Making Advocacy Pay: Understanding the Link Between Activism & Giving

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Making Advocacy Pay Understanding the Link Between Activism and Giving Presented by: Vinay Bhagat, Convio Yvonne Garrett, OMP Randy Paynter, Care2.com Ryann Miller, Care2.com March 24, 2011 For Audio Call: 1-408-792-6300 Meeting Number: 668 671 770

description

Are you looking for a way to engage your donors without always asking for a donation? Do you need strategies and tactics for doing online acquisition? This session talks about the relationship between advocacy and fundraising, how organizations are using advocacy successfully for list growth and engagement, and shows you valuable case studies from successful organizations. We also discuss best practices in assessing ROI (return on investment) for online acquisition, so you can see how to make advocacy pay. "Making Advocacy Pay: Understanding the Link Between Activism and Giving" This thought-provoking session features these industry leaders: -Vinay Bhagat, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Convio -Yvonne Garrett, Partner, OMP -Randy Paynter, Founder & CEO, Care2 About the Presenters: Vinay Bhagat, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Convio: Vinay Bhagat is Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Convio. Vinay founded Convio in April 1999 after volunteering at a public television pledge drive and seeing the opportunity to leverage Internet technology to drive better fundraising results. Today, as chief strategy officer, he oversees corporate strategy and is actively involved in research and client success strategies. A frequent speaker at conferences, Vinay has addressed events hosted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Independent Sector, Integrated Media Association, Politics Online, Public Broadcasting System and National Voluntary Healthcare Association. Vinay also is a widely published author, including a chapter in "People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities" and articles that appear regularly in DM News, Journal of the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation and on OnPhilanthropy.com. Vinay holds degrees from Harvard Business School (MBA) where he graduated as a Baker Scholar, Stanford University (MS) and Cambridge University (MA) in England. He has volunteered for several Austin and international nonprofits. Yvonne Garrett, Partner, OMP: Yvonne Garrett
 is a Partner at OMP, Inc., a full-service fundraising and communications agency that serves leading causes in the U.S. 

Yvonne has been deeply involved in political and advocacy fundraising for almost 20 years. Working with candidates and groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and Oxfam America, she has helped helped her clients achieve dramatic fundraising success and list growth. Today, Yvonne specializes in helping organizations develop cross-channel programs that blend advocacy and fundraising. Prior to joining OMP in 2004, Yvonne was Vice President of the Share Group. Randy Paynter is the Founder and CEO of social action network Care2.com. With over 15 million members, Care2 is the largest online community of people making a difference for human rights, animals, the environment and o

Transcript of Making Advocacy Pay: Understanding the Link Between Activism & Giving

Page 1: Making Advocacy Pay: Understanding the Link Between Activism & Giving

Making Advocacy Pay

Understanding the Link Between Activism and Giving

Presented by: Vinay Bhagat, Convio Yvonne Garrett, OMP

Randy Paynter, Care2.com Ryann Miller, Care2.com

March 24, 2011

For Audio Call: 1-408-792-6300 Meeting Number: 668 671 770

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Using •  Chat & Raise hand •  If you are having internet audio problems, you

can dial-in using a landline: 1-408-792-6300, Meeting Number: 668 671 770 •  If you lose your internet connection, reconnect

using the link emailed to you •  WebEx Support: 1-866-229-3239

For Audio Call: 1-408-792-6300 Meeting Number: 668 671 770

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•  This webinar is being recorded. •  The webinar recording will be available on

Frogloop blog at http://www.frogloop.com •  You will receive a link to this presentation

following the webinar. •  Tweeting the webinar? Use Twitter hashtag: #Care2

For Audio Call: 1-408-792-6300 Meeting Number: 668 671 770

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Agenda

•  What is online advocacy? •  What does advocacy have to do with

fundraising? •  How does it work? •  Making the economic case.

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What is online advocacy?

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Advocacy – The active support of an idea or cause etc.; especially the act of pleading or arguing for something

 Defini'on from: wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn 

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What does advocacy have to do with fundraising?

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Advocacy starts the conversation.

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NRDC Activist Conversion

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Finding New Supporters

•  73,000 new wolf activists through paid and organic sources

•  $40,000 spent on paid sources

 

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One Year Later…

•  31,000 took another action

•  700 converted to donors online

•  1,325 converted to donors via mail

•  Break even – 15 months

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Advocacy builds relationships.

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Actions Increased Donor Value

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Advocacy keeps donors engaged.

