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RAPID RESPONSE FUNDRAISING WHITEPAPER

Rapid Response Fundraising — Are You Ready? How to respond effectively when people suddenly care about your cause

Russ Phaneuf Managing Director & Chief Strategist IPM Advancement

Executive Summary Most nonprofit organizations invest ample resources into developing a detailed fundraising strategy and plan each fiscal year. But too many fail to prepare for unplanned events that may drive people to suddenly care about their cause. Without a rapid response plan in place and ready to go, nonprofits risk missing out on the opportunity to engage new donors with their organization’s mission at a time when donors are most inclined to give.

Episodic Giving in the New Millennium

There are many reasons why your organization might get sudden attention by donors: Natural disasters, important anniversaries or milestones, political events (like the results of an election), an important legal ruling, or even a celebrity taking a personal interest in your issue or cause.

Events like these can wake donors up to opportunities for engagement. And now, with social media and other digital fundraising tools, people who want to help can immediately act on their desire to give. More and more, they are doing just that.

According to the 2018 Charitable Giving Report from the Blackbaud Institute, the percentage of total fundraising that came from online giving reached a record high in 2018, continuing a growth trend they’ve measured since 2013. Online donations accounted for approximately 8.5% of overall fundraising revenue, excluding grants. Of those online donations, 24% were made using a mobile device.

Prior to 2010, however, just 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. had ever made a charitable gift online, and only 10% had made a charitable donation by text, based on research from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

All that changed in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010.

Haiti Earthquake Response Becomes a New Blueprint

On January 12, 2010, a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In the two weeks that followed, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater were recorded. In total, as many as 3 million people were killed, injured or displaced from their homes as a result of the disaster.

Millions of individuals from around the world responded to appeals for aid. Nations pledged funds and dispatched rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. Ten days after the initial temblor, the most-watched fundraising telethon in history, “Hope for Haiti Now,” raised $58 million.

But for many people worldwide, the feeling of helplessness in the immediate aftermath was too much to bear. They wanted to do something … anything … to feel like they were helping.

That’s where mobile giving comes into the story…. Rapid Response Fundraising WHITEPAPER

The Haiti earthquake is a prime example of an event where, at least in America, the media and U.S. State Department worked together to promote philanthropic giving. In their coverage, media outlets focused on what organizations were helping on the ground, what their immediate needs were, and how individuals could give money to these organizations.

So, while a relative handful of people could engage as first-responders and medical professionals, the vast majority of individuals who wanted to help were presented with a single response channel: give money. And the organization positioned to capitalize on this request was the Red Cross.

Within 48 hours after the earthquake, the Red Cross raised more than $8 million from text-to-give donations, which were collected $10 at a time when individual donors texted the word “HAITI” to shortcode 90999. (The donations appeared as charges on the phone bills of donors.) By the end of the first week of fundraising, the Red Cross had eclipsed $21 million in text donations. In total, relief agencies collected $43 million in text-to-give donations after the quake—more than 10x the amount raised via mobile giving in all of 2009.

So, while episodic giving has always been part of fundraising, donor response to the Haiti earthquake showed nonprofit organizations the incredible potential of digital fundraising and taught us some important lessons about donor behavior in the digital age.

Consider these findings from the Pew Research Center’s study of 863 mobile donors who gave to the “Text for Haiti” campaign: • The vast majority of these donors (89%) heard about the Text to Haiti effort on television, and half (50%) made their contribution immediately upon learning about the campaign. • Just 21% of Haiti text donors said they researched their text contributions beforehand, compared to 50% of online donors who do research. • Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Haiti text donors had never donated by text before. • More than 50% of Haiti text donors have made text message contributions to other disaster relief efforts since their Haiti donation. • 43% of those surveyed reported encouraging friends or family to make mobile donations to support Haiti relief efforts, most of them (75%) by talking with others in person. • While similar to the average American in many ways, Haiti text donors tend to have different technology habits like using their phone to access the Internet (74% compared with 44% of the general population) or owning an e-reader (24% compared to 9%). • Mobile givers are younger than the overall population of charitable givers; approximately 30% are age 18 to 29, while just 5% are 65 or older. • Mobile givers are more racially and ethnically diverse, with non-whites comprising 37% of Haiti text donors compared to 25% of all charitable givers.

“Every nonprofit organization needs to understand that being mobile friendly is linked to being donor friendly. This is no longer optional, and a lack of mobile friendly websites, donation forms, and emails will put nonprofits at a distinct disadvantage.” — Blackbaud Institute, 2018 Charitable Giving Report Rapid Response Fundraising WHITEPAPER

