Michigan Humane Society used an integrated donor-acquisition campaign to grow its donor file

By Joe Boland

Advice From the Experts

While executing the Michigan Humane Society’s first truly integrated fundraising acquisition campaign, both Grizzard and MHS gleaned plenty about running a campaign of this magnitude. Here, Tonie Howard, VP of the Animal Care team at Grizzard, and Marta Diffen, VP of development at MHS, share some advice on embarking on a multichannel acquisition campaign.

● The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. “We have been doing more back-end analysis for our clients seeing that even though we may send out 100 pieces of mail and five years ago 50 people would give a check through that reply envelope, now we’re seeing only 30 gifts to the envelope. So we have organizations saying direct mail isn’t performing as well,” Howard says. “Doing some back-end analysis looking at all giving when that mail piece was in-home, we’re finding that people are using online banking, they’re going online and using the general donate button. We’re not able to track people as well, but when they do get the mail piece, they’re giving larger gifts. We know it works.”

● Get everyone on board. “My best advice is that you talk with your president, CEO or executive director, or anybody else on your executive team, and get a really good sense of how your organization overall feels about its ability to do this campaign,” Diffen says. “Is there support for it from a financial perspective? Is there support to get your message out and reach more people? … That’s where I would start because it is something that an entire organization has to be behind in order to be able to support it and meet the timelines, meet the deadlines, be able to provide the type of creative and the type of messaging and the type of story that’s going to be that case for support.”

● Understand acquisition is a long-term initiative. “We for so long in the industry only look at the initial results. We have a hard time looking long term,” Howard says. “That’s the whole change we have to start looking at. What’s our goal? What do we want to obtain? How are we going to get there? Then we’ve got to be patient.”

“Is there support for acquisition from the perspective of the return on investment is going to come, but it’s going to come 15, 18, 24, 36 months out, and then putting the support and plans in place to carry out whatever it’s going to take to get you to that 36-month mark?” Diffen adds.

● Planning is key. “You have to have a plan, and you have to have a plan B,” Howard says. “There has to be open communication among all departments, and people have to take responsibility to follow through. If you set a plan in motion, follow through. It can’t just be short term; it has to be short term and long term.”

● Integrate or get left behind. “For anyone in today’s market, in today’s world, integration is a must on whatever scale you can do it,” Diffen says. “… There’s already groups out there that have done integration. There’s groups out there that already know what to bring to the table for someone who’s considering integration. … We all know that not everybody supports anorganization the same way.

“… However many portals you have as an organization so that people can support you, the better you will be and the more engaged those people will be that are supporting you if they’ve got all of those choices. And the way you deliver that information and deliver your message and deliver your impact has to change too. Not everyone reads the newsletter. Not everybody sees a PSA. You’ve got to figure out how you’re communicating and then customize that communication to the that audience,” she adds.

● Decide what your goals are. “What do you want the long-term goal to be? Set up realistic short-term goals and benchmarks,” Howard says. “It’s not just a one-time shot in the arm. If you are going to do it, it’s definitely an investment that has to be looked at like an investment. We have to not only have everything in place to make sure the initial campaign goes out, but also have processes in place at your own organization to make sure you can do the follow-through.

“We can obtain a lot of new donors or one-time supporters, but we don’t want one-time givers — we want lifetime supporters,” she adds. “It’s really making sure everybody’s on the same page, that you have a written document of what your short-term and long-term goals are going to be, what the processesare going to be, and making sure you have the resources to do the follow-up.”

● Take the plunge. “When you need that adrenaline shot and you need something that’s really going to help you build your program, you have to take that step and potentially step off into unfamiliar territory,” Diffen says. “I’m fortunate that the team of people here took that step with me. That can be a real challenge if you feel like you’re on your own. You need to realize that you’re going to have to step off into that uncharted territory for a little while and really start sailing in some uncharted waters.”

When a nonprofit organization is looking to trim its fundraising costs, acquisition often gets nominated for the chopping block. It's cheaper and more efficient to reactivate lapsed donors or upgrade current donors than to acquire new ones, after all.

However, if an organization hopes to survive and thrive for years to come, acquisition is essential. That's why the best fundraisers fight for every acquisition dollar in the budget they can, no matter how tough of a sell it might be to the executive team or board of directors.

That's why the Michigan Humane Society (MHS) went in with a focused, strategic plan to present to its board of directors and executive team, laying out why acquisition is essential for MHS to meet its goals moving forward. After several meetings, everyone was on board.

"We're very fortunate that we have a leadership team in place that understands the value of acquisition and understands that the lifetime value and return on investment is something that, if you do it right, you will absolutely see the kind of growth and support that you need to consistently enhance your organization and enhance your service delivery," says Marta Diffen, vice president of development at MHS.

It helps that the animal-welfare organization — whose mission is to end companion-animal homelessness, provide the highest quality service and compassion to the animals entrusted into its care, and promote humane values — has a comprehensive strategic plan in place that takes MHS out to 2015 and then 2020. That plan has some pretty aggressive goals, Diffen says, and "in order to do these things and meet these needs and meet the goals and objectives, we need to add a better foundation, get more robust, get more comprehensive with the way we manage our fundraising."

