Breathing New Life Into Relief Fundraising: Sustaining Disaster Gifts

Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004. Hurricane Katrina, 2005. Haiti Earthquake, 2010. Joplin, Missouri Tornado, 2011. Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, 2011.

While no one wishes for global disasters, they serve as incredible catalysts for unprecedented giving to relief organizations immediately following each event. Working with these groups can be both rewarding and challenging, especially when it comes to keeping donors engaged and active once recovery efforts are underway.

Revitalizing sustained giving programs is often an uphill battle, even in the best economic times. With today’s financial troubles, donors more closely monitor their giving, which requires organizations to be creative in their approaches. Relief organizations can increase the returns on their giving campaigns by implementing a few direct-marketing best practices, including improved prospecting, examining successful creative appeals — both old and new — and fully integrating outreach across multiple channels. With one or a mix of these strategies, charity organizations can outperform long-standing control packages and increase donations as the competition for contributions continues to grow stronger.

1. Revitalize the program with prospecting efforts
While there are many arguments stating that direct mail is in decline, per the Direct Marketing Association’s 2012 Response Rate Report, mail campaigns draw a better overall response than digital channels. In cases of existing customers, this rate is almost 30 times what e-mail appeals return. Additional studies show that a prospective donor is still far more likely to respond to a piece of mail than an unsolicited e-mail. The costs of online marketing certainly help increase its popularity, but such low costs also allow fraudulent solicitations to flood e-mail inboxes, making recipients skeptical of most of the e-mail they receive.

Organizations today have access to better information for prospecting new donors, which can increase the response rates of any campaign. This is enabled by improved segmentation, allowing organizations to better target potential givers. By narrowing down their target audiences based on age, income, self-reported interests and lifestyles, and previous charitable giving, relief organizations can better target their appeals, not only from a logistical standpoint, but also a creative/content perspective.

An integral part of effective prospecting is modeling. Creating and testing multiple models provides organizations with a better understanding of the data available to them. But be careful not to dismiss the practice if the first model doesn’t return the results you expect. Work with your vendor to keep making tweaks until you find a model that delivers, and use it wisely.

2. Examine successful creative appeals
Now that you know who to send to, the question of what to send them can cause many relief organizations to scratch their heads. Overhauling creative packages isn’t always the answer to increasing sustained giving campaigns. Many organizations feel the need to invest in new materials in order to appeal to new audiences and re-engage previous donors. Often, these charities have existing packages that performed well and could be dusted off for new campaigns. In one instance, a well-known organization had a package that had been shelved for more than four years. This highlighted the charity’s vaccination efforts across the globe and included a “certificate” of appreciation with an enclosed shipping label for donors. When sent out again, the package not only outperformed the recently instated control, but it was also less expensive to produce due to the increased volumes the organization could then reach.

Outside of creative tweaks, organizations need to realize that the world climate has changed — notably the economic climate. Donors, particularly those at the major level, give less to fewer organizations, heightening competition for donations. Also key is messaging that focuses on the organization’s international mission, not just disaster relief. This conveys a longer-term goal for the group and emphasizes the great work done before and after a catalyst such as a natural disaster.

When evaluating campaigns old and new, focus on appeals that rely less on statistics and logic, but instead tug at donors’ heartstrings to create an emotional connection to both the cause and those whom benefit from the incoming funds. This is one of the reasons why appeals immediately following a natural or other disaster are so successful. Forge that emotional connection with an audience by remembering the response you had when you learned about a global need or situation — what connects workers to a cause are often the same appeals that resonate with a potential audience. Don’t shy away from appeals that evoke emotions in the reader, whether anger, fear or even sadness.

Many successful appeals have interactive devices that provide opportunities to further engage the donor. One relief organization has experienced success with a mailed paper “ornament,” where contributors could write personal notes, as well as shipping labels they filled out and sent back to the group with donation pledges. Surveys and petitions also enable donors to feel like they are contributing to the organization’s overall mission and help reinforce the relationship.

When in doubt, take a look at what your organization’s competitors send to potential donors. Pay attention to not only the materials themselves, but the messages, too. Be aware of successful appeals and their contents, and try to incorporate some of these best practices. Chances are, it if stood out to you, it also resonates with your audience.

3. Integrate, integrate and integrate some more
With a more complete prospect list in-hand and refreshed creative content, the next step is to spread that message across multiple channels. No appeal can be an island and still be effective for increasing sustained donors. Direct mail, digital and, yes, even telemarketing should have a unified message that ties each channel together.

Relief organizations have recently seen increased responses for text-to-give campaigns, but those results are often only felt in the days and weeks immediately following an event. For long-term campaigns that seek to establish a relationship with donors, it’s imperative to hit givers from multiple channels. Even with an urgent event such as a natural disaster, groups should lower the barriers to donating by engaging the public on multiple channels — direct mail, e-mail, online and telemarketing. This not only provides a single voice for the public … it enables the organization to more quickly and efficiently raise money.

An integrated, multichannel approach ensures that your organization appeals to donors across multiple mediums. For example, you might follow up a direct-mail appeal with a telemarketing phone call. Or maybe you give donors a heads up prior to a direct-mail campaign with an e-mail saying, “Watch your mailbox.”

As online channels rise in popularity, direct mail and telemarketing appeals can drive users to an organization’s website to facilitate donations. One of the most widely used multichannel approaches is incorporating a website homepage feature that highlights the latest direct-mail package with similar verbiage and graphics. By cross-referencing channels, you ensure that your message is reinforced and you are able to touch potential donors where they are most receptive to your message — and the most likely to give.

By implementing a few best practices, you can breathe new life into sustained giver programs for your relief organization so you’re better prepared to leap into action when the next event occurs.

Bill Goldstein is vice president of client services at multichannel marketing agency Chapman Cubine Adams + Hussey.