Salesforce Fundraising Campaigns: 4 Ideas and Examples

If your nonprofit has conducted research about CRM software, you've probably come across Salesforce. Salesforce is a popular CRM for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations.

It's designed to be applicable to any organization because it is completely customizable. You can mold and manipulate the software to become whatever your nonprofit needs with the use of various apps and integrations.

Because Salesforce works well for both for-profits and nonprofits, you may be asking, "How can I track my fundraising campaigns with Salesforce?"

Well, this is done through the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). This Salesforce app turns the blank CRM framework into a nonprofit CRM, enabling you to track the most important aspects of nonprofit projects and fundraising. 

The Salesforce NPSP does this through the use of objects. Objects are tables within the Salesforce database, either preset or customized by the user, that allows the users to store and organize data according to different traits and classifications. For instance, all of your nonprofit contacts are stored in one object and your leads are stored in another. 

What is a Salesforce fundraising campaign?

Salesforce fundraising campaigns use the "campaign" object to track the effectiveness of your marketing outreach during an extended period of time while your nonprofit is raising money.

You can track the effectiveness of your marketing platforms and content, then see how it impacts your nonprofit's fundraising initiatives. The different fundraising campaigns we'll cover here include:

1. Email Campaigns
2. Event Marketing
3. Direct Mail
4. Multi-Touch Attribution

When your nonprofit has access to an integrated marketing automation tool, information can be automatically shared across both the CRM and marketing platforms. 

Ready to learn more about how your nonprofit can leverage Salesforce campaigns to boost your fundraising efforts? Let's get started.

Salesforce Fundraising Campaign #1: Emails

Emails are a key marketing tool that your nonprofit should track in your Salesforce fundraising campaign. They're especially important because you can link your email recipient directly to online resources like your giving page or event registration.

You can set up email streams, triggered by something as simple as downloading a digital guide, then watch how well that stream performs in your Salesforce campaign.

In order to make sure your emails are as effective as possible, you'll need to incorporate some best practices for the campaign:

• Mobile-optimize your emails. Make sure your supporters can read your emails easily no matter what device they are using to view them. It can be annoying to zoom in and out on your phone in order to effectively see a message, so investing in a responsive email software solution helps keep people engaged.
• Link directly to your campaign page. Make sure it's clear what you want the next step for supporters to be. For instance, provide a clear call-to-action button directing them to your campaign page where they can contribute to your nonprofit.
• Use effective imagery. When you consider imagery and the visual aspects of your Salesforce fundraising campaign, you'll need to think about the entire process encountered by donors. This means maintaining visual consistency between your emails and donation page for a smooth digital transition.

After you've set up your email campaign, you'll use metrics in Salesforce to measure its success. Be sure to measure key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and how many donations occurred as a result of the email stream.

Plus, if you're unsure about how well an email will go over, you may consider conducting an A/B test. Directly compare two separate styles or types of emails to see which is more successful towards your fundraising campaign.

With all of this success data stored safely away in your CRM, you'll be able to adjust your strategy going forward for more effective fundraising emails.

Salesforce Fundraising Campaign #2: Event Marketing

Not only can you track the rate at which people are reading your digital marketing content, but you can also use Salesforce fundraising campaigns to track the return on investment at your organization's events.

You can track metrics like:

• Event registrations
• Event check-ins
• Business cards collected
• And more!

When you analyze your event registrations and check in, you'll be able to analyze the data further to see what marketing initiatives were most effective. You'll gain insight into the ratio of registrations vs. attendees, making your future event planning more effective.

Plus, collecting business cards can help you identify more connections to potential sponsors and partners.

Make sure, when you analyze these metrics, you have a clear understanding of what aspects of the event are most important to you. Keeping your "eye on the prize" of your nonprofit's goal is essential when you measure success metrics.

When you use Salesforce fundraising campaigns to measure your event's success, you can track each step in the process of hosting the event, from marketing to post-event follow ups.

This is especially important because these metrics will help you refine specific aspects of your campaign and make the entire event more successful in the future.

Salesforce Fundraising Campaign #3: Direct Mail

While it's not as popular as it once was, direct mail isn't dead! Actually, it's best used alongside a digital media marketing campaign.

Direct mail is especially useful when it comes to marketing your nonprofit's brand. Why? Because direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than comparable digital strategies. This means direct mail messages are more memorable to recipients.

