Fast, Cheap, and Under Control

10/1/2013 #bbcon 1

Fast, Cheap and Under Control Online Advocacy as an Acquisition Engine

PRESENTED BY SARAH DIJULIO & CLINT O’BRIEN

10/1/2013 #bbcon 2

TWEET ABOUT THIS SESSION

#FASTCHEAP @MRCAMPAIGNS @CARE2

• Largest community of engaged people taking action daily to support causes they care about

Ranked among 150 most highly trafficked U.S. web networks, by Quantcast

• Care2’s nonprofit clients also reach an additional 150 M people via Care2’s revenue-sharing media partner program, which includes Mother Jones, AlterNet, Ms. Magazine, eNature.com, The American Prospect, National Memo, VolunteerMatch, LeftAction, Democrats.com and 200+ more partners

• 23 million members • 75% Women • Avg Age = 42 • Educated • High HH Income

• Monthly unique audience of 16 M people

About Care2

Source: Target Analytics donorCentrics Q1 2013 Index of National Fundraising Performance

The Problem: Direct Mail Acquisition of New Donors Is Declining

Consistent decline since 2005

Nonprofits need new ways to find new donors

Online Donor Acquisition Strategies -- Compared

PRICE

VOLU

ME

SEM Google Grants

SEO

Email List Sharing

Social Media

Email Append

Paid

Acquisition

The Paid Acquisition Model

Paid Acquisition – of Warm Donor Leads • Goal = Recruit multi-channel donor prospects and

supporters who are warm – i.e. “pre-qualified” to boost likelihood of conversion into actual donors

• Only pay for actual captured leads – not for “branding,” “awareness,” impressions, exposure, advocacy, etc.

• Tap existing communities of people who already care about my cause – preferably w/ good demographics, income, etc.

PLUSES

• High volume. High quality. Fast. Proven model

• No real work involved, until leads delivered

MINUSES

• Upfront cost

• You still must cultivate, convert leads into donors

+ =

• No duplicates. All leads are new to the nonprofit, not supporters they had already

• Cost per lead pricing. Nonprofit pays only for actual leads delivered

• Multichannel leads. Nonprofit receives email address AND postal address. Sometimes phone numbers, too

Prequalified “Warm” Leads

Paid Acquisition Model (cont’d)

Behavioral Targeting

Permission Based

Marketing

Online Community of Engaged “Do Gooders” Who Take Action Every Day to Support Causes

Behavioral segment that cares about YOUR cause

Subset that takes YOUR branded action

Sub-subset that signs up for YOUR list

Multi-Channel Donor Leads, Asking to be in Relationship with YOUR Nonprofit

Paid Acquisition Model (cont’d)

• The host of an online community sends email alerts to members, urging them to click through to take actions

• Actions may be pledges,

petitions, surveys, polls, quizzes, photo contests

How it Works

Paid Acquisition Model (cont’d)

The contact info captured includes full name, email, street address, state and zip code.

• Landing page features action that member is being urged to take

• It includes the nonprofit’s branding and approved content

• After taking action, the person is invited to take the extra step of signing up for the nonprofit’s email list

• The invitation to subscribe includes the nonprofit’s logo and a sentence or two describing the content that the person will receive

Paid Acquisition Model (cont’d)

October 2012 Event: Hurricane Sandy Hits New York and New Jersey Hard

• Huge news coverage

• Covenant House decided to launch an “emergency donor appeal” targeting (among others) 40K just-recruited Care2 members

“Seizing the Moment”

• Covenant House in Sept/October of 2012 acquired 40K Care2 supporters

• CH received 624 donations, worth $24,000, after 3 mo.

• 11 of the new donors were monthly donors

• Total Cost = $70,000

• Profit = ($46,000)

• Investment per donor acquired (after 3 mo.) = $73.70

• ROI = Still negative but trending well; should turn positive by Jan. 2014.

Covenant House Hurricane Sandy Campaign - Results

Ongoing Major Event: Civil War in Syria

• Huge news coverage.

• IRC decided to launch an “emergency donor appeal” targeting IRC supporters and Care2 members

• Appeal sent in early September 2013 (last month)

“Seizing the Moment”

• Chaperoned, IRC-branded email sent to 235,547 Care2 members who took prior disaster relief action

• 48,645 opens (21.08% open rate)

• 1,288 clicks ( Click-to-Open Rate = 2.59%, Click-to-Sent Rate = 0.55% )

• 74 donations, worth $7.733 (avg gift = $104.50)

• Total Cost = $7,500

• Profit = $233

• ROI after 1 mo. = 3%

• All donors were new donors for IRC

IRC Syria Campaign - Results

March 2013 Event: Poachers slaughter 86 elephants in Chad

• Some news coverage by The Guardian, National Geographic, etc.

• IFAW decided to launch an “emergency donor appeal” targeting IFAW supporters and Care2 members

“Seizing the Moment”

• Chaperoned, IFAW-branded email appeal sent to 276,705 Care2 members who had taken action previously to help wildlife

• 85,141 opens (30.77% open rate)

• 4,456 clicks ( Click-to-Open Rate = 5.23%, Click-to-Sent Rate = 1.61% )

• 949 donations, worth $34,712

• Total Cost = $10,000

• Profit = $24,712

• ROI = 147%

IFAW Elephant Campaign - Results

Trying to Shortcut the 2-Step Fundraising Process: “End-of-Funnel” Donation Ask

• Petition action; good for advocacy AND acquisition

“End-of-Funnel” Donation Ask (cont’d)

• Shown AFTER supporter signs up for list – so lead captured already • Avoids recruiting least likely prospects – prompts them to unsubscribe • Good cultivation for ALL prospects to see – not just those who donate • But typically very few prospects are ready to donate yet, at this point

Welcome Email

Message to Online-

Acquired Supporter

• Timeliness counts. Should be sent out within 24 hours of the new supporter’s having signed up for your list

6.4 million Advocacy Actions $61.3 million in 12 Months

Spend smart.

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A Few Paid Advertising Advocacy Options

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Paid Ad(vocacy) Return on Investment (ROI)

$1.31

$2.09

$1.54 $1.43

$1.60

$1.31

$0.40

$-

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Online Offline

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Paid Ad ROI: 2006 Buys

$4.11 $3.84 $3.69

$2.43

$1.35

$0.80

$0.00

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

$3.00

$3.50

$4.00

$4.50

Online Offline

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Facebook Promoted Posts

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Turn on a dime.

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Breaking: President Obama’s Marriage Announcement

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Pedal. Harder.

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Advocacy Lightbox

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Advocacy Lightbox

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Advocacy Quiz

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Optimize Your Advocacy Form

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Optimize Your Post-Action Form

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Cross-Promotion

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Cross-Promos vs. Paid Ads $ Raised / Subscriber

$-

$2.00

$4.00

$6.00

$8.00

$10.00

$12.00

$14.00

$16.00

$18.00

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Paid Ad Cross Promotion

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THANK YOU!! SARAH DIJULIO

SDIJULIO@MRSS.COM

202-478-6170

CLINT O’BRIEN

CLINT@CARE2TEAM.COM

202-785-7308