I signed up as a regular donor to 25 charities

Glyn Thomas

Email: glyn@glyn-thomas.co.uk
Twitter: @glynmthomas

Why?

1. Email journeys

2. Institute of Fundraising Convention 2016

"You can teach a fundraiser how to do digital, but you can't teach digital staff how to do fundraising."

3. Commission on the Donor Experience

Fundraising charities should make their top priority:

the interests, convenience and positive experiences of their supporters

Fundraisers must be judged by longer-term, more donor-friendly criteria rather than just by income raised now:

retention
non-financial engagement

What happened?

The rules

• Picked a range of organisations - large and small
• Just over half also campaign
• Opted in to receiving emails and post

Interim report

• 5 months since I signed up

POST

48 pieces of mail

25 were fundraising appeals

EMAIL

2 charities sent
0 emails

3 charities sent
a welcome email -
then nothing

4 charities sent
no emails for 3 months.
Now they are sending a steady stream of emails.

1 charity sent 1 email every 2 months

9 charities sent an email once a month (newsletter)

4 charities sent an email twice a month

2 charities sent an email each week

Total emails received

119

Mean average - 0.95 emails per organisation per month

Charities that made a connection between emails

1

Charities that suggested other ways to get involved (non-financial)

6

How many campaign asks in those 119 emails?

9

How many surveys in those 119 emails?

3

How many financial asks in those 119 emails?

37

More than one in three emails

Excluding the organisations that sent 0 emails, 2 per organisation in 5 months to a brand new regular donor

How many financial asks in those 48 pieces of post?

25

62 donations asks in 5 months

Mean average = 2.48 per charity

Emails timed to coincide with post

0

Easy wins

• More active engagement - surveys/polls/quizzes/campaign actions
• Narrative to the emails
• Coordinate post and email - touchpoints

Longer-term approach?
Retention?
Non-financial asks? 

Thanks for listening!

glyn@glyn-thomas.co.uk