Are you overwhelmed by omnichannel fundraising? As tricky as this approach can be, it’s crucial to build deeper loyalty with your constituents.
On this episode of the Go Beyond Fundraising podcast, we talk with Laura Hinrichsen, VP of Advertising, and Kacey Crawford, VP of Digital Strategy, about how nonprofits can master omnichannel fundraising and marketing. We break down crucial concepts, share practical tips, and discuss real-world success stories to help your nonprofit thrive in a competitive landscape.
Our two Allegiance Group + Pursuant experts also offer advice on breaking down internal siloes that may be holding your organization back. They’ll help you secure buy-in from each team and upper management so you can work together to achieve your goals.
Listen now to start building the foundation for an omnichannel strategy that puts your constituents front and center.
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Transcription
Host: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Go Beyond Fundraising podcast. Today, I am sitting down with Laura Hinrichsen and Kacey Crawford to discuss omnichannel fundraising.
We wanted to break this idea of omnichannel integrated marketing and fundraising into a series of a few episodes so you can get an idea of the mindset you need to have as an organization to implement omnichannel marketing and fundraising at your organization correctly. We’ll also share some additional tips and tricks to set you up for success.
To start today, let's define some terms. How do we define integrated marketing? How does it differ from and overlap with omnichannel marketing?
Kacey Crawford: That's great, Leah. First, thanks so much for having me. This topic is timely. In talking to a lot of the nonprofit organizations we work with and seeing the way our world is evolving, this is the space that we're in. This is no longer a nice-to-have luxury conversation. We need to talk about these things because organizations must evolve how they show up and engage their constituents. I'm excited we're talking about it.
When we think about integrated marketing, we think about it as a precursor to omnichannel. For example, integrated marketing could be that you've got a robust direct mail program, and now you want to expand what you're doing in the digital space. And so, you might integrate some emails with your direct marketing and direct mail pieces. You might share some copy between the two, some common imagery, and you might integrate those two channels. And while they’re integrated, they both still play to the channel's strengths. That level of integration depends on where an organization is, what channels it already uses, and which channels are leading.
For a lot of our organizations — especially older organizations that have been around for a long time — that's direct mail. Direct mail has been their workhorse. So, many times, integrated marketing usually means taking what you've done in direct mail, adapting it slightly, and integrating it with another channel. On the flip side, when we think about omnichannel marketing, we're zooming up and saying, “Okay, let's be a little more channel agnostic. Let's center our strategies instead of centering them on the channel.”
We're thinking about the constituency, and we're thinking about the people we're talking to. So, if we're talking to new donors, what does our new donor mix and messaging and engagement strategy look like across the channels? How are we going to speak with one voice? How are we going to prioritize what messages go where? How are we going to engage them? How will we leverage the channels for what they're good at?
We're going to lean on what that particular constituency needs most, and that mix will look different. An omnichannel is going to look different for different organizations. Every organization isn’t going to go straight to omnichannel if they haven't first started to think about what it looks like to integrate some of their channels. So, it's flipping the narrative a little bit.
Multichannel and integrated marketing is much more channel-led. Omnichannel invites us to examine our constituency and center our strategies on each constituent group’s needs. It's a lot of work, though, and nobody is going to do this overnight. This is a long game.
Leaning into omnichannel requires a mindset shift and a commitment from the organization to make some changes structurally and programmatically. It requires a shift to lean into this and do it well.
Host: I think so often, within the fundraising and marketing practices, you tend to have folks who are specialized in a given channel that are all sitting at the table making decisions, making the strategy for how you can best get a certain message across in a certain channel. To make omnichannel marketing work well, you need to have a leader sitting over all those experts and strategists to see how all the pieces are going to weave together and perhaps how some channels may need to be utilized for one group of donors who are at a particular life cycle stage with you.
Kacey Crawford: I think you said it well. Not only does it make an organization more relevant, current, and able to adapt to the world around it in real time, but it also allows you to build deeper loyalty with your supporters. It says to your supporters, “We hear you; we see you. We see the channels, we see how you want to be communicated with, we hear your preferences, and we're going to meet you there. We're going to meet you where you are.”
We talk a lot about an omnichannel mindset, and we hear folks in the industry talking about meeting your people where they are. But an omnichannel mindset and strategy invite you to put that into practice and meet your people where they are.
Host: So, Laura, could you share with us a few components that an omnichannel marketing strategy might include? Also, why is it so crucial for forward-thinking nonprofits to embrace it?
