Integrated Fundraising Case Studies For The Agitator Concept/Management by left bank (Steve Hubley & Joe White) Contact: steven@leftbankconsulting.com joe@leftbankconsulting.com Client organization Montreal SPCA; Anthony Johnson, Dir of Development Case Study 1 Integrated Special Appeal to boost net revenue at fiscal year end The Montreal SPCA (MSPCA) is the oldest and second largest animal shelter in Canada. They have approximately 60,000 donors, mostly direct mail premium- acquired and located mostly in the province of Quebec, with a concentration in and around Montreal. Working with a small MSPCA fundraising staff led by Director of Development & Marketing, Anthony Johnson, left bank provides integrated fundraising consulting and program management with a strategic priority to diversify fundraising sources and build cost effective sustainable revenues. Overview In 2013, the MSPCA budget initially called for raising an incremental $40,000 in net revenue from a Mid Donor telemarketing program in November/December 2013. As it happened, late program starts and lower revenues in other channels caused the client to challenge left bank with a much higher fundraising goal from the same audience. Now the Mid Donor program needed to generate more than $70,000 in net revenue a 75% increase from the original budget. In previous programs, a Mid Donor was defined as a donor who had given $100 or more in the last 3 to 15 months. MSPCA staff & left bank began by developing a compelling and unique case for support that would serve as the basis of a campaign- style, year- end fundraising program. The first- of- its- kind shelter repair campaign featured roof repairs, ventilation upgrade and other cosmetic repairs. With winter approaching the campaign had real urgency. To reach the increased goal, left bank recommended an expanded strategy that would integrate phone, email, web, video and highly personalized direct mail. The Strategy 1. We expanded the phone donor audience to from $100+ donors to also include certain $40-99 donors. We focused on previous phone donors, prior credit card use, donation frequency and other factors that were predictive of positive response to this appeal. 2. We produced a custom one- minute/45 second video showing areas of the shelter that needed repairs, along with clips of animals waiting for adoption. The shelter veterinarian provided a brief statement about animal care at the shelter, and Nicholas Gilman, Executive Director, made a brief pitch at the end. Both English & French versions of the video were produced and posted on a special campaign landing page with a Watch Video button. 3. We mailed $100+ donors a highly personalized 1 st class pre- call letter explaining the need, pointing them to the online video and advising them of an imminent call.
4. All records in the target audience with an email address were sent an email appeal with a link to the web page/video posted on the MSPCA website and advising them of an imminent call. 5. $40 - $699 donors were called by TM firm. To control costs & protect net revenue, left bank required the TM firm to sustain at least 12 contacts/hour in order to cap costs. In depth donor segmentation and response analysis combined with on- the- fly scripting changes helped optimize phone pledge results. 6. $700+ donors were assigned to be called by MSPCA senior leadership. left bank provided coaching & scripting. 7. All $40+ donors who declined to make a phone pledge or who were not reached were sent an email appeal with a link to the posted video. Program Challenges The campaign needed to be conducted in both official languages (English & French) and required an aggressive timeline to ensure direct mail letters, emails and phone scripts could be translated and produced as a coordinated strategy. With a fundraising staff of just 1.5 people, left bank had to manage many details in a time- sensitive campaign. For example, coordinating the videotaping with volunteers & MSPCA staff, managing staff & volunteer media release forms, scheduling letter production, email launch and website changes, to name a few. Managing timing of calls & performance of call centre/donor segments with respect to the net revenue goals of the campaign was a constant focus. With concurrent fundraising occurring using other channels such as direct mail care needed to be taken to minimize multiple contacts with donors as well as effective results tracking. Initial Revenue Projections by Channel TM revenue $ 70,000 TM Leadership calls $ 20,000+ Pre- call Direct Mail $ 20,000 Web/Email revenue $ 5,000 Total Revenue goal $115,000 Revenue Sources 1. Credit card gifts on phone. 2. Credit card gifts on web site. 3. Mail in gifts from pre- call direct mail appeal. 4. Mail in gifts from phone pledges. 5. Mail in gifts from MSPCA leadership calls.
