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Josephine Martell
International Fund for Animal Welfare

Giving Back E-Tips

Recession-Beating Email Brings in Record Donations

Looking down the road at an extended economic downturn, it’s important to be pragmatic and adjust donation revenue forecasts downward so that you can budget realistically. But that doesn’t mean that you should accept the prospect of dismal results with resignation.

Case in point: A client wrote two emails on a popular hot-button issue and brought in $60,000 in revenues — a number about 30% lower than what we would expect an email campaign to generate. When the results came in, the prevailing thought was, “Well, it is a recession. This is what we expected to happen.”

The following week, we had breaking news on the same issue: the worst-case scenario had happened. I was directed to write an information-only email with just a “soft ask” at the end.

This seemed like too critical of a fundraising opportunity to pass up. So I wrote the email instead as a flat-out emergency appeal. The results were incredible — over $198,000 in donations — most of them overnight.

Then I wrote a follow-up — the same email but with a different subject line and a personal note above the banner. That brought in $169,900 more!

Wow. So pulling out all the stops, I wrote one more subject line and personal note on top of the original email — and that was sent to lapsed donors and new activists — bringing in another $52,600 in brand-new income.

The grand total actually came to $430,000. (I’m not sure which version generated the extra $10,400, if you’re adding things up.) Not bad for one email versioned three ways!

Not only is this the most revenue that the client ever produced from an email campaign — it was very close to reaching the same revenue level as their whole year-end giving campaign, which is usually the apex of the annual donation cycle.

And just as importantly, this unexpected online revenue plugged a hole in the client’s overall revenues caused by a decrease in leadership gifts — allowing the organization to meet its revenue forecasts for the month.

So, don’t let the current recession be a reason for lowering your expectations. Even in hard times, it’s clear that donors will give if something very close to their hearts is at risk.

If you would like to see samples of successful email fundraising campaigns, contact Karen at 718-680-1627 or at kg@karengedney.com.