Online fundraising

FUNDRAISING MODELS

Description

NGO fundraising models• Federated: digital

fundraising only by national offices

• Regionalised: digital fundraising from regional centres

• Centralised: digital fundraising from head office

➧Most well know international NGOs. Except: ‘orphan’ countries

➧PETA, CIWF, IFAW, Four Paws, Intl Humane Society, Greenpeace

➧Rainforest Action Network

[organisation X] needs to invent a new model due to risk of cannibalising national fundraising

Case study: Amnesty• Respond rapidly (within

hours/days) of relevant world events

• Use multiple channels • Action attract new

supporters• Event linked fundraising

asks• Result: much higher

mobilisation, acquisition and donor conversion

Case study: ActionAid India• ActionAid focuses on tangible asks

(child sponsorship)

• The provide tangible benefits for sponsorship (welcome kit, community newsletter, child’s message, e-newsletter)

• They have donors in countries in the ‘north’ and the ‘south’

• The digital models work in both the ‘north’ and the ‘south’

• They accept both Indian and non-Indian donations

Case study: PETA Europe• PETA runs European campaigns

from London• In London, they hire native-

speaking nationals for each country they fundraising in

• Use petitions to attract leads then fundraising from them

• Send printed material / call by phone to increase retention

• 15% of their income is from digital fundraising (so far)

Case study: CIWF• CIWF chose to work beyond UK

• Supported new offices but they must become self-financing in 2-3y

• Where: FR, IT, NL, PL, US

• Secretariat doesn’t fundraise

• Scattered expats support UK office

• France beat UK’s digital fundraising in 1st year – partly down to French tax relief for donations (like the US)

Digital fundraising models• Petition → Donate

(many variants!)• Crowd funding actions

(earmarked, effective)• Match funding

campaigns(underutilised in sector)

• Webinars → Paid access (untested)

➧Avaaz, PETA, CIWF + other ‘people powered’ orgs

➧Avaaz, 38Degrees, Amnesty+ independent initiatives

➧Political parties, major donors, governments

➧No NGO is known to have tried this, but it works

Note that all require direct access to an existing supporter base to work

Idea: set up a public petition site

What:A public petition site set-up and run by [organisation X] would be a service to members (and beyond) worldwide

Why:• Dramatically increase

number of actions• Attract more supporters• Service to national

offices / local groups• Support successful ones• Fundraise off petition

supporters

Idea: set up a crowdfunding site

What:A crowdfunding site for relevant campaigns set-up and run by [organisation X] would be a service to members (and beyond) worldwide

Why:• Dramatically increase

number of donation actions

• Attract more supporters• Service to national

offices / local groups• Support successful ones• Take commission of

donations

Idea: aggregate national petitions/actions

What:Aggregate national / local [organisation X] actions and internationalise them so others around the world can participate

Why:• Amplify existing actions• Attract more supporters• Service to national

offices / local groups• Support successful ones• Fundraising from new

supporters

Idea: set up a crowdfunding site

What:A crowdfunding site for relevant campaigns set-up and run by [organisation X] would be a service to members (and beyond) worldwide

Why:• Dramatically increase

number of donation actions

• Attract more supporters• Service to national

offices / local groups• Support successful ones• Take commission of

donations

Idea: establish new offices

What:Set up new [organisation X] offices in countries where there currently is no presence

Why:• Grow the organisation• Fundraise without

cannibalising existing offices / groups

• Grow it to the point it has provided a sufficient return and is self sufficient (including affiliation fees)

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Description

Critical success factors this decade

In today’s world, the critical success factors have changed. To excel at campaigning and fundraising, organisations need to:• Respond rapidly (within minutes and hours)• Experiment constantly in short cycles• Embrace relevant top media stories/trends• Be relevant to people’s interests• Help people be social

To achieve this, organisations need to transform their structures and attitudes

Critical concepts to success• Return on investment: (Return - Investment)/Investment• Supporter journey: acquisition, warm leads, welcome series,

retention, lapsed, re-activation/engagement• Life-time value: how much is a supporters value over the

entire time they donate (including all those who lapse into an average lifetime value)

• Agile project management • Minimum Viable Product (MVP)• Design thinking• Split (A/B) testing

Plan a Supporter Journey

• Campaigning supporter journey: the experience you lead supporters on from first contact to a stable relationship

Attem

pt 3

(surve

y?)

