What we'll cover today

2. Case studies - recruiting new donors

3. Ways your organisations can reach new people

4. Testing and Optimisation

6. Retention

1. Key principles of digital fundraising

5. Legacies

1. Key principles

Ebook

2. Case studies

1. War on Want

2. Refugee Action

3. Liberty

1. War on Want

182 new members since January 2018

£20,000 of annual income

Retain 90% of online members each year

Start with a campaign action (petition)

2. Refugee Action

£30,806 in donations since January 2018

721 donations

Average donation £42.73

Until October 2016 no donation page on their website

Start with a campaign action (petition)

3. Liberty

15 new members each month since January 2018

It costs them £50 to recruit each new donor

On average a member donates £600 during 5 years of membership

£600 income from £50 investment

ROI 11:1

Start with a campaign action (petition)

All have the three parts of the funnel

1. Bring new people to a campaign action = prospecting

2. Engage them with interesting emails and other things to do = building trust

3. Convert to donor = fundraising

Every step in the process is crucial

Step 1 - Facebook ads

Same principles apply to organic social media content

Facebook ads

Who will you advertise to?

Content of the ads

Spending as little as possible on the adverts

Audience

Create one advert set for each audience

eg. People who like your Facebook page

Bid strategy

Always set the payment basis as cost per click (not impression)

Start low eg. €0.25 per click

Wait 7 days

Then increase by €0.10

Wait 7 days

(Repeat until you're bringing in supporters at the right cost)

Step 2 - Email

A range of content

Supporter journey

Opportunity to build relationship with supporter

before asking for a donation

Step 3 - Convert to donor

Proposition

Web pages

Why should someone donate?

Membership?

Why should someone donate?

What's the benefit to them, and what's the benefit to the organisation?

What difference will it make?

What will you spend the money on?

Refugee Action

Every week, people seeking asylum come to us looking for help because they have nowhere else to turn. Right now, we’re able to help around 84 of them. Sadly, we can’t afford to help the others. You can help us change this: start a £3 monthly gift today.

Exercise

What's your proposition?

Why should someone donate to your organisation?

3. Ways your organisations can reach new people

1. Sharing petitions/campaigns

Facebook, Twitter, Email

WhatsApp, Messenger

2. Creative content

(making it "go viral")

Storytelling

Also part of number 2 in the funnel - building trust

Language used

Exercise

- Think of a story that relates to your organisation or your work

- Write a Facebook post to tell this story

Crowdfunding

- Most organisations that try this see this as the aim

- But the aim should be for the people who donate to your crowdfunding campaign to become members/regular donors

Ecards

Audience

Environment

Exercise

- think about your 1-2 campaign priorities

- who else might be interested in those campaigns?

3. Google Ads

Important when your organisation or Tibet is in the news

Does it work?

Global Witness - Mossack Fonseca

Hundreds of visits to their website, at around €0.10 per visit

Exercise - write an advert

Headline: 60 characters

Content: 80 characters

4. SEO - Search Engine Optimisation

Important when your organisation or Tibet is in the news

All the content on your page has two jobs

It needs to work for your supporters and potential supporters.

And it needs to work for search engine bots so that they can display what you want to display in search results, for the most relevant search terms.

Key elements

Headings - especially the page title

Page content - especially the first paragraph

Alt text of images

4. Testing and optimisation

Google optimise

5. Legacies

6. Retention

I signed up as a regular donor to 25 charities

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

6

In one year I was asked for money in 92% of the communications I received

Lisa Sargent

Donor retention specialist - how to thank people well

My recipe for digital fundraising

1. Take part in campaign and join email list

2. Learn more about your organisation via email
and/or social media content

3. Do another campaign action/quiz/survey

4. Make a small first donation eg to a crowdfunder - small amount, very specific purpose

5. Stewardship - thank them, demonstrate made a difference

6. Become a member - use all this knowledge you've gained to personalise the ask

2 more key ingredients

Patience

Hard work