Is your nonprofit running petitions and other online advocacy actions? If the answer is “Yes,” then you might want to use after-action popups to transform your advocate’s actions into money.
Popups, also known as website lightboxes, display an image or video that floats on top of a web page, dimming out the rest of the content.
They’re used for all sorts of purposes on nonprofit websites – email sign ups, fundraising campaigns, and event signups.
Using a fundraising popup after an online action — a pledge, petition or other online advocacy initiative — can be be a very effective way of capturing potential donors as soon as they act.
But it won’t work with just any advocacy action.
The linchpin is the “issue du jour” – a relevant and timely news item that compels constituents to act and give immediately. Using this and other methods, any organization can build an advocacy program that organically leads to a more-effective fundraising effort.
Connecting Online Advocacy and Fundraising by Blackbaud
MomsRising recently tried this tactic and achieved an astounding 15 percent response rate on an after-action popup – 15 percent of the advocates who took the action also made a donation.
Just to put that number in perspective, the average response rate for an email appeal is .06 percent, according to the 2016 M+R Benchmarks Study.
Here’s how MomsRising did it.
The advocacy organization sent an advocacy email asking supporters to help turn out the women’s vote by sending personalized get-out-the-vote postcards to unlikely women voters. Supporters who signed up for the task would receive a package of pre-printed postcards in the mail, address labels for 5 women voters, and instructions on how to personalize the postcards to encourage the woman voter to go to the polls on Election Day.
As far as actions go, it’s a high-bar ask. But then again, MomsRising knows it audience. Empowering women, especially in this election, is something MomsRising members are very motivated to do right now.
Here’s what that email looked like.
After supporters completed the form online, they received this popup.
Which led to this donation landing page.
Supporters who closed the popup were still asked to share their action on Facebook and Twitter.
Some nonprofits take a slightly different approach. After a supporter completes an action, s/he lands on a confirmation page with social share opportunities, and a simple link to a donation page. OR, supporters will be taken directly to a donation page after the action.
According to Nate White, Chief Technology Officer at MomsRising, these last two approaches sacrifice social shares for fundraising, or fundraising for social shares.
Using the after-action popup, you get the best of both worlds – a strong fundraising ask, AND a clear social share opportunity.
MomsRising also sent out a standalone email appeal to the supporters who didn’t already donate though the after-action popup, and received an excellent response to that appeal, but it still didn’t come close to a 15 percent response rate!
MomsRising doesn’t expect this level of success with every campaign, but the organization is using this tactic more and more to convert advocacy actions into fundraising dollars.
Have you tried an after-action popup, or other kind of after-action donation ask? Share your experiences in the comments section.