Shelter Repair Campaign Fundraising Budget Telemarketing $30,000 Video Production $ 2,000 Website & Email $ 2,000 Pre- call letter (prod, copy) 7,500 Total projected expenses $41,500 Net Revenue projected $73,500 As of January 15, 2014, the final tally of revenue & cost by source was compiled by MSPCA and left bank. Below are the final figures. Net revenue totaled $117,000, a significant increase from our projections. Our TM estimates were spot on, and the big surprises were $54,000 in direct mail from 3,400 letters and $38,000 from directly- attributable website/email. Phoning and direct mail costs were slightly higher than projected. We we re pleased to see many donors upgrading their gift sizes from previous levels. And of course high response rates without the need for costly premiums was a welcome achievement. REVENUE IN THE DOOR Credit Card from TM program $ 63,943 OTG (1x) Mail from TM program $ 5,070 Total TM revenue $ 69,013 Pre Call Letters $ 54,130 Website $ 38,138 Other revenue $ 2,250 TOTAL REVENUE $ 163,531 COSTS Calling Hours $ 32,858 Pre- mail letter $ 9,500 Website, email, video $ 4,000 TOTAL $ 46,358 CURRENT NET REVENUE $ 117,173
Our final thoughts are that: The pre- call direct mail revenue makes sense because the file was built via direct mail. The high end package & 1 st class stamp to the $100+ segment was very different from what the donors were used to and probably different from what they receive from other charities. The decision to produce a video was the boldest and most rewarding component. Online revenue (year- end) was twice as much compared to year- end 2012. The integrated, single- focused campaign model was fully demonstrated by the success of the MSPCA Shelter Repair Campaign. The success of this first fully integrated campaign has paved the way to further use of this strategy. If there had been more time, we would have tested more within the dimension of the campaign but we recognized that additional project/fundraising complexities greatly increased operational risks. In the end, the bold strategies and combined efforts paid off beyond our wildest expectations. Supporting documents Pre- call direct mail letter Post call email copy Campaign video Calling script Case Study #2 Monthly sustainer pledge rate & ROI comparison; you can t always get what you want. left bank has been working to build MSPCA s monthly sustainer file for the past two years. Strategies and project management tactics have increased monthly revenue by over 400% and now monthly revenue represents a significant percent of the organization s budget. As independent TM strategists and consultants, left bank conducts a variety of call centre tests to ensure best performances for clients and ongoing analyses of call centres, scripting, integration and fulfillment strategies, etc. The Montreal SPCA operates in both official languages of Canada French & English. Language laws in Quebec are taken very seriously and impact every aspect of an organization s fundraising program. Anyone familiar with the call centre business knows how even one poor phone call can derail an otherwise successful telemarketing program. So it did not surprise us that MSPCA would be keen to find a call centre partner with stellar bi- lingual Quebecois fundraisers. During the first several years conducting outbound phone calls, there were few complaints about the quality of bi- lingual fundraisers.
While we were hesitant to mess with success, we decided to test a Montreal- based call centre with an excellent reputation for monthly giving. In order to protect the client with an untested agency, we allocated the number of phone contacts and based primary success measurements on an both a long- term (60 month) ROI and the client s need to breakeven within their fiscal year, approximately 10 months. The ROI analysis had to take into account major differences in call centre fees, the productivity (contacts per hour) of each agency, monthly and one- time (OTG) gift response rates, average monthly & OTGs, credit card/pac (paid on phone) rates, and check fulfillment. Finally, the budget realities for MSPCA required us to project revenue through the fiscal year. We offered each call centre the opportunity to provide financial risk limits as part of the test so that the client would have a cost per call range impacted less by contacts per hour/caller productivity. The incumbent firm choose to guarantee a specific number of contacts per hour; the test firm believed that limiting call length would negatively impact monthly response rates. It s fair to say that we were anxious about the cost per call of the test call centre but wanted to see if the higher cost could be offset by a much higher monthly donor rate. Our worst nightmare and best dream started to materialize within the first 500 donor contacts made by the test firm. Out of the gate, the test firm generated a 9% monthly sustainer paid response rate more than double the monthly rate of the incumbent firm. We were stunned by such a high monthly donor response rate. In fact, we were so surprised that it took us a while to focus on other performance criteria especially the cost per call and OTG rate. Both TM firms had identical nth select donor segments but their calling strategies were vastly different. As you can see from the attached ROI analysis, the test firm s cost per call was almost three times as high because callers averaged between 5 and 6 contacts per hour. The test firm also focused almost exclusively on generating monthly gifts, all of which were paid on the call via credit card or checking account, known in Canada as PAC or PAD (pre- authorized debit). Even though we had a few years of experience with the incumbent agency s check pledge fulfillment, we decided to count only paid on the phone monthly & OTGs. In this way, we were comparing apples to apples instead of relying on the uncertainty inherent in check sustainer fulfillment. While it s difficult to overcome a cost difference of over $5 per call, abandoning one- time gifts in pursuit of monthly gifts proved to be a losing formula for the test firm. A strong credit card OTG response rate by the incumbent firm generated a significant amount of revenue to offset costs and improve the 12 month and fiscal year ROI. The fiscal year ROI was critical to the client. OTG revenue, much lower cost and a respectable paid monthly sustainer rate was the winning formula for the incumbent firm. At the end of the test, the 12 month ROI comparison was 2.0 vs 1.1 and the number of months to breakeven ended at 4.6 for the incumbent firm and 10.6 for the test firm. We ve seen several studies and claims about the average life of a monthly sustainer, but we chose 60
months to determine if the higher monthly donor rate would result in more net revenue for the client. Even at 60 months, the ROI for the incumbent was 7.8 compared with 4.6 for the test firm. In the final analysis, we learned a few new things from the call centre test. For example, the methodology of each firm was different when it came to how calling was managed. The incumbent firm plowed ahead making contacts across most donor segments, while the test firm tended to cherry pick (our term) or employ data mining (TM firm term) in how it chose to prioritize calling segments. So yes, the monthly response rate of the test firm was very high, but it was not sustainable and didn t meet the client s fiscal year ROI target. On the surface, the test firm s results might be perceived as highly successful and some fundraising directors might believe the test firm s results are in their long- term best interest. From our client s perspective, the test firm could not maintain its high monthly rate and fully penetrate its portion of the test file. In other words, sustainers and net revenue were left on the table because many donors that did not meet optimal monthly donor criteria were excluded from the calling effort. In fact, when we extrapolated the test firm s results to equal the number of contacts made by the incumbent firm, we ended up with the same ROI. Every which way we ran the numbers, the combination of better price, higher OTG rate and solid monthly sustainer results outperformed the combination of a much higher monthly response rate, a much higher price per call and a negligible OTG rate. In the end, the client got the best results and two old fundraising dogs learned a few things along the way.