129. SPN: Donors are Tuning You Out. Try this in 2025.
Plus, How to maximize the LTV of audiences giving at EOY and the merits of plain text emails
This is it… everything you worked on this year will hopefully come to fruition with your End of Year campaigns now in full swing. All the new phone numbers, email addresses, opt-ins from events, etc… I hope it all happens precisely as you planned. I’m sure it will.
A very warm welcome to all the new subscribers. I’m thrilled to have you as readers and truly appreciate your feedback and support.
“Maximize efficiency without increasing costs” sounds nice and a lot like marketing spiel.
But with Fundraise Up you can process donations from any channel in one place.
Which means eliminating the need for costly additional software.
Which truly means your Org can Maximize Efficiency Without Increasing Costs.
Game-changer? It is for me!
In this week’s SPN →
Seven years ago, I ran the first BIG Giving Tuesday of my life. We generated over $1 million in a single day. At the time, I thought the hard part was over - just fundraise as much as possible, and then we’d be good to go.
What I didn’t realize was how much work is needed once Giving Tuesday ends, not just from an operational standpoint but also with getting these people to stick around and stay as high LTV donors.
Generally, from cohort analysis, you’ve probably seen that your lowest LTV donors are those who likely came in during an Emergency fundraising appeal or a Match.
So today’s newsletter tackles two big topics:
How do you reach donors who are actively trying to tune you out?
and, what do the numbers say about donor behavior before donation?
How to maximize the LTV of audiences giving at EOY, in particular to emergency and Match appeals?
Plus, I’ve shared plenty of Jobs that took my fancy this week too.
Let’s dig in!
How Do You Reach Donors Who Are Actively Trying to Tune You Out?
Though it’s tricky when comparing YoY given how late GT is this year, November didn’t look great for fundraising - especially in terms of the sheer number of donations.
That said this Black Friday felt surprisingly positive - slightly higher YoY (~3-4% higher) - and this weekend also looks strong comparing the weekend pre-GT YoY.
According to Giving Tuesday’s mid-year report (covering Jan-June 2024) though, the number of digital donors fell by 3.9% YoY - continuing a trend that started in 2023.
More importantly, the number of micro- and small- donors (those donating less than $500 a year and core of the online giving audience) fell much more drastically - by 12.3% and 7.1% respectively.
But what do these numbers say about donor behavior BEFORE donating?
Viewability of digital ads has been on a downward trend for the last several years.
The use of Ad Blocking solutions is on the rise, with most studies placing it at around 33% in the US.
A Censuswide study even put it as high as 52%, but it was sponsored by – you guessed it – a maker of ad-blocking software.
I couldn’t find YoY stats on the frequency of digital ads. Still, with the increase in overall digital spending – and a decrease in the total addressable audience due to a rise in AdBlock usage – it makes sense why I’m seeing the average frequency is up too.
Facebook is changing its primary metric to views, the first - but likely not the last - platform to move further from engagement metrics to pure “reach”. This move brings digital closer to the dying breed of TV advertisers and GRP metrics.
Generally, digital consumers are actively tuning out as much of the digital noise as they can, which leads to more of them downloading ad blockers, which leads to fewer prospective donors seeing more ads each, and so on…
For-profit brands mitigate this by either investing in significant, multi-channel, long-form brand activations (think the largest spender in the US, Apple, with 67% of its marketing spend going towards YouTube videos) or by widening their audience and leading with aggressive price promotion for the lowest cost possible (think every eComm brand and their “40% off” Facebook ads run on “minimize CPA”).
Neither is a viable strategy for Orgs that don’t have pockets as deep as Apple or those just not willing to burn through consumers as much as Allbirds - not to mention that constantly running a 3x match for newly acquired donors (the closest non-profit equivalent of a 40% discount) is going to burn the existing donor file and mess with your balance sheet).
So, what can Fundraising and Marketing Operators do about it in 2025?
Play the long game. It’s going to take more impressions to have somebody donate to your Org. To be profitable, the donor lifecycle needs to be longer than one impression, and you’ll need to adapt your media buying and measurement principles:
If you’re still using Last Click attribution, stop. At least switch to Data-Driven attribution in GA4, which will help deduplicate conversions across channels and give some credit to impressions earlier in the funnel.
Set your prospecting campaign frequency across channels to at least 16 over a lifetime, limiting it to 8 per month, 4 per week, and 1 per day. This will ensure you show up for each prospective donor over time longer than most other Org’s (and even brands in general) they’re seeing, increasing your chances for interaction.
Report on 30-, 60-, and 90-day conversions. Use time lag reports in GA4 to see the revenue generated over 30, 31-60, and 61-90 days after the first paid media exposure. If your Org’s conversions for the 61-90 day period represent more than 20% of the total, consider extending your reporting window to 120 days.
If your Org has no budget for a big-name branding campaign with many new video assets, consider going directly to streaming platforms. Most now offer creative production services and produce assets of 80% the quality for 20% of the price. I shared an example of KitKat doing that with Paramount in SPN #127.
