1. Online fundraising
Glyn Thomas – Digital communications manager,
WDM

2. Contents
Growing your email list
Fundraising emails – best practice
Retaining people on your email list
Webpages and linking campaigning to fundraising
Thanking people for their donations
Segmenting your email list
Social media
Software solutions

3. Growing your email list
Getting new people onto your email list is crucial for
online fundraising.
Online and offline recruitment methods.

11. Your ideas
Ways of recruiting supporters online and offline

12. Fundraising emails – best practice
Have a very clear ask – why do you need the money?
Include the full URL, not just embedded text:
http://www.wdm.org.uk/give
Have a link to the donation page very high up in the
email
Only include the fundraising ask in the email – nothing
else
30% of emails are now being read on smartphones –
keep the email in one column so it works well on

20. Your ideas
How can we make this email have as much impact
as possible?

21. Dear …,
I visited Indonesia earlier this year to see for myself the impacts on people and
planet when UK banks and investment funds pour billions into coal.
Please help us fight energy injustice by targeting the UK banks making it
possible.
When I visited the small village of Maruwei, a local woman named Yesmaida told
me “only a few in the community benefit from mining, most just experience loss.”
Yesmaida and her community are already experiencing the impacts of two
nearby coal pits. One of these is run by a company that recently received a $1
billion loan from UK bank Standard Chartered. Now UK listed global mining
giant BHP Billiton is preparing to extract coal in the region.
Read more stories from the people I met in Indonesia and make a donation
today if you can.
Destroying communities and environments in the name of dirty energy must
stop.

22. Keeping people on your email list
Send a mix of emails to your supporters – not just
fundraising emails.
Report back to all your supporters – tell them what
you’ve done and how you’ve used their money.
Ideally send one email a week to your list – but never
just for the sake of it.
Stop people unsubscribing! Have interesting content,
and when people unsubscribe from your email list, give
them an option to receive fewer emails or just campaign
emails.

23. Webpages
Have a prominent donate button with an orange
background
Have large boxes on your forms
Have a strong story / case studies / clear explanation of
what you’re going to use the money for
Make sure any error messages sound like they’re
written by a person
Social proofing – show how many other people have
donated or how much you’ve raised in total
Have multi-step donation forms

28. Linking campaigning to fundraising
People who have taken action are four times more
likely to donate to the same cause

33. Thanking people for their donations
Send people a thank you email, immediately after
making their donation.
The content of the thank you email should be linked
to what you said you would be using the money for.
Have a video message on the thank you page.

34. Segmenting your email list
Send different emails to different people on your
email list.
Longer, more detailed emails, to people who take
more campaign actions as they’re more engaged.
Send a reminder email when you have a
fundraising appeal to people who haven’t donated
following the first email.

35. Segmenting your email list
Stats from EN presentation

37. Targeting by segment
• Never made a donation previously but
taken action on food campaign
• Never made a donation previously and
not taken action on food campaign
• Previous one-off donor
• Regular giver

38. Split testing emails
Two different emails for each segment
Each went to 10% of the segment –
email which performed best (brought in
most money) went to remaining 80%

44. Some stats
154 donations from first emails
128 donations from reminder email
62% of income from first email
38% from reminder email
£18.94 average donation from first email
£14.03 average donation from reminder
£8 average donation from £3 prompt
£23 average donation from £20 prompt

45. Social media
Thank people who you know follow you on social media for
their donation.
Encourage people to say on Facebook and Twitter that they
have donated to you – have share buttons with a pre-written
Tweet or Facebook post on the thank you page after
someone has donated.
Put out a series of content, one item a day for a week, all
linked to your fundraising appeal:
Photo; Video; Infographic; Link to a blog
Keep reminding people about your email list and how people

46. Social media
The more people who follow you on social
media, the more potential donors you have.
Here are some ways to increase your number of
followers quickly and easily.

49. Software solutions
Engaging Networks
SalsaLabs
Wufoo
Campaignion