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Multi-Channel Acquisition: Building Your Membership through Mail, Phone,

Web & Person-to-Person FundraisingWednesday, August 17th from 2:45 to 3:45.

The National Parks Conservation Association

NPCA Overview

Our Mission: To protect and enhance America's national parks for present and future generations.

What We Do:Advocate for the national parks and the National Park Service. Educate decision makers & the public about the importance of preserving the parks.Help convince members of Congress to uphold the laws that protect the parks and to support new legislation to address threats to the parks and fight attempts to weaken these laws in the courts.Assess the health of the parks and park management to better inform our advocacy work.

Our Constituents:340,000 members, give $15+ to receive magazine 44% age 65+ 60,000 with email addresses39,000 online donors330,000 online subscribers/activists38% age 65+114,000 have taken at least 1 actionAll support NPCA because they love national parks!

Key Analysis Findings

Although new donor numbers continue to drop, NPCA is holding up very well against the uncertainties of the economy, not only in new member acquisition, but in member retention.

Average gifts have been increasing year over year since FY07.

Online cultivation and fundraising is being coordinated with all DM and TM efforts to maximize revenue and to reach donors through multiple channels.

Income by Join Year and Fiscal YearAll Income Included

Members continue to give over a long period of time. As some drop off the file, the remaining members usually give more. Major gifts are included in this chart. Increased acquisition starting in FY03 has paid off.

FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11$0

$2,000,000

$4,000,000

$6,000,000

$8,000,000

$10,000,000

$12,000,000

$14,000,000

Mail TM Web Email

Income by Channel

• Direct mail remains the major income channel.• Web giving shows great potential for growth with a more structured solicitation program in place.

DM, TM & Web

Web Only DM & Web DM & TM DM Only$0

$10$20$30$40$50$60$70$80

65%

70%

75%

80%

85%

90%

Income/Member Average Gift Retention

FY11 Income per Member by Previous Giving Channels

Members included were active within 12 months at the start of FY11, had a highest previous contribution of less than $1,000 and had given 3 or more direct marketing gifts over their entire membership lifetime.

NPCA mails acquisition on a monthly basis, totaling approximately 8.5 million pieces each year.

In the most recent fiscal year, NPCA made 32% more acquisition contacts (across all channels) than the previous year.

This year’s revenue is 4% higher than two years prior. By maintaining our investment, we’ve been able to steadily grow our file.

Even with the additional names mailed, net investment is only 4% higher than two years prior.

NPCA’s two DM acquisition controls are a member card package and a survey package.

NPCA’s Acquisition Program

DM Acquisition Testing

NEW PACKAGES

Map package: Included a foldout wall map and personalized teaser with a national park in the prospect’s state.

Patriotic package: Used a stirring, patriotic tone to highlight the bond Americans feel with their national parks, and included a lift note with a quote from Ken Burns.

TESTS TO SAVE COSTS

Premium tests: Calendar and bucket hat against calendar only, core premiums against each other to determine best front- and back-end results.

Remove insert: Removed glossy 4-color insert.

TESTS TO BOOST RESPONSE

Combining elements of co-controls: Included member card in survey package.

Ask string: Introduced $25 ask to receive premium and raise average gift.

Combine tone of Survey and Member Card: Combined the urgency of the member card with the emotion of the survey letter.

Phrase-based formatting: Used ReadSmart to make subtle changes in the arrangement of the text on the page.

Expand list markets: Explored new audiences and selects, included more modeled lists, and mined in-house activists for additional names.

Test Channels to Convert Online Activists

Wave one of the Online Activist Conversion test was conducted to gauge the response of activists to email acquisition, telemarketing acquisition and direct mail acquisition contacts.

We wanted to see which channels and which mix of channels was most effective in converting online activists.

The online activist file was modeled and the 45,000 names most likely to respond to an acquisition ask were split into three groups of 15,000 each.

month 1 month 2 month 3 month 4

group A EM DM TM EM

group B DM TM EM

group C EM EM

group D (no model) EM EM

Pre-Email Response

%Pre-Email Avg. Gift

DM Response

%DM Avg.

Gift

TM Response

%TM Avg.

Gift

Post-Email

Response %

Post-Email Avg. Gift

Total Revenue/

Donor

GROUP A (DM/TM/EM, 2) emails

.04% $29.16 1.04% $22.15 2.65% $29.22 .07% $27.36 $29.68

GROUP B (DM/TM/EM, 1 email)

.98% $23.47 2.36% $28.54 .06% $31.25 $32.59

GROUP C (EM only, 2 emails)

.06% $25.31 .07% $25.27 $26.06

Overall Results by Channel

Automate an Online Welcome Series

Don’t overlook website traffic as a key source of new donors. Capture additional gifts with an Online Welcome Series including the following:

Week 1: WelcomeWeek 2: QuizWeek 3: Take Action Week 4: Acquisition (non-donors), Sustainer ask (donors)Week 8: Sustainer ask (non-donors who didn’t respond to the acquisition)

Open rates average 17.56% and the series has an avg. 6.21% click through rate. New members are joining with an avg. gift of $21.41 and a response rate of 0.17%. By comparison, other acquisition efforts avg. a 0.04% response and $28.92 avg. gift.