Part of that strategic plan is looking at how MHS acquires new donors and what is needed to add more members to the donor file. So MHS began talking with its partner, nonprofit fundraising and direct-marketing communications agency Grizzard Communications Group, about some of the challenges it faces in Southeastern Michigan and what sort of things it can do to acquire new donors.

Since February 2007, Grizzard has worked with MHS on its annual direct-marketing campaign and really began to introduce the idea of integration in 2009. So MHS started implementing some multichannel integration on a minimal scale but never really launched a fully integrated campaign.

That is until MHS and Grizzard looked at the strategic plan, analyzing where the organization was and where it wanted to be, ultimately deciding 2011 was the year MHS would go ahead with a truly integrated effort.

"With all the information that's out there, [the people at MHS] knew if they wanted to strategically start to grow in terms of donor counts and dollars, they had to look at how they did business differently," says Tonie Howard, vice president of the Animal Care team at Grizzard. "They knew that they needed to [have] a larger number of new donors coming on to support them, and they felt that the type of donor they wanted wasn't necessarily strictly a one-channel donor, but more of a multichannel donor."

"We knew we needed to add basically an adrenaline shot to our fundraising," Diffen adds. "This type of campaign really offered all of the components we were looking for to do exactly that."

So with the help of Grizzard, MHS embarked on its first truly integrated acquisition campaign for the 2011 holiday season. In order to achieve its goal of acquiring new donors and adding active donors to its housefile, MHS and Grizzard utilized direct mail, free-standing newspaper inserts, direct-response television ads, movie theater ads, billboards, display ads, space ads and banner ads.

'You' can make a difference

Running in concert with its annual year-end campaign for donors already on its file, MHS wanted to engage people in the Detroit metropolitan area who weren't really familiar with the organization, people who had not previously received or seen communications from MHS. Grizzard knows that animal-welfare donors are typically in the 55-plus age range, Howard says, but MHS really wanted to engage the community as a whole to help support the goals and mission of the organization, according to Diffen.

So MHS and Grizzard looked at potential themes that could tie the campaign together for new and old donors alike. Knowing the power of "you" in donor communications, they came up with the tagline "Believe You Can Make a Difference." They also wanted to put a consistent face to the campaign, featuring one animal throughout so whenever a prospect saw that animal's face, he or she immediately thought of the campaign. The animal Grizzard and MHS decided on was Addie, a white pit bull who received emergency surgery from MHS and is now a healthy, happy canine.

"Believe You Can Make a Difference" and Addie were featured in every component of the campaign. An alternate tagline, "Your Gift Can Make a Difference," was tested mostly on space ads in the newspaper and online banner ads, but ultimately "Believe You Can Make a Difference" won out.

"So we stuck with that 'you' theme and made sure we showed Addie's sweet face because we know that people like photos of animals," Howard says. "We continued to hammer home that 'you can make a difference' by doing this very simple thing. It's a very succinct call to action — you can make a difference, donate, call here, go here …"

The direct-mail acquisition package was sent in a white outer envelope that featured in red, faux handwriting, "2011 Holiday Fund Drive." Next to that was an animated image of four dogs with snowflakes and the teaser, "Look Inside! Your personalized address labels enclosed." Once inside, the recipient was greeted with a letter that prominently showcased the campaign theme. In the top right corner was a photo of Addie, and to the left of that was "Believe you can make a difference," in red type.

The letter described Addie's story and highlighted the ways donors can make a difference with their dollars to help animals like Addie. It was signed by President and CEO Cal Morgan, which was followed by a postscript that read, in bold type, "Let me urge you to send your generous gift today," followed by the reply device with a pre-checked yes response.

The same type of creative was used for the billboards, which were located in 22 locations throughout the Detroit metro area. Addie's face appeared next to the tagline, with the MHS logo below that and a simple, straightforward call to action: "DONATE TODAY." Below that was a phone number and the MHS URL to drive people to the telephone or online. Variations of the billboard were converted into banner ads, substituting the phone number and URL for a "Make a Gift" button, which took people to the landing page. That message was also used in the free-standing inserts and newspaper ads.

In addition, a 30-second rescue story on Addie aired on three television stations, along with a 60-second spot that ran on a different channel. The dramatic DRTV spots really pulled at the heartstrings, relaying Addie's need for emergency surgery and MHS providing her the care she needed. It ended with Addie looking at the camera and the call to action to "PLEASE GIVE" with the phone number and URL again provided.

At the same time, Addie also was featured in the annual donor appeal to the organization's current donors, major donors and lapsed donors.

"We made sure that we had very consistent messaging," Diffen says. "We made sure that the image and the color and the creative all matched so that if somebody saw the billboard, then got the piece in the mail, then saw it on TV, there was a very clear connection through all of that. It wove together very, very well for people."

