Colorado Gives Day 2019 came and went. As I mentioned before, there is audience development to consider if you want more loyal donors.
This year I was selective even more so than before. The times are forcing people to be particularly careful with their money. This means that the relationships with people are even more important!
I took into consideration the messages that were sent to me, how much I was tied to the organization (past and present), and who I felt would use my money well. I am happy to report that the majority of the organizations did not fail me in getting out a good thank you note to me right away.
Before I launch into my favorite messages that were sent to me, that grabbed my attention, I do want to mention that the thank you part is super important. To be honest, I had one organization send me a blank statement, but even though I was super involved with them before, there was no personalized email note sent.
A few organizations that I know the E.D. personally did send a nice few sentences message to me in addition to the panned generated response. I loved this!
Lastly, I was surprised by an organization I have barely given to, which was an impulse give this year, they sent me a thank you voicemail. I only gave them $10. You bet I will donate more in the future!
What’s even more interesting, the organizations that went more above and beyond with their thank yous, they actually made more money during the giving day. I noticed that the number seemed to correlate, at least with my list of organizations. It makes sense that if they have an audience development mentality before, during, and after, they probably will make more money.
The organizations I selected were all the small to mid-sized organizations so it is comparing apples to apples.
As promised, here are a few campaigns that I enjoyed. We can all learn from these examples of organizations that are thoughtful with their marketing and have an audience development mentality for engaging with their donors and supporters.
Cheers to loyal and happy audiences,
Shoshana
Shoshana Fanizza
Chief Audience Builder, Audience Development Specialists
The Longhopes Donkey Shelter – this image in the email was super! This is a .gif of the 10 new arrivals they just received, so there is a need to help now. They went on to make a case for what they have done over the years to help the donkeys. In 2019 they welcomed 107 donkeys in its rehabilitation program and adopted out 107 donkeys so far. In the past 20 years they have rescued 1184 donkeys and rehomed 1090 of them. For a donkey fan like me, this made me want to give to their organization even more.
Community Food Share – Short and sweet! I like the fact that they mention that there is impact with a $10 donation which equals 30 meals!
Boulder Opera created a special Colorado Gives Aria!
The last one I want to draw attention to is the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company or BETC. They had a good campaign with people posing with a whiteboard stating why they support BETC.
