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It’s a Science, no it’s an Art; Actually it’s both

Part 1: The Science of Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

PRESENTED BY AMY BRAITERMAN AND JENNIFER ASHBAUGH

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Amy Braiterman

Principal Strategy Consultant

Blackbaud

WELCOME TO OUR LAB

Jennifer Ashbaugh

Big Brother Big Sisters of America

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WHY IS SCIENCE COOL?

Problem Investigate Solutions!

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SCIENTIFIC PROCESS

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PURPOSE: STATING THE PROBLEM

PROBLEM:

Year over year retention

is low

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RETENTION?

Notes: Revenue

didn’t go down as

much as the people.

The people we’re

bring back are more

successful

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RETENTION?

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RETENTION?

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RETENTION?

Participant Migration

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RETENTION?

Loyalty CY % of CY Participants by Loyalty % of CY Revenue by Loyalty

New

MultiYear 36%

64%

53%

47%

Percent of Participants and Revenue by LoyaltyPercent of Participants and Revenue by Loyalty

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT RETENTION?

Notes: multi-year

more successful.

How are we

communicating

to past

participants?

Revenue per Participant

Gifts per Participant

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• Participant types provided clearer

picture of retention

- Team leader, team member and individuals

• Revenue did not go down as much as

the participants

- We’re not bring back as many people,

but the participants we are bring back

are more successful

• Multi-year participants are more successful

than new participants

• While multi-year participants are more successful they

have challenges maintaining their high fundraising level

WOW! THAT WAS A LOT; LET’S REVIEW

Retention: Under Official Review

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HYPOTHESIS: PREDICTING THE OUTCOME

HYPOTHESIS: To solve year over year retention

focus on team leaders.

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If I look at the mass, I

will never act. If I look at

the one, I will” Mother Teresa #BBInteractive

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WHY DID WE MAKE THIS HYPOTHESIS?

We believe team leader’s

make biggest impact.

Donors

Team Members – Bring Donors

57% of Participants 43% of Revenue

Team Leaders – Bring Team Members

9% of Participants 20% of Revenue

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Here’s where we have

some fun!

It’s time to Experiment!

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WHAT DID I LEARN FROM MY RESEARCH?

ATTEND FOLLOW UP SESSION:

Part II: The Art of Peer-to-Peer

Fundraising; Cultivating P2P

Participants

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• It starts with year round

communication

- Just because the event is over doesn’t

mean you stop communicating

• Make it personal – combinations of

online and offline engagement

• Ask team leaders to be on your

event committee

• Involve team leaders in mission

activities

- Send them information on educational

& program activities

• Your entire relationship doesn’t

have to be about fundraising

IMPROVE TEAM LEADER RETENTION

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PURPOSE: STATING THE PROBLEM

PROBLEM: Decline in use of online tools and

online activity

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT USE OF

ONLINE TOOLS?

Online Participants with 1+ Online Gift

27%

28%

29%

30%

31%

32%

33%

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT USE OF

ONLINE TOOLS?

$0.00

$10.00

$20.00

$30.00

$40.00

$50.00

$60.00

$70.00

$80.00

$90.00

Online Donation Per Online Registrant

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RESEARCH: WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT USE OF

ONLINE TOOLS?

Percentage of Participants Sending Emails

13%

14%

14%

15%

15%

16%

16%

17%

17%

18%

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HYPOTHESIS: PREDICTING THE OUTCOME

HYPOTHESIS: To improve use of online tools we

need to focus on segments.

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RESEARCH: WHAT SEGMENTS SHOULD WE FOCUS ON?

Fundraisers vs.

Non-Fundraising Participants

Zero Online Gifts

Leaders

7% - Participants

0% - Revenue

Non-Leaders

53% - Participants

0% - Revenue

1-4 Online Gifts

Leaders

6% - Participants

10%- Revenue

Avg raise:$129.63

Non- Leaders

27% - Participants

34% - Revenue

Avg raise:$ 85.00

5+ Online Gifts

Leaders

3% - Participants

27% - Revenue

Avg raise:$724.53

Non- Leaders

3% - Participants

28% - Revenue

Avg raise:$506.86

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Here’s where we have

some fun!

