Here’s a riddle: Over five days, a donor receives an email, text message, and direct mail piece from you, each with links to your online giving page. On the sixth day, after seeing an ad on social media, they go online and donate. Which communication led to the gift? 

The answer? All of them. 

This may be a simplified breakdown of omni-channel fundraising and marketing, but you can see how complex the attribution and data-collection side of it is. To do omni-channel well, you need the right tools. 

Let’s look at the tech stack that can help your organization pull together all the data from your omni-channel efforts. We’ll also explore how to use this technology to provide a seamless donor experience. 

Getting Your Donor Data in Order 

Looking at your donors through just one or two channels doesn’t give you a comprehensive picture of who they are. If they don’t scan the QR code on your mailer, don’t assume you’re wasting time with direct mail. That piece may be the reminder they needed to respond to your email. 

Of course, omni-channel performance can be challenging to communicate to leaders. Nonprofits who see the most success with an omni-channel approach have buy-in from the top. They’re willing to invest in different programs and ensure they’re set up to capture the data flowing in.  

It sounds simple, but you could have numerous systems reporting. To get organized, inventory the systems you have in play: 

• What business functions do they serve?
• What data are they collecting?
• How is the data being interpreted within the system itself?
• How can you move that data or use it across your nonprofit?

Advanced high-level planning can also help you prepare for a bigger leap into omni-channel fundraising down the road. For instance, if you’re considering adding an SMS outreach, start collecting cell phone numbers now. Or double-check donors’ email addresses so you can target them with social media ads later. 

Overcoming the Challenges of Managing Multiple Channels 

Few, if any, nonprofits rely on only one or two channels to communicate with donors. Depending on your size, you could have several of the following: 

• A content management system (CMS) to manage and gather data from your website.
• A customer relationship management (CRM) platform or an eCRM for digital-only activity, both of which track donors across marketing, fundraising, and advocacy efforts.
• Data from social media platforms like Meta, X, YouTube, or TikTok.
• A separate marketing platform such as HubSpot or Marketo to drive traffic and collect marketing data.
• Data from an email marketing system.
• Web analytics platforms like Google Analytics (GA4) or Adobe Analytics.
• A caging system for offline efforts like direct response and direct mail.

Looking at data by channel only shows an individual channel’s performance. For a more complete look at the health of your marketing and fundraising efforts, you must bring all that data together into one integrated system. 

The best way to do this varies for each nonprofit, and it can change as your organization grows. Regardless, the first step is to ensure you have the right people around the table. Representatives from each team should come together so you can get a high-level view of who’s sending out what and when.  

Don’t dive in and try to be everywhere at once. Instead, adopt a crawl-walk-run approach. If a general e-newsletter is going out, include information about an upcoming fundraising campaign or personalize the message to reflect a donor’s status.  

Watch how your constituents respond. For instance, a testimonial that yielded a gift could influence which types of social media ads you show that person. 

Also, include a source code with every link and call to action (CTA). These unique identifiers help you attribute a donation to a specific fundraising appeal or marketing campaign. While they show individual channel performance, they also enable you to track a donor across the various touchpoints that ultimately lead to a gift. 

Tools That Help Unify Data — And Best Practices to Optimize Them 

We’ve seen a rise in application programming interfaces (APIs), webhooks, and other low- or no-code tools like Zapier, Make, and Integrately that aim to bridge the gap between your platforms and your data warehouse. These tools are gaining popularity because of their quick and simple integration. 

Their straightforward setup enables organizations to try different marketing tactics. New capabilities in email platforms and social media networks can easily be added to the system’s toolbox. 

Zapier, for instance, supports more than 7,000 apps like Slack, HubSpot, Mailchimp, and Google Sheets. You assign a trigger and an action, and then Zapier automates the process. So, a new donation to your website would automatically trigger the donor to be added to your email list. Make and Integrately work similarly. 

Of course, the apps you and your donors use change almost daily. If you’re setting up your own API or webhook, you’ll need to be tuned into updates across an ocean of platforms. This gets overwhelming fast.  

Best Practice 1: Use a Third-Party Tool 

A third-party tool like those mentioned above sets up the integrations for you and will watch for changes to the apps they support. This way, you can be sure that any new use or security requirements won’t stop you from collecting donor data and assigning it to the right places in your system. 

Best Practice 2: Have a Plan for Your Data 

Before you invest in a third-party tool or API, make sure you understand how the data will come in and what you’ll do with it. That is, think through how you’ll leverage data from one system to the next. You may need additional extraction, translation, and loading (ETL) logic to help the data flow smoothly. 

Best Practice 3: Be Conscious of Who Gets Data Access 

Privacy concerns have made people reluctant to give up personal information like email addresses and phone numbers. Be transparent about how you’ll use their data. For instance, when you request an email address on your donation form, be clear about what messages they can expect to receive. Most importantly, ensure data is available only to those in your organization who need it to perform a specific task. 

Bottom Line: Omni-channel = Awareness 

A true omni-channel approach takes a mindset shift. As fundraisers, we’re trained to focus on the response to each campaign or effort. However, in an omni-channel strategy, the focus is to build awareness. An unread email isn’t necessarily a lost cause — it may be working more as an ad impression that reminds the recipient to take action elsewhere. 

Even the best tools can’t always pinpoint attribution. Instead, consider each channel a starting point for a larger conversation. The message might start with a direct mail piece, but you can continue it via email, social media, or SMS.  

Use your tech stack to get a comprehensive view of your marketing and fundraising efforts. Bringing your data together shows precisely how one touchpoint leads to another. This will enable you to deliver a consistent experience that meets donors where they are and maximizes your ROI. 

If you need help integrating various systems, reach out today. Our team would love to sketch out a plan for getting your data warehouse in order. 

This blog post is based on an episode of the Go Beyond Fundraising podcast. Listen to the entire episode now.