Email Fundraising

Making a Difference © Care2, Inc. p. More than 9 million Care2 members are making a difference by: Taking Action Volunteering Donating Telling friends Sharing news And much more…

Empowering People Care2 empowers civically active people who care to make a difference. 5,000 new members everyday 3-4 million visitors every month

Making Connections with Nonprofits Care2 invites its members to get involved with nonprofit organizations working on a variety of Causes Care2 members care about.

Engaged Influentials Online and Offline © Care2, Inc. p. Care2 is an active online community. What makes them really special is their propensity to do more…

Online Fundraising Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Have a plan with goals. Ask. Don’t Be Shy. Email once, twice, thrice… Series of appeals will outperform a stand-alone appeal. Create landing pages that reflect the appeal. Test. Subject lines. Landing pages. Segment. Send messages based upon user profiles donor, activist, volunteer, etc. Follow-up. Send thank you email with results of fundraiser.

Where Does the Money Go? Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Be specific. Tell them what how their contribution with help. Support a family Buy a computer for our new staff… Send a person to DC to lobby on issue Start a new program to protect at-risk youth Hire an organizer to target college kids Put an ad on TV

Hit While It’s Hot Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Make the Case Take Action. If your supporters new or old have recently taken action on an important campaign it is a great time to ask for a donation on that issue. Headline News. If your issue is making headline news it is a great time to ask your online supporters to take make a donation and support the campaign.

It’s an Emergency Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Be prepared. You want to be ready to respond when tragedy strikes. You should be only a few steps away from hitting send to ask for help from your online supporters.

Build the List! Be Prepared for Katrina-like Moments Care2 sent 600,000 email appeals Recruited 5000 new donors Raised $205,000 for American Humane in 48 hours! Care2 aims to help nonprofits grow the capacity to respond quickly via email, or extend their reach in times of need:

Issue of the Day Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 You Can’t Pay for this Kind of Attention When your issue rolls off the tongues of everyone who talks about an issue (like the Olympics) there is no question if the timing is right – ASK!

The Holidays Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Synchronize with the Calendar. It is often effective to tie alerts and fundraising appeals to holidays and current events. It makes your communications more relevant, and makes you more human and can be more fun. Look at your calendar and plan ahead.

Got a Month? Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Making a Commitment Online fundraising has simplified the monthly giving process for donors. Turn $10 into $120. Monthly giving program is a great way to move your supporters to the next level of giving.

Set a Goal Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Everyone loves a Challenge Providing your supporters with a goal helps create a sense of community and to understand their role motivating them to action. Setting a goal provides a great opportunity to create a series of appeals keeping users up to date on goal and urge them to help meet the challenge.

The Series Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 A series of appeals built around a campaign are a great strategy to boost donation. Series Opportunities Matching Gift Time Sensitive legislation End-of-year holidays Campaign activity such as placing ad

Who is it from? Together subject lines and from lines work together. Your subject line entices someone to open the email. Your from line discourages your supporter from deleting the email. You’ve written the email and subject line, but who sends the email? Consistency in from line and subject is important in building a relationship and for spam filters. Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09

Benchmarks: Email Appeals Email Open Rates: 14.8% Email click-through rates: 1.1% Email fundraising appeal response rate: 0.13% Avg. Gift: $87 Source: 2008 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09

Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Subject Lines Write it First! Don’t let your subject line be something you crafted on the fly after spending hours on your message. Pack a Punch. It’s the first thing your supporters see. You’ve only got a few moments to catch their attention so you want to make it good. Simultaneous Messaging. Most people read their emails in a preview pane so your subject line is and message are shown together. Test. Try a few subject lines to a segment of your list to see what performs best.

Subject Lines Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 A good subject line causes a psychological reaction. Personal/Touching Stories Create a Sense of Urgency Provocative Crisis Tease Funny/Clever

Subject Line Testing Copyright ©2008 Care2, Inc. All rights reserved 06/06/09 Test, Test, Test. The best way to find out if something works it to take it for a test drive. Split your list in half, in third or quarters and test different types of subject lines. Hit Send. Once you have the results send out the best performing to the remainder of your list. You’ll want to carry the learning into future distributions. Results. A two percent difference in an open rate and translate into thousands of dollars.

About Justin Perkins Justin Perkins joined Care2 in 2006 with an eclectic background as a social entrepreneur, accidental techie, new media marketing expert and former State water resources administrator for a major watershed in Colorado. Justin develops partnerships with nonprofits and customizes strategic campaigns for them to reach Care2's audience of 10 million members. He also develops new tools to help nonprofits with marketing and fundraising. Justin launched frogloop.com, Care2’s popular nonprofit marketing blog, as a way to share cutting edge case studies and best practices for nonprofit online marketing. He has an MBA from the University of Colorado, enjoys trail running & skiing, sells roasted nuts at the farmers markets on the weekends, and frequently writes & speaks at conferences about online marketing. Contact Justin if your nonprofit would like a free hour of online marketing consulting. justin@earth.care2.com

Contact Justin Perkins Director of Nonprofit Services [email_address] 303-475-4827 Cutting edge nonprofit marketing tips: www.Frogloop.com & search the tagged archives

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