Have you moved to a new CRM and everything is not as it should be?

Have you moved to a new CRM and everything is not as it should be?

by | Mar 9, 2022 | Sustainable Fundraising

As an Australian NFP, you’re likely well-aware of the need to manage your donors in a way that is cost-effective, and sustainable. A CRM system, but more so, the underlying strategy and cost-effective way of managing your assets, is often seen as the solution.

The success rate for a CRM migration is widely reported, and ranges from somewhere between 18% and 69%. Said otherwise, implementing CRM successfully is something between a fair bet and a strategic disaster. For better or for worse, over the last few years, a trend of perpetual CRM migration has emerged in the Australian NFP industry, with our numbers suggesting that at any time, up to 1 in 3 charities are planning or executing a CRM re-platform project.

Does this sound like you? Leave a comment below and let us know how you’re feeling about this!

With CRM vendor’s promoting promising results, this seems like a great idea. However, what is often neglected before, during, and after the migration is the integrity of your data. A CRM is only as good as the data that sits behind it and if your data is not in good shape (poor structure, duplication, incorrect contact details), it will result in your CRM not performing to it’s potential. This is not good news for the recipients of your marketing campaigns – your donors – and is the last thing you need in the current climate is to annoy and potentially lose donors.

The solution?

Marketsoft – the engine which powers LemonTree – has 34 years of experience helping both commercial and charity sectors ensure their data is of the highest quality before, during, and after CRM implementations.
There are three components we consider:

  • CRM Migration – ensuring the donor information that lands in your new CRM is cleansed and structured for success.
  • CRM Management – maintaining your view of donor as well as connecting it to the systems which drive donor value.
  • CRM Execution – adopting a mindset of continual improvement in the way that CRM is acted upon.

Marketsoft, sits at the cross-section of marketing, digital, and IT, having worked alongside the likes of American Express, 3M, Adobe, NSW Government, and many more over the last 3 decades. Marketsoft have taken these learnings and helped charities such as Jewish House, Dementia Australia, and Royal Hospital for Women, solve strategic and organisational challenges; allowing them to leverage and improve their donor data.

If you’d like to build value for both your donors and your cause, Hamish Martin, can help you learn more about Marketsofts CRM solutions! 

E: hamish.martin@marketsoft.com.au

Marketsoft is a proud member of:

Learn more – www.marketsoft.com.au

Good News for Charity Mail

Good News for Charity Mail

by | Mar 1, 2022 | Sustainable Fundraising

FIA has worked collaboratively with Australia Post over many years, advocating for the needs of the charitable fundraising sector and have been successful in helping to achieve temporary rebates for qualified Charity Mail campaigns to support fundraising organisations. The rebates were provided to assist charities with their fundraising, lowering costs and encouraging them to undertake additional mailing activity to help supplement income from fundraising activities which have been impacted by COVID-19. 

Recognising the financial challenges charities are still facing, Australia Post will provide a postage rebate of 10% on any incremental Charity Mail activity undertaken from 1 April to 30 June 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. The 10% rebate applies to the incremental Charity Mail volume achieved from 1 April to 30 June 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, adjusted for:

any Charity Mail volume shortfall that occurs in the following quarter ie, 1 July to 30 September 2022 compared to 2021 and any applicable credit claims in those periods.

The rebate is only available where Charity Mail volumes have been lodged on the charity’s own charge account both last year and this year.

Charities wanting to be considered for this initiative need to apply by 31 May 2022 by sending an application to charitymailchanges@auspost.com.au  

On behalf of the entire sector, FIA appreciates the ongoing support of Australia Post.

Original source – https://fia.org.au/good-news-for-charity-mail/

Good news indeed and well done to FIA for their continued discussions with Australia Post.

It may be a small saving, however every 10% counts. Most fundraisers would experience when preparing forecasts and ROI calculations for direct mail, particularly for acquisition, the numbers and business case can be challenging, so these incremental cost savings are all important.

We are seeing that diversification of fundraising channels and activities is a common strategy across many charities, so again when comparing ROI across the channels and activities, every 10% counts to keep as many of these open as a viable opportunity.

Barriers to Donor-Centricity: the Challenges you Face

Barriers to Donor-Centricity: the Challenges you Face

by | May 22, 2020 | Donor Endearment, donor-centric, Donor-centricity, Sustainable Fundraising

After defining donor-centricity and explaining why we believe it should be a strategic priority for NFPs, it’s worth us exploring some of the challenges you may face on your journey towards donor-centricity.

