2014 Washington Nonprofit Conference: True Stories of Telefundraising Success

The layers and droves of snow lining the sidewalks early in the morning last Thursday didn't stop hundreds of professional fundraisers from making their way to downtown D.C. to attend this year's edition of the DMA Nonprofit Federation's Washington Nonprofit Conference. And any worry we had of our session being empty was quickly dispelled. The room was brimming with eager faces wanting to hear Shira Mitchell, senior manager of direct-response marketing at Special Olympics, and I talk about how telefundraising works for our programs.

So let's jump right in. What have we learned about telefundraising through our respective programs?

Let's tackle PETA first. We have a strong and constant focus on growing the monthly sustainer program, and the file has been steadily increasing in the past two years. Since May 2013, we've seen a 13 percent jump in our file size. One of our most effective campaigns is our rolling telefundraising sustainer invite.

On a quarterly basis, we invite new (donor who just gave in the past zero-three months) and renewed donors to become monthly supporters of our Investigations & Rescue Fund. We also pull lapsed sustainers into the call, trying to capture anyone who might have fallen off "by accident" simply due to outdated payment information.

What is the Investigations & Rescue Fund, and why is it such a compelling ask for us? The I&R Fund supports all PETA's efforts to investigate and expose animal cruelty and push for prosecution of abusers. It's a tangible item that makes donors feel like they are taking a direct part in helping animals — which they are! To make sure they know this, we send sustainers monthly updates online or offline where we talk about the most recent rescues and victories that we have achieved. So they know exactly what their money is going to.

Grabbing new and renewed donors quickly after their recent gifts is important. They are in tune with PETA right now and were just compelled to give to our organization. We jump in while they are still feeling this passion and motivation and ask them for a monthly commitment. Timing is everything.

Our script starts out with a question: "What's the main reason you support PETA?" This allows the donor to have a voice and feel connected with the caller (i.e., with us). After two sustainer asks, we go into a single gift as the third and final ask.

What kind of results are we seeing? Our last two campaigns brought in a 9.2 percent and 8.5 percent sustainer pledge rate respectively, with average gifts hovering around $14.50 for both. After fulfillment for our November campaign, we are seeing an annualized income just above $50,000, with 195 new sustainers and 342 single gifts. And remember … they just gave a previous gift in the last three months, so these additional single gifts from the folks that chose not to become sustainers still show engagement and an indication of strong lifetime value — because we all know getting the second gift can be a challenge.

PETA is also testing extensively in the sustainer invite telefundraising program — everything from first asks to credit card asks and the fulfillment outer envelope.

PETA also runs an annual sustainer upgrade program, which we are about to kick off at the end of February. Without going into too much detail, I will just say that our 2013 campaign saw a 44.9 percent upgrade pledge rate and a $3.41 average upgrade amount. Needless to say, you should ask your sustainers to upgrade.

Your takeaways from what PETA is doing with sustainers in telefundraising:

• Invite — make it easy and painless to become a sustainer by inviting in all channels, and offer different payment options.
• Retain — telefundraising is a perfect opportunity to connect with your supporters and give them a voice in your relationship.
• Cultivate — inform donors regularly of what your programs have accomplished.
• Upgrade — do ask your sustainers to upgrade their monthly amount, and don't be afraid to ask and ask again.

But wait — we are not done yet. There's more.

I had the privilege of presenting with Special Olympics' Shira Mitchell and hearing about how Special Olympics approaches lapsed reinstatements and new-donor conversion through telefundraising.

Twice a year the folks at Special Olympics call lapsed donors to get them back into the active donor fold. They do this with the goal of keeping the cost per dollar raised (CPDR) within $1.30, and their target audience is 49+ month donors.

The messaging is mission-based while using language that makes donors feel like they are "active" givers. And this approach has proved to work well. Results have been strong, and currently the CDPR is sitting at $1.11 with an average gift of $24.05. And they are breaking even already at six months.

Mitchell also talked about the multichannel impact of the reactivation program. A donor who receives both direct-mail and telemarketing appeals has an 8.89 percent reactivation rate vs. just above 5 percent for telemarketing or direct mail alone.

With those kinds of numbers, investing in telefundraising reactivation certainly makes sense! And Mitchell recommends launching your campaign early in the fiscal year to minimize impact on net revenue.

Moving on to the next topic — new-donor conversion through telefundraising. Special Olympics set out to improve retention and get the second gift. It does that by calling new-to-file and just reactivated donors five times a year. The objective is to break even just after three months.

The script is relatively less aggressive and focuses on making sure the donor hangs up feeling appreciated, even if he or she doesn't give a second gift. Speaking of gifts, there is an ask in the script. The first ask is monthly, and the second ask tries to get a single gift.

Results show that it's all worth it, with a 19.22 percent pledge rate, a $0.77 CPDR and breaking even at three months. This call has also proved to improve first-year retention, boasting a 42 percent higher retention rate for the folks included in the campaigns.

If you are not already using telefundraising in your direct-response program, now is a good time to get started. If you are, but have yet to utilize the untapped potential of sustainer invite calling and lapsed reactivation campaigns, dive in right away. Add a test campaign into the next budget. It's well worth the investment.

Katinka Partridge is response fundraising manager at the PETA Foundation.