Invest in long-form content. Video campaigns are the best attention grabbers that help tell an Org’s story. Share of long-form video (30+ seconds) in your marketing budget should be no less than 15%, increasing yearly by at least 5%.
For every video creative asset, produce a vertical version for mobile screens on TikTok and Instagram – and a horizontal one for big-screen streaming services.
Consider P2P campaigns with your most loyal donors. GoFundMe’s acquisition of Classy in 2022 was an early indicator of the winds shifting towards more P2P, in-network fundraising, especially among younger donors who tune out your regular ads. Especially during this EOY period, consider setting up a number of P2P fundraisers with your existing donors to reach their social circle more authentically than ads ever could.
Go offline. Orgs must find ways to become part of prospective donors’ day-to-day lives in a non-intrusive yet memorable way. Human attention span is longer offline than online – tap into that with Digital Out-of-Home. I shared tactics to break into it as a channel in SPN #89.
Add Viewability to your regular metric roaster. Few orgs look at Viewability, instead focusing on CTR, conversion rate, and other $-first metrics. The increased frequency increases the risk of rapidly wasting large parts of your budget by buying non-viewable impressions. Partner with an independent viewability vendor – my favorite is DoubleVerify – and implement their tags across all your platforms rather than relying on the native viewability metrics. The target value should be at least 75% of all impressions.
Test your messaging. Most donors are exhausted from seeing a large red calls to action to DONATE NOW with very little context, regardless of whether it’s in an email, paid social, or display. Most Orgs default to it. Break the cycle. Test variations of the following message across all channels, sending it to previous regular donors on file who churned this year:
“This year, we’re falling $X short of our fundraising target. Our mission to do X is more critical than ever. A $5 donation will make a huge difference – will you consider restarting your donation?”
Experiment with native advertising on podcasts. The consensus seems to be that if the 2020 election was won on Twitter and social media, the 2024 election was won on podcast shows.
Podcasts have already taken a tremendously large audience segment away from radio in the US and have the widest reach with the youngest average audiences. Its reach as a channel is the same as Instagram’s at roughly 140 million people in the US. Still, total advertising spend is a mere nothing at $2.5 billion, compared to Instagram’s $35 billion. That creates an unparalleled opportunity for broad reach at (still) low cost. (I’m also experimenting in SNAP - feels very untapped and tons of potential - more soon).
SPN Tip: Start with selecting 3-5 podcasts that largely align with your Org’s message and have an average listener count per episode of ~20,000. You can search for your Org’s main keywords on any large podcast platform to find them. Do a direct partnership with them, insert a native piece that hosts will read out with no aggressive “donate now” CTA, and don’t start programmatically – programmatic podcast ads are skipped as much as on YouTube. In contrast, native ads have a much higher chance of being listened to.
Jobs & Opps 🛠️
WHO Foundation (WHOF): Senior Development Manager - West Coast
The Guggenheim Museum: Senior Director, Communications and Public Relations ($160,000 - $175,000)
World Food Program: Internship: Supporter Experience Intern, Individual Giving Team - Private Sector Partnerships Division
BRAC USA: Sr. Manager, Individual Giving ($105,000-$110,000)
Reform Alliance: VP, Marketing ($250,000)
Conservation International: Chief Marketing & Comms
NYC Outward Bound: Director, Advancement ($95,000 - $120,000)
Goodwill Industries International: Manager, Sustainability Impact ($85,000 - $105,000)
Save the Children International: Senior Specialist, Global Digital Acquisition
Cancer Research UK: (Early career) Paid Social (£35,000 - £40,000)
→ More jobs updated daily to SPN’s sister website: www.pledgr.com
Explore: Build Your Tech Stack (link)
Searching for new tools or trying to trim down your tech stack? Play around in this infographic. I add to it most weeks.
Maximizing LTV
When I think about how to nurture donors, the general answer is to engage with them more and in a way that makes you stand out. If you need any inspiration, see how the large alcohol companies do it. For real. They’re not allowed to show any consumption, so everything about their comms has to be channeling vibes.
Everything here is a thought starter in that vein, so take it down whichever paths feel natural to your Org.
Here’s What I’ve Deployed that’s Returned Dividends
Send a Plain Text Email From Your CEO/ED
It surprises me that more Org’s don’t do this. Almost immediately after the donation lands - irrespective of audience or amount - send an email from your CEO/ED thanking people for the donation. Tell them this is Email 1 of a 5-part Welcome Series, and tell them what to expect in the following 4: information on the Org’s program work, an opportunity to “meet the team” etc. Tee it up. Manage their expectations And add a prompt to reply if they have any questions about their donation or your Programs.
It’s such a small lift, but it goes such a long way. Plus, with a plain text email, you’re going to see a higher open rate, and if you can get a reply, your emails get an easy pass straight to their Primary Inbox.