Commercial entities recognise that sustained competitive advantage comes from having a customer-centric approach across all levels and teams within their organisation. Only when the customer permeates the hearts and minds of the entire organisation – regardless of seniority, department or title – will the company start to reap the rewards of trust and loyalty from their customers.

The same is true for NFPs. Donor-centricity needs to permeate the DNA of your charity in order to be truly effective.

And therein lies perhaps the biggest barrier to donor-centricity: your organisation itself.

Its ethos, culture and leadership.

Its vision, strategy and core values.

Its programs, targets and KPIs.

Its operating model, revenue streams and decision-making processes.

Its hiring policies, onboarding and development opportunities.

These elements all need to be conducive to first understanding your donors at each stage of their life; and then infusing these insights into all areas of your business to help inform decisions, shape strategies, determine priorities, set goals, build your brand, establish a connection and ultimately create a unique and ongoing value exchange for your donors that leads to trust and loyalty.

All of which, of course, rely heavily on the technology your organisation uses; the quality of your donor data and even the very language you use to communicate with your donors. These too present additional potential barriers to donor-centricity.

Then there are the external factors to consider. The ratio of NFPs to active donors, resulting in everyone ‘fishing from the same pond’. The subsequent over-targeting and communication overload that leads to paralysis of choice, desensitisation or message fatigue. All this even before a global pandemic is thrown in the mix, threatening our way of life as well as life itself.

Yes, the path to donor-centricity is undoubtedly full of obstacles and challenges: internal and external, known and unknown.

But they are not insurmountable.

Because your organisation has a secret weapon.

You.

A champion, not only for the cause your organisation represents but for the donors who so generously give their money in support of its beneficiaries.

A voice, always asking “what will this mean for our donors?”

A rally cry, encouraging everyone in the organisation to put the donor first, always.

No matter what hurdles NFPs face on their journey to donor-centricity, their success will be that much greater – the outcomes that much more meaningful – if they have someone like you in their corner.

So don’t be afraid to be that constant presence, that constant reminder that sustainable giving stems from sustainable relationships built over time and based on trust and loyalty. And that begins with a donor-centric approach throughout your entire organisation.

If that sounds daunting, don’t worry – we’re here to support you. In fact, there’s a whole community of people here to support you…and we’d love for you to join us at LemonTree’s free Donor-Centricity Collective (DCC). As a member of the DCC, you can learn from your peers, share your experiences, ask questions and keep up-to-date with the latest strategies to become more donor-centric…AND be part of a movement to help grow sustainable giving in Australia! Simply click here to sign up for free.

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Next up in this series:

  • How to become more donor-centric
  • The different stages of the donor relationship and how they impact donor-centricity

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Greenpeace leverages the power of LemonTree Fundraising’s collaborative insights

Greenpeace leverages the power of LemonTree Fundraising’s collaborative insights

by | Mar 5, 2019 | Customer Journey, Sustainable Fundraising

For the last 10 years, Greenpeace has had a strong focus on regular giving (RG) programs to help build a stable – and sustainable – funding channel for its environmental advocacy programs.

While these programs are successful at acquiring new donors, Greenpeace found that retaining these donors was causing a large financial drain, with over 25% active RG donors leaking out of their bucket every year.

Stephen Kendon, TeleFundraising from Greenpeace said:

“In the past, we have re-engaged and called our lapsed donors with limited success. It was a costly and time consuming task and results didn’t reflect the effort that had gone into the program.”

Greenpeace engaged LemonTree Fundraising to help them understand the behaviours of their donors through a much broader lens with the hope of reactivating more of their deeply lapsed donors.

By looking at the same donor behaviour across other causes, we were able to identify which of the lapsed Greenpeace donors were most likely to reactivate.

LemonTree Fundraising ran a range of collaborative insights models against the base to identify and target the highest 8% scored donors for inclusion in Greenpeace’s phone reactivation campaign. A random control selection was also included.

Key results from the top 8% were:

  • Successful contact rates benchmarking between 30.2% and 34.2% across the 5 segmented groups
  • Top segment conversion rate out-performed control by 314% (6.9% vs 2.2%)
  • Other segments with lower conversion rates will be refined in future to improve from a 3.8% performance
  • 1 year ROI ranged from 0.89 to 0.68 on the successful segments

In addition, we optimised Greenpeace’s warm cash tax mailing appeals with LemonTree Fundraising propensity scored overlays to grow lifetime value of a targeted subset of donors.

As a result, Greenpeace will now leverage the power of LemonTree Fundraising’s collaborative insights to target a broader range of donors and channels through a framework of continuous testing and learning programs.