Hosted by The Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits and Arizona Grantmakers Forum, Arizona Gives Day has raised over $7.2 million for Arizona nonprofits since its founding in 2013. This year, there were 21,129 total donations from 16,450 donors. Over 900 nonprofits participated.
Did your organization benefit? Did you have a strategic campaign targeting new donors and current donors? Did you offer your audience the opportunity to increase their impact by helping you reach the bonus amounts? Most importantly, are you prepared to continue (or start) the campaign now to maximize results for Arizona Gives Day 2017?
While this effort requires planning, hard work, and regular analysis, the good news is you can automate many of the tasks and report generation to track your progress with your donor management/relationship management software.
Often referred to as “donor cultivation”, this effort is really donor education and inclusion. Your supporters want to hear your constituents' stories and learn how their dollars are contributing to your mission. Essentially, the more you share your work over the next year, the more enthusiastic they will be to give when Arizona Gives Day 2017 arrives.
With the right software, organizations of all sizes are capable of coordinating and implementing effective multi-channel campaigns, utilizing direct mail, email, social media and more.
But don’t just take our word for it. Let’s examine how two organizations managed their very successful efforts.
Seeds of Hope: How They Raised $70,000
Seeds of Hope from Casa Grande, Arizona had a hugely successful AGD this year, raising $62,000 in donations and $8,000 in prize money. Seeds of Hope is a faith based organization with a diverse social services mission ranging from after school programs to job training.
You can see Seeds of Hope's commitment to Arizona Gives Day immediately upon visiting their website. One of the key navigation tabs across the top of the home page is dedicated to the campaign. This year’s effort resulted in 174 donors and the title of 3rd place finisher in the mid-size non-profit category.
According to Executive Director Mark Vanderhayden, this far exceeds the amounts raised at their annual fundraising dinner and golf tournament. Mark says their staff and advocates, or key supporters in the community, “enjoy the work involved in getting the message to fellow supporters and seeing the progress toward the goal. It’s people telling people about your story. That’s the key."
To top off the campaign, Seeds of Hope hosts a party from 10 am to 10pm with leaderboards, raffles and more.
Mark is already working on ideas and plans to build the campaign for 2017, focusing on social media and CRM technology to find new donors. Seeds of Hope is planning on expanding the use of their CRM/fundraising software, Matchmaker, during the coming year, as well as Facebook, Twitter and Constant Contact for email blasts.
Swift Youth Foundation: How They Raised $36,000
We interviewed Kaylie Marsh, Executive Director of the Swift Youth Foundation on how they raised $36,000 on Arizona Gives Day. According to Marsh, emails and social media were the key to finding 206 new donors and earning fifth place in raising the most dollars for a mid-size organization, which earned them another $3,000 in prize money.
To assist with their email blasts and track results, Swift Youth Foundation used the Salesforce NPSP Campaign application.
“Arizona Gives Day is a great opportunity to build our network of donors and supporters,” commented Marsh.
When asked about using Salesforce moving forward, she responded: “Absolutely, we want to plan an effort with our new network of donors and supporters to build on those relationship going into 2017. Salesforce will give us the ability to target donor types and interest, and better meet their expectations for the organization’s mission.”
The Swift Youth Foundation made AGD a fun experience for everyone, with staff and volunteers watching the results through the day, and a concluding party to thank their volunteers for their effort and support.
How Your Organization Can Make The Most of Arizona Gives Day
Having a comprehensive event or campaign management tool in your back pocket could mean all the difference for your organization, too, when it comes time to organize a fundraising effort like AGD.
Salesforce NPSP’s campaign management capability is the perfect complement to the software’s donor management, grant management and volunteer management tools. Not only does it help you create a targeted list of contacts, but it also tracks who receives which messages while tracking feedback and results. You can include everyone associated with your Arizona Gives Day Campaign, including staff, volunteers, board members and vendors utilized during the year.
When the time comes for the big appeal, an updated targeted list is generated, communications are sent, and when donations are entered, they will roll up to the Arizona Gives Campaign to provide quick results reports.
Use categories to designate various types of support, like donations, major gifts, grants and matching gifts, and you’ll have the ability to easily generate specific reports. Imagine having all of these reports at your fingertips:
- campaign ROI analysis comparing cost to results
- campaign member analysis summarizing who contributed to the campaign
- campaign results summaries including fundraising totals with how individual appeals or communication channels performed
Reports can be viewed as graphs and displayed as daily dashboards with automatic updates.
And did you know - Salesforce NPSP is free. Learn how to make it work for you, and you’ll see your donor base grow and donations increase exponentially.
It’s not too early to initiate your communications plan and implement the tools you need to optimize the effort toward the 2017 Arizona Gives Day.
NPO Connect Technologies will help you evaluate your current communications efforts, your CRM and social media tools to determine if the they are up the task.
We can help implement and train your staff on any new tools and processes you select to ensure a more successful 2017 Arizona Gives Day!
Contact us below for more details.