It’s time to Experiment!Wait… Let’s do a little more research

first. What are the segments?

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EXPERIMENT: ONLINE DONATION AMOUNT PER

ONLINE PARTICIPANT

All Participants $70.00

1-4 Online Gifts 5+ Online Gifts

Team Leader $129.63 724.53

Non-Leaders $85.00 506.86

$0.00

$10.00

$20.00

$30.00

$40.00

$50.00

$60.00

$70.00

$80.00

$90.00

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EXPERIMENT: NUMBER OF ONLINE GIFTS PER ONLINE

PARTICIPANT

All Participants 1.35

1-4 Online Gifts 5+ Online Gifts

Team Leader 2.02 11.62

Non-Leaders 1.56 8.97

1.25

1.30

1.35

1.40

1.45

1.50

1.55

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EXPERIMENT: PERCENTAGE OF PARTICIPANTS

SENDING EMAILS

Sending Emails (All Participants 14%)

0 Online Gifts 1-4 Online Gifts 5+ Online Gifts

Team Leader 14% 45% 70%

Non-Leaders 2.2% 18% 65%

13%

14%

14%

15%

15%

16%

16%

17%

17%

18%

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EMAILS SENT PER PARTICIPANT

Number of Emails Sent : 25.94

0 Online Gifts 1-4 Online Gifts 5+ Online Gifts

Team Leader 12.2 19.3 51.2

Non-Leaders 6.8 10.1 27.9

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

21.38 21.9

25.51 25.94

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EXPERIMENT: PERCENTAGE OF PARTICIPANTS

CHANGING PERSONAL PAGE

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

Personalizing Page: Average Raised = $294.27

0 Online Gifts 1-4 Online Gifts 5+ Online Gifts

Team Leader 10.9% 21.4% 44.4%

Non-Leaders 1.6% 9.3% 25.5%

No online

activity: $29.34

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ANALYSIS: WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM OUR

EXPERIMENT?

Identify P2P

fundraisers who are

doing something and

help them do it better.

#BBInteractive

• Segments are awesome because it

provides more details on participant

online activity

• Identify people who doing something

and helping them do it better

- Move 1-4 fundraisers to

Superstar status 5+ online gifts

• Create communications plans based

on activity

- Follow up with people who

are taking action, but not

raising money

- Send people friendly reminders

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ANALYSIS: WHAT DID WE LEARN FROM OUR

EXPERIMENT?

Give P2P fundraisers

permission or a

reminder to do more

online activities

#BBInteractive

• Push participants to take actions –

remind them of their options

- Tell them why! We’re not asking to

raise money – we’re telling them why

they want to raise money

- Change the message from raise $100

– to… do this!

- Focus on the WHY; then participants

how to do something

• Give them permission to do extra

things… they need someone to push

them to follow up

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PURPOSE: STATING THE PROBLEM

PROBLEM:

Where do I start?

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PURPOSE: STATING THE PROBLEM

HYPOTHESIS: Asking participants questions

can provide insights to help

get started

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RESEARCH & EXPERIMENT

What did Big Brothers Big Sisters do?

• To learn more about donors and participants, we

worked with 9 agencies on a survey.

• In May, we went out a survey to over 6,000 donors,

participants, and team captains and got just over

1,000 responses.

What was Big Brothers Big Sisters looking for?

• How or if any did our Bowl for Kids Sake redesign

affect our participants?

• Why are you participating?

• How are you participating?

• Did you know how Big Brothers Big Sisters is

making a difference?

- This was important to help us improve our

communication strategy.

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RESEARCH & EXPERIMENT

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WHEN YOU SIGN UP; WAS IT CLEAR THAT THE PURPOSE OF

THE EVENT WAS TO RAISE MONEY TO SUPPORT BIG

BROTHERS BIG SISTERS?

454

227

227

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10

15

2 1 1

90%

91%

92%

93%

94%

95%

96%

97%

98%

99%

100%

Overall Bowlers Team Captains

Completely clear Somewhat clear Unclear

481

587

Answered Skipped

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342 182 160

112 53 59

3614

2227

20

712 12 08 4 420 9 11

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Overall Bowlers Team Captains

It's a good causeBenefit the local communityBBBS made it clear I was supposed to fundraiseMy work asked me toMy friend / family asked me toTo earn an incentive or prize

557

508

Answered Skipped

558

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Yes No

WHAT WAS THE PRIMARY REASON YOU RAISED MONEY?

