Week of May 4 – 8

GivingTuesdayNow observations:

• Average gift amounts increased on GTN compared to December GT (across most paid channels).
• There was a higher surge in gift volume and revenue after 5:00 pm EST with some organizations doubling revenue after 4 pm compared to the entire day prior.
• GTN ad sets were not driving all the performance – evergreen ads were still performing well, an indication that in a general sense GTN may have encouraged an across the board higher propensity to give.

Overall weekly trends:

• More people continue to be searching for coronavirus than Covid-19.
• Unemployment claims now equal the entire work force of 25 states. Beginning to see the elimination of white-collar jobs in this second wave of unemployment numbers.
• Bing is not allowing organizations to run Covid-19 ads, but donation pages with Covid-19 language on them are still being served.
• Fidelity Investments states that 36% more was paid out from Donor Advised Funds in March 2020 vs. March 2019. People are willing to be generous!
• A common gift amount has been $1200 as people are donating their stimulus checks.

Week of April 27 – May 1

• GivingTuesdayNow week is here! Do you have your post-GTN plans in place? Build on the momentum of GTN with campaign and messaging strategies that keep your organization in front of new audiences that are looking for ways to make a difference.
• This past weekend saw the first softening of weekend donations, which may turn out to be an early indicator that acquisition opportunity around Covid-19 may be plateauing. This is your cue to focus on retention strategies for your new Covid-19 donors.
• Across Facebook, CPMs were down in March and April despite higher than average usage across Facebook platforms. As some commercial advertisers cut ad budgets significantly, nonprofits have an opportunity to achieve lower CPMs and CPAs for fundraising campaigns.
• Search campaigns utilizing the health crisis charity and coronavirus search terms are showing higher CPAs but also delivering higher average gifts.
• Video ads on YouTube and Facebook continue to perform well especially when retargeting audiences who have engaged with the organization’s YouTube videos.
• Hustle, the peer-to-peer SMS platform, has extended free use of their texting platform for governmental agencies and public health NGOs for outreach activity regarding Covid-19 through May 31, 2020.
• ICYMI: Did you hear the good news? Thanks to the actions of tens of thousands of people, ICANN rejected the sale of the .org domain registry to private equity! #savedotorg

Week of April 20 – April 24

• Gearing up for #GivingTuesdayNow –It’s not too late to get in on the action! Check-out Further’s webinar Digital Strategies for Boosting Revenue for tips and strategies that can be applied to #GivingTuesdayNow. The webinar features ad creative suggestions, best practices for incorporating a match, and proven impact messaging that builds urgency around this special day.
• Google’s whitelist for qualified non-profits around Covid-19 is now live and performing well– up to 45% impression share.
• Retention should always be a top priority—but ESPECIALLY NOW; History shows there will be fewer households donating after the economic fallout ahead. IUPUI reported 65% HH giving in 2008 decreased to 61% in 2010–post-2008 financial crisis. By 2016 % of HH giving had dropped to 53%. New donors need to be treated right…
• Key retention tactics to focus on now include analyzing your welcome series – Is it relevant, tied to your organization’s impact, and personalized? Be omnichannel in reaching your donors with impact messaging and asks. Build opportunities for one-to-one communication such as SMS to engage and show gratitude to your new donors. Use your CRM data to strategically manage your new donors one, two, and three months post their first donation.
• The use of YouTube has recently surged by 15% according to a recent New York Times article. People in the US and UK are flocking to YouTube to find uplifting and helpful content during Covid-19 based on two recent surveys from the Channel Factory. Selfie-style video ads featuring non-profit workers on the ground, celebrities, and non-profit leaders are showing strong conversion rates while aligning with content people are searching for in this channel.
• ICYMI: M+R’s annual benchmarking report is now available but for the first time in a long time, it doesn’t have the same relevance as in the past because the rulebook has been changed by Covid-19. To tap into forward-looking strategies contact Further!

Week of April 13 – 17

• How many times in the past few weeks have you thought, “This is crazy, unprecedented, there’s no playbook for what we should do next”? Actually there is a very specific playbook for marketers in corporate America. Find out what it is in the Covid-19 corporate ad playbook.
• And many non-profits have the opportunity to write a different, more powerful, playbook with impact and gratitude. This is our opportunity to let the authenticity, impact, gratitude, and NEED of non-profits take center stage. People want to help—make it easy and rewarding for them!
• According to Facebook, 70% of people surveyed globally say they are spending more time on their smartphones during the crisis. Have you checked your mobile donation form lately?
• Among people surveyed in the US by Ipsos from Apr 2-4, 27% say they have participated in community and religious activities by video services in the past week. People are looking for meaningful connections.
• We saw another big weekend in fundraising, which was helped by the One World: Together At Home global broadcast event. The event was seen by 14.6 million viewers in the US generating $127 million in donation commitments including $73 million to local and regional responders.

