In June 2016, the international HQ of a global NGO hired me to help develop a presentation about online fundraising for their board. There was no short term rush, but it foresaw that in a few years it might be at risk if its large institutional funders stopped or reduced their contribution. Online fundraising was seen an an option it needed to explore. The preferred approach was to experiment with online fundraising models until it had the evidence and expertise to make a better judgement on how viable it was. These slides are the input to that presentation - not the presentation itself! This was developed based on the input from individuals I contacted and from the ECF (eCampaigning Forum) community. This unbranded version of the slides also removes any reference to the commissioning organisation.

1. Online fundraising

2. FUNDRAISING MODELS
Description

3. NGO fundraising models
• Federated: digital
fundraising only by
national offices
• Regionalised: digital
fundraising from regional
centres
• Centralised: digital
fundraising from head
office
➧ Most well know
international NGOs.
Except: ‘orphan’
countries
➧ PETA, CIWF, IFAW, Four
Paws, Intl Humane
Society, Greenpeace
➧ Rainforest Action
Network
[organisation X] needs to invent a new model due to risk
of cannibalising national fundraising

4. Case study: Amnesty
• Respond rapidly (within
hours/days) of relevant
world events
• Use multiple channels
• Action attract new
supporters
• Event linked fundraising
asks
• Result: much higher
mobilisation, acquisition
and donor conversion

5. Case study: ActionAid India
• ActionAid focuses on tangible asks
(child sponsorship)
• The provide tangible benefits for
sponsorship (welcome kit,
community newsletter, child’s
message, e-newsletter)
• They have donors in countries in the
‘north’ and the ‘south’
• The digital models work in both the
‘north’ and the ‘south’
• They accept both Indian and non-
Indian donations

6. Case study: PETA Europe
• PETA runs European campaigns
from London
• In London, they hire native-
speaking nationals for each
country they fundraising in
• Use petitions to attract leads
then fundraising from them
• Send printed material / call by
phone to increase retention
• 15% of their income is from
digital fundraising (so far)

7. Case study: CIWF
• CIWF chose to work beyond UK
• Supported new offices but they
must become self-financing in 2-
3y
• Where: FR, IT, NL, PL, US
• Secretariat doesn’t fundraise
• Scattered expats support UK
office
• France beat UK’s digital
fundraising in 1st year – partly
down to French tax relief for
donations (like the US)

8. Digital fundraising models
• Petition → Donate
(many variants!)
• Crowd funding actions
(earmarked, effective)
• Match funding
campaigns
(underutilised in sector)
• Webinars → Paid access
(untested)
➧ Avaaz, PETA, CIWF + other
‘people powered’ orgs
➧ Avaaz, 38Degrees, Amnesty+
independent initiatives
➧ Political parties, major
donors, governments
➧ No NGO is known to have
tried this, but it works
Note that all require direct access to an
existing supporter base to work

9. Idea: set up a public petition site
What:
A public petition site
set-up and run by
[organisation X] would
be a service to
members (and beyond)
worldwide
Why:
• Dramatically increase
number of actions
• Attract more
supporters
• Service to national
offices / local groups
• Support successful
ones
• Fundraise off petition
supporters

10. Idea: set up a crowdfunding site
What:
A crowdfunding site for
relevant campaigns set-
up and run by
[organisation X] would
be a service to
members (and beyond)
worldwide
Why:
• Dramatically increase
number of donation
actions
• Attract more supporters
• Service to national
offices / local groups
• Support successful ones
• Take commission of
donations

11. Idea: aggregate national petitions/actions
What:
Aggregate national /
local [organisation X]
actions and
internationalise them
so others around the
world can participate
Why:
• Amplify existing actions
• Attract more supporters
• Service to national
offices / local groups
• Support successful ones
• Fundraising from new
supporters

12. Idea: set up a crowdfunding site
What:
A crowdfunding site for
relevant campaigns set-
up and run by
[organisation X] would
be a service to
members (and beyond)
worldwide
Why:
• Dramatically increase
number of donation
actions
• Attract more supporters
• Service to national
offices / local groups
• Support successful ones
• Take commission of
donations

13. Idea: establish new offices
What:
Set up new
[organisation X] offices
in countries where
there currently is no
presence
Why:
• Grow the organisation
• Fundraise without
cannibalising existing
offices / groups
• Grow it to the point it
has provided a
sufficient return and is
self sufficient (including
affiliation fees)

14. DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Description

15. Critical success factors this decade
In today’s world, the critical success factors have
changed. To excel at campaigning and fundraising,
organisations need to:
• Respond rapidly (within minutes and hours)
• Experiment constantly in short cycles
• Embrace relevant top media stories/trends
• Be relevant to people’s interests
• Help people be social
To achieve this, organisations need to
transform their structures and attitudes

16. Critical concepts to success
• Return on investment: (Return - Investment)/Investment
• Supporter journey: acquisition, warm leads, welcome
series, retention, lapsed, re-activation/engagement
• Life-time value: how much is a supporters value over the
entire time they donate (including all those who lapse
into an average lifetime value)
• Agile project management
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
• Design thinking
• Split (A/B) testing

17. Plan a Supporter Journey
• Campaigning supporter journey: the experience you lead supporters on from
first contact to a stable relationship
First
Contact
Welcome
route
Regular
supporter
High-involvement
supporter
Re-activation route
Lapsed
Supporters

18. Plan to offer multiple levels of action
Quick and easy activity:
e.g. petitions, mass emails to target, pledges
Thoughtful activity:
e.g. writes personal emails,
attends events, calls MPs
Committed
activity:
e.g. local organiser,
visits MP, speaks to
media, offers time and skills
This occurs online
and offline

