Defenders of Wildlife – Multi-Channel Program Audit and Digital Fundraising Turnaround
The Objective:
ABD Direct’s initial task was to audit the entire Defenders direct response program. Through file health analyses, content assessments, stakeholder interviews, and budget reviews, we developed a clear diagnosis of issues slowing their year-over-year revenue and created a plan to turn their digital program around. While not part of the audit’s initial scope, this initial project built a deep trust with the client, which led to them hiring ABD Direct as their digital agency of record so that we could carry out this plan.
The Strategy:
The fundraising audit revealed clear next steps for us to pursue across the growth, content, and reach elements of digital fundraising programs that we constantly nurture for our clients. We immediately zeroed in on the organization’s growth strategy: we shifted roughly one-third of their digital budget from Meta lead gen and donor acquisition into email co-ops after conducting an ROI analysis that demonstrated no path-to-return for this scale of Meta spending. We also increased email frequency and revised list segments to ensure messages reached supporter inboxes. Our content assessments revealed that Defenders needed to pursue a renewed focus on villains in the email program and that testing was required to evaluate the effectiveness of current donation pages.
The Impact:
As suspected, some of the most significant early gains resulted from shifts in paid investments: digital co-op spending has seen a 254% ROI within the first year of the strategic shift. Efficiency across direct-to-donate spending has also increased. Direct-to-donate spending YTD for FY23 demonstrated an 80% immediate ROI, while a 109% ROI had been maintained YTD in FY24.
The focus on villains and landing page testing has also paid off. The email pictured raised over 40% more than the prior year’s raised per send for the same campaign. A focus on specific legislators has repeatedly been used in top-performing emails for the organization. Meanwhile, testing single-step versus multi-step donation pages across the EOY and GT giving seasons demonstrated consistent winning results for multi-step donation forms, leading to an email-program-wide shift in the donation form layout. All this, paired with an increased email frequency, has led to a 33% increase in email revenue and a 6% increase in overall online revenue year-over-year since we began implementing our plan developed during the audit.