Augmenting Mail and Phone Programs with an Integrated Online Approach

By Jason Mitchell and Barbara Talisman

We were honored to facilitate this workshop at the 2011 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference in July. Kevin Sturtevant, vice president for development from Public Justice, joined us and shared his on-the-ground experience.

We started the workshop talking about stewardship and how important it is to successful philanthropy. We agreed on the following definition from The Association of Fundraising Professionals' Fundraising Dictionary: "A process whereby an organization seeks to be worthy of continued philanthropic support, including the acknowledgment of gifts, donor recognition, the honoring of donor intent, prudent investment of gifts, and the effective and efficient use of funds to further the mission of the organization."

Starting here is important to the conversation about how your organization will pro-actively steward your donors. What is the process? Who is responsible for it, and how will you measure success?

During the workshop, we started with storytelling. It is a very compelling tool that can deeply and quickly connect your donors and mission. Gathering stories from donors, volunteers and program participants is fun and should be done proactively. You can do interviews and ask for testimonials. Today, video rules! It is easy to do and can be used on your nonprofit website, in e-mails, and through your social-media channels.

Once you have the stories to tell, you need to create a strategy around how to use them to reach the right donors with the messages and information they care about. Today there is no excuse for sending generic messages, especially when stewarding donors. We learn about our donor's interests by collecting data from the information we send them. This means we need to collect and review what they responded to, where they clicked, how long they viewed a page, and even ask them outright! We are able to better focus and integrate our stewardship efforts through this behavioral data.

We talk with many clients who say they are using many channels and they are integrated. But their donor stewardship communication is missing links between the direct response and e-mail. A disconnect between web, e-mail, and direct response and the data is not informing all channels.

Think of it this way: if you send an e-mail thanking a donor telling a fabulous story and encourage them to visit your website for more information, you lose the connection you want to build or deepen with your donors if the website doesn't reflect the same information, or if the "look" of the e-mail and website are very different.

Based on the behavioral data you have on your donors, you can craft messages and stories that speak to them about things they care about. Your nonprofit organization may not use all these channels, but the best response and deeper engagement will come when there is cross-channel engagement.

We heard from the Bridge Conference workshop participants that they have A LOT of data, but may not be using it or know how to collect it from various data sources to determine donor interest. Coordinating touches between e-mail, e-news, face-to-face visits, telephone, events, etc. is very difficult, but it is essential to creating a connection with your donors and stewarding them. During the workshop we presented a four-phased approach to stewarding your donors online.

Phase 1: Setting your stewardship objectives

Strategically engage with donors
Observe and gather behavioral data
Use data to determine more direct stewardship strategy based on their interests

Phase two: Creating strategic communication to share stories and collect donor behavioral data

Make hard collateral/communications available online, via e-mail links, PDFs, website, etc.
Capture donor interests to further cultivate and steward the relationship
Use surveys to more deeply understand donors' interests

Phase three: Reviewing your donor behavioral data
Once we have all this information, we have to analyze it. Again, where there are challenges analyzing data, solutions must be found. We need to communicate effectively with our donors to engage with them.

Cross reference and analyze all the data from:

* Electronic communication
* Survey results
* Giving history (RFM)
* Wealth screening
* Demographic

Phase four: Creating a prioritized direct-response cultivation and solicitation with an integrated approach
ALL of this information TOGETHER gives you a much broader and deeper picture of your donors' interest, and how and what to share with them during the stewardship process.

Again, while your organization may not use ALL these channels, use the ones you have to best effect with cross-channel integration. And note, this is not only about a follow-up phone conversation about a gift. It could also be a phone call for a face-to-face meeting. Based on donor behavioral data, channels are focused on donors' interest and speak to them about your programs that engage them.

What to do next?
Take this information and do an internal dive into your data. Where is it? How can you cross-reference information between channels? What can you do to develop a profile on your donors?

For more information on creating a culture of philanthropy in your organization, download the free whitepaper "Rethinking a Culture of Philanthropy" by our colleague Gary M. Cole, executive vice president, Pursant Consulting at Pursant Ketchum.

Jason Mitchell is executive vice president, client services, at Pursuant Ketchum; and Barbara Talisman is senior vice president, Pursuant Consulting at Pursuant Ketchum