Laura Hinrichsen: The way I try to simplify omnichannel marketing is to be mindful of every channel your campaign is planning to touch or every channel you have access to. An important distinction I want to make is that to do omnichannel marketing well, you don’t have to be active and present in every channel. It's making the most of the channels and platforms you have access to and what you can do within your budget.
The principle of omnichannel marketing applies to organizations of all sizes, but the way that it's executed is going to be a little bit different for every organization. Nevertheless, it’s crucial for nonprofits due to its success.
As we see across clients of different categories, when you truly approach things from an omnichannel perspective, your campaigns are much more successful. That's because your donors or potential donors are getting consistent messaging, whether they're receiving direct mail or emails or being exposed to advertising or maybe even organic social media posts. A big part of doing omnichannel well is making sure you’re being mindful and somewhat consistent across all the channels your campaign is supporting.
Every channel needs to have some level of consistency because it's working toward the same end goal. However, there will be different but important subtle nuances to how you want to address things.
Take indirect email versus a social ad on Facebook. They might be laddering up to the same end objective or idea, but how you speak in a social ad will differ from how you speak in another channel. It's ensuring you're keeping the spirit of the core idea of the campaign front and center but still smartly leveraging the nuance in individual platforms and placement.
Host: What are some common challenges organizations face when their constituent experience is disconnected across different channels?
Kacey Crawford: It’s multi-fold, but one of the biggest things is the siloing that happens. You have a disconnect between the folks who are potentially working on general marketing for the organization and those who are dealing with the general constituency. Depending on their vertical, that can look different for each organization. But you have this tension that sometimes exists between marketing and development. If those two teams are separated, there can be some severe siloing.
We must remember that our constituency doesn’t think about our organization in how we’re structured internally. The last thing we want to do is air that internal structure in how we engage folks separately. We don't want our constituents to feel the tension of a marketing message versus a development message. That's not for our constituents to figure out; that's our work to do.
One of the big challenges is looking at the silos to see where some of those can start to be torn down, making space for curiosity and collaboration. The best experience considers all aspects of the organization and all the different ways constituents come to an organization.
How do they first encounter you? Is it at an event? Is it online with advertising? Is it because they learned a legacy of giving from a grandparent or a parent? Think about all the ways folks become acquainted with an organization — how do we best honor that? How do we build experiences that recognize all those inroads and allow us to meet our constituents where they are? If you turn off a constituent one time, it takes a lot more effort to try to get another opportunity with that constituent. We need to think about every opportunity we have. Every touchpoint is significant, and we want to make the most of that. We want to make sure it's a meaningful experience for them.
For the organization, we want to ensure we’re leading humanity- and relationship-first, making that as personal as possible. To do that, we take the organization out of the centering.
We center our organizations a lot. And yes, we want to lead with mission, vision, and values. Still, there's a way to do that where the organization gets out of its own way and yields to understanding who their constituency is, who they’re trying to talk to, what their priorities are, what the priority messages are. It’s going back to the basics and starting from as much knowledge as possible about who you're talking to and identifying the most important things you want to talk to them about.
It's not just one-way communication. We also want to create feedback loops that allow constituents to come back in and feed into that constituent experience; to tell us how we’re doing and what that experience has been like for them. The more we pay attention to that, the deeper the loyalty, and the more we become the charity of choice in the minds of our donors.
Now more than ever, that's so important with all the competition. And we use competition lightly in the nonprofit space. I know we like to lean in and not think about competition too much, but there are a lot of organizations out there doing wonderful work. When our donors are pressed and need to decide who they’ll support, you want to be top of mind. To do that, you must cultivate a wonderful experience — endearing them to the organization, making them feel seen and heard, and letting them see themselves in your mission. The best way to do that is to be personal and ensure the experience caters to what they've told and shown you.
Host: Let’s move on to this idea of bringing in more of an integrated approach. Kacey shared a little bit about some of the common challenges organizations can face when the constituent experience is disconnected across different channels.
And again, omnichannel doesn't necessarily mean being in every possible channel. So, how can consistent and unified messages across channels help overcome what’s commonly a very disconnected experience?
Laura Hinrichsen: An integrated approach can help overcome many of these challenges because its consistency helps your potential donor audience remember your organization. It helps keep the campaign, your organization, what sets you apart — all those critical messages top of mind. It also reminds them to donate and clarifies what you want them to do, such as making a donation or downloading content. An integrated approach helps bring clarity and familiarity to the target audience.
Host: There's a marketing adage that someone needs to see the same message from you seven times before they will take action. Extrapolating that out, if a constituent sees different messages and channels from your organization, I can see how that would confuse a supporter about how you want them to engage. One message could be to donate to a Giving Day campaign, while another one might be information about a different program or campaign.
Laura Hinrichsen: Exactly. There will be some situations where it might be okay to have a couple of different messages. But, generally, to be successful — particularly in something that has a fundraising end goal — you don't want too many conflicting appeals or asks or messages out there at the same time. Not only does that result in confusion, but it could lead to competing against yourself within particular ad platforms, for example. That self-competition will increase your costs, which will restrict your budget and impact how well your campaign performs.
Host: In the for-profit space, the commercial space, competition absolutely is the word you want to use, especially with the economy continuing to be on a roller coaster and inflation not seeming to be slowing down fast enough for folks. People's disposable income is more precious than ever. And so, you see how for-profit organizations or companies are bulking up their ability to collect as much data as possible about their customers and potential customers to create an endless feedback loop so someone will continue to go to that company for their business.
As scary and draconian as Amazon can sometimes be, it’s often the first place we go to for everyday purchases. It checks all the boxes of knowing exactly what product you may want at a given time, delivering it to you in an extremely timely manner, and getting your yearly or monthly recurring revenues so that you continue to have that convenience. It hits all the boxes.
So, what are the key elements an organization needs to have in place even to attempt an Amazon-like experience for their constituents? What do they need to consider to be able to accomplish that?
Kacey Crawford: Leah, I think you hit on one of them when you mentioned the data. First-party data and zero-party are data critical. A lot is happening in the data space. We think a lot about privacy and all the implications with that, and with there being a lot more consumer choice. And let's be honest, to your point, our constituents are also consumers. We need to recognize all the different messages and ways that information is being exchanged with our folks regularly.
When we think about collecting information from our constituents, it needs to be valuable. We must also tell them why we’re asking for certain information and how we intend to use it. If we’re going to collect this data, if we do want to make it a priority, which we do, we need to know these things to be able to be smart communicators, marketers, and fundraisers.
We need to show the value to our constituents. “Tell us X so that we can provide the best possible experience possible” — really lean into showing the value. As you were saying earlier, some folks have some mistrust of how data has been used. So, it's really on us to be intentional in collecting the data, show the value of why we're collecting it, and show them how that improves their experience with the organization. If we can do that at the forefront, it gives us a better ability to collect their data.
Channel is all about the data because you need to look at a holistic view of how your folks are engaging with you. That's how you learn even more about them, so you can determine where the most important places and spaces are to communicate with them about the different things they want and need to hear about to engage with you deeper. So, I would start with data.
The other thing is having those real honest internal organizational discussions. We touched on it earlier: omnichannel has become a little bit of a buzzword, and I think it's a misunderstood buzzword, also. People are quick to say, “We need to be omnichannel.” But I would pause and ask, do you really? Or is the next right step for your organization to be more in the integrated multichannel space where you say, “Let's crawl before we walk, let's walk before we run, let's take a methodical approach here and take the next right step.”
Again, I go back to what we were saying at the top of the conversation. For some folks, that means if you've been a direct mail–heavy organization and the lion's share of your fundraising has been done via direct mail, you may be in the space to sync up your emails, potentially add SMS text messaging, add some of those channel-led tactics. Starting to incorporate those into your strategies and planning will begin to train your organization and your teams on the building blocks of coordination and collaboration that will be essential for omnichannel.
Once you fully lean into omnichannel, those channel specialties and expertise will always be critical. You need to have your subject matter experts at the table, continuing to build their expertise on channels and platforms. However, the conversation shifts, and suddenly, you're now talking about, again, the best way to engage this type of individual. What's the best way to deepen our connection with this individual? How do we make sure that everything we're putting out there is a micro-moment where we're meeting people in their lifestyle and in an everyday way via the channels that are most significant and relevant?
Also, the way we budget and plan needs to change. While we would start with data to make sure we have a good foundation, we would then lean into, again, curiosity, collaboration, and coordination. There are still so many organizations that have distinctly different budgets — one budget for direct mail, one budget for digital. In an omnichannel world, again, you look at that differently. Those lines get blurred.
As we think about organizational resourcing and getting buy-in from all levels of the organization, even the budgeting process becomes much more collaborative, and more folks have a seat at the table. Suddenly, that conversation between marketing and development shifts because marketing isn’t just tasked with awareness anymore, and development isn’t just tasked with fundraising anymore.
Those two forces come together, and now both are tasked with shared KPIs of building awareness, telling the brand story, and encouraging new donors, supporters, and constituencies to be acquainted with the organization. It becomes this shared space where everyone has a role to play in the health of the organization and in allowing the mission, vision, and values to live on.
Again, it's not going to happen overnight. Still, these are the things organizations could be thinking about when assessing their readiness and considering where they are on that spectrum because it’s a wide spectrum. Be honest with where you are and encourage folks to take the next right step. That will look different for each of your organizations.
Host: Could you provide some examples or an example of a success story of a nonprofit that has evolved from the disjointed disconnected experience to having more of a connected omnichannel strategy?
Laura Hinrichsen: We have a client that is within the international aid category that has been that has embraced an omnichannel strategy and launched it in the right way, and they've seen that drive a lot of stuff. The tactics included direct mail, email, paid social, paid search, programmatic display, connected TV, and some streaming video. They had a consistent and integrated message present in an omnichannel way while also driving some awareness before they went into the hard donation ask.
In this particular instance, they were able to drive more revenue from paid media in two months than they did in the entire previous fiscal year. That’s a recent strong example of a success story we’ve seen across every client that has embraced an omnichannel strategy correctly.
Host: It makes sense when you think about it because you’re focusing every dollar you put into a campaign around a common goal. It's almost that idea of compounding interest. It's the initial big investment to get somebody on your file, and then a smaller investment. And then, over time, by continuing to have that consistent drumbeat to the right person at the right time, you don't need to invest as much to get the same return every time you go in with another touchpoint.
Laura Hinrichsen: Exactly. In this instance, the end goal is new donors and driving revenue. To get to that end goal, it doesn't mean we only had fundraising asks. This client also had an awareness challenge in how they differed from a similar organization. So, planting that seed of awareness and education about what made this organization different from others helped feed the funnel.
It helped make lead-generation efforts more successful, which fed into who we could target with ads and other efforts on other channels. That comprehensive effort and full-funnel strategy ultimately led to these stats. An integrated omnichannel campaign, when done right and thinking long term, is something that can span awareness, lead-generation, and fundraising objectives.
Host: A common question we get in webinars is, “Do I need a TikTok? Do I need to invest in TikTok?” Do you have some guidelines for knowing which channels will give them the impact they're looking for?
Laura Hinrichsen: First, we would have a discovery and a planning session with the potential client to talk about what they ultimately want to achieve as a particular campaign and their budget. That will help us start to narrow down what's most realistic.
In certain platforms and placements, there are hard minimums we have to meet to be able to purchase certain media. There's also a threshold in terms of timing and budget and others where there's not a hard and fast minimum, but there’s a best practice. We’ll have a planning and discovery session to determine the best-suited channels to deliver your goal within your budget and objectives. For example, if the client wants to grow their file, we very likely would recommend a combination of paid social and paid search. If they want a true, full-funnel strategy, it would likely be a combination.
I'm speaking just from the advertising focus. There are obvious things we would do in a true omnichannel way. But say a client wanted specifically an omnichannel ad program to tackle end-of-year fundraising. It could be a mixture of some upper funnel programming to warm the audience and get some awareness going before we hit them with the donation ask of a different type of paid social and some paid search.
We do get the question about TikTok and other platforms quite a bit. In general, if your organization isn’t active in an organic capacity on a particular platform — and I think TikTok is one of the best examples — we won't recommend you pursue an ad presence there. The goal for most paid social campaigns or ad campaigns is to get followers to do a specific thing on your website. But often — and especially if they’re not familiar with your organization — they’ll click on your profile or your page within that platform to learn more. If you don't have a consistent, engaging presence on that platform, that can be a bit off-putting to a donor.
The main takeaway is that a lot of discovery and questions have to take place. We’ll also consider what else you already have going on in that time frame from both an earned and owned perspective.
In addition, consider what the competition might be doing and what time of year it is. Balance that with the combination of channels and platforms that make the most sense for your organization based on where you are and what you're trying to achieve.
Host: I'd love to touch on getting buy-in for omnichannel from leadership. What are a few recommendations for approaching that conversation?
Laura Hinrichsen: We have seen that conversation go well when we first focus on helping them understand how everything works together. That occurs by saying, “Okay, ultimately, here’s the end goal we're trying to achieve.” And then, as we talk through the different elements of an omnichannel or integrated strategy, we will help clarify how each component contributes to the overall goal.