Acquisition Best Practices – All Channels

DM: Analyze your program in detail

• Are you investing enough to stay stable?• If your board chair is promising that you’re growing your file – are you?• Where does your file break in terms of long-term donor value? $15, $25, $50?• Maintain your investment … or define how you need to rebuild and reinvest.

DM: Make adjustments to improve results

• Ask string testing• List broker – model databases• Can small tweaks make your package cheaper?• Reduce back-end premium costs

Telemarketing

• Warm prospects required: activists, ticket buyers, visitors, etc.• Test to evaluate comparable cost per donor to DM and EM.

Online

• Have you put an online conversion program in place?• Do you have an online Welcome Series in place?

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Membership Overview

Membership Program

• $50-$1199$1200+ gifts are stewarded through other programs

• ~28,000 members

• KC, NSO, & WNO designations

• Metro DC area only

Member Profile

• 62% female• Mean age of 62• Avg hh income of $152K• 59% have graduate degrees• 57% members for 6+ years• 53% also subscribers• Highly benefits motivated

Acquisition Program Overview

Direct Mail • In-house and external lists• Includes lapsed donors

Telefundraising • Single Ticket Buyers; Subscribers; • Web Names

Online • Membership Month• Cart add-ons• Social Media

Email • Membership Month • Marketing emails (ticketing)• Targeted benefit emails (upcoming events; ticket priority)

On Site• Gift shop; Tour Desk; Box Office/Subscription/Group Sales windows

FY10 Acquisition Performance by Source

*Misc. includes On Site, KC News magazine

Direct Mail Telefundraising Email Marketing Unsolicited Misc.

No. Gifts 40% 16% 36% 6% 2%

Gross Revenue 37% 17% 38% 6% 2%

3%

8%

13%

18%

23%

28%

33%

38%

No. Gifts

Gross Revenue

40%

16%

36%

6%

2%

37%

17%

38%

6%

2%

FY10 Acquisition Performance by Source

Average Gift Cost per Dollar Raised

$0

$20

$40

$60

$80

$100

$120

$140

Direct Mail $98

Telefunding$111

Email $111

Unsolicited$94

Misc.$134

$0.00

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

$3.00 Direct Mail $2.63

Telefunding$1.38

Email* $0

Unsolicited$0

Misc.*$0

*Indirect/Overhead costs only; incurred regardless of fundraising efforts (i.e. staff salaries.) Not part of fundraising budget.

The Sierra Club

Main Acquisition and Reinstate Programs

• Prospect Direct Mail• Email Acquisition & Reinstate • Canvassing• Reinstate (Lapsed Member Program) – Mail &

Phone• Wilderness Guardian Monthly Sustainer• Fund Appeals

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Prospect Direct Mail

• Mailed every 7 weeks to approximately 1.7 million prospective members.

• Mailings are comprised of house files, modeled names from groups like Target Analytics and Donor Base, exchanges and rentals. Two weeks after the mailing we send a 2nd ask to multi buyers.

• Have found that house files and like-minded organizations have the best LTV.

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Prospect Direct Mail

• Each mailing contains approximately 10 package tests – both issue and tweak tests.

• $15 Membership offer.• Split premiums offer between men and

women. Have found that different premiums work better with different genders.

• Approximately 15% do not take the premium. Have found that these are better donors.

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Prospect Direct Mail

• Unfortunately “health” related issues like clean air and climate change tend not to work. Animal and lands issues work better.

• Brings in approximately 95,000 members a year.

• Largest acquisition program.• Response rates range from .80% to .95%• Average gift is around $23.

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Endangered Species Act PDM Package

Sequoia PDM Package

1892 Rucksack and Field Messenger Bag

Email Acquisition & Reinstate

• Both programs are conducted 6 times per year.

• Each campaign contains a minimum of 2 efforts and sometimes more during prime periods – Earth Day, Year-End or breaking news such as the Gulf Oil Spill in 2010.

• A theme for the email helps – but extensive testing shows that focusing on benefits lifts response.

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Email Acquisition & Reinstates

• On average over 675,000 emails are sent out in each Acquisition and Reinstate email appeal.

• In 2010 the email acquisition program brought 5,300 new members. The reinstate program reinstated 7,500 members.

• 17,000 additional members came to the Sierra Club website and joined the Club.

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Email

Web Page

Canvass Acquisition

• Historically the canvass program just asked people to join the Sierra Club. If they declined, we would ask them for a one-time gift.

• In late 2010 we began accepting monthly sustainers in our canvass program and we began on-the-street canvassing.

