Case Study
At our virtual Engaging Networks Community Conference, Kay Marks, Director of Development, World Animal Protection Canada, shared how they used the digital engagement platform from Engaging Networks to increase their supporter engagement by demonstrating impact, reducing unsubscribes, optimizing donation forms and providing customized and automated experiences.
World Animal Protection Canada is a global animal welfare charity building a world where animals live free from cruelty and suffering. They compel supporters to take action in support of animal welfare through campaigns, petitions, donations and more.
Beginning as an advocacy-only client in Engaging Networks, the organization was using a different platform for fundraising and donation forms. World Animal Protection Canada felt they had outgrown the capabilities of their old systems and turned to Engaging Networks to simplify their tech stack, giving their team a single platform to learn and empowering their supporters to manage their own data and individual communication preferences. To complement the Advocacy Module, they added the Engaging Networks modules for email and marketing automation, fundraising and the Supporter Hub.
These additions allowed World Animal Protection Canada to get more value out of the Engaging Networks platform.
The Supporter Hub is a powerful module in Engaging Networks that allows you to turn over the management of certain supporter data to your actual supporters and lessen some of the burdens on your team. Imagine if your supporters could update their credit card information, change their contact information, get their giving history – including a donation receipt – all via a self-serve online portal.
Every Engaging Networks client has access to the Supporter Hub and can choose what they want their supporters to be able to do. The gadgets available include: Personal Details, Manage Subscriptions, My Impact (for updates on advocacy actions), Donations, Giving History, Membership and Peer-to-Peer. Through the Engaging Networks Academy (our on-demand video training courses), clients learn how to customize the Supporter Hub to their needs. The power is in the hands of you, our clients, to create a Supporter Hub that meets the needs of your organization to empower strategy, accomplish goals, apply branding, and improve the supporter experience.
When a supporter logs into the World Animal Protection Canada Supporter Hub, they’re greeted with a delightful branded message, they see a custom .GIF of two elephants playing together and they see a menu of custom branded icons from which to choose.
The World Animal Protection Supporter Hub allows the supporter to go in and change their address or billing information and manage their email subscriptions. This eliminates hours of work for the supporter services team who would typically handle administrative tasks such as updating changes in address or credit card information. Extra capacity allows team members to focus on higher impact activities such as stewardship to build support for the organization.
The Supporter Hub user experience is also tailored to the individual supporter. If a constituent has never made a donation, the Supporter Hub will ask for a one-time gift. If they’re a one-time giver, they will be encouraged to become a monthly donor. If they’re a monthly donor, they are offered the option to upgrade their donation. These automations are completely customizable by the client.
One of the most engaging aspects of the Supporter Hub is the ‘My Impact’ functionality that allows donors to see the different actions they’ve taken on World Animal Protection Canada pages and the outcomes their actions contributed to. For advocacy organizations this can be very effective because supporters have many opportunities to participate in petitions and email-to-target campaigns and are able to see updates on their actions and see their impact on the mission.
World Animal Protection Canada wanted to restructure their opt-out page in hopes of convincing supporters to stay connected to the organization. They customized their unsubscribe page to ask a supporter, “Can we convince you to stay?” and incentivize them by offering a “cute little video” if they do.
If the constituent agrees, they are taken to a new page with a message of, “Thank you for staying on, we really appreciate you.” and a video of cute dogs and cats licking the screen with a superimposed message halfway through the video that says, “If they could say thank you, they would.”
In the first five months of deploying their restructured opt-out page, the organization changed the mind of 912 would-be unsubscribers, retaining them as email subscribers!
Facing a decision on whether to use a long-form or multi-form donation page, World Animal Protection Canada decided to turn to their donors to test how they react to each option.
The long-form donation page has their unique proposition at the top, and provides a choice of a monthly or one-time gift. When the supporter chooses a one-time gift, they can click on the donation options and it will display text to say what the donation will support. That interactivity really gives supporters a connection to the mission and is also leveraged to customize their experience in the Supporter Hub.
On the multi-form donation page, the supporter can read down the left side to see the impact of their donation. This provides an opportunity to share very specific problems the organization is working to solve and show how the supporter’s donation will help the mission. The right side of the page is similar to the long-form page, giving the supporter the choices of donation amounts.
The long form was the winner, so that is the form World Animal Protection Canada is now using for their donation forms.
Before deciding to use Engaging Networks, World Animal Protection Canada found the process of automating their “Welcome Series” and other email campaigns cumbersome and difficult to set up. Now that they are up and running through the Engaging Networks marketing automation tools, they find the process simple and easy.
“I love how easy it is to set these up!” shares Kay.
With the Engaging Networks marketing automation module, you set up your “Welcome Series” based on who your supporters are and where they came into the organization – be it a petition, email, or a donation. A typical journey will provide a welcome message, driving the supporter to an action center with options on how to help the mission. Subsequent emails could include surveys and asks for social shares. If the supporter comes into the “Welcome Series” from a donation, there is a slightly different journey that includes thanking them for their gift and opportunities to grow their support.
The power of automation really shines when supporters overlap entry points and journeys. If a supporter comes in by signing a petition and then makes a one-time gift, the organization’s parameters bring that supporter into the one-time gift journey so they are not getting duplicate or overlapping “Welcome Series” emails or messages. It’s important for any organization to reach out to everyone who becomes a new advocate, supporter or donor.
Since World Animal Protection Canada started using Engaging Networks marketing automation tools to deploy an email “Welcome Series” they are seeing open rates as high as 60% and click-thru rates as high as 43%!.
Here’s an example of an email that is part of their welcome series that engages supporters with a survey.
Request a demo today and one of our team will be in touch with additional information about how Engaging Networks can help you raise more money and win more campaigns.
