A Million Dollar Match: How Frontier built UGM's annual match campaign.
Way back in 2015 we wrote a case study about growing UGM’s annual match campaign shortly after its fourth iteration. In the post we said, “match campaigns are growing in popularity each year [...] we’ve found them to be an incredibly effective tool to engage major donors in digital strategy (“make your gift go viral!”) as well as to provide grassroots donors (giving under $500 a year) the opportunity to feel they’re a part of making a big impact.” Well, that trend has continued!
This case study aims to fill the gaps in the half decade since that post, share some lessons learned, and celebrate the joy that is match campaigns.
What is a match campaign?
There’s many nuances to a match or “challenge” campaign, but the gist is an urgent campaign to annual donors seeking funds to match gifts being pledged from one or more major donors. It’s time-sensitive with a deadline, as all good fundraising needs to be, it has a goal in mind and an enticing offer (again as any good fundraising campaign should have).
Some key questions to ask yourself when creating a campaign include:
How long the campaign should last. UGM’s started as a three day “60 hour” campaign and has grown to be four days. Some clients do a full week, others a fortnight, and some a whole month. It all can work, but the longer you stretch it, the less urgency and increased challenge to successfully have a cohesive email series.
What we’ve also seen is that match campaigns can happen multiple times per year. While UGM doesn’t place the same level of emphasis on May’s Summer Kids match campaign, it too is successful and growing.
Amount. How much should be raised, and whether it should count for 2x (doubled), 3x (tripled) or some variation. In some past years, not including 2020, UGM has added a triple match which has demonstrated some oomph to the campaign’s third day but our research has seen that multiplying doesn’t multiply revenue.
Further, your goal is important. Our clients have raised roughly 10-15% of their 2020 online revenue via their online match. If you’re looking to set a target and have the ability to raise as much as desired from major donors, then picking within this range would make sense.
Ideally you have a plan in place what to do in the event your match is more successful than anticipated and what to do if it is less successful. Almost reaching your target isn’t a failure, and making history and going above and beyond your expectations is fun - what’s most important is how you frame it and being prepared in advance.
Name and volume of matchers doesn’t seem to matter a great deal. A group of generous donors or a person or company could be the generous benefactor. It does seem that naming has value from external sources, but it matters more how your organization wants to steward major donors than how you want to maximize the campaign.
Corporate donors are another story as they almost always want to be named. Frontier has used corporate donors as “fee sponsors” with great effectiveness. By doing this you can say that they’re covering all costs so “100% can go towards the cause” and set the rate for fee sponsor at an amount appropriate to the value of the exclusive sponsorship opportunity.
Thermometer, countdown clock and other best practices. In general, Frontier has ensured that all best practices of a match campaign are included, and that means a live tracking of gifts (or near approximation) and a countdown clock (we refer to these also as the use of an emergency bar). In 2021 we’ll be testing Next After’s research that suggests using a countdown clock and progress bar in the same place on your page can actually create more confusion and lead to a 28% decrease in donations (source, pg 17).
Finally, we recommend taking over the entire website for short-term matches, having users click the logo (or something similar) to see other content, but otherwise having the match be an all-encompassing event.
Union Gospel Mission
Frontier has partnered with Union Gospel Mission (UGM) since our founding in 2010 and have enjoyed forming the digital frontier of fundraising together ever since. The November match campaign is the highlight of our year each year.
Our relationship is in its second decade and during that time total yearly online revenue has jumped from $930,000 to over $5M per year. That’s not because of us by any means, though it’s been great to be partners in that journey.
UGM has done incredible things over the past decade to expand their annual fundraising to become one of the ten largest charities in BC while keeping their hearts set on the people they serve and demonstrate Christ in their every intention.
How it started
What was originally an annual meal-based Christmas ask became something special in 2011. Frontier introduced the match campaign to UGM, seeing it raise $87k initially. This far outperformed the previous November’s equivalent campaign (up 234%) and the campaign nearly tripled the number of donors who gave.
Major giving’s match component took some time to grow, but when it did, the digital portion grew leaps in bounds each year.
Since day one there’s been a custom landing page, 5+ emails, social media support, and much advanced planning and in-the-moment adaptations. But now…
How it’s going
2020 marked the 10th year of Frontier and UGM’s partnership. It also marked a year of incredible generosity.
A more emotional, people-focused direction was implemented for Match 2020’s copy and design. Code was optimized to allow seamless additions to revenue displayed, algorithms, intervals of increase, on and off options of thermometer. A pre-recorded broadcast voicemail message (BVM) split test was used to determine whether a BVM primer tactic had an effect on response rate amongst previous and non-previous match donors (and it did!).
Structure:
Pre-match email (primer)
Pre-match Broadcast Voice Message
Match announcement
Reminder emails (daily)
Last day email AM
Last day email PM
Thank you email (the day after the match campaign finishes
Segment donors as much as possible.