FirstContact

Welcomeroute

Regularsupporter

High-involvementsupporter

Primary

Ask

Seco

ndary

Ask

Welcom

e email

Regu

lar em

ails

Re-activation route

Cham

pion /

amba

ssado

r

LapsedSupporters

Attem

pt 1

Attem

pt 2

Remov

ed

Plan to offer multiple levels of action

Quick and easy activity:e.g. petitions, mass emails to target, pledges

Thoughtful activity:e.g. writes personal emails,

attends events, calls MPs

Committedactivity:

e.g. local organiser,visits MP, speaks to

media, offers time and skills

This occurs online and offline

Campaigner journey life phase oriented

Lifetime

Free

tim

evs

. mon

ey

Teenage Retirement

PETITION→ DONATE MODELS

Description

Petition/Action → Donate: Traditional NGOs

• Run 5-12 petitions a year on core campaigns

• Use completion page to ask for a donation or followup via email, phone or post asking for donation

• Novel: use retargeting/customer match ads to create online ‘filter bubble’ about the issue before asking for a donation

Results:• 30-60% new supporter

acquisition (of participants) for each petition run

• 1-3% conversion via completion page/email followup

• Avg. gift €20/person• Higher conversion via

phone, physical mail out, filter bubble

Petition → Donate: MoveOn/Avaaz + clones

• Run 150+ petitions a year on current topics and targeted by country/interest

• Launch most petitions to specific segment to pilot response and only launch wider if it has a good response

• Use donation as action with credible theory of change

• Use email/completion page to ask for donations

Estimated results:• 30-60% new supporter

acquisition (of participants) for each petition run

• 1-3% conversion via completion page/email followup

• Avg. gift €20/person• Higher conversion when

the donation ask has a credible theory of change

Petition → Donate: Petition sites• Host 10k+ petitions a

year created by individuals

• Creators responsible for initial promotion

• Orgs adopt and support those that perform well

• Followup with email to ask for donations

Estimated results:• 30-60% new supporter

acquisition (of participants) for each petition run

• 1-3% conversion via completion page/email followup

• Avg. gift €20/person• Higher conversion when

the donation ask has a credible theory of change

Petition → Donate: Chaperoned acquisition

• Promotes your petitions to their membership in chosen countries

• Paid warm acquisition €1.5-2 / new supporter (estimate)

• Care2 and Change.org

• Fast, and great value

• Bootstraps a support base

• Uses completion page / email followup to ask for donations

Estimated results:• Numbers based on your

budget (min €5k)• 1-3% conversion to

donations via completion page/email followup

• Avg. gift €20/person• Higher conversion when

the donation ask has a credible theory of change

Petition → Donate: Filter bubble• Uses online ad targeting to

expose petition visitors / participants to your activities on other sites

• Google/Facebook/Twitter customer match, retargeting,

• Communicate beyond email

• Prepares supporters for a donation ask via email, post or call

Estimated results:• Email: above avg

conversion• Calls: 24% conversion

(vs 3-6%)• Where: Sweden

(Jakob Ohlsson, Reformact for Save the Children)

Case study: Save the Children Sweden• Started with petition model to

acquire warm leads on current topic: migration deaths

• Then used online ads to education people about StC’s work but targeted only at petition supporters

• After a few days, asked people via email, phone and post to donate

• Had higher response rates than without the targeted ads

Within hours of the first big catastrophe on the Mediterranean a petition was launched with a simple message: “No child should die on the Mediterranean Sea”. (2015)

OTHER MODELS

Description

Crowdfunding• Pick specific, tangible ask

to fundraise for (person, project, initiative, etc.)

• Promote to interested segment

• Media coverage helps!• Promote wider if doing

well• Followup with email to

ask for regular donation (or other crowdfunding)

Estimated results:• Depends on how

compelling it is• Conversion unknown• Avg. gift

€20-30/person• Sometimes attracts a

few large donors (€1-15k+)

In celebration and memory of Jo Cox, we are raising funds to support causes closest to her heart, chosen by her family: The Royal Voluntary Service, to support volunteers helping combat loneliness in Jo's constituency, Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire.HOPE not hate, who seek to challenge and defeat the politics of hate and extremism within local communities across Britain.The White Helmets: volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria. Unarmed and neutral, these heroes have saved more than 51,000 lives from under the rubble and bring hope to the region.

Match funding• Double a new donor’s

contribution by having it matched by an existing donor, organisation or government

• Get existing donors to set amount

• Launch to non donors• Even better: connect new

and existing donors and/or match based on shared trait

Estimated results:• Depends on how

compelling it is• Conversion unknown• Avg. gift

€20-30/person• Sometimes attracts a

few large donors (€1-15k+)

Webinars → Paid access• Run free webinars on a

variety of topics

• These attract people (=acquisition)

• Followup by offering them the chance to pay to access related content (trainings, events, support, content)

• Nurture those that pay

• Fundraise in other ways from those that don’t

Estimated results:• Depends on how

compelling it is• Conversion 1%• Purchase price €100+• Works quite

successfully for many other sectors

Costs to consider• €20-30k to acquire 10-15k supporters for pilots• €10-20k for platform for actions, fundraising, email

communication, supporter journey management, petition site, crowdfunding site, etc.

• €2-5k for online ads and targeting• €5k for telemarketing and direct mail trials

Evaluation criteria: first 6 months• Can others’ conversion and value metrics be matched• Can 50% of supporters be active beyond their initial

action? 30 days later?• Can 25% of the pilots achieve a positive ROI? 10% an

ROI of 1 (double investment)? 1% and ROI above 2?• Exclude infrastructure costs