Converting leads to opportunities for non-profit organizations

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Hi, I'm james from Mindwize, a full service  fundraising agency that works with nonprofits   all over the world. Today we're going  to run through an introduction to lead   generation four non-profits covering the most  important fundamentals in around 10 minutes.   We'll cover what lead generation is, why  nonprofits should do it, we'll look at different   types of lead gen campaign, how to maximise your  success using a test learn and optimise process,   and we'll look at building a diverse portfolio  that helps secure your donor acquisition program.   Let's get into it! And we'll start with  a question for those who aren't sure:   What is non-profit lead generation? We'll define  it as an online campaign involving a non-financial   action whereby the non-profit captures the  supporter's direct contact details for further   engagement. At a minimum those direct contact  details will usually include email address, and   they often include a phone number as well. Lead  generation is often - but not always - the first   step in a two-step donor acquisition strategy, and  we'll talk about that a bit more in a few minutes.   Now a second key question: Why should non-profits  do lead generation? Well lead gen is kind of like   super food for your organisation. It's a really  healthy activity because it grows your online   community and engagement, which in turn help  you achieve your strategic objectives such as   core program objectives, raising brand and message  awareness, fundraising and donor acquisition for   sure, volunteer recruitment, and it can help you  do a whole lot of other things. From a marketing   perspective, lead gen feeds a non-profit's funnel,  providing a first touchpoint from which you can   step up the commitment of your new supporters to  the cause. Or put another way, it lets you start   relationships with people who are interested in  your cause or aligned with your values. And when   you think about it, people are actually qualifying  themselves as good supporter prospects when they   take your survey or sign your petition. However  you put it, growing your community of supporters   makes your organisation stronger in many ways -  provided of course you engage and guide them well   from that first interaction. Which takes us  onto two-step campaigns. As i said before,   non-profit lead gen campaigns are often driven by  fundraising objectives. We can call these two-step   campaigns, with the first touchpoint being lead  generation, and the second being donor conversion.   Two-step campaigns can involve a range of  different channels and complexity. Up the simple   end of the spectrum is something like this - we're  running ads on Facebook, Instagram, maybe Tiktok,   and we're driving traffic to lead forms that are  set up within those social platforms so there's   no web page setup required. When someone takes  that lead gen action they receive a thank you   email and they go into a donor conversion phone  program. So it's fairly straightforward. Up the   more complex end of the spectrum is something like  this. Here we've got dedicated campaign landing   pages for lead generation and donor conversion and  we're using a range of channels to drive traffic   to that lead gen landing page, including social  ads, organic social, paid search and even email   so that your existing subscribers can share with  their friends. After someone takes that lead gen   action they go on a multi-channel conversion  journey including an immediate online ask, an   email journey, retargeted ads and telemarketing.  Now both simple and complex user flows are viable;   the best choice for you really depends on your  campaign objectives. But in either case, it's   really important to think of the whole supporter  journey and experience from the first touchpoint   through to donor conversion and onboarding. You  really must plan out everything from creative   to systems to data flows to ensure a more smooth  supporter experience throughout the whole journey.   If you do this right, you'll really maximise your  campaign donor conversion results. But actually,   maximising this group's lifetime supporter value  isn't just about how many donors you can convert   immediately after their first touchpoint. In  fact if you engage your leads well and build   your relationship with them over time, you'll find  that there's a really long tale of conversion,   meaning that you'll find some leads  making a first donation to you six months,   12 months two years, four years or even  more after first taking your survey,   downloading your brochure and so on. And  this means that your return on investment   also keeps increasing over time - again, if you  keep engaging this segment of non-donors well.   Now i want to get more concrete. Let's look at  some examples and categories of lead gen action.   We'll just touch on these briefly - if you want  to know more, keep an eye on our Youtube channel   for more detailed videos on each of these  categories. And as we go through these examples,   just have a think about how they may translate for  your organisation. First up: Petitions. Petitions   invite people to join calls on a political or  corporate target to change specific policies or   behaviours. Petitions can spread really quickly  and grow your community rapidly, at scale,   if they focus on a topic of high relevance to your  audience. For example this Greenpeace UK petition   addresses a number of really hot button  topics in 2022 including home energy prices,   climate change, the Ukraine war, and it's  targeted at the infamous Boris Johnson.   