BBCon Day 1 highlight: an awesome example of data integration and personalisation from Boston Children’s Hospital

Vicky Reeves | 5 October 2012 | Blogs

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Digital
Individual giving

I heard an interesting case study at the bbcon (Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits) in Washington DC, from Boston Children’s Hospital (and their local US agency Charity Dynamics). I want to share it because it’s a great example of how integrated technology helps to increase the conversion rate of a fundraising campaign.

The organisation ran an email campaign targeting its supporter base. The email consisted of a story about a child whose life was saved at Boston Children’s Hospital, with a “donate now” call to action. These are the various ways the team worked to optimise the effectiveness of the campaign:

A/B testing the length of the email, so half the supporters got a longer, more in-depth story and half had a shorter version. Interestingly, the longer story resulted in a higher conversion to donations.
Testing having the link in the email go straight to a donation form versus a page with more information about the story and then the call to action. The conversion rate was higher when people were sent directly to the donation form.
The email contained a picture of the child and doctor. The donation form on the website was also tailored to contain the same picture, in order to keep the connection from the story to the donation ask.
Using data from supporters’ previous activity, the organisation was able to personalise the suggested donation amounts given in a drop down menu, so that it started with the average value the individual had previously donated, which statistically results in a higher donation.

For example, you wouldn’t want to a supporter to have donation suggestions of £30/£50/£100 values if they would normally give £100; you would want that person to see £100/£150/£200, to encourage a higher donation this time (most users are proven to select the middle option).

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Boston Children’s Hospital was able to run the campaign in this way because it has integrated technology underpinning its email and website. The hospital uses Luminate Online which is a product by Blackbaud (new to the UK following Blackbaud’s acquisition of Convio). Technology like this, whilst more complex than what many charities in the UK may be using, can be extremely powerful for personalisation and CRO, which, implemented well, improves revenue generation.

Vicky Reeves is founder and MD of Chameleon.

This article was originally published by Chameleon and is republished with permission.