What follows are some of the key elements we focused on in 2020.
Pre-campaign Email
A pre-campaign email was sent to all donors who gave to UGM Match campaigns (2017-2019) six days before the launch of Match 2020. Though a pre-campaign email has been used in previous years, this year’s email served the additional purpose of informing donors of removed Triple Match offer:
Thank donors for their ongoing support
Announce the exciting, upcoming launch of UGM’s 10th Annual Match Campaign
Inform these past match donors that UGM will not be able to offer Triple Match on the third day this year due to the economic downturn of 2020—but their gift will still be doubled to make twice the impact for our neighbours who are struggling the most this holiday season.
Pre-campaign BVM Test
A pre-recorded broadcast voicemail message (BVM) was sent to both previous and non-previous match donor test groups 10 days before the launch of Match 2020. The BVM split test aimed to determine whether a pre-campaign stewardship-focus voicemail, used as an awareness primer, would have an effect on conversions and/or gift averages.
The BVM was recorded by a UGM staff member. Broadcast voicemail messaging cannot directly solicit donors or mention that they will be receiving match solicitation; but, it can mention upcoming campaigns implicitly: “As we look towards the upcoming launch of our 10th annual Match campaign, we are reminded of how far we've come, thanks to the incredible generosity of donors like yourself.” From a donor’s perspective, the voicemail aimed to be perceived as UGM simply reaching out/touching base to thank them for their support.
Our data shows a statistically significant increase in response from both prior match and non-prior donors.
Additional Day Two Email
In previous match campaigns, there has only been one email on day two. In 2020, a forward email was added to the afternoon of day two. This day two afternoon email forward forwarded the morning’s email to those who had yet to donate to match. This was to help maintain momentum and ensure donations didn’t drop off at the end of day two.
Design Strategy: People-focused Design
Guest photo with longer copy on match landing page
Previous matches: no photos of people, all meal-focused design
2020: 4/6 headers featured photos of UGM guests
A short video clip gif header of a guest receiving a meal from UGM was used on Day 1’s email
As fundraising is all about connecting the donor as closely as possible to the person they are helping, we wanted to include more emphasis on guest photography this year. We felt that it would contribute to the success of the campaign and help donors make the emotional decision to give generously. Studies have shown that photos of a person are usually perceived to be the most compelling fundraising images. It has become a general design best practice, and is implemented in most campaigns. UGM’s Match campaign has historically not used images of people, and rather icons and gif graphics. We decided to include people-focused imagery in Match 2020 to increase perceived need and provide an emotional appeal.
2020 saw a redesigned landing page featuring a photo of the person whose story was featured in some of the match emails. Copy on the landing page was slightly longer than previous years to ensure that the metric, ask and impact was clearly communicated to donors who had not received an email with this information.
2020 Copy Strategy
Longer copy in emails and on the landing page
Copy emphasized impact and stories more so than any other match campaigns
We expected that clear indications of the impact a donor’s money can have, while reminding them of the need, would provide a deeper emotional appeal. Many tests and studies have shown that longer copy consistently outperforms shorter copy so we felt that it would have a positive impact on results.
The campaign copy emphasized that a night of warm, safe shelter and a meal can connect families and individuals with ongoing access to transformational programs. The person’s story was used in some emails to highlight the transformation that is possible with the help of UGM donors.
Results
Union Gospel Mission’s 10th Annual Match campaign of 2020 raised a total of $1,835,065—a 27% increase from 2019, and UGM’s highest revenue-generating match campaign to date. This was achieved with the exclusion of the three-year running triple match offer on day three (mentioned earlier).
All together $1,016,995 was raised online in four days, an incredible milestone!
Bonus: How to find a matching donor
Frontier is the annual giving “marketing” team behind great fundraisers like UGM’s. We’re not experts in major giving, but we did some research if you’re struggling to find major match donors.
As with all major gifts, this is a highly relational task. It’s important to clarify what’s needed, how it will be used and most importantly, why a matching gift is so effective.
Some points that may prove useful in convincing a potential matching donor:
Donors feel they are seeing twice as much achieved for their donation.
Time limits are one of the most powerful marketing techniques and a matching campaign allows for a natural time limit.
Simply announcing that a match is available considerably increases the revenue per solicitation — by 19%
In addition, the match offer significantly increased the probability that an individual donates — by 22%
A good place to begin the search is among your biggest donations of the previous year.
Ahead of any conversations with matching donors, prepare a proposal that explains the goal of the campaign, the timing of the campaign, reasons match campaigns are more successful and the expected results.
During your conversation, show your potential matching donor the impact that raising this amount of money will have for the people your organization serves. Provide stories to show what similar gifts have achieved in the past.
It might be easier to find several major donors who would be willing to make smaller matches that add up to your full goal.