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DID YOU SEND EMAILS THROUGH THE BOWL FOR KIDS'

SAKE WEBSITE?

263231

218 151

10 19

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2012 Survey 2011 Survey

Yes No Unsure / I do not remember

491

577

Answered Skipped

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DID YOU USE THE BOWL FOR KIDS' SAKE WEBSITE TO

POST MESSAGES TO FACEBOOK OR TWITTER?

149

87

329

293

921

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2012 Survey 2011 Survey

Yes No Unsure / I do not remember

487

581

Answered Skipped

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WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO USE THE BFKS WEBSITE TO

POST TO FACEBOOK AND / OR TWITTER? Please rank all that apply with 1 being the primary reason.

39

11

80

9

51

27

27

6

21

49

7

14

4

22

5

70

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%

It was easy

I wanted to share my story

I wanted to raise as much awareness as possible for

Big Brothers Big Sisters

I was asked to

1 2 3 4

147

921

Answered Skipped

149 31%

329 67%

9 2%

Yes No Unsure

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HOW OFTEN DID YOU LOGIN TO YOUR PERSONAL PAGE?

43 32

151113

267

207

2449

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

2012 Survey 2011 Survey

Once 2 - 3 times More than 4 times Unsure / I do not remember

485

583

Answered Skipped

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HOW DID YOU DETERMINE WHAT AMOUNT TO DONATE TO

BOWL FOR KIDS' SAKE?

8319

64

77

57

2012

6

6

347219

128

36 306

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Overall Participant Donor Non participant Donor

My relationship with the person who asked me to donate

My relationship with BBBS

I was asked to give that amount

I gave what I could afford to give

Other

555

513

Answered Skipped

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WOULD YOU CONSIDER USING A MOBILE APP TO HELP

SUPPORT YOUR FUNDRAISING EFFORTS?

18883

105

16491

73

125 63 62

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Overall Bowlers Team Captains

Yes No Maybe

477

591

Answered Skipped

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IF YOU PARTICIPATE IN BOWL FOR KIDS' SAKE IN THE

FUTURE, WHAT METHODS WOULD YOU USE TO RAISE

MONEY FOR BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS?

349 161 188

182 80 102

113 48 65

371 175 196

264 122 142

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Overall Bowlers Team Captains

Face to face Phone Text E-Mail Social Media

477

591

Answered Skipped

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PLEASE CHECK ALL THAT APPLY IF YOU ARE A CURRENT /

FORMER/ FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER OF THE

FOLLOWING:

153

11

4874

64

15

17

11

150

60

45

50

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Big Little Board Member Staff

Current Former Friend of Family member

435

633

Answered Skipped

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WOW! THAT’S A LOT OF DATA… WHAT ARE YOU GOING

TO DO?

Clearly, our participants are multi-channel• Give them a variety of opportunities to get the word out:

- E-mail - Social

- Letters -Phone calls

- Texts

It’s even clearer, they do this because they want to, not

because someone makes them

• Reframe how we ask them

- Tone down the “Send e-mail, send e-mails, send e-mails”

- Replace with, “Want to raise as much awareness as possible?

- Repeat their words back to them, “It was easy” “It was simple” “My

co-workers loved the video I made”.

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HOW CAN I BE A SCIENTIST?

Look for themes in your research• Seeing a similar result in multiple places helps you identify problem

areas and outliers

Re-examine your ideas & test our theories

• Data can point out your blind spots

Be a good scientist: Test your hypothesis

• What do you want to change?

• How are you going to change it?

• How will you know if it changes?

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HOW CAN I BE AN ARTIST?

Be creative• Don’t be afraid to go outside the lines. The great ones do!

Take a calculated risk

• Don’t let data (or the lack thereof) keep you from being bold!

Put your mission front and center• Often the science reminds us that our messages

aren’t being heard.

• Invest time and energy discerning which messages are

most powerful for each of your audiences.

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TWEETERS USE HASHTAGS:

#bbcon

#bbinteractive