Mixed Breed

Purebreds may fetch a high price at market, but it was a mixed marketing pedigree that helped the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals surpass its $40 million 2006 revenue projections by 11%.

The New York-based nonprofit is using a combination of direct mail, DRTV, telemarketing and online media to connect with individuals concerned with animal welfare. And it’s currently evaluating a major rebranding effort that began in October 2005.

“I really wish I could measure it for you,” says Jo Sullivan, the ASPCA’s senior vice president for development and communications. “One of the things we didn’t do was aggressive head-to-head tests with the old logo and the new stuff. We did some control packages just because we had things printed and didn’t want to throw them out, because of fundraising efficiencies. We used them as controls a year ago and mailed out the same package, same message, same letter, with the new branding, and they performed at pretty much the same response rate and average gift.”

Sullivan has no problem with that. “We didn’t do this to elevate our donor base. The big reason for rebranding was to help differentiate ourselves in the marketplace with new potential donors. When we look around at our competitors, we’re still seeing lots of kitty and puppy paws and things that are pretty iconic. Now the ASPCA has an extremely unique look and feel. Is that going to affect acquisition mailings in the future? We hope so.”

Rather than focus on increasing overall membership, the ASPCA is looking to boost the number of monthly sustainer donors, whom it refers to as “guardians.”

The ASPCA sends out some 26 million direct mail pieces annually, and every piece includes a dedicated URL. “So we’re not just driving them online but driving them online specific to that package or test panel,” says Sullivan. “We’re measuring. Is the mail really yielding any kind of online conversion? It’s probably less than 1% of the total income of any given mailing, but at least we’re tracking where those people are coming and going.”

A seven-part renewal mailing series begins in January. As for acquisitions, label-pack and member-card premiums are used on the front end, but otherwise the organization has walked away from ongoing premium efforts. “The value of that donor just isn’t there,” says Sullivan. “We’re really targeting higher-dollar-average gift donors that we know we can convert within 30 days to sustainers.”

Besides the Web site, there’s an ongoing weekly e-mail newsletter alert program, and donor-appeal e-mailings, often tied to the renewal mailing series. Blogs and pet-adoption videos on YouTube are being implemented, as well as an ASPCA MySpace page. A text-messaging program began in December and a podcast series is planned for spring.

As for other media, telemarketing is done to the house file as one call in the renewal series and to convert annual donors to sustainers. And DRTV accounts for about a third of the nonprofit’s media spending.

“We’re airing 24/7 somewhere in the country — we’re really aggressive with media buys,” Sullivan says. “We’re seeing elevated awareness. Our next step is taking the database and finding where donors are coming from vs. a year ago, to see if there’s any correlation to [the areas] where our DRTV airings are strong. My guess is yes.”

This winter the ASPCA is having an independent firm do a creative audit of its marketing materials, with the goal of cultivating a unified look and feel across all departments. “We need to make sure the fundraising efforts look like the Web site. If you see an ad in Dog Fancy magazine, you need to know it came from the ASPCA,” Sullivan says. “There’s still department-by-department stuff that hasn’t transitioned, but we’re getting there.”

The ASPCA also is re-evaluating its online store, launched officially last year. The product selection evolved as a mix of B-to-B items such as lesson plans and shelter guides, coupled with consumer goods such as T-shirts, mugs and pins.

The ultimate goal for the store — being promoted through house vehicles such as the member magazine and e-news alerts — is to convert buyers into ASPCA donors.

“My guess is that the person who buys a $25 T-shirt probably thinks they’re more of a donor than the woman who writes a $15 check every 14 months, and we need to respect that,” says Sullivan. “We need to respect that this person has made a conscious choice to wear their support for us on their chest. It would be great if they would convert to a sustainer, but it would also be great if they just came back every year and bought more products.”

Stat Sheet

• Members: 600,000 active. ASPCA still mails 400,000 36-month-plus lapsed donors.
• Guardians (monthly donors): 66,000.
• Rebranding: New-look marketing materials launched in October 2005.
• 2006 fundraising goal: $40 million. “We’re ending the year beating ourprojected income by 11%,” says the ASPCA’s Jo Sullivan. “I [don’t know] if it’s a testimony to the rebranding or smart fundraising or a little of both.”
• Revenue from direct response: 49%.
• Average gifts: Monthly donors, $21; first-time acquisition, $26; repeat annual donors who didn’t convert to monthly, $36
• E-mail addresses on file: About 650,000.
• Monthly visitors to Web site: 600,000.
• Annual direct mail volume: 26 million. “We’re not reducing our mailings [because of the Web]. That was one thing we learned,” Sullivan says.
• Who gives? “We’re driving our average age down,” Sullivan notes. “It was 65 to 70 when I started. Now it’s about 55.”
• Marketing budget: “We’re spending close to $300,000 a month on DRTV buys and will spend between $3.5 million and $4 million this year in paid DRTV placement,” Sullivan says. — BNV