By John McManus, Principal Consultant Part 1 of 2 Text messaging is one of the most critical fundraising strategies right now.  Why is it so important? Virtually everyone has a mobile phone. If you want to upgrade how you fundraise, consider going beyond the traditional mail or email appeals. You have another effective way to request donations from your constituents is by texting them. The likelihood of your donors responding is very high. According to Constant Contact, “SMS marketing has a response rate of 209% higher than email, phone, or social media marketing.” Effective marketing begins with understanding your audience. Most of your donors will only read an SMS containing the call to action to donate instead of an entire email that includes the why and the story behind your fundraising campaign. However, your donors may wind up feeling like you're just asking for money instead of feeling like they are part of the journey.  It may lead to lower conversion rates and donors who don't stick around for the long haul.  You want to raise funds sustainably, not based on people's impulsive decisions, but you also want to build a meaningful connection with your donors and have them engage with your campaigns. So, with everything in life, you need balance. Let's discuss the five steps needed to hit your fundraising goals by incorporating text messaging as a key component of your fundraising strategy. Defining your organization's brand messaging will inspire your donors and make your organization's job easier. Your organization needs to start with a brand promise whenever you create a new campaign. So first, what is your organization promising to do for the world? This might be different from your mission statement. Next, you want to discuss your mission, vision, and purpose. Setting up a fundraising goal for each campaign is important. For example, if you have a text campaign, you want to know what content is engaging your donors and then set a goal based on how much you’re looking to raise. The story you convey in your text message needs to be a lot more concise and to the point than what you include in your email or social media campaigns. Therefore, you need to be realistic about the goals you set, especially early on in your efforts. Consider the donor engagement steps and take your donor down this communication path.  You can continue nurturing your donors by sending them regular text updates on your mission or cause.  Regular text messaging fosters communication, and your donors will get used to this form of messaging, ultimately enhancing this conversation and encouraging donations. Setting the right tone is essential to create a tailored message to your donors using things like their first names (or preferred salutations) and facts about their prior giving and engagement. You want to personalize your text message so that it will resonate with your donors. In addition, it's essential to consider the relationship between you and your donors and the campaign you are running. Finally, you also want to ensure that the call to action you use in your message appeals to your targeted market or donors, and you want to compel them to click through the message. Define the right audience to ensure that you are sending your text message to suitable donors. Based on your early results, you should be able to determine which donors respond better to text messaging than more traditional methods. Some donors may prefer one method of communication, while others may be receptive to a blend of communication methods. Most importantly, you want to ensure that you have an active mobile number for your donors when you send text messages. With Raiser’s Edge NXT, you can easily accomplish this by building lists based on demographics, communication preferences, and appeal response history. In the next blog post of this two-part series, we will explore the various Marketplace apps and their features that you can use to drive your fundraising goals with SMS text messaging.

Many people do a little spring cleaning this time of year. For your home, it’s dusting, organizing, and rotating your wardrobe. Clients who use our BrightVine Data Link (BVDL) product might want to focus on a different kind of spring cleaning—clearing out old BVDL staging table data. Staging tables are a set of custom tables within the Blackbaud CRM™ database that hold the import data when you are completing an import job. Clearing out these tables regularly is a best practice to ensure your system continues to function reliably and efficiently. Did you know that we include a custom global change for our BrightVine Data Link customers that aids in clearing out old data from the staging tables in Blackbaud CRM™? This global change allows you to specify a date range and/or specific import jobs and delete all records from the BVDL staging tables that fall within the input parameters. To configure and run this global change, complete the following steps: Navigate to Administration > Global Changes. Click the green Add button. Select the Delete BVDL Staging Data global change definition. Click OK. Give your global change a Name, and then determine the parameters you would like to set. For your date parameters, you have two options - relative dates and specific dates. The relative date option allows you to delete staging data based on a number of years, weeks, days, or months. The specific date option allows you to delete staging data based on a specific date range. You also have the option to clean up staging data for all imports, one specific import, or a selection of imports. Once you are satisfied with the parameters you have chosen, click Save. To run the global change process, click Start Process. You can also choose Create job schedule to set up a recurring schedule for the global change. For most organizations, it is best to run this global change either weekly or monthly on an automatic job schedule. However, the ideal scenario will depend heavily on how you use the BVDL. Here are a few things to consider when determining what is best for your organization. If you do especially large imports (record count in the millions) or run many imports (at least several per week), run your cleanup more often. Daily or multiple times per week may even be appropriate. If you only run small imports very infrequently, running the cleanup every other month or on an ad hoc basis might be appropriate. Do you often need to review old staged records and exceptions? Then keep your delete-by-date further back—perhaps only delete records older than six months or a year. Utilizing the relative date feature and a job schedule for the global change will allow you to automate the process, ensuring you stay up to date with your clean-up efforts. We strongly recommend this approach after you agree on a data retention limit with your team. Start clearing out the cobwebs in your Blackbaud CRM™ database today, and connect with BrightVine for any questions on the Data Link or using the custom global change to clean up your staging tables.

