Collaborative partnerships between nonprofit organizations and fundraising partners like TrueSense are the backbone of a strong direct response program. Investing time, effort, and intention into the five building blocks below is vital to fundraising success.
Communication: Search and you’ll find endless quotes touting the power of communication, and for good reason. Open and active communication, coupled with an understanding of preferred communication styles, lays the foundation for a collaborative partnership to flourish.
- For example: At TrueSense, one of our partner organizations was about to celebrate an anniversary milestone. The marketing and development teams were building extensive communication and fundraising plans linked to the celebration. They shared their plans with TrueSense a year in advance and made a specific request for anniversary support: that we develop a multichannel direct response fundraising strategy and creative concept that demonstrated the organization’s mission and cast a vision for future impact. TrueSense proposed a recommendation, and both teams worked to refine the plan until we achieved our winner.
The campaign couldn’t have gone more perfectly. We were in lockstep to ensure our joint contributions supported the overarching anniversary plan and donor response was positively overwhelming. This multichannel effort exceeded gross revenue projections by 250% and successfully engaged supporters in demonstrating their commitment to the organization’s mission and animals in their community.
Process: Established processes for how work is conducted and managed help nonprofit organizations and their fundraising partners successfully execute the many moving pieces of a direct response program. While process aims to minimize errors, delays, and confusion, any fundraiser knows even the best-laid plans can go awry. But process is still a key factor to success!
- For example: When a truck carrying thousands of direct mail pieces crashed on a highway, important fall fundraising appeals were destroyed — putting campaign revenue at risk. TrueSense was ready to respond because of processes in place to quickly navigate unexpected emergencies like this. We pulled together key internal team members, clarified the situation, developed and presented recommendations and a timeline to minimize fundraising impact, and executed the organization-approved plans.
Working closely with one animal care partner, this process translated to a one-week re-deployment that included the addition of both a mail insert and digital assets showing the accident, explaining the threat to year-end fundraising needs, and calling on the community for urgent support of the animals in the organization’s care. Ultimately, campaign gross revenue projections were exceeded by 15% through our joint efforts, with process a powerful factor in achieving this success.
Trust: Partnerships require trust, strengthened over time and through action. For direct response fundraising partners, building trust hinges on demonstrated reliability, transparency, learning, understanding, ownership, excellence, and results.
- For example: During annual planning, TrueSense and an animal care partner explored the expansion of their direct mail program with a custom campaign for donors giving $100 or more. The campaign required increased investment in this donor audience, and because of the reliability, transparency, learning, understanding, and ownership demonstrated by TrueSense, the nonprofit trusted our team to develop an appeal for these high-value donors that would resonate and produce results.
TrueSense presented our strategic and creative recommendations, which included a unique view inside the organization’s work to prevent animal cruelty. Our animal care partner loved the approach and felt we understood their donor motivations and captured the organization’s mission and values in action. The donors loved the campaign as well, sending support that exceeded campaign gross revenue projections by 24%. The demonstrated excellence and results further strengthened the level of trust in this partnership.
Shared Understanding of KPIs: For every fundraising partnership, it’s necessary to identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure success. In addition to standard KPIs that signal a direct response program’s health (retention rate, number of donors, gross and net revenue, average gift, gift frequency, giving upgrades, gross income per donor, etc.), it’s also imperative to discuss additional unique metrics of success based on the nonprofit’s individual needs.
- For example: A longstanding animal care partner prompted a conversation with TrueSense about larger organizational fundraising and budgeting priorities being driven through conversations with their Board of Directors. The Board had defined a KPI for the direct response program that was required for the partnership to continue into the next fiscal year.
TrueSense worked with the organization’s senior leadership to develop a program and investment mix that retained a strategic focus on ROI and file growth, as well as met the KPI set by the Board.
Genuine Bond: Think of the best relationships in your life. The ones that inspire joy and bring a smile to your face. The ones that push you toward greater heights and support you during the climb. The ones where you think, “They just get me and what I’m working to achieve.” Your fundraising partners may not have been immediately top of mind, but do they check these boxes? The TrueSense team believes they can and should.
- For example: While bottom-line fundraising success is the primary focus of our partnerships, it isn’t the sole focus. The TrueSense animal care team knows when we excel in our approach to the work, the product we deliver is stronger and more successful. We care about our nonprofit partners: the people, the animals, and the fundraising dollars required to achieve their missions. We regularly check in, asking for feedback, wishes for expanded program offerings, and areas we can improve. We listen to needs and challenges in both the animal care sector and unique local communities, striving for our campaigns and services to demonstrate alignment and be supportive of solutions. We keep a pulse on philanthropic trends and provide insights and updates throughout the year. We work to brighten days that can be emotionally challenging and stressful for our animal care partners through surprise deliveries, references to inside jokes, catching up on recent trips and shared interests, and occasionally rehashing the latest gossip on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
Our animal care partners also regularly make our day! During a recent visit to a partner’s campus, our team was welcomed by name on a meeting room screen, invited to pick a favorite t-shirt from their shelter store, and granted “Swiftie” status after they presented us with friendship bracelets à la Eras tour. We cherish this symbol of the bond we’ve built. It truly feels that “they just get us,” and our partnership has thrived as a result.
As a member of the client service team at TrueSense, building collaborative partnerships through the above building blocks is both my greatest priority and privilege. It is immensely rewarding to work directly with the development and marketing experts at animal care organizations to make a lifesaving difference for pets, families, and communities across the U.S.