19. Campaigner journey life phase
oriented
Lifetime
Freetime
vs.money
Teenage Retirement

20. PETITION→ DONATE MODELS
Description

21. Petition/Action → Donate: Traditional NGOs
• Run 5-12 petitions a year
on core campaigns
• Use completion page to
ask for a donation or
followup via email, phone
or post asking for donation
• Novel: use
retargeting/customer
match ads to create online
‘filter bubble’ about the
issue before asking for a
donation
Results:
• 30-60% new supporter
acquisition (of
participants) for each
petition run
• 1-3% conversion via
completion page/email
followup
• Avg. gift €20/person
• Higher conversion via
phone, physical mail
out, filter bubble

22. Petition → Donate: MoveOn/Avaaz + clones
• Run 150+ petitions a year on
current topics and targeted
by country/interest
• Launch most petitions to
specific segment to pilot
response and only launch
wider if it has a good
response
• Use donation as action with
credible theory of change
• Use email/completion page
to ask for donations
Estimated results:
• 30-60% new supporter
acquisition (of
participants) for each
petition run
• 1-3% conversion via
completion page/email
followup
• Avg. gift €20/person
• Higher conversion when
the donation ask has a
credible theory of change

23. Petition → Donate: Petition sites
• Host 10k+ petitions a
year created by
individuals
• Creators responsible for
initial promotion
• Orgs adopt and support
those that perform well
• Followup with email to
ask for donations
Estimated results:
• 30-60% new supporter
acquisition (of
participants) for each
petition run
• 1-3% conversion via
completion page/email
followup
• Avg. gift €20/person
• Higher conversion when
the donation ask has a
credible theory of change

24. Petition → Donate: Chaperoned acquisition
• Promotes your petitions to
their membership in chosen
countries
• Paid warm acquisition €1.5-2 /
new supporter (estimate)
• Care2 and Change.org
• Fast, and great value
• Bootstraps a support base
• Uses completion page / email
followup to ask for donations
Estimated results:
• Numbers based on
your budget (min €5k)
• 1-3% conversion to
donations via
completion page/email
followup
• Avg. gift €20/person
• Higher conversion
when the donation ask
has a credible theory of
change

25. Petition → Donate: Filter bubble
• Uses online ad targeting to
expose petition visitors /
participants to your
activities on other sites
• Google/Facebook/Twitter
customer match,
retargeting,
• Communicate beyond
email
• Prepares supporters for a
donation ask via email,
post or call
Estimated results:
• Email: above avg
conversion
• Calls: 24% conversion
(vs 3-6%)
• Where: Sweden
(Jakob Ohlsson,
Reformact for Save
the Children)

26. Case study: Save the Children Sweden
• Started with petition model to
acquire warm leads on current
topic: migration deaths
• Then used online ads to
education people about StC’s
work but targeted only at
petition supporters
• After a few days, asked people
via email, phone and post to
donate
• Had higher response rates than
without the targeted ads
Within hours of the first big
catastrophe on the Mediterranean
a petition was launched with a
simple message: “No child should
die on the Mediterranean Sea”.
(2015)

27. OTHER MODELS
Description

28. Crowdfunding
• Pick specific, tangible ask
to fundraise for (person,
project, initiative, etc.)
• Promote to interested
segment
• Media coverage helps!
• Promote wider if doing
well
• Followup with email to
ask for regular donation
(or other crowdfunding)
Estimated results:
• Depends on how
compelling it is
• Conversion unknown
• Avg. gift €20-
30/person
• Sometimes attracts a
few large donors (€1-
15k+)

29. In celebration and memory of Jo Cox, we are raising funds to support causes closest
to her heart, chosen by her family:
The Royal Voluntary Service, to support volunteers helping combat loneliness in Jo's
constituency, Batley and Spen in West Yorkshire.
HOPE not hate, who seek to challenge and defeat the politics of hate and extremism
within local communities across Britain.
The White Helmets: volunteer search and rescue workers in Syria. Unarmed and
neutral, these heroes have saved more than 51,000 lives from under the rubble and
bring hope to the region.

30. Match funding
• Double a new donor’s
contribution by having it
matched by an existing
donor, organisation or
government
• Get existing donors to set
amount
• Launch to non donors
• Even better: connect new
and existing donors
and/or match based on
shared trait
Estimated results:
• Depends on how
compelling it is
• Conversion unknown
• Avg. gift €20-
30/person
• Sometimes attracts a
few large donors (€1-
15k+)

32. Webinars → Paid access
• Run free webinars on a
variety of topics
• These attract people
(=acquisition)
• Followup by offering them
the chance to pay to access
related content (trainings,
events, support, content)
• Nurture those that pay
• Fundraise in other ways
from those that don’t
Estimated results:
• Depends on how
compelling it is
• Conversion 1%
• Purchase price €100+
• Works quite
successfully for many
other sectors

33. Costs to consider
• €20-30k to acquire 10-15k supporters for pilots
• €10-20k for platform for actions, fundraising, email
communication, supporter journey management,
petition site, crowdfunding site, etc.
• €2-5k for online ads and targeting
• €5k for telemarketing and direct mail trials

34. Evaluation criteria: first 6 months
• Can others’ conversion and value metrics be matched
• Can 50% of supporters be active beyond their initial
action? 30 days later?
• Can 25% of the pilots achieve a positive ROI? 10% an
ROI of 1 (double investment)? 1% and ROI above 2?
• Exclude infrastructure costs