A petition should also have a strong theory of  change to convince the reader that enough people   signing it can really help achieve its goals.  And a real position is delivered to the target   with the names of all the petitioners. Next,  hand-raisers. A hand-raiser is a non-financial   action asking the audience to affirm their  agreement with a values-driven statement;   like this one Mindwize did for Orbis International  - "every child deserves healthy eyesight". The   values invoked in the hand-raiser can give it  a petition-like feel, but a hand raiser lacks   the concrete policy calls and delivery  strategy of a petition. Like petitions,   successful hand-raisers focus on a topic that's  relevant to or that triggers your audience. Third,   value exchanges. A value exchange offers the  audience something of personal value in exchange   for their details and the chance to continue the  conversation. For example, this anticoagulation   pass from the Thrombosis Foundation in The  Netherlands. This campaign type is more driven by   self-interest or user benefit than something like  a petition or a hand-raiser, but it can be just   as successful. And of course subject relevance  is as always key here. Moving on, here we have   a survey and a quiz. The tone is different  between the two but the format is essentially the   same - a multiple question experience that gives  information back to the participant based on how   they answer the questions. Through interactivity  like this, you can offer the participant useful   information like in a brochure, but through a  different kind of experience. Now what are key   factors for success with surveys and quizzes?  You guessed it, audience relevance; whether   that's because you're over 40 and wondering  about the risks of diabetes and heart disease,   or you're curious about Australian animals and  want to know which one you're most similar to.   Fifth, behavioral pledges. When signing a  pledge the participant commits to adhering to   a certain values-driven behavior, like saying  no to single-use plastic as in this example.   A pledge can be a powerful lead gen mechanism if  it delivers a strong theory of change so people   feel that their participation will actually make  a difference. Obviously it also needs to be about   something that's relevant to people to attract  their participation. Lastly, polls. A poll asks   the participant a single question about a topic  that resonates and is relevant to the audience,   like childhood vaccination or the rights of  women and girls. These two examples really show   how a poll can focus on a hot topic that triggers  response without making the specific policy calls   of a petition. After all, if you ask a group  of adults what they think about vaccination   you'll very rarely be met with silence. Now  we've just covered six of the common types   of non-profit lead generation. There are many  more including send-a-message actions, games,   share your story or photo actions and many others.  It's really important that you explore a range of   these different campaign types to uncover all  the possibilities for your cause. Now I want to   move on to a couple of final strategic points  on building a lead gen program in a way that   minimises risk and maximises success. The first  of those is using an ideate-test-learn-optimise   cycle at the program level. Let's unpack how this  process works. First, at ideation you want to tap   into many brains and generate many ideas in  a brainstorm session with a number of people,   then collectively select the three that the  group involved in the brainstorm feel have   the best potential for lead generation. Next we  multivariate test those three campaign ideas to   split segments of the exact same audiences.  It's important that we do this in the lowest   cost possible way to generate data without  spending too much money, and Facebook lead   forms combined with Facebook Experiments for the  multivariate test are such a way to do this. Next,   once we have significant results, we analyse to  learn which of these campaigns and creative work   best for which audiences ing to your key  metrics. It's really important at this phase to   analyse all the metrics relevant to your primary  campaign objective. So if you're doing a two-step   campaign involving phone conversion for donor  acquisition, don't just focus on the cost per   lead; you really need to measure and factor in  the phone conversion rate as well so that you   get a cost per donor, which is actually your  most important metric. Then lastly we optimise   the program by rolling out the winning campaign  or campaigns that delivered acceptable results.   Ideally - budget permitting - this test and learn  cycle is something that you can run periodically,   and so in this way you can gradually build a  portfolio of viable campaigns that you know   resonate with your audience. A diverse portfolio  of campaigns gives your donor acquisition program   stability as you can guarantee a steady supply of  leads. If a campaign becomes fatigued or redundant   or you have to stop it for some other reason,  you can pause or stop it, but you've got other   campaigns on or ready to go to ensure that leads  can keep flowing. Now this is an ideal vision;   not everyone has the resources for this level  of testing and rollout right away. But it's   something to aim for. Even two viable and ready  campaigns gives far more security than just one.   Thanks a lot for joining me for this introduction  to non-profit lead generation. There's a lot more   to this topic, so do keep an eye on our Youtube  channel for more useful videos on lead gen and   digital fundraising, and please do get in touch  at info@mindwize.org or via our website if you   have any questions or want support for your  digital fundraising program. See you soon!