Send Several Thank You Emails
Your Welcome email should be a series, not an after thought or a one-off. Through these emails, you want to ensure you’re channeling “brand” - what does the brand feel like, smell like, sound like, look like, etc? Incorporate this through copywriting and imagery. Stop polishing your copy - get it out into emails and channels, get feedback from donors (you’ll see how they respond) and iterate. Evolve accordingly.
In a 5-email send include a “Meet the Team” email (where possible, the team on the ground) - highlight one or two program people and their respective roles. It helps build trust, credibility and connection. And make a monthly upgrade ask more than once. Get the first two emails sent within three days of the donation and the remaining three emails paced across 12 days.
Also, check out SPN #88 where I got deep and detailed in an Email Deep Dive - the flows, the why and the when.
Share Content
After you convert donors during GT, especially if these people are net-new donors, you need to spend the next few months nurturing them with value-add content. You can do this with emails, video, social posts, and ads targeted to this cohort with:
Showing the journey that their dollar donation takes within your Org - how is it used, WHERE does it travel to?
Demonstrate HOW a Program works, or how to participate/volunteer in it
Promote social proof as to why hundreds or thousands of others love your mission, reinforcing WHY someone donated in the first place
Publish content that shows WHY your Org does what it does
Anything that reminds people to donate again and sign up to commit to a monthly donation
(Even outside Giving Tuesday and EOY, you should have a plan for this and several emails and texts lined up in an automated sequence that helps nurture every new donor you acquire).
Push Donors to Participate in Other Brand Assets
This could be your SMS list, Facebook group, local events, etc. Whatever assets you can add them too that’s not just an ask for another donation is great. These should also be sprinkled into your evergreen flows, between value-add content, as well.
Offer Some Exclusive Swag for Next Time
If you notice someone hasn’t made another donation to you 60 days after initially doing so, tap the swag closet. It’s a great reason to re-engage.
Check your data but what I see is that the probability of someone becoming a high LTV donor maximizes once someone has donated 3 times in 60 days.
Promote Your Monthly Pledge Program
Every Org needs one and every Org needs to operate as though all roads lead to the monthly pledge program. Because they do! As I wrote two week’s ago in SPN #127, when I’m carving up priorities and allocating 2025 resources the monthly pledge program gets the lions share.
Recommend Complementary Programs
For example, if a donor donated to help a cat litter receive some much needed medical attention, recommend they donate to the cat sanctuary next. Match what you recommend to the AOV range that a donor donated.
Ask for a Review
The E-commerce sector nails this. 30 days after the product has arrived they ask for a review. Follow suit. Even better if these are to camera or a photo - those always get more engagement. Encourage donors to share their donation experience with you. Do it well and you will set your Org apart.
If you get a really good review from a donor, reach out to them for their consent and run it as an ad, or a part of another ad.
Surprise Donors with a Digital Gift
45 - 60 days post donation test sending a digital gift, which costs you nothing but still creates a positive brand experience. I’ve seen Org’s do this with a downloadable impact report or Spotify playlist, or in Corp Partnerships via meditation apps, exercise apps and recipe apps.
Figure out what space makes sense for your Org and tap the Corp Partnership team. It’s also a win for these apps. Form a partnership that makes sense for both parties and leverage their distribution channels.
Send a Survey
I crafted one of these just this week. Ask how they heard about you, what other causes or Org’s they support, what would make them feel even more connected to you,
which of your programs or initiatives resonates with them the most, what inspired them to support your mission? This is valuable info for you as an Org.
It’s also not an ask to get them to donate again. But it can get them thinking in that way.
Follow Up via Direct Mail
Underestimate DM at your peril, especially for millennials. I love to follow up with a direct mail campaign when I’ve another campaign brewing or ask to surface. The perceived value of receiving physical mail from a brand is huge. “Random” Org’s don’t send physical mail, so if you get to their mailbox with a beautifully designed postcard you’re in a good place.
Good luck! This isn’t a recommendation, but good luck to you and your team this week. Considering you’re an SPN reader and reading this during BFCMGT week, I know you’re bound to drive a ton of fundraising dollars and success for your Org.
Ping me a reply with how your GT went!
OK, that’s all for today.
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Reads From My Week
The “Account Planning Group” - the Ad Industry body for Strategists - has a new guide entitled AI for Strategists - full of useful info and tips (APG)
5 Ways TikTok’s AI Ad Buying Tool Smart+ Can Catch Up With Meta’s ASC (Adweek)
The case for and against The Trade Desk’s CTV platform (Digiday)
(Listen) Building MSCHF (Colossus)
The Beginning of the End of Big Tech (Wired)
How Curiosity and Innovation Fuel Success With PepsiCo - interview with their VP of Digital Commerce (Ad Week)
Music revenues overtake cinema’s pre-pandemic peak on back of streaming boom (FT)
Nurturing Lifelong Fandom (Two Circles)