Sticking to the plan

To make sure everything did weave together seamlessly, each component was launched in phases. On Nov. 1, the billboards went up to introduce the campaign. Within a week, the direct-mail piece was sent to specific ZIP codes based on demographic and wealth data. A follow-up appeal to people who had the greatest potential to convert was sent about three weeks later. Next came the space ads and the DRTV spots, followed by the rest of the creative. Within about a five-week time frame from the first billboard going up, all the components were active and visible.

As part of the aggressive approach to the campaign, the number of direct-mail acquisition pieces mailed was increased threefold over 2010. In all, 465,000 packages were mailed, along with 324,000 free-standing inserts over two insertion dates in four newspapers — the Detroit Free Press, Macomb Daily and Oakland Press had inserts on Nov. 9 and Nov. 16, while The Grand Rapids Press had the inserts on Nov. 10 and Nov. 17. Space ads were also utilized in two papers three times a week for seven weeks.

As for DRTV, 284 ads aired on four different stations. The 60-second public-service announcement aired Nov. 14 to Dec. 31 on Detroit's ABC affiliate. From Nov. 7 to Dec. 31, the 30-second PSA produced by Grizzard aired on Detroit's FOX affiliate, as well as Grand Rapids' NBC and CBS affiliates. The video was also featured on the MHS homepage, as well as the campaign landing page. In addition, movie theater locations in Ann Arbor utilized ads for four weeks, resulting in 4,592 impressions, while 22 billboards, including six digital billboards, displayed Addie's image.

Display network ads also ran through November and December on organizations' websites such as Animal Planet, Consumer Guide Products, Discovery Channel, Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC and Petfinder.

While MHS and Grizzard had the details meticulously planned for this integrated campaign, there were a few bumps in the road. The typical challenges that arise with a fully integrated multichannel campaign — meeting deadlines, making sure everything flowed well, etc. — made the project management aspect a crucial part of the campaign.

"There wasn't any point where we thought it wasn't going to be successful," Diffen says. "Obviously there were challenges along the way due to the size of the campaign and the number facets that we used. Making sure all of those were integrated and that timelines were being met and deadlines were being met and everything flowed well — that was a challenge.

"It takes strong project management. You need somebody really focused on making sure that everything is deploying when it needs to deploy and it's got the right message."

However, those scenarios didn't deter MHS or Grizzard. They had mapped out a sound, meticulous plan, and they were determined to see it through.

"We just stuck to the plan," Howard says. "There was a plan that was decided, and we stuck with it."

The planning payoff

That determination paid off in a big way. Just through direct mail, MHS brought in about 4,800 brand-new donors, a 148 percent increase. In addition, 1,000 lapsed donors were reactivated. Through May 31, the lifetime value of those 4,800 new donors was $172,000, according to Howard, and of the 5,800 new and reactivated donors, about 20 percent made additional gifts for an average of 2.5 gifts. Further, 65 of those donors have become monthly sustainers.

At the same time, website traffic during the campaign more than doubled, and online revenue increased by 28 percent. MHS also increased its overall revenue by 8.6 percent and grew its active donor file by almost 13 percent. And even though the number of direct-mail pieces tripled to penetrate the market deeper, the cost to acquire a donor was only $1 more in 2011 than it was in 2010.

Of course, with any acquisition campaign, the real payoff comes later on. MHS hopes to break even on the campaign at the 21-month mark. While it's too early to determine if that will be the case, the data suggests MHS is tracking very well. And MHS is doing everything in its power to keep those newly acquired donors engaged and active.

"We're paying very close attention to what we are doing to retain these people," Diffen says. "You want to make sure that you've got the infrastructure and the continuing support on the back end. Now that you made that investment, the last thing you want to happen is no follow-up, no follow-through."

MHS put in a welcome series to new donors, starting with a written acknowledgment landing in-home within seven days of receipt. MHS also sends out impact and impression pieces informing new donors what their dollars are going to do or are already doing to help animals. It also incorporates loyalty pieces, newsletters and thank-a-thons. In fact, for this campaign, MHS had staffers embark on a three-hour thank-a-thon, calling donors and thanking them for their recent gifts.

The animal-welfare organization also worked with Grizzard to produce a voice broadcast thank-you from the CEO to donors, another nice touch to keep the donors active and acknowledge their gifts.

"[MHS] knows that treating donors like part of the family, having donors feel like their giving is having an impact, those are important things," Howard says.

"In a lot of ways, this campaign taught us a lot about who we were, helped us realize who we wanted to be and then helped us put some strategies in place to get there. The other thing that the campaign has shown us is that people really want to support organizations that are doing good things," Diffen says. "We had a number of people who have already given second and third gifts, giving through different portals.

"People who support an organization will be online donors. They'll be direct-mail donors. They'll be event donors. They'll be honor-giving donors. They want to find all those portals and support you in that way," she adds. "That's the ultimate goal. That's where you want people to be. You don't want to pigeonhole somebody and say this person is a direct-mail donor and that's where they're going to stay. You want to give them those opportunities to flourish within all parts of your organization."

To see some of the components of the campaign along with the 30-second video spot, check out Grizzard's case study synopsis here.