New Look at Multichannel Fundraising: insights from fundraising's brightest

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Surprise! There's no such thing as a magic bullet when it comes to fundraising. But then again, wishful thinking aside, you knew that already. The closest you'll come is to create meaningful, mutually satisfying relationships with donors and other supporters through precise communications, impeccable stewardship, and a holistic, seamlessly integrated multichannel strategy that incorporates the full gamut of messaging options from direct mail to e-mail to mobile to social media to … well, who knows what the future holds?

Last month, the Target Marketing Group (which includes FundRaising Success, its sister publications, and myriad editorial products covering the marketing and publishing industries) introduced its latest title, "The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising" — a 131-page report on how exactly fundraisers are using all the channels at their disposal today, with nine chapters on best practices and eight multichannel case studies. It offers a deep well of information that covers it all, as well as how to meld everything into one cohesive fundraising program that resonates with your supporters. It has tips and advice from some of the sharpest minds in the fundraising industry, as well as richly detailed case studies to bring it all home.

The guide came together because the two  editors responsible for it — DirectMarketingIQ Chief Content Officer Ethan Boldt and Fundraising Success Senior Editor Joe Boland — wanted to provide the most complete, up-to-date, practical and interesting resource available today. Boldt assigned out and edited all of the best practices chapters, and Boland pain- stakingly hunted down winning multichannel campaigns and created eight case studies that are as  robust as you'll find anywhere.

Take a peek at the table of contents:

● Chapter 1: What Channels to Use? Depends on the Nonprofit, Its Campaign and Its List by Dennis McCarthy, Jennifer Darrouzet, Noel Beebe and Matthew Mielcarek

● Chapter 2: Developing the Creative and a Message That Works Across Multiple Channels by Moira Kavanagh Crosby and Eliza Temeles

● Chapter 3: Direct Mail: How to Keep the Workhorse Working by Kimberly Seville

● Chapter 4: The E-mail Component: How to Make Sure It Plays Its Role Perfectly by Abny Santicola and Joe Boland

● Chapter 5: Mobile — Integrating the New Player Via Text Messaging by Matthew Valleskey

● Chapter 6: Social Media — How Best It Can Help the Multichannel Campaign by Christina Johns

● Chapter 7: Renewals — Creating the Multichannel Donor Renewal Campaign by Roger Craver

● Chapter 8: How Do We Know If We Are Doing It Right? (Testing and Results Measurement in an Integrated/Multichannel Marketing and Fundraising Environment) by Geoff Peters

● Chapter 9: Other Pieces of the Multichannel Puzzle: TV, Radio, Bus Shelters, Billboards … by Jo Sullivan

Case studies that are included feature The Gorilla Organization’s Great Gorilla Run, The Chesapeake Rotary Club’s Chesapeake Wine Festival, Stop Hunger Now’s Haiti Relief Campaign, Arizona Humane Society’s Pet Telethon, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater San Diego’s Rhythm and Vine Festival, Human Rights Campaign's Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal, Salvation Army’s Red Kettle Drive and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Season of Courage.

Here, Boldt talks a little more about the report, which is specially priced for fundraisers at $79:

FundRaising Success: Why did the TM Group feel this report was necessary/useful at this point?

Ethan Boldt: Every successful fundraising campaign today is multichannel, but there's very  little guidance out in the marketplace on exactly how to run  such a campaign, which channels work best together, or that presents several successful examples of such campaigns.

FS: Who is the book's target audience (which level of fundraiser)?

EB: Target audience is really any fundraiser, but especially midlevel to top-level fundraisers.

FS: What will readers of this report take away?

EB: Readers will take away much more than I can list here! How to use direct mail today in the optimal multichannel way; the increasing role of social media and how to ensure it pays off for the nonprofit; e-mail creative that leads to increased loyalty and retention among donors; how to maximize your Web presence; how to perfectly integrate mobile into a pre-existing campaign; how to perfect peer-to-peer fundraising; developing a message that works across multiple channels; the kinds of tests and renewal campaigns that any solid multichannel campaign needs to have; and of course, numerous case studies about major nonprofits on how to integrate many channels (some over a dozen!) for one winning campaign.

FS: How did you decide which topics to cover and which industry experts to include?

EB: The topics were easy to choose, as we focused on the main  channels being used in today's multichannel campaign. Regarding the authors, some of the best known  and respected thought leaders in their respective area of industry expertise, such as direct mail or renewals, were chosen, after  getting recommendations from our peers. FS

To order a copy of the new "The Art & Science of Multichannel Fundraising" report, check out tinyurl.com/3u96jxm.