This brings us back to a point I've made in prior sessions. You need to track your results. With a multi-channel approach, it's a little more difficult to pinpoint what channel actually initiated a gift, but you can still track where the gift came in from. Let's say, a donor received a direct mail and felt engaged with the story, but they ended up giving through the phone when a caller reached them. The direct mail had something to do with the gift, but the channel that will get credited with the gift is the phone. When you first implement a multi-channel approach, it's important to understand that and remember we need to track individual channel results to see trends. But overall, results are a greater indicator of success. One channel may go down but others will increase as you transition donors to channels they prefer. With that said, always use appeal codes in your direct mail and in your email solicitations if you have that ability. Look at participation rates of your audience. What are your retention rates, and how are those retained donors giving? What is your cost to raise a dollar overall and by channel? Are people opening your emails and clicking through? Are your social media posts getting liked and shared? Are you building a base of followers? Tracking results takes time and effort, but it's imperative to building a strong annual giving program. You need to fully understand what works and what doesn't with your audience and continue to test and try new things. With a multi-channel approach, it's also good to keep an eye on channel migration. How are your donors moving through your various giving channels? Did they give through phone last year, but email this year? Maybe they gave through direct mail last year but a face-to-face visit this year. Some organizations have software platforms or tools in place that do this for you, so it's easy to track. If you don't have those tools, you'll need to pull the data and do some work with pivot tables to get the data. The first thing you'll need is a list of last year's donors and what channel they gave through. Then, pull a list of those same donors, their giving from this year, and the channel they gave through. When you run those two lists against each other, you can see how many were in one channel last year and where they gave this year. As an example, maybe you had 1,200 donors through direct mail last year. When you pull your data, you find that 780 of them gave through direct mail again, 200 moved to e-mail, 100 moved to the phone, and 25 moved to face-to-face visits, and the rest, you haven't retained yet. At this point, you need to look for patterns in the data. Are you bleeding donors from your phone program? If so, why? Is it part of an overall downward trend in the phone, or do you have some issues to address in your call center? Is direct mail migrating to email or vice versa? Knowing how your donors performed in the past and how they're giving now will help inform the decisions on your strategy. It will help you see where to focus your efforts. Here's an example of a channel migration chart. The first column shows the channel and the second column indicates how many donors gave in each channel last year. The following columns have the various channels and how many donors gave this year. To read this chart, this is what you look at. Direct mail had 2,645 donors in FY 15. This year, 1965 of those donors gave to direct mail again, 380 gave through the phone, 146 through the email or online, and 85 through a gift to an officer. I'd suggest running this data at least once a year to track the channel migration of your donors. We've covered a lot of ground today, so I'd like to briefly summarize some of the key points. First, you need to start by taking an inventory of your channels, both what you have available and any opportunities to partner. Once you have your inventory, look at your budget as well as your human resources, and figure out what you can accomplish. If your budget is limited, go with the tried and true workhorses first to get the best return on investment, and then start building out other channels from there based on your resources. If you've got the budget, utilize as many channels as you can. Annual giving is expensive, but it's a great investment in your organization and that's how you need to think of this expense. It's an investment in the future of your organization. It's not about the 50-dollar gift you'll receive this year, it's about the lifetime value of donors to your organization. The next step is to analyze your data. Who are your donors? When did they give? And how did they give? Use that data to inform the timing of your campaigns, both what time of year you run your campaigns and what channels you utilize first, what drops second to et cetera, and when you incorporate social media or other communication channels. For example, my team currently sends direct mail first, an email will drop as a reminder a week or two later, and a non-renewed donor will go into the calling pool four to six weeks after the direct mail goes. When you develop your calendar for your multi-channel approach, remember to think about a couple of key things. When do your donors give? Which channels give you the best ROI? And how do your renewals versus your acquisition audiences respond? These factors will give you a clear path to a solicitation calendar. Go with your most effective and least expensive options first to maximize ROI. Save the more costly methods for acquisition or reactivation. Messaging is the linchpin to a successful multi-channel approach. It's about integrating your key message throughout all of your channels. It's also about providing multiple opportunities for your donors to engage with you when they want to in the way they want to. Your results will improve if you adopt a more donor-centric, multi-touch approach. Lastly, with a multi-channel approach, tracking your results is even more important. It's a little more difficult to tell which channel actually triggered the gift but track everything you can to help you improve your program and adjust to changes in giving patterns. I'll close by saying that I truly believe a multi-channel approach is the key to a successful annual giving program. Connecting with donors and prospects the way they prefer to be engaged makes a difference, and reinforcing your message across multiple channels extend your reach and the degree to which people digest your information. Use what you have at your disposal, and be strategic in the channels you use and how you share your message. And remember to make a plan, be flexible, and be creative.
