Support and Enhance In-Person Fundraising With a Multichannel Strategy

For many associations, in-person events provide a significant percentage of yearly PAC and foundation revenue. For example, PAC and foundation clients here at Membership Marketing Services report that 50 to 70 percent of their yearly funds are raised in person in a standard fundraising year.

When you review your fundraising revenue stream, are you hitting this metric?

If not, it may be time to consider a new year-round marketing strategy to build your PAC or foundation brand because in-person fundraising will continue to be a leading channel. After all, the high energy, excitement, visibility, and networking opportunities offered face to face create the perfect fundraising environment.

In sales, the golden rule is seven touchpoints before a sale.  (opens in a new tab) Understanding this is important because fundraising is ultimately a sales function; your donors are buying the benefits of their support.

To make marketing decisions, you need to review the donor’s entire journey.  

Building a year-round, multichannel strategy gives you the seven touchpoints necessary to drive positive action and in return increase donors at in-person events. Through education and awareness, you are removing the barriers that keep people from giving. Each channel should be designed to bring in revenue as a standalone effort and to bolster response to subsequent efforts by raising awareness and creating a variety of options for support.

What’s a Multichannel Fundraising Strategy?

Simply put, it is the use of one unified messaging strategy across many communications channels. A strong multichannel campaign will use precision timing between each to keep prospects engaged; it will utilize data gathered in the previous channel to add impact to the next channel, and together deliver a response that each channel cannot match as a solo effort.

Channels most used by PACs and foundations are direct mail, email, fax, phone, peer-to-peer texting, webinars, and podcasts. No mix of channels will work for all groups, and testing is key to finding the right mix to educate your members and drive response. Consider where your members spend their time, how they like to communicate with their association, and try to diversify with at least three to five channels.  

Results. The biggest mistake you can make when analyzing fundraising results is to become hyper-focused on the channel a contribution arrives through.  Where a donor gives only tells you the end of the story. To make marketing decisions, you need to review the donor’s entire journey.  Know what channels each donor received prior to making a contribution, and how they interacted with each channel.

Testing. To test a multichannel campaign, segment a few groups. Your first group will be your control, the group that you will keep consistent with prior years. Next create one or two test groups that will receive different communication prior to the event.

Consider a healthcare organization that primarily has doctors for members.

• Group 1: Direct mail, a fax to their office, and a text campaign.
• Group 2: Email, direct mail, and personalized phone call.

Through testing, you can identify the three to five marketing channels that work best for your membership base. Knowing those will help you to engage your members and build brand awareness, giving your team the best opportunity to raise funds in person.