Week of April 6 – 10

We are seeing a continued ramp-up of spend in paid digital ads along with new trends emerging in paid search and ad creative. Highlights from the week include:

• Giving continues to peak over the weekends; more so than weekdays.
• On the ad creative side, performing ads include imagery with face masks, social distancing, children and activities related to helping others.
• According to a new study out of the UK, more people are searching for coronavirus than Covid-19.
• Many major donors, celebrities and corporations are looking to partner and make a difference with organizations working on Covid-19 services and programs. Prominent examples include Jeff Bezos donating $100 million to Feeding America and Jack Dorsey pledging $1 billion to fund global Covid-19 relief. These are huge ones but many orgs are benefiting from this trend.
• Hustle, the peer-to-peer SMS platform, is offering free use of their texting platform to qualified U.S. and Canadian federal, state, and local governmental agencies and public health NGOs for outreach activity regarding Covid-19 through April 30, 2020.

Week of March 31 – April 3

On the positive side, Americans continue to be remarkably generous with their donations. Emerging trends from last week include:

• Overall generosity – fundraising is booming right now.
• We are seeing slightly lower average gifts, but gift volume is up.
• Donations seem to be stronger than normal over the weekends, particularly on Saturday – in several cases better than weekdays
• Nonprofits are looking to redeploy budget into digital from other channels sidelined by Covid-19 (ex. canvassing & events)
• Due to the crisis and the fast-moving aspects of the crisis, orgs are focusing a lot on the here and now. It’s important to think about retention and building welcome series and updates that focus on what your organization is continuing to do around Covid-19.
• Emails that are reporting on the impact donations are having on programs and services related to Covid-19 that also include a fundraising ask are seeing higher than average revenue results.

Week of March 25 – March 29

Organizations working on the front lines of the Covid-19 crisis are quickly pulling together resources and programs to help their constituents and share information. Further is proud to work with the incredible organizations below who are making a vital difference in this crisis.

We encourage you to access this information and follow these organizations for on-going news and updates.

Amnesty International – COVID-19: How human rights can help protect us

Catholic Relief Services – COVID-19 Facts and How to Help

CMMB – COVID-19 Emergency Response – Equipping community health workers and health facilities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in five low-resource countries

First Book – Resources to Support Educators at School and Home

No Kid Hungry – Helping Kids Affected by COVID- 19

International Rescue Committee – COVID-19 in Syria and Other Conflict Zones

Volunteers of America – VOA teams have activated emergency plans providing round-the-clock care for seniors, children and families.  Find full list of services here.

• Look to your organization’s donor data to drive decisions and do not over-react based on frenzy or emotion. When the need arises act quickly, appropriately, and decisively.
• Other fundraising programs are more directly at risk than digital to near-term revenue loss (ex. face-to-face, special events, etc.). Some clients have been asking us how much more scale digital can provide if spend is temporarily re-allocated from those at-risk programs to digital. If you would like to have this discussion, we are happy to provide sound guidance.
• Begin talking with your leadership teams about the likelihood that fiscal year revenue budgets will be challenged by this crisis. The hardest part will be when they ask “By how much?”, which we do not currently know. But raising the issue now will give you more credibility in a few weeks when we have more data and can be more specific. If there’s any advice to give, it’s that leadership should try to scale back on non-essential expense as soon as possible—because there will be a revenue impact in the coming months.
• Some clients are asking us to undertake budget reprojections with multiple scenarios. We respectfully suggest that the exercise is merely a guessing game at this point and therefore not of significant value. That said, if you are getting pressure to reproject early on, please reach out. We are here to help.
• We are hearing mixed feelings on whether to speak to the Coronavirus or to lay low for the time being. In our view, this depends on the nature of your organization. If you can fundraise with empathy and authenticity then, by all means, do so. For instance, if you are a service organization serving vulnerable populations it makes sense to fundraise around the increased demand for your services. If you are an animal rescue org, it might be tone-deaf and insensitive to try to tie-in to the crisis.
• Regardless of your degree of tie-in, now is a good time to review all automated messages and email series to ensure the language does not appear tone-deaf or inappropriate to the current situation.
• No matter what your organizational mission, let the data dictate the degree to which you alter strategy. Further did not begin to see an impact on fundraising performance for our clients until last Thursday (March 12
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  despite Coronavirus being in the news for several weeks and the stock market being highly volatile. In uncertain times, we are keeping a sharp eye on leading metrics such as site traffic and social comments.
• Expectations are that internet use will remain strong or increase as more people self-quarantine and businesses work from home. Your audience will be online, it’s a question of their giving mindset during this situation. Our job is to be authentic and attentive to their fears and generosity at the same time and in proportion.