Exceed Your Goals with Multi-Channel Fundraising

With donors absorbing content in so many ways—more than ever before—the multi-channel approach to fundraising is ever-so-important. In fact, according to a recent Forbes article, multi-channel marketing has a proven high-rate of effectiveness no matter the type of business.

Fundraising campaigns are evolving from what they looked like in the past. Today’s fundraisers who are planning to reach supporters require a multi-channel approach. There is no way around it. A multi-channel approach to fundraising refers to a strategy that utilizes multiple communication channels to engage with donors. For example, sending an email campaign to arrive soon after a mailed postcard arrives at a person’s home.

Here are some important considerations to turn your multi-channel fundraising campaign into a major success:

1. Think about the marketing channels available for your use
2. Consider your target audience for your campaign and what channels they are likely to use
3. Plan a timeline around utilizing all of the channels
4. Put metrics in place to gauge the efficacy of each channel

Optimizing Fundraising Campaign Efforts

Adopting a multi-channel approach can help you gain the maximum return on your fundraising efforts. While some supporters may prefer traditional mediums such as direct mail, there’s another pool of potential supporters who prefer digital mediums or both. To ensure current and potential supporters know about your fundraising campaign, diversification of marketing avenues is critical regardless of demographics or other factors.

Here are some of the most common ways to market your fundraising campaign:

• Email
• Remarketing 
• Sponsored/Boosted Content
• Social Media 
• Website
• Direct Mail 
• Phone calls
• Text Messages

There are industry-wide statistics of what marketing channels consumers prefer over others. However, the best practice is to review how your audience interacts with your current channels. Your CRM and Google Analytics are perfect places to start. This approach serves as a guide when planning your marketing budget. If direct mail is a successful avenue for the organization, you should continue prioritizing that in your plan. But maybe you notice a following on your website that you’re interested in growing. The key is to never wholly neglect one channel over another because it is common for donors to interact with more than one platform. Your organization needs to be present and remain consistent and diligent. 

Leverage Story-Telling and Design

Impact stories continue to be such a powerful tool in communicating with donors. Choose those stories which support the mission of the organization and feature an emotional situation that was supported by the generosity of a donor. 

To take an impactful story even further, clarity in the words and the visual design draw people into it more. Creating the right messaging and look, especially on a web page that asks for a donation, is something we see non-profits frequently overlooked. Using a donation page (which is commonly the final conversion point) to make the process of giving extremely easy, should be a priority for fundraisers. Optimizing the page for speed and efficiency is key. Consider using QR codes in your printed materials that link to these conversion pages. And to take things a step further, leverage UTM codes which allow you to track the digital activity of a donor granularly… it’s a powerful thing.

Timing is Important for Fundraising

Be strategic about when to send emails, publish posts, schedule calls, and send mailings—and how these channels relate to each other. The goal is to have a fully coordinated communication plan. There’s proven consumer psychology behind visual repetition and it’s known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or the frequency illusion. It is the cognitive bias that when you notice something, you begin to see it everywhere, increasing the likelihood of interacting. 

The phenomenon supplements marketing because each piece of content lands a greater impact each time supporters interact with it. This is especially helpful for non-profits looking to grow their familiarity and presence among their audience. We like to utilize sponsored social posts and remarketing for this purpose. But generally speaking, blog content, emails, social media, video, and other content all can cultivate gift opportunities. To help manage your fundraising campaigns, most project management systems have scheduling tools to take the work out of coordinating multi-channel efforts. 

Deliver Your Campaign Creatively and Intelligently

Every non-profit has its tried and true fundraising tactics that they know will work. Exploring new creative campaign ideas can attract more supporters than you think. Donors interact with content differently, and gravitate towards various things. This can look like displaying a donor story in a unique video, sound bit or blog post. Running the same campaigns time after time can become less effective for you and your donors. Access to new platforms can create new and reinforced opportunities for fundraising campaigns.

Thank Yous, and Campaign Update Follow-ups

Following up is essential after a campaign, especially to retain donors. Take time to develop a thank you communication strategy for donations. A strategy could be a well developed thank you page on your website, and a thank you letter delivered in the following days. A multi-channel comprehensive approach to your thank yous is guaranteed to strengthen long-term donor relationships and show appreciation at new levels. 

A beneficial addition to thank yous are active updates about the campaign that are easily available for donors. This can be housed on a website, social media or regularly sent in email campaigns. If a supporter is going to donate to your cause, they will also appreciate updates. You can utilize email, direct mailing, social media, and your website for updates on your campaign. This is how you leverage multi-channel platforms to provide supporters an update of the campaign in the weeks following.

Let’s Design your Multi-Channel Fundraising Campaign Together

Trillion has been helping not-for-profit organizations create impactful marketing campaigns for decades. Our creative team can help build the multi-channel fundraising campaign you desire to reach your goals. Let’s start today; give us a call at 908.219.4703 or complete our contact form for a prompt reply.