Integrated fundraising: one narrative, multiple channels, higher response (and how to do it)

Direct mail is the driving force of every campaign. When you consider the ROI and donor retention, it is still the most effective fundraising method. However, you should not neglect your digital channels, as you can use those to increase your chance of receiving donations.

Organisations that combine online and offline channels:

• recruit more donors
• achieve higher revenues
• build stronger relationships

Research by NextAfter shows that donors who interact with a charity both online and offline are three times as valuable and remain loyal for longer than donors who only donate offline. In other words: the more often you reach a potential donor with the same narrative, the higher the chance of them actually making a donation.

We call this integrated fundraising or a multi-channel campaign. You tell a single narrative via multiple channels. In our modern information age, charities need to use this approach to stand out.

How to build an effective multi-channel campaign

You have developed a strong direct mail with a powerful narrative, a clear sense of urgency and an effective donation request. How can you effectively utilise that same narrative online?

Your website: the central hub of your campaign

You can tie your website into your direct mail in various ways.

1. Campaign or landing page

• • Tell the same story as in your letter, albeit in a more concise and web-friendly manner.
  • Add clear and prominent donation buttons.
  • Optionally, you can include a brief video or quote for added emotion and context.

2. Homepage header or banner

• • While your campaign is active, use an eye-catching banner with a brief message and a clear button, e.g. ‘Read X’s story here’ or ‘Donate now’.

3. Pop-up or pop-in donation form

• • Create an overlay. You can choose to only show it to a specific group of visitors, e.g. people who have visited your campaign or landing page before.

4. Donation page

• • Make sure the page is responsive, loads quickly and contains as few distractions as possible.
  • Add concrete donation amounts and use examples or stories to illustrate the impact of a donation.
  • Make sure the QR codes and personalised URLs from your direct mail lead directly to this page.

Email: the fastest supporter of your direct mail

Donors who receive communications via both regular mail and email tend to donate more and stay loyal to your organisation for longer.

There are several ways to link email to your direct mail:

1. • Teaser email (one week before the expected delivery date): announcement of an important letter. Do not make an explicit donation request, but do include a link for people who already want to donate.
   • Storytelling + donation request (around the delivery date): summarise the core message of your direct mail and include the same call to action and multiple buttons that all lead to the same page.
   • Reminder (a few days to a week after people have received the direct mail): ask people if they have read your letter yet and emphasise the urgency or progress.

Social media: for recognition

In between the various direct mail moments, you can use social media to increase the visibility of your campaign. This makes your narrative more recognisable. For example:

• An announcement: ‘You will receive our letter about [topic] this week. Read the story of [name/child/animal] here.’
• Quote or picture from your direct mail (storytelling).
• Impact update: Midway through your campaign, let people know how many families, children or animals you can already help.
• ‘Last chance’ post: during the final days of your campaign, link directly to the donation page and stress the urgency of making a donation before the campaign ends.

Advertisements: greater reach

With organic posts on social media, you will reach circa 10% of your followers. You can expand your reach with advertisements. Although you can use the same angles as for your organic content, you can also utilise additional segmentation and optimisation.

• • Target audiences
    • Custom audience based on your email database (email addresses)
    • Look-alike audience of your best donors
    • Retargeting of visitors to your campaign page
  • Timing
    • 1–2 weeks before the mailing: awareness and storytelling
    • During the mailing and 2-3 weeks after: direct response (‘Donate now’)
  • Creation
    • Use recognisable elements from the direct mail, e.g. envelop, image and pay-off
    • Write a clear and concise text: ‘Did you see our letter? With your donation of €20…’

Display ads: reminders

Display ads are ideal to:

• reach people again who have already visited your campaign page but have not donated yet.
• increase the visibility of your campaign narrative across multiple online platforms.

Use the same visual language and copy as in your direct mail.

How does Mindwize do this in practice?

Case 1: Céline (for KiKa)

For KiKa, we developed a direct mail that focused on Céline’s story. It consisted of an envelop, a letter with a clear request for support and a brief message from Céline herself.

We translated the direct mail to email. For this, we used the same message and similar elements, albeit with a more compact and screen-friendly structure: a brief intro, the core of Céline’s story and a call-to-action button. The email was sent to a subset of recipients of the direct mail, leads and single donors.

This exposed the target group to the same narrative multiple times via different channels, which boosts both recognition and response.

Case 2: Aponi and Maria (for Attrape-Rêves)

We developed a direct mail campaign for Attrape-Rêves. The focus was on two narratives:

• Aponi, an eight-year-old girl, cannot go back to school without school supplies.
• Maria, a single Navajo mother, is barely able to feed her children around Christmas.

These narratives also formed the central thread in all digital Christmas communications.

Using online ad campaigns, we made sure that the target audience would recognise the direct mailings when they received them. The advertisements were exclusively shown in the top 200 postcode areas where the direct mails had been distributed.

People were exposed to the same pictures and narratives online as in the direct mailings. Every click led to a donation page with amounts that matched the donation request in the direct mails.

One narrative, multiple channels, greater impact

Integrated fundraising works, because it ties into how donors behave in this day and age. They move through different channels all day long. They scroll through their social media feeds, open their inbox and later find a letter on the doormat. By effectively combining direct mail and digital channels, you can increase recognition, foster trust and boost your response.

Would you like to learn more about what that might look like for you and what integrated fundraising can do for your organisation? Contact Benjamin Braun for an introductory meeting without any further obligation.

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