How to Plan for Unplanned Events The internet has accelerated engagement to the point where nonprofits can’t afford to not be ready to capitalize on episodic giving opportunities. When concerned individuals are focused on an event and wondering how they can help, your nonprofit must be ready to provide a simple, clear, compelling, and reliable path to engagement. But even if you have all the tools ready to leverage episodic giving, the way to make the most of these fundraising opportunities is to create a rapid response plan. Your organization’s rapid response plan should consider three elements of response: inbound, outbound, and contingency. 1. Your Inbound Rapid Response Strategy A major event can bring a sudden surge of donors into your fundraising space. It’s likely that a majority of these individuals will not be on your donor file. They will be responding to the specific event, looking for some way they can make a meaningful difference during a time of profound concern and/or emotion. If your organization is large and has strong name recognition in the public sphere, you’ll get a healthy percentage of donations by default. But you’ll get even more by being prepared, as evidenced by the Red Cross after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. That organization had spokespersons ready to not only engage in media interviews but also use their presence to promote a single text-to-give number. According to the Pew study findings, 73% of text-to-give donors made their contribution either immediately or within one day of hearing about the text donation campaign. Of course, if your organization isn’t as well known as the Red Cross, doesn’t have broad media presence, and isn’t being actively promoted by the U.S. State Department, can you still capitalize on episodic giving events? Absolutely. Google Ads, in particular, serves an audience that is actively searching for information on ways to help. When an event happens and people want to get involved, they often search Google. Let’s say you operated a nonprofit health clinic in Haiti at the time of the 2010 quake. While many donors did no research online and simply responded to a call for text donations to the Red Cross, others Googled “how to help Haiti earthquake.” (See Fig.1 on the following page.) If you had a rapid response plan in place, you would have already set up your Google Ads with those keywords and could have simply activated them in response to the event. Keep in mind that many inbound donors may be learning about your organization for the first time. Therefore, your digital presence (including your website and social media pages) must also serve the function of a prospecting appeal. You want inbound prospects to access quick, reassuring information they need to qualify your organization as worthy of their philanthropic support. Rapid Response Fundraising WHITEPAPER

Fig.1

2. Your Outbound Rapid Response Plan In addition to fielding donations from new supporters, your rapid response plan should also leverage your relationship with your existing donor list. (This is another good reason to cultivate a healthy donor file so you have a ready audience when episodic giving opportunities happen.) One of the most overlooked facets of outbound rapid response messaging is tone. Tone is important in all of your fundraising communications, but you want to be especially sensitive when messaging to audiences following an emergency or natural disaster. You cannot simply cut-and-paste copy from a standard annual appeal, for example, and click Send. Your messaging needs to move donors to action while also being respectful for those who may have lost their lives or are suffering. With a pre-planned and nuanced response, you can ensure that you are 100% in integrity with an authentic ask that is relevant and well thought out. Rapid Response Fundraising WHITEPAPER

3. Your Contingency Rapid Response Plan While you might be ready to respond to sudden events or emergencies in your fundraising space, have you thought about how your organization will respond to a major event that’s unrelated to your cause? When an episodic giving campaign is running in a space not related to your organization’s work, it can take all of the oxygen out of the room. If you have a fundraising event or appeal that happens to coincide with some unexpected disaster or major event, what’s the best course of action? (For example, let’s say you have a mailing that’s about to drop and some major crisis happens that’s unrelated to your ask.) Typically, you’ll want to hold off on that mailing for at least two weeks. (A real-life example of this “no-go zone” can be seen in the Google Trends image in Fig.1, where search interest following the January 10, 2010 Haiti earthquake peaked on January 14th, and then receded to 8/100 by January 24th.) Before the ubiquity of the internet, many organizations could largely ignore things happening outside of their fundraising space. But today, our entire social landscape shifts: all the media, social media, and content we are served shifts for days or even weeks. For some organizations, that shift signals an important episodic giving opportunity. For everyone else, it’s time to follow a contingency plan. Conclusion Donors are caring and generous people, but they also have busy lives. Sudden events can cut through the noise and wake them up to giving and engagement opportunities. By not only having tools ready but preparing a rapid response plan in advance, your organization can leverage individuals’ willingness to engage so you can raise more money, fulfill your mission, and ultimately make the world a better place. About IPM Advancement IPM Advancement (IPM) works exclusively with nonprofit organizations to deliver integrated fundraising solutions that leverage direct mail, phone, web and social media, and traditional media outreach. We provide all aspects of fundraising program management for nonprofits — combining the creative services of a design firm, full production capabilities, and the subject matter expertise of anexperienced nonprofit fundraising consulting agency Learn more at ipmadvancement.com or call us at 877.4.IPM.ADV (877.447.6238).

Sources

“Charitable Giving Report: How Fundraising Performed in 2018,” Blackbaud Institute, Accessed January 2020, https://institute.blackbaud.com/wp-content/up- loads/2019/02/2018CharitableGivingReport.pdf “Real Time Charitable Giving,” Pew Internet Project, Accessed January 2020, https://www.pewinternet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/media/Files/Reports/2012/Real-Time-Chari- table-Giving.pdf “Twitter and Facebook users respond to Haiti crisis,” BBC News, Accessed January 2020, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8460791.stm “Digital fundraising still pushing Haiti relief,” CNN, Accessed January 2020, http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/15/online.donations.haiti/index.html “Red Cross text donations pass $21 million,” CNN, Accessed January 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/18/redcross.texts/index.html “Donating to charity by text message: Lessons from Haiti,” CNN, Accessed January 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/12/tech/mobile/charity-donations-text-messages/index.html “2010 Haiti earthquake,” Wikipedia, Accessed January 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake