In our previous post, Double Your Fundraising Efforts With Gift Lift™, we explored what the program is and how it works. To benefit from the fundraising dollars available, your gift matching program needs to be implemented in a way that sets it up for success. In this blog, Tension will focus on the key components necessary to ensure that you have a successful campaign.
Three Characteristics of a Successful Campaign
There are three main characteristics of a successful direct mail gift matching program:
- Organizational Commitment: Organizational commitment is a client wanting to secure better matching gift results, and therefore, they are willing to allocate more resources to meet this goal. Your client has decided to invest both time and money to attain better fundraising results; a more concerted, proactive effort to fundraising. Most non-profits have a passive/reactive program, meaning they do not seek gift matching opportunities, and as a result they are typically stagnant in securing matching gift dollars. When an organization commits to the Gift Lift program, they are seeing the value of the data and the results from the campaign will speak for itself.
- Access to Quality Data: Quality data can lead to quality matching gift results. The Gift Lift program is based upon the following four levels of “regular data integrity”:
- Level 1: Address and Phone Numbers – This ensures that a contact can be properly reached.
- Level 2: Email Address – Email confirmation will give further access to the person with whom you are trying to connect.
- Level 3: Employment Information – This level verifies that employment information is up to date.
- Level 4: Matching Gift Program Availability – This is the final stage of data integrity checks where it is confirmed whether or not the contact’s employer offers a gift matching program.
- Easily Repeatable Process to Educate/Communicate with Donors: The quality of the data has a direct correlation to the results of the campaign. Best practice suggests that any data gathered is usable for 3-6 months. Why? People change jobs more frequently, thus possibly leaving a company that offers a gift matching program. Another reason the data gathered has a shorter shelf life is that companies can either halt gift matching programs or change the percentage of gifts matched. The more accurate the data is, the stronger the communication with donors will be.
Other Tips and Suggestions
Plan Ahead
In order to stay on schedule, planning is crucial. Setting up a new Gift Lift campaign takes time. The data must be collected and a strategy set in place to help measure the success of a campaign. Knowing this definition of success is a key step in the planning process. It’s important to keep in mind that the Gift Lift program can add 5-10 days to the mailing process.
Follow Up
A follow-up campaign that follows the gift matching campaign can increase your overall return on investment, and potentially one that defrays the initial cost of your investment in Gift Lift. Recall that data is useable for 3-6 months; a strong follow up campaign launched shortly after the initial gift matching campaign can help capture more dollars, as it leverages the quality data before it becomes outdated.
Contact Tension To Get Started On Your Gift Lift Direct Mail Campaign
Tension understands the importance of the trust you’ve developed with your donors over time. Gift Lift can provide a convenient way for your best donors to take advantage of employer matching gift opportunities they may not even know exist. Contact us today to learn more about this program and how you can get started.
