Dumb Friends League

Blackbaud Denver SummitSeptember 10, 2013By Rick Gabrielson, Kristin Snow, & Jenny Herron

Introductions

• Rick Gabrielson, Vice President of Development & Communications

• Kristin Snow, Director of Communications

• Jenny Herren, Marketing Technology Manager

About the Dumb Friends League

• 103 years of service to animals and people in the metro Denver area

• Private organization, reliant on donations

• Two shelters for homeless pets and pet-related programs; one equine center for abused and neglected horses and other equine

• 4-star rating on Charity Navigator

Our Mission & Our Website

OUR MISSIONThe Dumb Friends League is committed to the welfare of animals:• We shall provide

shelter and care for animals

• We shall provide programs and services that enhance the bond between animals and people

• We shall be advocates for animals – speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves

OUR WEBSITE

The role of the Dumb Friends League website is to:

• Promote adoptions of the animals in our care

• Enable donations so that we can provide programs and services for pets and people

• Encourage involvement as a volunteer, fundraiser and advocate for animals

Our Current Website

Audiences & Engagement: Adopters

35 options under Adopt

Audiences & Engagement: Donors

13 options under Ways to Give, plus two Donate buttons and a slide to donate through an event

Audiences & Engagement: Volunteers/Activists

9 options under Volunteer

Audiences & Engagement: Programs & Services

Goals & Reasons for Redesign

Increase adoptions, donations and engaged community members through:– Overall usability– Clearer calls to action– Less and better content– Modern look/functionality– Responsive design

Clearer Calls to Action by Audience

Measuring Functional Success

• Functional Success through growth

–Increase in online donations

–Housefile growth –Traffic to the website:

increase in unique visits

Online Fundraising Strategies

• Acquisition – Appeals - All acquisition fundraising appeals include a custom URL to a donation

landing page – Contest - We run a calendar contest through our website to acquire new donors and

grow our housefile– Welcome series - Constituents signing up for email communications through the

website receive a three part welcome series: welcome, educate, ask– TeamRaiser - Peer to peer fundraising through personal fundraising and Dumb Friends

League events using TeamRaiser on our website

• Retention– Stewardship - Thank you and stewardship emails acknowledging their support

showing them how it’s helped our mission and the animals– Segmentation – Communications based on constituent preference and giving level– Multichannel opportunities - Ease of giving through multiple channels: mail, website

and mobile – Multiple choices of opportunities - Offering donors multiple ways to give: one-time,

monthly giving, memorial and tributes

Online & Offline Fundraising: a Complementary Relationship

• Direct mail– Custom URL to a donation landing page– An email follow-up appeal approximately two weeks after

the mailing drops– Slide or button on our website homepage

• Events– Print collateral such as posters, brochures and newsletters

include the URL to the event website to make it easy to register or donate

Online Giving TrendsPlanned Giving

Special Projects

Major Donors

Annual Giving

Direct Mail

& Special Events

Moving patrons up the giving pyramid

Largest percentage of online fundraising

• Major donors becoming more comfortable with donating online

• Monthly donors are increasing

Online Revenue History

• Luminate Online revenue for fiscal year 2013– Percentage of overall

revenue 19.3% (includes events)

– Three-year average growth of 20%

Wag ‘n Trail: Fundraising in Douglas County

• September event• Glendale Farm Open

Space north of Castle Rock

• Benefits the Buddy Center

• Attracts more than 1,500 animal lovers

• Last year, donations totaled $138,845

Email Strategy• Integrated with and complementary to all other

efforts within detailed marketing campaigns.• Combines the following:

– Calendared appeals– Welcome series, newsletters and other cultivation &

stewardship communications– On-demand (urgent appeal) efforts– Event-related communications split between potential and

committed participants• Strategic messaging and segmentation based on

user preferences and campaign goals• Measurement of outcomes

– Open rates – Clickthrough rate – Response rate– New constituents to the housefile

Integrated Marketing Strategy

Email and direct mail marketing

Free media coverage

(TV & radio)

Free online & print

publications & articles

Paid advertising in online &

print publication

s, and on radio

Website content &

social media

To support our programs, we use integrated marketing for all of our campaigns to combines free, and in-house efforts with paid marketing outreaches.

We use outside expertise when needed to complement our knowledge and staff talent.

Questions?