The season for giving

'Twas the season for giving
And all through the sector
Every department sat awed
By the fundraising director.

At the front of the room
She had taken her place,
She gestured at slides
And laid out her case:

“Every year is the same,
We send out email blasts,
Gather the open rates,
Scratch our heads and ask

Could we somehow do better?
What do these numbers mean?
We do love our data
But it’s time to come clean.

This year let’s be smarter
Come around, have a look,
There are lots of cool ways
To fundraise on Facebook.

We purged all our lists
To comply with CASL,
But there’s good that can come
From Harper’s nonsense and hassle.

To be CASL compliant
We may need explicit buy in
But not to retarget
With Facebook advertising.

Now that we have data
We can split our lists
Into supporter, donors, opt-outs...
Well you get the gist.

Those who’ve given before
Can get the harder ask.
Supporters who’ve taken action, not given
Get the easier task.

And to all the opt-outs,
Those fairweather friends,
There’s no reason we can’t ask them
To sign up again.

All three groups provide us
With valuable information
To make lookalike audiences
And rustle up new donations.

Targeted advertising on Facebook
Is much more effective
Than committing resources to
An email-only directive.

Instead of starting next year
With the same list, the same position,
We may actually use fundraising
To support list acquisition!

While we’re crafting our message
To each list arrangement,
We can’t forget fundraising
Is a form of engagement.”

So this season remember
Get your fundraising right,
Segment, target, and test,
And keep up the good fight.