If you're new to non-profit direct marketing, do not fear. We are here to help you through it. We all know that non-profit organizations rely heavily on direct marketing to reach potential donors and supporters. But for beginners, understanding the terminology and concepts can be like navigating a maze. This is your guide through the terms and concepts in non-profit direct marketing. Let's get started! Campaigns are the overall fundraising adventure orchestrated by the non-profit organization. They have a start and end date and involve all sorts of fantastic channels and tactics to connect with potential donors. They can be a series of communications or a single communication. Next, let's talk about appeals. An appeal in nonprofit marketing is like a supercharged message that inspires people to support a nonprofit's mission and goals. The goal is to get folks to take awesome actions, such as donating, volunteering, or even becoming superhero advocates for the cause. Appeals are incredible movements that want to get the word out, get people pumped, and inspire them to make things happen! It's all about making a difference and getting stuff done in the most fantastic way possible! Next on our list is funds (they can all be called designations or accounts). Think of them as special treasure chests filled with money, set aside by non-profits for specific purposes or programs. Donations from supporters can be directed to these funds to make a real impact. It's a bird; it's a plane; no it's a package! In non-profit direct marketing, a package refers to a snazzy direct mail piece or email communication sent to potential donors or advocates. It's like a gift box that includes an appeal, a donation form, and other materials to inspire donors to give. Now, let's talk channels. This is how non-profits reach out to potential donors and supporters. Imagine direct mail, email, social media, phone calls, events, and more, all working together to spread the word and make a difference. The drop date! This is a critical moment in non-profit marketing. It's when the targeted audience receives the message, and it's strategically planned to fit into the overall marketing plan. Think of it as the date when potential donors get their hands on the appeal and go, "Wow, I want to be a part of this!" Now, let's crack the code! Source code (or mail code), to be precise. They're assigned to track and analyze the effectiveness of different marketing appeals. These codes, usually a mix of letters and numbers, are included in direct mail, email, and social media materials. Each organization has its own codebook, with different codes for different types of appeals. Seeking out new allies to join your cause? Finder numbers are your ticket to adding new constituents to your database. They are numbers assigned to potential donors acquired from a purchased list or a list provided by enthusiastic volunteers or board members. They are given to those not currently existing in your database to make adding them easier. Now, brace yourself for the Kill List or Nixie List. These are the "No Entry" signs of marketing campaigns. They're compiled of individuals, addresses, or emails that don't exist in the database and have opted out of receiving communications. Consider them off-limits for your acquisition efforts. Time to embrace the universe! Non-profit jargon refers to the group of potential donors a non-profit organization targets with a specific campaign or appeal. This universe comprises awesome people with diverse demographic or behavioral factors. They're like stars in the night sky, waiting to be discovered. Let's remember excludes. These organizations or people should not receive your marketing effort. We're talking about board members, major donors, or those who recently donated before your marketing drop date. Segments—the marvelous way we group donors or supporters with similar characteristics or behaviors. It's like organizing a fancy party and assigning seating at specific tables based on demographics, giving history, or engagement level. Segments help you tailor your message and make each group feel special. Feeling the RFM vibe? Recency, Frequency, and Monetary are the magic ingredients to create segments. Analyzing your donor database based on how recently they donated, how often they give, and how much they contribute gives you superpowers. You'll know who's engaged, who's loyal, and who enjoys making an impact! Now that you're armed with this knowledge get ready to work your magic in direct marketing for non-profits! Use your creativity to create engaging campaigns, tailor your messages to different segments, and track your success with metrics. You've got this!