The Expert's Guide to Making the Most of Your Digital Fundraising

Meet our digital fundraising expert!

Jeremy Haselwood is TrueSense’s Senior Director of Digital Strategy, and one of the newest members of our Salvation Army team. 

Having served in a similar capacity on both the for-profit consumer side as well as in the nonprofit space, Jeremy is an ideal fit for his new role.  We’re fortunate to have Jeremy’s expertise guiding our digital strategy, and we look forward to him engaging with current clients and participating in new business meetings.

Jeremy was gracious enough to answer a few burning questions about digital fundraising:

What do you want nonprofits to know about digital fundraising?

Digital fundraising, though small now, will one day outweigh any form of fundraising. Organizations that ignore digital fundraising risk being left behind by competing organizations that pay attention to today’s donor, and to consumer trends.  As Boomers, and especially Gen Xers and Millennials, evolve to economic status that is primed for giving, these generations are connected and engaged digitally far beyond any generation before.  Direct mail will become what digital is now — which is more of a support piece, as opposed to an anchor in fundraising.

Why is it important for nonprofits to employ a digital fundraising strategy in addition to a direct mail strategy?

You need to inject your messaging seamlessly into the donor’s lifestyle and behavior.  For example, because a donor’s lifestyle consists of checking his or her mailbox, you need to have a presence there.  Likewise, donors are connected to the internet and check email, so be sure to have a presence there.  Older donors are active on social media, and represent one of its increasingly growing audiences, so have a presence there.  What's more, they’re trading in flip-phones for smartphones, so you must have a mobile presence.  More channels means more opportunities to reach your donors and provide a consistent message.  In the commercial world, studies have shown that the tipping point to making a purchase is seven exposures to a marketing message.  This translates into the donor world as well.  When your donors receive your message through different channels — and it’s consistent — it nudges them that much closer to giving.

If an organization has a limited budget for digital fundraising, what three areas are most effective to put dollars toward?

1. Website.  This is where people will go to research, give money, and get involved.  Just like when you have company over to your home, make your website inviting, make sure it’s clean, and make sure it serves the needs of your guests.  Give them a reason to come back and stay engaged.
   
   
2. Email marketing.  In the digital world, email is still generating the lion’s share of online revenue.  Create a strategy that includes building up your email list sizes, a communication plan that mixes fundraising and cultivation messages, and test.  Become familiar with CAN-SPAM laws to ensure sustainable email deliverability.
   
   
3. Testing.  By this, I mean testing different marketing tactics or digital channels to see what works best for your nonprofit.  Depending on your organization’s cause and target market, SEM may be the way to go.  Perhaps it’s social media and content marketing.  I would map out three different options, commit to one for a specified period of time, then learn from it.  For example, try out Google AdWords™, and go all-in for 3-6 months.  When you lack budget, you have to be scrappy and test different things out to determine the right mix for your organization.

How do organizations evaluate the effectiveness of their digital marketing program?

The key is to begin with the end in mind.  When you’re putting together any type of strategy, campaign, or program, you should always ask, “How will we measure success?”  If you can’t measure it, you shouldn’t do it.  Success can be measured in many forms, however, which may include revenue, number of gifts, conversion rates, or even survey results.  This is where strategy is important, because it requires long-term thinking as opposed to measuring in the moment.  It allows your plans and execution to be intentional, working toward a clearly defined goal.  Ideally, the items you measure will be sustainable, allowing you to gauge success in the same areas, year-over-year, for a long period of time.  That way, you can look back on (for instance) three years and confidently say, “Hey, we’ve made progress!” or “This is tanking, so let’s evaluate other opportunities to meet our goal.”

Where do you see digital fundraising heading in the next five years?

Because digital fundraising lags behind the commercial world, I believe we can look at what commercial companies are doing now.  Segmentation of email and digital fundraising campaigns will become more sophisticated, so that different donor segments will receive different messaging.  Website content will also become more segmented, so when I visit a website, my experience will be different than someone else’s.  Think about some of the things that companies like Amazon are doing.  When you visit certain sites, you get a different image or message than your friends or spouse.  Also, the technology exists for you to place online orders from your couch through voice-controlled devices like Amazon Echo or Google Home. Imagine seeing a commercial on TV for a nonprofit with a compelling message, then saying out loud, “Donate $50 to XYZ Charity,” and it’s done.  That’s where we’ll be in five years or less.  

How would YOU most like to use digital fundraising to reach YOUR donors? Talk to TrueSense.