In some instances, that can be tricky. Someone in finance or someone who’s not as savvy in marketing or advertising might want to see immediate ROI for every single thing. But in an omnichannel strategy and an integrated strategy, where you might need to have some upper funnel awareness tactics before you hit the ask, those upper funnel tactics won’t always have an immediate return on ad spend. Still, they help feed the funnel and make everything that follows much more successful.
It's ensuring everyone is clear on each platform's role in an omnichannel strategy and how we’ll hold that particular platform, tactic, and message accountable for success. And it's going to look a little bit different for each. So, along those lines, the measurement angle is critical. Have an upfront agreement on those different KPIs we mentioned and be mindful of how and when you’ll report on that. How the strategy is built follows how you’ll report on it, so there’s consistency.
Host: Yes. And especially with measurement, we can be tempted to throw all the numbers out there but not necessarily think about the story that data can tell.
Laura Hinrichsen: Exactly. And when it comes to reporting, make sure you're not just giving data but also telling a story. For example, saying, “This is the formula we use to approach reporting for advertisers, and this is what happened. Why did it happen, and what are we going to do about it?” That's the three main talking points or filters through which we run our reporting.
We aren't going to go through a chart and read you all the specific, surface-level metrics. We're going to say, what happened? Why do we think it happened? And what does that mean? What are we going to do about it from here? Any good report, regardless of whether it's an omnichannel campaign, should be very action-oriented.
Host: So, Kacey, say we were to sit down and draw up a quick list of some of the key characteristics an organization has — the mindset, the resources, the budgeting strategies, all those elements — that mean they're ready to take that next step to be an omnichannel organization. What would those elements include?
Kacey Crawford: Again, data is key, but I feel like we've already hammered that point in. I think it comes down to collaboration.
Do your internal teams have intentional, abundant spaces where they can collaborate and work together and start to break down those silos? Are they working from a space where, again, you have teams from marketing, development, and programs? If you're a membership organization and you're all at the same table, you're all talking about the planning. You have common planning and common objectives. You have North Star goals that you're all working toward.
To be successful in the omnichannel space, that's where it starts. It’s bringing together multiple seats at the table, various perspectives, and multiple goals and using those to anchor a set of North Star goals that allows each team to, yes, be successful. You want marketing to be successful with their awareness goals. But how does that come into this more collaborative conversation? What does that lift look like for everybody on the team, everybody at that table, to really think about awareness?
Same with fundraising. How can you educate across the organization that fundraising is everyone's job? Yes, you have a development team, but fundraising is everyone's job. Marketing is everyone's job. I would start there, and that's where I would spend the most energy.
Who do you have in specific seats in your organization? Do you have the right people in the right seats? Do you have the right people at the table? Do you have enough seats at the table? Is your table big enough? Starting there is key.
Do you have the right partners? I'm not going to turn this into a big sales pitch, but it's essential to make sure you have the right partner, whether an agency or a data partner, who can help you execute in these various ways. You need a partner who fully embraces and understands this space and can help you even if they're not executing on your behalf in all these channels. Someone who can be a thought partner with you, who can zoom up and look across the entire effort, identify the opportunities, threats, and gaps, and create and craft the most meaningful constituent experience across the organization.
We tend to limit it to marketing and development. But even when we think about the organizations with a membership or a strong advocacy arm, those become key to that overall experience. Having a partner who can meet you there, become an extension of your team, and understand the space will also be critical.
Another thing is being nimble and flexible. Loosen your grip on things and be willing to pivot in real time. Don’t be so wedded to thoughts or actions. For instance, “Once we've built the budget, it's done, it's set, we can’t reallocate. Once we've set our program for the year and our comms calendar, it's set in stone.” The more folks can loosen their grip on some of those things they've held dear over the years, the more they’ll be able to pivot in real time as they see an opportunity and learn more about their constituency.
As your organization evolves, so should your planning, budgeting, and communications calendar. I encourage folks not to think so linearly because this space invites us into a much more fluid and dynamic work experience. It can be terrifying and exciting all at once, so I want to name the fact that, for some folks, this feels overwhelming. They hear the word “omnichannel,” and some folks shut down a little because it feels like they’ll never get there.
And again, I invite folks to take the next right step. For your organization, omnichannel may only be you leaning in and syncing up on two to three channels once you break down your program. But it's not all about that. It's more about the way you're communicating, who you're communicating to, the way you're coordinating, the way you're planning, and the way you're syncing up. That's really at the heart of omnichannel.
So, when we think about the readiness and the mindset and looking at organizations that are ready for that, it’s being in that space where you as an organization are willing to take a bit of a risk, change the way you’ve always done things, and lean into being more nimble.