Timely Messages Focused on a Particular Needs Net Great Results
There are so many wonderful organizations helping people and animals around the world, it’s hard to narrow your choices to the ones that fit your needs. What makes people give in the first place?
Researchers have looked into why people donate, why they don’t do it as much as they would hope to, and how to bridge this gap. The explanations for charitable giving range from the purely altruistic “I donate because I value the social good done by the charity” to the not-at-all altruistic “I donate because I want to show off to people how rich I am.”
Whatever the reason a person chooses to give, marketing research shows that giving is more frequent when people are reminded of current and specific needs.
Lori Miller, Donor Relations Manager for an animal shelter in western Tennessee says the most effective means for sparking donations is to highlight one particular case and quickly send out an email campaign to regular donors. “When we have a dog or cat come in with special needs, we know it’s going to be expensive, and we know we’ll need help,” she told us. “I can put together an email campaign using GMass in less than an hour and send it out using our list and personalizing the message to each donor.”
Prior to GMass the shelter used an outside marketing firm to build full-color templates, but it took too long and was too expensive. “Our donors appreciate a personal message, straight from our manager, with a brief description of what we need and why we need it. They also appreciate that we’re not spending a ton of money on marketing.”
The email campaign open rates for the shelter average 75% per campaign, and since switching to GMass the shelter’s donor list has grown 18%. “We ask people who visit the shelter to sign up for our newsletter and we use GMass to send it on the first of every month,” said Lori. “It has worked out very well, and about half the people turn into regular donors."
Right now GMass is free, but Lori says they will be happy to pay for the service if and when that day comes. “GMass is easy to manage, easy to use, and easy to track our results,” said Miller.
In addition to features like tracking and automatic follow-up, GMass allows users to insert the recipient’s name right into the subject line, which is a very effective means to boost open rates.
Many other charitable organizations are using GMass for their scheduled contacts to donors, ranging from national non-profits to small, local affiliates and religious organizations. GMass is an extension for the Chrome browser, and works with Gmail. You can download GMass here: www.gmass.co