Amy Sewell
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL SOLUTIONS
The past few years have been a roller coaster in the fundraising world—lots of quick pivots, emotional highs and lows, and so many forces seemingly pulling your organization in different directions; it can all leave a fundraiser feeling nauseated. Donors, thankfully, still care about the good work you do through all these times and have continued to give. But due to realities of rising expenses, many are often doing it at a lower average gift, and it has become notably harder to get new donors to give to your organization.
When you’re feeling the pinch of more difficult donor acquisition and a lower average gift, many organizations will choose to make cuts to their donor acquisition program. Although this may save dollars now, it can hurt your organization and hinder its growth for years to come. The impact from a cut like this is generally felt by the organization about two years after the decision is made, and by that point, it will take either a significant investment of funds or another several years before you’re able to make up for that lost ground.
But there is another option that can still help you be more cost effective while continuing to grow your organization: lean into digital donor acquisition.
For years, we’ve been talking about how digital donor acquisition can supplement more traditional donor acquisition methods like mailings. But right now, it is more critical than ever before for three main reasons:
- Reduced cost – Digital donor acquisition doesn’t have printing and postage costs, so it is more affordable than traditional methods.
- Data in real time – Digital donor acquisition campaigns give you real-time data about what donors are responding to—and what they are not. This means you can run a campaign and pivot as needed to improve results. If your message isn’t performing, you can adjust! Or if you see more donors coming in through one platform than another, you can quickly shift your media dollars to maximize the growth you receive with your invested dollars.
- Informed campaigns – In addition to the data helping inform the current campaign, data you learn in the digital channel about what people are responding to right now can help provide you with critical information for how to continue to motivate donors through traditional channels like print. Which photos and stories should you use? Are there things you can do to raise average gift? Are there lists that seem more responsive than others? Test it out in digital first. Then when you do move into donor acquisition through other channels, you have information that can help those campaigns be even more successful.
It is worth mentioning that this is an election year, which means the digital ad space will be competitive. However, we have seen past election seasons be just as successful and donor generating as non-election years. It is still a great time to invest and keep your organization growing. The main thing to know is that if you plan on any campaigns running during the weeks around the election, it’s much better to start them early and make minimal edits during the weeks right around November 5. Many platforms will place a blackout around election dates where only ads that are already in progress are allowed to run. Getting ahead of the game and setting up early will help your organization be successful.
I hope that in the year ahead, you choose to continue to invest in finding new donors for your organization. If you do, you’ll thank yourself in the years to come as you see the results continue to bless and grow your organization. As you do, be sure to embrace innovation and meet your potential donors where they happen to be, both on and offline. There are still many potential donors out there, waiting to hear more about how they can partner with you and help in your mission. Utilizing digital acquisition can help you find them! And it’s cost effective for your organization as you continue to be a big part of what is right with the world in the years ahead.
If you have questions and would like assistance getting started, or you need help improving your donor acquisition results, please reach out to us anytime at info@douglasshaw.com.
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What does digital donor acquisition look like?
For most organizations, it’s a series of ads running either at key points in the year or year-long depending on budget. These ads are placed on networks like Meta, Google, Bing, or through a display or native ad network and shown to people who look like good donor candidates for your organization.
What is the right timing for digital acquisition?
If you have never done a digital acquisition campaign before, we recommend you start with testing a few campaigns at strategic times of the year—like year-end or a special giving day for your organization. Then, once you know a little bit about the channels, audiences, and messages that work well for your audiences, you can expand into a year-long campaign that continues to optimize, learn, and drive new donors on a consistent basis.
