Focusing on the significance of ongoing testing and measurement in nonprofit marketing, Jill Crumbacher, the Senior VP of Marketing and Development at the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, shares how they boost fundraising and brand awareness in this Nonprofit Power Week episode!
Jill begins, stating “We have to test our marketing because there are two key components to raising money. We have to have a lot of market fundraising efforts, which the marketing team supports all of those through all of their channels… But also, to fundraise, you have to have brand awareness, somebody’s got to know who you are, and that is 100% a marketing function.”. She continues, highlighting that revenue is just one part of the equation. She details how their organization has a marketing team and a fundraising team, totaling around 22 employees, and these two teams work closely together. One key aspect of their testing involves evaluating the effectiveness of different creative elements in marketing campaigns, such as fonts, colors, and messaging. They use surveys to measure if audiences remember their organization’s name after exposure to various marketing materials.
Jill also emphasizes the importance of consistency in branding across different channels and the need to adapt creative elements for different mediums, such as direct mail, email, and digital advertising. She suggests conducting tests whenever entering a new channel and retesting every 18 months to two years to stay updated with changing trends.
Additionally, Jill shares examples on how nonprofits can leverage their corporate partners for research opportunities, as many of them have access to resources that can aid in testing and research efforts.