A few questions that others may have insight into...

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I would welcome any comment on these Qs, especially from Scott or Patrick.

- Timing of first appeal according to calendar (into Dec) seems a bit late, we were originally thinking to have an initial appeal out into Nov. - Is there evidence to suggest that sending out tghis early would not have value?

- What $$ are measured towards campaign success? Only those $$ received from those contacted through the campaign appeals? Or additional donations coming in through wesite during that timeframe?

- Based on the info I submitted on the start-up form I am a bit concerned about the number of email addresses available to contact. (12,000 of which 8000 have no online giving) Can you provide some comment on whether this file size will achieve significant results.

Also interested to know what others have as a file size

- Also, we have a large number that are "off limits" to email (~15,000). ie they have selecetd "no contact" on donations forms at time of gift . What can be done with these records?

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Comments

  • Hi Greg,

    These are all good questions, but I think it would be confusing/challenging to answer them all in a single thread since they're all very distinct topics. Would you be willing to use each of your questions to start a new thread? That will make it easier to follow the discussion.

    To get things rolling, I'll tackle your first question ...

    Timing of first appeal according to calendar (into Dec) seems a bit late, we were originally thinking to have an initial appeal out into Nov. - Is there evidence to suggest that sending out tghis early would not have value?

    We've tried to address this question in both of our first two webinars. If you've missed the discussion on timing to date, you might go back and review the recordings. All of the class recordings are archived in the Booster Shot Resources Page.

    It's worth noting that BCCF's end-of-year giving patterns in 2008 match the general pattern that the Booster Shot End-of-Year campaign is based on. Meaning, in 2008 your end-of-year giving really began ramping up as of December 15th. We went over instructions on how to view these trends in our last session, but here's a quick summary:

    1. In your Convio admin tools, go to Data Management > Reports
    2. On the "Reports Classic" tab, expand the folder called "Analysis Reports" and choose the report called "Interaction Timeline Report"
    3. As you configure this report, choose "Donations" under "Interaction Types", then "Number of Occurances" under "Metric to Chart", then "Summarize by Day" under "Report Increment"
    4. The report examples we looked at together last week displayed a "Custom Date Range" from November 1, 2008 through December 31st 2008
    5. Click the "Submit Report" button - the result will be a timeline of number of gifts per day for the time period of your choosing

    Now, all that said, the Booster Shot program isn't meant to be a cure-all for your fourth quarter communications planning/strategy. It would be wise to do some stewardship in November at a minimum. And, if your organization solicits both around Thanksgiving *and* year-end, then the Booster Shot program really is only covering your end-of-year fundraising needs, not necessarily your Thanksigiving or fall appeals.

    In general, however, keep in mind that from an online perspective, December 31st is a very real and compelling deadline to drive towards. Your constituents won't be thinking about December 31st giving until mid- to late-December; the Booster Shot program is designed to build up to that date and complement any offline appeals/communications that you may be sending in early December.

    -patrick

  • Patrick Hansen:

    Hi Greg,

    These are all good questions, but I think it would be confusing/challenging to answer them all in a single thread since they're all very distinct topics. Would you be willing to use each of your questions to start a new thread? That will make it easier to follow the discussion.

    To get things rolling, I'll tackle your first question ...

    Timing of first appeal according to calendar (into Dec) seems a bit late, we were originally thinking to have an initial appeal out into Nov. - Is there evidence to suggest that sending out tghis early would not have value?

    We've tried to address this question in both of our first two webinars. If you've missed the discussion on timing to date, you might go back and review the recordings. All of the class recordings are archived in the Booster Shot Resources Page.

    It's worth noting that BCCF's end-of-year giving patterns in 2008 match the general pattern that the Booster Shot End-of-Year campaign is based on. Meaning, in 2008 your end-of-year giving really began ramping up as of December 15th. We went over instructions on how to view these trends in our last session, but here's a quick summary:

    1. In your Convio admin tools, go to Data Management > Reports
    2. On the "Reports Classic" tab, expand the folder called "Analysis Reports" and choose the report called "Interaction Timeline Report"
    3. As you configure this report, choose "Donations" under "Interaction Types", then "Number of Occurances" under "Metric to Chart", then "Summarize by Day" under "Report Increment"
    4. The report examples we looked at together last week displayed a "Custom Date Range" from November 1, 2008 through December 31st 2008
    5. Click the "Submit Report" button - the result will be a timeline of number of gifts per day for the time period of your choosing

    Now, all that said, the Booster Shot program isn't meant to be a cure-all for your fourth quarter communications planning/strategy. It would be wise to do some stewardship in November at a minimum. And, if your organization solicits both around Thanksgiving *and* year-end, then the Booster Shot program really is only covering your end-of-year fundraising needs, not necessarily your Thanksigiving or fall appeals.

    In general, however, keep in mind that from an online perspective, December 31st is a very real and compelling deadline to drive towards. Your constituents won't be thinking about December 31st giving until mid- to late-December; the Booster Shot program is designed to build up to that date and complement any offline appeals/communications that you may be sending in early December.

    -patrick

    Thanks - good comments - I do know that our online giving did ramp up significantly over the time period mentioned. This was not heavily influenced by outbound email so I was wondering if an earlier campaign would ' flatten' the curve. But it makes sense that, if this is the timeframe when most people will be thinking of giving that an intensive communication program will influence more to act on that thought.

    thanks

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