How to Improve Unified Fundraising Campaigns: Advice From Experts

Develop a calendar

Fundraisers responsible for different types of solicitations, such as direct mail, telemarketing, and online giving, should get together and map out the charity’s plan for coordinating its campaigns over the course of the year, says Peter Schoewe, a vice president at Mal Warwick Donordigital, a fundraising consulting company.

It’s crucial to create a blueprint, he says, because some forms of fundraising, such as direct mail, need to be planned much earlier than other types, such as email appeals, and because integrated fundraising often requires cooperation between people in different departments.

“If you don’t plan for it, the coordination will never happen,” says Mr. Schoewe.

But Be Flexible

Nonprofits can pivot quickly and respond to current events in their fundraising via email and telephone, says Mr. Schoewe. They shouldn’t be afraid to run a single-channel campaign when that’s the approach that makes the most sense, he says: “It’s not a lockstep coordination.”

Prepare the Database

Tracking who receives which solicitations and who makes a gift is essential to determining the success of a coordinated campaign, says Hilary Branch, senior associate director of membership and annual giving at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Fundraisers need to make sure they set up the codes necessary for tracking results in the databases that they will use in the campaign and that those databases are compatible, she says.

“If you can’t tell what was most effective or how people are responding, you can’t adapt in the future,” says Ms. Branch.

Go Easy on Repetition

Coordinated fundraising is based on the idea that communications with donors through more channels will increase their likelihood of giving.

But that doesn’t mean nonprofits should repeat the same fundraising appeal over and over, says Amy Sample Ward, chief executive of the Nonprofit Technology Network.

To make sure they don’t turn supporters off, nonprofits need to develop a variety of content for their integrated campaigns, recommends Ms. Sample Ward. She says that might mean highlighting several stories throughout the campaign and alternating outright appeals with reports on the campaign’s progress, profiles of donors, and other material.

“You can plan out in advance ways that your content can help you avoid that feeling that it’s always, ‘Please donate, please donate, please donate,’” she says.

Give Donors Alternatives

Charities need to figure out what happens after supporters make a gift, says Ms. Sample Ward. Some donors will respond to the first solicitation they receive, she says, and nonprofits need to keep those highly motivated people engaged, giving them additional ways to support the cause.

“Those were people who cared so much they donated on day one,” she says. “They’d better be getting asked again, and they’d better be getting thanked and being asked to share the campaign.”