expand the organization’s reach outside of its direct-mail audience. Grizzard created an integrated campaign featuring TV wraps, print ads, free-standing inserts and subway ads, which echoed the message and look of the direct-mail appeal sent to the organization’s 350,000 donors. Most ads featured both the organization’s Web site URL and a toll-free number people could call to donate.
“So what they were seeing if they were at a bus stop or in their TV Guide sitting there on the coffee table was the same message they were receiving when they received our direct-mail piece,” Grindle says.
The 2004 campaign was so successful it was repeated in 2005 when, due in part to the increased attention The Salvation Army had received that year in response to Hurricane Katrina, the campaign was even more successful — pulling a 12 percent increase in direct-mail income, a 55 percent increase in income from inbound mail and inbound phone, and an 18 percent increase in holiday net income from the 2004 campaign. And it acquired more than 21,000 new donors. The non-mailed elements of the campaign also netted more than 1,450 new donors.
But it’s more than a simple matter of adding on. As fundraising has evolved, organizations have found that multiple channels must be integrated — and integrated well — to work. The messaging must be the same, or at least purposefully complementary, and the look consistent to create the deepest resonance and best possible response across all channels, thus boosting overall response.
Multi-channel integration isn’t rocket science, but it does require leadership buy-in, planning, testing, follow-through and measurement. And despite the headway the nonprofit sector is making into the multi-channel stratosphere, even the most advanced organizations are still laying road and smoothing out rough spots.
Here, weaved in with advice from professionals at some of the top fundraising consultancies in the country, are some anecdotes from the field.
Channel cohesion
In late 2003, the Chicago Metropolitan Division of The Salvation Army ran an awareness advertising campaign on television, radio and bus shelters, but there was no direct response, no way to gauge the effect or enlist new direct-response donors.
Lt. Col. David E. Grindle, divisional commander for the regional organization, decided he wanted a fundraising campaign with a singular message integrated across all the mediums the organization used — PSAs, billboards, bus stop signs and direct mail.
In 2004, the organization teamed with the Grizzard Agency to launch a multi-channel acquisition campaign for the holidays called “Please Don’t Forget,” built around the theme of remembering the poor. The idea was to expand the organization’s reach outside of its direct-mail audience. Grizzard created an integrated campaign featuring TV wraps, print ads, free-standing inserts and subway ads, which echoed the message and look of the direct-mail appeal sent to the organization’s 350,000 donors. Most ads featured both the organization’s Web site URL and a toll-free number people could call to donate.
“So what they were seeing if they were at a bus stop or in their TV Guide sitting there on the coffee table was the same message they were receiving when they received our direct-mail piece,” Grindle says.
The 2004 campaign was so successful it was repeated in 2005 when, due in part to the increased attention The Salvation Army had received that year in response to Hurricane Katrina, the campaign was even more successful — pulling a 12 percent increase in direct-mail income, a 55 percent increase in income from inbound mail and inbound phone, and an 18 percent increase in holiday net income from the 2004 campaign. And it acquired more than 21,000 new donors. The non-mailed elements of the campaign also netted more than 1,450 new donors.
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