Track URL information in RE

Catherine Han

Hello:


How do you track donations in RE from Social Media? such as google, face book , twitter and so on - different source. There is one field in RE7 gift tab called Marketiing source sode. This field is text valueonly, cannot be set up table. Or you the information in gift attribute. I am looking for best practice.


Any ideas?


Catherine

 

Melissa S Graves

Appeal.

Catherine Han

I feel that appeal looks like not enough to track this information.


For example. We send direct Mail to donor, donor makes donation by searching some websites to find our organization to donate online. It really responds to DM, not other appeal. But I wanted to track when it comes from?

Catherine Han

When donor makes a donation through Luminate online. There is a calumn called source code to record where the donation comes from. How to record the column information in RE.

Melissa S Graves

So now you are getting into mind reading...


We in the appeal business need to understand that we will never, with any certainty, be able to know what the "source" or "motivator" of any gift is. Why did they give? Was it the mailing or the FB post? Was it both? If they get your email appeal then go to your website and read more and get motivated to give, is it the email or the website that truly motivated them? or both? If you send an mailing and follow up with a call was it the mailing or the call? Would they have given to the mailing just hadn't yet or did the call change their mind to give?


We need to accept the fact that you will never know. Never. We can't be big brother and require that all gifts be traced back to the one and only true official motivator. You could ask your donors on some formats (online giving,etc. why they chose to give but a) asking them to answer yet another question could increase the chance they will not give and b) they probably don't really know either.


In my opinion the best thing you can do is record the last portal of entry they used to make their gift. If they used a coded reply device or specific online giving form - great, code it to that and do not try to mindread and guess that the other call/mailing/email they got was possibly more important/resonating. Also, if they use an old appeal envelope but got the most recent one - do NOT code to the more recent appeal. You KNOW they opened the first mailing and or email if they used that device - you have no evidence the newer one was even opened, recognized, or more important.  If you start to do this (and/or allow gift officers to start to influence your appeal coding) the inconsistency you will get with your data will be great therefore your data is useless. 


Is this an incomplete picture of what motivates your donors? YES. There are other ways to know if something is working. Send an appeal and only call half for follow ups. Does the follow up group do better or the same? If better - just do them and know that it is helping. No need for the call to get "credit" as the appeal. Send one appeal and combine it with a social media blitz - does that increase the response of your appeal where you did not do such a thing or no. If so, just do it and not worry about giving FB credit for it's help in making the appeal a success. Test it again in a few years and make sure it is still working though!


In reguards to LO source codes - again, they are part but not all of the picture. If they click through the website and read tons of stuff you will still only get one source code and does that really help you determine what motivated them to give - maybe, maybe not.


The reason to track appeals is to see what solicitation methods are working but the hard data is only part of the picture.

Debra Holcomb

We have one appeal we call 'Online'.  Online has many different packages.  If the gift comes through Facebook, it gets the Facebook appeal.  Same for Google AdWords.  We have the same set up for other third party sites that encourage giving.  When you click the button/link on their page, it redirects to our donate page and the source data populates in the backend, just as it does for any email appeals we send.  (We do not use Luminate Online so I don't know if it allows for this type of tracking).


When we get online gifts that appear to be unsolicited, we look at the timing of recent mailed appeals to determine if that was what motivated the gift.  The gift is the recorded to that appeal with a gift attribute indicating it arrived online - we want indicate the cost of soliciting that gift against the mailing cost not our online efforts.  If we cannot quickly identify what initiated the gift, we let it go and don't worry about it.  No mind reading involved.  

Erin Kraft

Catherine Han:

Hello:


How do you track donations in RE from Social Media? such as google, face book , twitter and so on - different source. There is one field in RE7 gift tab called Marketiing source sode. This field is text valueonly, cannot be set up table. Or you the information in gift attribute. I am looking for best practice.


Any ideas?


Catherine

 

This sounds like a good way to use Packages from BlackBaud: https://kb.blackbaud.com/articles/Article/41446

"Appeal packages in Raiser's Edge offer the ability to track historic and statistical information for different facets of a single appeal. Packages more precisely analyze the effectiveness of appeals. 
For example, Year End Appeals may consist of several different mailings. One may feature a simple letter of appeal, while the other may feature the letter plus a color brochure. By making each mailing a separate package, you can analyze the effectiveness of each of them individually rather than as a single mailing to determine if the color brochure is worth the additional expense."


As others have mentioned, gifts should be populating with specific URL attribute data if you are using online express. However, if you are using some other  form of social media that may have cost your agency an estimated $.01 per solicitation, Packages are not only a great way to assess your detailed appeal success, but also a great way to track your expenses.