• Over the first four months of this year we acquired 1,340 new monthly donors and 3,002 regular members.

Canvass Acquisition

• However we have found that in the first year canvass-acquired monthly donors fall off the file at a much quicker rate than other acquisition programs:

5.58% Online Acquisition9.65% Telemarketing Acquisition25.44% Canvass Door-to-Door32.16% Canvass Street

Canvass

Reinstates (Lapsed Member)

• Conduct 7 different direct mail campaigns each year. Average mailing is 1.15 million pieces.

• There are two different packages. One package is produced by our caging company Palm Coat and one package is produced by CCAH and looks very similar to our Prospect Direct mail package.

• We use our in-house data system, ARES, to determine who gets which package.

Reinstates (Lapsed Member)

• ARES enables us to fine-tune our data selections by looking at things like age, gender, tenor, giving history, geographic location and interests.

• By using ARES we have been able to increase our reinstate program significantly. This is very ideal since acquiring new members has become increasingly expensive.

• We are now able to mail back as far as 10 years in some segments while maintaining an overall investment that is significantly less expensive than PDM.

Reinstates (Lapsed Member)

• Reinstates Direct mail reacquires approximately 60,000 members each year. We are expanding this program in 2011 based on the results we are seeing by using ARES.

• These members tend to renew better than PDM acquired members.

PCD Reinstates Package

AHA Reinstate Package

Reinstates (Lapsed Member)

• We also conduct 4 quarterly telemarketing programs each year.

• In telemarketing we generally contact our very best lapsed members – such as people that have given an additional gift, multi tenor members and members that we know are phone responsive.

• The average pledge rate for these campaigns is around 23% with a 68% fulfillment rate.

Reinstates (Lapsed Member)• The Sierra Club has contracted with one of our

telemarketing companies so that they will conduct a “Super Lapsed” reinstatement program for us.

• This program is done at “break-even” – meaning that the firm only gets paid what they bring in. We give the firm our entire super lapsed file and they decide who to call.

• Calling is done during slow calling periods so it keeps good callers employed.

• We reinstate approximately 3,000 members each year in this program.

The League of Conservation Voters

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At a Glance:• 40 year-old national environmental

organization• Mission: Turning Environmental Values into

National Priorities• $29 million budget in 2010• 75 full time staff• 33 State LCVs

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Grassroots fundraising overview:• $4 million annual revenue• 100,000 $5-999.99 donors• Sources:

– Direct mail/acquisition– Telemarketing prospecting– Online marketing and fundraising– Canvassing

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Email Cross-promotions

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What is an email cross-promotion?• Generally speaking, it’s a no-cost option for

generating new email addresses• It does not actually involve swapping email

lists!• There is absolutely no spamming involved• Also called co-promotions, list chaperones,

message chaperones

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How does it work?• It doesn’t work like a direct mail

rental/exchange agreement• Instead of trading lists, two NGOs each send an

email to the OWN list promoting the other organization’s action

• Each organization acquires only the email addresses of people who affirmatively opt-in by taking action

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Agreements:• Small test to gauge actions• Both orgs attempt to generate new names

with 500 records• Suppress donors over $250• Suppress new joins in last 30 days• Agree to list match to remove cross over

names

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$ Raised Per Subscriber

Paid Ad Cross Promotion$0.00

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

$3.00

$3.50

$4.00

$4.50

$1.87

$4.27

Dollars Raised Per Subscriber

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Sample cross-promotion

Each action generated ~10,500 new email addresses for the two organizations

Results:

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List Results (18 months):• Total new emails: 10,500• Unsubscribes: 760• Hard bounces: 125• Remaining: 9,615• Donors: 388• Revenue: $11,150 (online only)• Donation/subscriber: $1.06• Actions-takers: 8,603• Cost: $0

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List Results (other channels):• Telemarketing:

– 75 new donors– $3,900 revenue

• Direct mail renewals/appeals:– 68 new donors– $3,060 revenue

• Monthly donors:– 16 new month donors– $2,160 revenue annually

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Challenges:• New recruits unsubscribe at a higher rate than

organic email• Finding organizations without the exact same

missions• Cross-promotions great but tricky to execute• Agreeing on two actions can be a challenge

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Final Thoughts:• Cross-promotions are excellent way to

develop warm prospect list for all fundraising channels

• Approximately 25% of LCV online revenue over past 18 months generated by cross-promotion emails

Thank you!

Sara Strother EnosDir. of Development Systems and ServicesJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsSEnos@kennedy-center.org(202) 416-8064

Vicky Barrett-PutnamDirector, Donor Development & Membership AcquisitionSierra ClubVicky.Barrett-Putnam@sierraclub.org

Vinnie WishradLeague of Conservation Votersvinnie_wishrad@lcv.org

Laura ConnorsDirector of Online FundraisingNational Parks Conservation Associationlconnors@npca.org202-454-3322

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