We’re working with Heifer International to beef up their year-end fundraising (yes, pun intended!) and—thanks to everything we learned last year—we’re taking 2014 to new levels.
Here are some key takeaways you may find useful in your year-end efforts:
1. December 31st is crucial, but so is the rest of the month.
If you do it right, you can rest easier come December 31. Other days in December can be just as important to your bottom line. While the 31st was a big day for Heifer in 2013, it accounted for less than 15% of the entire month’s revenue. By creating big moments out of smaller days, we were able to turn the entire month into a year-end success. Last year, Heifer’s Cyber Monday email—which featured a match in the subject line—outperformed all other emails.
Think about other strategies to drive actions throughout the month—can you leverage a matching gift opportunity or other incentive to transform off-peak days into big moments?
2. Figure out what makes your audience tick, and dish it out.
It may seem counterintuitive but your direct fundraising email may not be your most successful fundraising ask. While many organizations may be tempted to pound their list with direct fundraising asks at this time of year (don’t get us wrong, we typically advocate for greater email frequency!) diversity is key. This year, we showcased the fun and adorable side of Heifer: cute animals. The quirky “Power of a Goat” quiz to engage our audience around fun goat facts resulted in 22.7% more contributions compared to the 2014 average fundraising email, despite the lack of a hard donation ask upfront.
Think about a variety of asks and engagement tactics that will prime your audience for when the hard asks start to flow come December. And of course, don’t forget to ‘daisy chain’ to a donation page.
We also learned that Heifer is different from most nonprofits as their donors see the site as a shopping experience, not just a way to donate. We took those findings, as well as cues from successful ecommerce sites, to build the right experience for supporters, making last December one of the most successful months to date.
What is your data telling you about your audience? Is there a way to create a user journey that steps outside of the box and is more in tune with what your donors are looking for? Once you find that, run with it while testing each step along the way.
3. Get competitive.
During end of year 2013, Heifer split their email list evenly between BSD and their previous agency to determine which could run the most successful program for them. This year, as we manage their full email program, we’ve found multiple ways to rekindle our team bond around the competitive spirit.
Each month, individual team members project email revenue based on the calendar for the month ahead. Not only does this give the analytics team more data to geek out over, but it keeps the entire team even more invested in the outcome (above and beyond supporting Heifer’s marvelous work). Bragging rights are handed out each month with a Heifer Bowl trophy which the winner can proudly display on their desk!
After four successful months running the Heifer Bowl, and lots of inter-office bragging, we’ve created a new competition: the Heifer Hunger Games. We’ve selected our top writers, provided them with detailed learnings specific to this program, and asked them to draft their own email for Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday. We then test these drafts against one another with random samples of the list, and launch the winner to the full list. Not only does this ensure we’re sending the best possible message to supporters, but there’s also a chance for a colleague’s version to beat our CEO’s. Fun, right?
What is your equivalent of the Heifer Bowl or Hunger Games? Make data visible to all members of the internal team, including, but not limited to, designers and developers. Every member of the Heifer team has access to the data dashboard and the transparency allows colleagues to have an immediate understanding of how fundraising is performing. Ideas and solutions can come from anywhere if everybody has access to the key metrics and creative concepting.
For more insights, lessons, and tactics that will help you take your fundraising to the next level, download our Year-End Fundraising Report.