Case Study
Moody Bible Institute
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Moody Bible Institute anticipated a drop in giving. Instead, with the help of GivingDNA, they grew their mid-level giving program to increase their unrestricted revenue by more than 20%.
By the
Numbers
20.9%
Increase in unrestricted revenue
89%
Engagement with donors every four months with the mid-level gift team.
115
Major gifts prospects identified
By the
Numbers
20.9%
Increase in unrestricted revenue
89%
Engagement with donors every four months with the mid-level gift team.
115
Major gifts prospects identified
The Challenge
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moody Bible Institute faced several challenges. The academic program had to suddenly pivot to bring professors and students online for virtual learning. Meanwhile, the development department expected to see a drop in giving. After all, donors were losing jobs and loved ones and many things were uncertain. Like many fundraising professionals at the time, Director of Mid-Level Development Stephen Asare found himself asking, “What do we do now?”
Mid-level donors are a loyal and necessary group. They are often highly retainable and are an important part of both the planned giving and major gift pipelines. The team at Moody Bible Institute needed a way to engage them during this unpredictable time.
We needed to connect with our mid-level givers personally and relevantly. GivingDNA’s personalization tools helped us communicate in a meaningful way with each donor, bringing our engagement rate to 89% and growing our unrestricted revenue by 20.9%. The portfolio optimization tools helped us identify 115 major gift prospects within our mid-level givers, contributing significantly to that pipeline.
Stephen Asare
Director of Mid-Level Development
The Solution
Exploring the Data to Create Personalized Channel-Specific Experiences
Stephen and his team started by asking questions. They considered how they could serve their donors better during this time, and how to hold themselves accountable for doing so. They decided to attempt to engage each of their mid-level donors by June 30 of 2020.
The team used GivingDNA to identify key mid-level donor segments to personalize and target their outreach. The third-party data insights allowed them to identify donors’ interests, capacity, demographics, philanthropic priorities, and preferred communication channels. They segmented donors into groups based on their similarities and created versioned communications to reach out to them in a more personal and tailored approach.
One of the segments that emerged as a focus was donors who were likely to give more (upgrade their giving) if asked. Armed with insight from GivingDNA, mid-level representatives were able to intentionally guide a “likely to upgrade” segment along the path to a major gift.
Engaging Mid-Level Donors Via Phone
GivingDNA helped the team focus their efforts on their mid-level givers’ preferred communication channel: the phone.
If each of the six mid-level representatives committed to making 15 attempts to contact donors each day, that would add up to 75 attempts a week, and 300 each month. They could cover a lot of ground and make a contact attempt with each donor in their portfolios over the course of two months. The controllable and measurable metrics empowered the team to take ownership of their goals.
Mid-level officers started reaching out on the phone. They asked how their donors were doing, how they could pray for them, and what they were going through. They followed up each conversation with a note.
“Mondays with Moody”: Digital Experience
At the same time, the Moody team expanded digital experiences for mid-level donors, a group that tends not to prefer in-person events. The mass migration to a virtual space served mid-level donors well. The team created “Mondays with Moody,” a Zoom small group with a professor speaking on dealing with worry, and brought their traditional holiday concert online, offering it to their community for free.
The team at Moody used GivingDNA’s personalization tools to create specific donor segments and targeted messages that spoke to donors’ interests and the way they engaged. They also used the portfolio optimization tool to identify prospective major donors who were currently giving at a mid-level. This seamlessly allowed them to “graduate” prospects to the major gifts team.
These personalized experiences brought their donors closer to the institution and to each other. “We heard a lot of feedback from our donors that we were taking care of them during this time and adding value,” says Stephen.
The Results
GivingDNA helped Moody Bible Institute offer a personalized and meaningful experience to each of their mid-level donors. It made thoughtful segmentation simple, helping to reengage lapsed donors.
This personal communication and increased engagement resulted in:
- 20.9% increase in unrestricted revenue
- 89% engagement (touching base with donors every 4 months)
- 4% lapsed donors reengaged
- 11,096 phone conversation attempts
- 115 major gifts prospects identified
With a process for engagement and GivingDNA to help identify prospects and target communication, the mid-level program at Moody Bible Institute continues to grow, creating an empowered donor experience for all of their donors.