When it comes to tracking direct mail in your Salesforce fundraising campaign, you need to take some additional steps to make sure you're able to measure the success. Some of these additional steps include:

• Adding a "how did you hear about us" section to donation forms. When you send fundraising letters to your supporters, provide them with the URL of your donation page. Then, when they reach the donation page, they'll fill out this section by clicking "letter" or "direct mail." This information is saved in your direct mail campaign object of Salesforce.
• Following up with other marketing platforms. Generally, direct mail is followed up with another type of marketing as well. For instance, you may begin a calling campaign a few days after the letter is received so that the supporter can talk directly to someone from your organization.
• Including a return envelope so supporters can easily send donations. Make sure the envelope is already addressed to your organization's headquarters and stamped. This will make the donation process as easy as possible for your nonprofit donors. Then, you can record all donations that come back through the mail in your Salesforce fundraising campaign tracker.

Be sure to use the data you have stored in your CRM to send the most relevant messages to the most relevant audiences through your direct mail campaign. Personalizing the content will see a higher return than generalized letters.

This doesn't mean starting with a template is bad! Actually, templates can help ensure you don't miss any vital information when you write your letters. Just make sure you customize it for your organization and to appeal to the target audience. Fundraising Letters offers comprehensive templates if you need help getting started.

Salesforce Fundraising Campaign #4: Multi-Touch Attribution

In reality, your Salesforce fundraising campaigns won't only use emails or direct mail in order to pull in donations. It's likely that you'll need to incorporate multiple outreach platforms into each fundraising campaign in order to encourage donations.

Luckily, with Salesforce, you can set up what's called the multi-touch attribution model. This model takes into account the fact that your nonprofit will use multiple marketing platforms to appeal to donors.

A little extra time spent in the setup of your Salesforce campaigns object will make this more detailed marketing tracker much more comprehensive. This type of campaign gives credit to any marketing resource that may have influenced your donor. This campaign looks something like this: 

However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to multi-touch attribution. There are two main issues with this type of Salesforce fundraising campaign: complexity and credit equality. 

First, it adds a lot of complexity.

This can make it difficult to understand exactly which marketing resources should get credit for a donation. Therefore, when you set up this type of campaign, you should simplify other aspects of the campaign as much as possible.

For instance, limit the number of data models you're using to set up your Salesforce solution.

Purchasing a complete fundraising and marketing automation software solution that integrates with Salesforce streamlines the data collection process. This makes it easier to pull data from multiple sources into a single campaign because they're from the same integrated solution.

Second, it gives equal credit to each marketing material.

While multi-touch attribution gives credit to each marketing material, it does make it more difficult to tell exactly what pushed donors from being interested to taking action.

The remedy to this issue is creating a weighted multi-touch attribution model. This model gives more weight to the first and last touch a donor interacts with before giving.

However, this model is even more complicated than the plain multi-touch model. Therefore, if it sounds like something your nonprofit wants to make use of, you may consider discussing how to set this up with a Salesforce consultant.

Despite these issues, when done well, multi-touch attribution is the most accurate and effective way to track your Salesforce fundraising campaigns. If you're going to attempt this strategy, make sure you take the time necessary to set everything up correctly. 

The Main Takeaway About Salesforce Fundraising Campaigns

Setting up Salesforce fundraising campaigns can provide some incredibly useful data for your nonprofit. You can gain insights like:

• The most effective marketing outlets for promoting fundraisers
• Where your newly acquired donors are finding information about your nonprofit
• How your tools can work together to better market fundraising opportunities
• Which giving platforms benefit most from your marketing strategies
• The ROI of your event marketing initiatives
• What messages your supporters respond best to

However, the first step to receive any of these benefits is to make sure you have the tools you need. We recommend investing in a complete fundraising and marketing automation platform that integrates with Salesforce.

A comprehensive solution integration will help your organization draw more connections between your fundraising success and the marketing materials that enticed donors.

If that sounds good to you, learn more about Salsa Engage for Salesforce. This complete solution offers everything your nonprofit needs to customize and get the most use of your Salesforce fundraising campaigns.

If you want to unlock more supporter management and fundraising tips, check out these additional resources:

• Free Download: Annual Development Plan Checklist. Identify the key people, resources, collateral, and technology you need to build a comprehensive development plan.

• Free Guide: Clear and Complete Guide to Nonprofit CRM Software. Learn 5 top ways CRMs are used, 12 considerations to make when choosing a system, and 14 tips for setup.

• Free Guide: Clear and Complete Guide to Fundraising Software. Learn 34 features and 5 integrations you need plus the 4 best ways to sell your boss and board on new software.

• Free Demo: Salsa's Donor Management and Fundraising Software. See how your nonprofit, campaign or 501c3 organization can leverage our online and offline fundraising tools!