Building Your Donor Journey
by Ryan Garnett on May 7th, 2015How often do you think about your donor journey? Whether it’s online or offline, thinking about, and building a great donor journey is key to your success.
A great donor journey ensures that your donors don’t get lost along the way. You need to lead them along the path that will lead them to making a 2nd gift, 3rd gift, and eventually a major and/or legacy gift.
This means doing more than just asking them over and over. Once they’ve made their first gift you need to thank them right away. Ideally within 48 hours. From there, you might consider engaging them further with a survey or petition to build their connection with your organization. This is especially important for online acquired donors. We’ve found that it can take anywhere from 3 -7 steps to convert an online donor to an offline donor. Trying to make this conversion is important, as the retention rate for offline donors is far more than online donors.
It’s also important to think about your donor journey on your website. When a prospective donor arrives, what’s the first thing that catches their attention? It should be your ‘donate now’ button. And when they click that they should be immediately directed to the donation form (which hopefully just requires one click to donate).
Beyond donating, donors (or prospective donors) may also be visiting your site to get further involved by hosting an event, learn more about your organization, or find out what impact donations really do have. All of these should be clearly laid out and easily accessible from your homepage. Again, ensuring that whatever link they click leads them down a path that will provide them with the information they’re looking for, and an option to donate.
Building a successful donor journey both offline and online will increase the number of donations you receive, and will improve the long-term value for all donors.
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Oxfam Newsletter Legacy Feature
A quarterly donor newsletter for Oxfam Canada that includes a section highlighting legacy giving.
University of Alberta Legacy Survey
This was a traditional direct mail campaign leveraging a long-form survey to learn more about their donors and identify those who are interested in leaving a gift in their Will.
Plan International Legacy Microsite
HMA led on the design and implementation of a microsite focused specifically on legacy giving.
Amnesty International Legacy Campaign
This legacy package includes a booklet that features stories of families that have been reunited thanks to donor support. It also includes a survey to ask donors if they would consider leaving a gift in their will.
Children’s Health Foundation Legacy Booklet
A scrapbook-style legacy booklet featuring the history of healthcare at Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island.
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Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides Facebook Ad Campaign
A lead generation campaign including a series of Facebook ads and landing pages.
Marmot Recovery Foundation Facebook Ad Campaign
A lead generation campaign including a series of Facebook ads and landing pages.
Georgia Straight Alliance Year End Campaign
This has been a successful annual digital fundraising campaign that includes a series of seven emails.
Rare Trait Hope Society Website Redesign
HMA led on the redesign of the website for the Rare Trait Hope Society, an organization whose mission is to help children suffering from ultra-rare diseases.
Vancouver International Film Festival Email Campaign
A digital fundraising campaign including a series of four emails.
Oxfam Canada Threads of Change
This campaign was so successful it was featured in I Wish I Thought of That (IWITOT). The direct mail package includes a piece of fair-trade fabric and asks the donor to write a message of hope and send back to be included in a commemorative quilt.
Indspire Calendar
This direct mail fundraising package includes a calendar featuring artwork created by Indspire bursary recipients.
Lions Canada Dog Guides Newsletter
This direct mail package features the ‘Pawsitivity Report’, a quarterly donor newsletter that focuses on sharing the impact that donors make in providing dog guides to those who need them.
Greater Vancouver Food Bank Monthly Donor Invite
We created the design and copy for this direct mail monthly donor conversion campaign.
We also created a new monthly donor club logo. The logo consists of 12 blue hearts, representing each month the donor donates. The hearts create a circle that encompasses an orange circle, which conveys a feeling of unity and community.
This campaign included integration through direct mail, telemarketing, and e-mail. It also included a match as an incentive.
April Campaign
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Greater Vancouver Food Bank Holiday Campaign
This campaign continues to improve every year. From the first year they started integrating digital with direct mail, the Food Bank has seen a 227% increase in revenue. The combination of direct mail, Facebook ads, e-mails, and a campaign-specific donation page has really increased the online donations, with more than 70% of the donations to this campaign now coming online.
Amnesty International Light of Hope Campaign
This annual campaign leverages direct mail and other physical components with e-mail and other digital components, to deliver a strong integrated approach.
BC Children’s Hospital Foundation Holiday Campaign
A highly successful integrated fundraising campaign including direct mail, e-mails, and digital ads.
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