Transitioning your membership fundraising program from a primarily direct mail program to an integrated multichannel program can be challenging – especially for regional organizations that don’t have large email lists. How much revenue can you expect? What amount of money does it make sense to invest? How do you know if you’re following best practices and getting the best return if you have a small team that might not have a deep level of digital experience?

The Situation

A public television station in Fresno, CA, Valley PBS, had done limited email fundraising to their audience. However, they recognized they needed to increase their digital efforts in a multichannel world. Valley PBS chose Allegiance Group + Pursuant to help!

As their longtime direct mail agency, Allegiance Group + Pursuant was well-positioned to help Valley. Not only do we know the station, its audience, and its program well, but our deep bench of digital fundraising specialists has the expertise they need to institute an ongoing digital program for them.

The Work

Valley PBS followed our recommendation to use our Cooperative Digital program developed for public media stations. The program includes a monthly e-renewal series, email appeals during on-air pledge campaigns, calendar yearend, and fiscal yearend – and allows the station the opportunity to make some customization to the creative.

• We added a seven-notice monthly e-renewal series to complement monthly direct mail renewals (also a seven-effort series) so members would receive a coordinated email days after receiving their direct mail notice in the mailbox.
• A two-effort email series was added to their quarterly campaigns – timed so that the first hit of direct mail and first email delivered as the station was going on-air with their pledge message. Then, a second hit of direct mail and email delivered as the on-air campaign ended.
• A Calendar Year End email series was introduced – consisting of messages that coordinated with the direct mail and the on-air campaigns to make the most of giving at key points of the season of giving.
• A three-email series at the Fiscal Year End was added to lift giving at a critical time for the station.

The Results

Year one of the program was a great success! Some of the highlights include:

• The multichannel program increased renewal revenue a whopping 77% year over year – with no changes to the file size.
•  20% of the CYE revenue of the coordinated multichannel program came directly from the email series.
• We saw steadily increasing engagement (open and click-through rates) with the emails over the course of the year – so we are encouraged that revenue can be expected to only increase in year two and beyond.