eLearning Series

by Jeff Finkelstein This week’s column is dedicated to a case study for non-profit fundraising. We recently completed a project for the Brooklyn Autism Center, where they raised $76,625 through our marketing system, surpassing their goal of $50,000. Below is more information on how we set everything up for the BAC. Also, I was quoted last week in both the San Francisco Chronicle and PC World Magazine about privacy, Google and why you should care.

Fundraising Case Study

Brooklyn Autism Center

The Goal: Raise $50,000 via targeted email campaign, online donation form, and a short video. (Campaign raised $106,103 total.)

Our Idea: Mark Wood on our team listened closely to the needs of the Brooklyn Autism Center, and devised a personalized email campaign and donation system that would help them raise funds for needy children. Using a decade of knowledge in the email and direct marketing industry, Mark made sure that strong, compelling calls to action would motivate people to donate generously.

Brooklyn Autism Center Academy Background: The Brooklyn Autism Center is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) school serving children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Brooklyn, New York. Established in 2007, their philosophy is grounded in a data-based scientific study, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which is the educational standard and best practice for children with autism.

How the Campaign Worked

Step 1: Email Campaign The first step was to reach out to 2,455 friends, family and past donors with a personalized email campaign. The campaign was designed to use calming visual line art, engaging photos and a strong call to action (Donate Now).

The email set up the problem: Ten years ago, 1 in 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism.   Today, 1 in 110 children will be diagnosed with autism. The system sent out a unique, personalized email message to each recipient. Each message was tracked to see who opened it (and how many times) and who clicked on a link (and which link and how often).

Message Open Statistics: 64% of the people opened the message; a normal message open rate is about 17%, indicating that the message was relevant and well received.

Clickthrough Tracking Statistics: Nearly 17% of the recipients clicked through to the landing page. To put this into perspective, a typical clickthrough rate ranges between 0.5% and 1.5% for many email campaigns.

Message Forward Statistics: Even more impressive was the number of people that forwarded the message along to friends. While we don’t track who the message was sent to, we’re able to track that a message sent to one person was opened on multiple different computers.

Message Opens By Date: Most email campaigns are opened within a day or two of the initial sending, and the reporting demonstrated that most of the messages were opened the first and second day. Secondary Calls to Action: The email also had secondary links for participants to follow them on Twitter and Facebook. Facebook was much more successful:

Step 2: Landing Page Once a person clicked through from the email campaign, they landed on a personalized page (Welcome, $first $last)that displayed a video, how much money had been raised to date, and a link to donate now:

The video was designed to create an emotional connection to the students, and the “Donated To Date” system displayed the total amount of donations to create a sense of excitement. When someone clicked on the “Donate Now” Button, we used a Web 2.0 feature to instantly display the donation form (instead of waiting 8-12 seconds for another page to load).

Step 3: Donation Page The donation page was designed to be quick, fast and easy for people to make a donation. We limited the data fields to the “Need to know” information instead of the “nice to know information”:

We created the ability for someone to select a set amount to donate ($40, $100, $250, $500, $1000 or other amount), as well as the ability to donate anonymously. We used an SSL certificate and PayPal to handle the transaction processing, and re-assured donors that all donations are fully tax-deductible. And as many charitable foundations (i.e. family foundations) are only able to make payments by check, we included the address as a way that donations could be sent in via mail.

Return on Investment (ROI): The base price for the campaign, including landing page, email deployment and payment processing gateway development was approximately $3,000. With more than $100,000 raised, the return on the marketing investment was a staggering 33 times return (3,333%). For every $1 spent with Customer Paradigm on the campaign, we helped generate about $33 in donations to the organization.

Client Feedback

“We hired Customer Paradigm to assist us with an email marketing campaign to help raise funds for our school (which is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing high quality education to children with autism).” “Among the many vendors we were entertaining, we chose Customer Paradigm because of their previous experience with non-profits and they seemed to offer all that we needed for the right $ amount.” “Their full serviced email marketing package suited us best as non-marketing professionals and they worked both closely and patiently with us until we were extremely satisfied with our end product. We would not have been able to raise over $75,000 for the Brooklyn Autism Center if it weren’t for the dedicated team at Customer Paradigm.”

Summary: A well designed campaign, with strong calls to action generated a 33:1 return on the marketing campaign for the Brooklyn Autism Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. I hope you found this case study helpful – please pass it along to your favorite non-profit organization.

To have Customer Paradigm contact you about Web-based Non-Profit Fundraising Campaigns please fill out the contact form below or call us toll free at 888.772.0777 or 303.473.4400.

E-Mail Marketing Case Studies - Published in ClickZ

We marketers talk a lot about using email marketing to inform our customers and build community. As with many goals, it can be easier to talk than act. We sometimes get bogged down and don’t know where to start. This case study may be able to provide you with some inspiration. Horizon Organic sells certified organic milk, along with other dairy, egg, and juice products. It owns and operates organic farms and purchases organic products from organic farmers across the nation. The company also has partnerships in the United Kingdom. Horizon Organic prides itself on a loyal base of customers who are also fans. Horizon Organic should also pride itself on its use of the Internet. Its Web site is friendly, cheerful, and informative. Check out the Healthy Living section. It includes a bit about the site researcher, links to useful tools, and content written specifically for the site, both from and for site visitors. And, of course, the home page includes a sign-up form for an email newsletter.

Taking a Stand

In February 2003, Congress added a provision to the $397 billion federal spending bill that would’ve permitted, in some cases, livestock producers to label meat as organic even if the animals’ diets were composed of conventional grains. Obviously, if the bill were enacted, it would have had a large and potentially negative effect on Horizon Organic’s customer base. What was the company’s response? It launched a grass-roots email marketing effort. Shortly after the news broke, Horizon Organic, with the help of its email marketing partner Customer Paradigm, created a one-time mailing called Take A Stand For Organic. By using their existing newsletter template, the creators were able to quickly put together a mailing with Horizon Organic’s familiar look and feel. The message included a logo at the top followed by this copy: The founders of Horizon Organic started work on the organic standards over twelve years ago, well before the word organic was ever discussed or defined in political circles. Now the same freshly implemented government standards we fought so hard for may be compromised and rendered essentially useless. The message went on to briefly describe the federal spending bill, followed by a call to action: Take Action Now — Send An E-mail Or Call Your Representatives. E-mail recipients could click a link and Horizon Organic would walk them through most of this process. The message ended with a forward-to-a-friend feature and a thank-you from the company. Within a few days of the spending bill, the mailing went to an opt-in list of over 14,000 members. Results? Horizon Organic couldn’t track telephone calls or email messages sent, but it could track actions directly related to the mailing. The open rate was 74 percent, about double that of other Horizon Organic campaigns. The unique CTR was 16 percent, and the pass-along rate was 42 percent. Let’s look first at the open rate. A high open rate owes a great deal to the sender and subject lines. Both of these were clear and enticing to the database. The subject line was “Moos Alert — Take A Stand For Organic.” The sender was clearly identified as Horizon Organic. As for CTR, it’s difficult to persuade people to “take a stand.” We all have busy lives. Even when we care strongly about something, we don’t always take the time to do something about it. This CTR indicates how many people were influenced enough to begin the process of contacting their congressional representative. If you combine the CTR with the pass-along rate, it indicates this message really struck a chord. Clearly, good marketers know what their customers care about. As this case study shows, customers care about keeping informed. In some cases, they’re even inspired enough to act.

Jeff Finkelstein is founder of Customer Paradigm, an email marketing and privacy consulting company in Boulder, Colorado.