Beg. Sit. Text. Podcast. Good nonprofit!
Give them a biscuit, because The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has learned some new marketing tricks.
The nonprofit has launched several new content delivery mechanisms to reach donors, including a weekly text messaging program that debuted in mid-December.
Only about 100 people are signed up so far, a number Jo Sullivan, senior vice president, development and communications, admits is small.
“But I remember back in 1999 or 2000, when we launched our e-news alert. We only had 600 e-mail addressees,” she says. “We had no idea what we’d be able to accomplish with that. Our first outbound e-campaign raised $4,000 and we thought we’d found gold. Woo-hoo! [laughs]”
Today, the ASPCA has over 650,000 e-mail addresses on file and sends weekly information e-mails, as well as regular fundraising e-campaigns. “We make sure there is a relevant conversation going on with the ASPCA,” she says.
With the text initiative, the ASPCA is “looking for that low hanging fruit, people who want to be engaged with us in a new and different way,” says Sullivan. The association’s inaugural text messages have been pet tips, segmented for cat or dog owners. ASPCA members can also opt in to receive animal advocacy alerts for their area.
The association plans to start integrating the ASPCA short code into marketing and PR materials to test response.
Podcasting is also on the horizon for the New York-based nonprofit. The ASPCA is looking to debut its first podcast in March or April, featuring content such as behavior and health tips from a staff animal behaviorist.
Blogs are also part of the association’s strategy, but Sullivan acknowledges that staffing resources can often be a stumbling block.
“[Blogs] are great for people that want to be engaged in that way. But I’m finding that if an organization isn’t supporting [the endeavor] with a dedicated editorial body or staff member, its not going to do as much for you as it could,” she says. “So we’ve launched those as tactics and techniques and they’re out there. But now, we’re going back and supporting that with an infrastructure person this year.”
The ASPCA also has a MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/officialaspca — “Gimme Shelter” by the Rolling Stones was streaming when we logged on), as well as videos of adoptable pets up on YouTube. What’s the ROI on these efforts? Sullivan says she’s holding off on that judgment for at least a year, using the new media initially as a content delivery/relationship building mechanism, rather than a fundraising tool.
“It’s all about cultivation and getting prospects and then figuring out how to make money,” explains Sullivan. “[We want] to figure out who these people are, get them engaged and doing things with us, whether its receiving text messages or downloading a podcast or viewing our MySpace page. Then, we’ll go back and look at their donor value a year later. If they don’t become donors, maybe these are just cool things we shouldn’t be investigating. But if they are donors, is their average gift and their frequency of giving higher than other people on the file?”
That’s what the association found with donors with e-mail addresses on file, Sullivan says. “When we looked back five or six years later, the value of a donor with an e-mail address, regardless of where they give—online, by phone—is twice that of a donor without an e-mal address. It’s telling us that people who are engaged with multiple channels are going to be better donors.”
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