Yael Nahome is the Senior Digital Officer – Engagement and Retention at FOUR PAWS, the global animal welfare organisation aiming to rescue and protect animals and reveal the suffering that animals endure at the hands of people. She works across multiple teams to help better retain and mobilise FOUR PAWS’ supporter base in the UK.
“Data and insight are our bread-and-butter, we make sure all decision making stems from data backed analysis, using set KPIs to optimise our journeys” explains Yael, “we work with a segmentation matrix, supporter profiles and queries to identify segments and then use this data to define how we speak with different supporters”.
By working in this way, the team are able to provide supporters with different prompts and variable content that matches their interests. “We’ve seen the number of lapsed donors decline by 17% in 18 months” says Yael.
“We treat all our supporters as individuals, ensuring that when they first engage with us they get a warm welcome and that the rest of their experience is consistent and tailored to their interests.”
– Yael Nahome, FOUR PAWS
Working across teams’ to moblise supporters has proved to be a key part of FOUR PAWS’ approach; “By sharing different actions with supporters based on their behaviour, we strengthen our relationships with them, which is evident from the feedback we receive”.
Content is also a vital part of FOUR PAWS’ success; “One of the greatest assets we have is our sanctuary content… using sanctuary videos is a top driver for calls to action. By utilising more video content we’ve seen email engagement increase from under 5% to 25% – when it comes to retention you want to know that supporters are not just opening emails, but are engaging with them as well!”
“People from all teams come together as a think-tank to come up with solutions to mobilise our supporters…”
– Yael Nahome, FOUR PAWS
Yael is passionate that charities should be doing more to retain their supporters; “The fact that retaining a supporter is so much cheaper than acquiring a new one sounds old but, you still see charities not even acknowledging donations or support” says Yael as she thinks about the sector more broadly.
“I notice many charities just talk about themselves rather than their supporters… I believe that – especially when it comes to retention – you need to focus your messaging on your supporters, the change they are making possible and how vital they are to your cause”!