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Analysis of Advocacy’s Impact on Fundraising

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Activists: 2+ actions Sept – Nov = 4x more likely to give at year end

Emails Action TakersOnline

ConversionOffline

Conversion UnsubsMoved into 2+, Highly Responsive: 6,172 9.0% 1.0% 0.2% 1.9%Stayed in L: 88,293 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 2.0%

Prior 2+ Action Takers: 66,239 12.2% 1.0% 0.3% 1.9%

Moved into L: 30,817 2.3% 0.4% 0.1% 3.7%

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Donors: 2+ actions Sept – Nov = 26% more income at year end

Emails Action TakersOnline

ConversionOffline

Conversion UnsubsMoved into 2+, Highly Responsive: 6,172 9.0% 1.0% 0.2% 1.9%Stayed in L: 88,293 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 2.0%

Prior 2+ Action Takers: 66,239 12.2% 1.0% 0.3% 1.9%

Moved into L: 30,817 2.3% 0.4% 0.1% 3.7%

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How Does it Work?

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Activist Relationship Management

Recruit Engage Convert

Deepen

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Recruit •  Be thoughtful about form of ask

–  Pledge vs. contact your legislator –  Constituent relevance

•  Multiple venues in addition to your website –  Paid online (e.g. Care2) –  Social media –  In the field

•  Strong user experience

•  Viral marketing including social media

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Engage •  Acknowledge returning Web visitors

•  Send tailored updates/ stories

•  Related appeals

•  Multi-channel appeals - email, text, social

•  Rewards/ incentives

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Convert •  Campaign specific donation forms

•  Email welcome/ conversion series

•  Follow up in timely fashion with mail, TM

•  Apply filters to prioritize investment

•  Select appeals based on advocacy actions

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Website Activist to Donor Conversion

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Food for Thought

•  Major donors frequently active

•  It’s increasingly critical to track messaging intensity/congruency across programs and channels

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Making the Economic Case

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Online Advocacy Increases Dona2ons 

No Online Ac2on  Took Ac2on Online 

.07% 

.47% 

Source: : Charitable Memberships, Volunteering and Discounts: Evidence from a Large‐Scale Online Field Experiment. May 2009, Na2onal Bureau of Economic Research, A. Lange, A. Stocking. Sample size =  > 700,000 subjects. 

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How do you measure economic value?

•  Time to pay back investment •  Cost per donor •  Cost per dollar raised •  Return on Investment

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Online Recruitment: It’s a Relationship

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Cumulative Donation Income (over 36 months) 

Source: M&R Strategic Services

Return on Investment = Lifetime Value!

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* * Source: 2010 Convio Online Benchmark Study of roughly 300 nonprofits. Email addresses are “usable” only (approx 50% of total addresses) Years 2 through 5 assume 50% per year drop off in donations.

Annual Donations

Human & Social

Services

Environ-ment & Wildlife

Public Affairs

Animal Welfare ALL

Year 1* $17.18 $4.81 $3.36 $15.91 $11.68

Year 2 $8.59 $2.41 $1.68 $7.96 $5.84

Year 3 $4.30 $1.20 $0.84 $3.98 $2.92

Year 4 $2.15 $0.60 $0.42 $1.99 $1.46

Year 5 $1.07 $0.30 $0.21 $0.99 $0.73

Avg Lifetime Value Per Email $33.29 $9.32 $6.51 $30.83 $22.63

Value of an Email Address

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Online Recruitment: Multi-Channel Returns

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Cumulative Donation Income

Online Direct Mail Telemarketing

Source: M+R Strategic Services

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Fully Load Your Expenses •  Direct Expenses

–  Campaign costs (fixed and variable) –  Search Engine Marketing (SEM) –  Email appends –  etc.

•  Indirect Expenses –  Consultants (fixed and variable) –  Social Media Outreach (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) –  etc.

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The True “Cost per Lead” If I spent $1,000 to acquire 1,000 new leads, I spent $1.00 per lead. Great price! But what if… •  100 leads have bad addresses; and 200 leads unsubscribe within first 3 mo. •  Now I’ve only got 700 leads, so the real cost per lead rises to 1,000/700 = $1.42 And what if… •  Only 30% are opening my message. •  Now I’ve got only 210 active leads, and the real cost per lead is 1,000/210 = $4.76 And what if… •  Only 10% of these people click through and only 10% of those donate? •  Then I paid $1,000 to buy two (2) donors, and my true cost (“Investment”) was $500

per donor.

Quality Matters!

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List Growth: Speed vs. Value

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Low Quality

High Quality

Rapid Growth (>10k/month)

Targeted List Swaps

Niche site e.g. Democrats.com

Google Adwords

Collecting Opt-ins on your site

Banner Advertising

Social Networks Canvassing

Name Acquisition Large, General Audience

List Append

Paid Acquisition from targeted audiences

Viral Campaigns

Slow Growth (<1k/month)

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Calculate the Value of your Leads

SocialNetworkCalculator.com

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Ryann Miller Director, Nonprofit Services 416-651-9098 [email protected]

Randy Paynter CEO & Founder, Care2 [email protected]

Yvonne Garrett Partner, OMP [email protected]

Vinay Bhagat Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, Convio [email protected]