Field Guide Series

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.
org 1
TABLE OF INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS PAGE 3
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2
Know your donor base. Conduct your research.
PAGE 5 PAGE 8
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4
Create your donor personas. Identify untapped audiences.
PAGE 11 PAGE 16
CONCLUSION
PAGE 17
Online Fundraising for the Modern Nonprofit classy.org 2

Introduction
Just what is a Campaign Field Guide?

Nonprofits should always launch into a fundraising campaign by laying the necessary groundwork. A lack
of planning will result in campaigns that peter out or miss their goals.
The key to fundraising success is always in the preparation. That’s why we’ve created this series
of Campaign Field Guides—to help you prepare for your campaigns effectively and achieve both
fundraising success and organizational growth every time. The Field Guides will cover the three main
phases of successful campaign preparation:
KNOW YOUR PLAN YOUR BUILD A

DONORS CAMPAIGN COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY
Each of these components is critical to campaign success and organizational growth. We’ll be providing
three Campaign Field Guides over the next few months, allowing you to dive deep into each element of
preparation. Consider yourself an expert once you earn a badge for each one.
Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 3

What’s covered in this Field Guide?
A great campaign idea is only as good as your ability to communicate it. But in order to spread the word
and talk about it effectively, you need to know whom you’re talking to.
The Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide will walk you through best practices to gain a solid
understanding of your current and potential donor base, so you can effectively engage targeted
audiences in your next campaign. We will explain how you can perform research about your donors,
develop donor personas, and discover untapped pools of prospective donors.
To help you conduct research and create donor profiles for your organization, we’ve included
worksheets and a customizable donor persona template.
Let’s get started!

Chapter 1
Know your donor base.
Understanding your donors and what drives them to give is critical to crafting effective fundraising,
communication, and engagement strategies. An excellent way to learn about your organization’s
audience is to develop donor personas.
What are donor personas?

Donor personas are hypothetical representations of your ideal donors. They are based on real data
you collect about your current and potential donor base, including demographics, behavior patterns,
interests, concerns, and personal
histories with your organization.
These profiles give you a holistic
image of the people with whom
your organization wants to
communicate.
The value of donor personas

Here are just a few reasons why creating donor personas is important:
• Guide content creation. N

ot everyone has the same connection to your cause. By creating personas,
you’ll be able to understand your different audiences and create marketing materials that are relevant to
each donor group’s goals, interests, and concerns.
• Attract people to your site. B

y creating and delivering content targeted to specific personas, you will
have a better chance of attracting donors to your website and landing pages.

• Inform marketing outreach. P
ersonas can help you understand how to reach different groups of
donors. They reveal where your donors spend their time and how you can communicate with them.
• Align practices across your organization. S

haring donor profiles with your entire organization allows
your fundraising and marketing teams to create consistent messages that resonate with their audiences.
Simply put, donor personas help you understand your donors and fundraisers so you can engage them
more effectively. By identifying who and where they are, you can deliver the right message at the right
time through the right channel. All this, in turn, empowers you to boost engagement and donations,
achieve campaign success, and grow your donor base.
Where Do I Start?
To develop your personas, your first step is to conduct some research on your existing donor base.
Start by collecting all of the available data about those who have engaged with your organization and
supported your mission.
Your constituent relationship management (CRM) system and event registrations can reveal basic
information about those who have expressed interest in your cause and brand. However, in order to
really understand your audience, you should ask for their feedback directly. Surveys, for instance, are a
useful tool that can help you quickly reach a larger
audience. In-person or phone interviews are an
especially great way to learn people’s interests
and needs in more detail. They can also add a
human element to your donor profiles, providing
a personality and mindset that help you better
understand supporters’ decision-making processes.

Reach out to your organization’s current supporters. It's helpful to group them into supporter type
segments:
• One-time donors
• Monthly recurring donors
• Large donors
• Volunteers
• Blog or newsletter subscribers
Each segment will have different goals, behaviors, and reasons for giving. Learning their motivations for
giving will inform you on how to bring more of each type into the fold.
To start, conduct 3 to 5 interviews with each supporter type segment (see the following chapter!). You will
start to recognize behavioral patterns among donor segments throughout the interviews, which you can
then use to develop your personas (as seen in Chapter 3).
D O N AT E
Pro Tip
When reaching out to supporters, make it clear that you are looking for feedback, not asking
for donations.

Chapter 2
Conduct your research.
Let’s start digging into your current donor base. Use the following sample questions when conducting
interviews with your supporters. And keep in mind, depending on the supporter type, not all questions
may apply. Feel free to choose what kind of information is appropriate to ask each kind of supporter.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Begin with their demographic information. This will be the easiest information to collect, and it’ll give you a good
idea of what types of people comprise your main audience.
What is your age range?
What is your gender?
Are you married?
What kind of community do you live in? (e.g. urban, suburban, or rural? Local or international?)
What is your annual household income?
What is your educational level?
What is your occupation?

PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Next, evaluate your donors’ personalities, values, interests, and lifestyles. This type of information will tell you
where your donors are most active and how you can engage them.
What are your daily activities?
What types of events do you attend?
Do you volunteer?
Where do you find your information? (e.g. TV, online resources, social media, friends and family)
Do you use social media? If so, what platforms?
How do you prefer that organizations communicate with you? Email, direct mail, or some
other way?

INDIVIDUAL GIVING HISTORY
This is a crucial part of your research. If you can use your own donations data to glean this information, go for
it! And if you're a Classy user, get familiar with supporters’ personal giving histories within your own Reports
Dashboard. Otherwise, feel free to supplement your findings by asking questions about their giving behavior in
general, such as their most common objections to supporting your (or any) organization. That way, you can plan
how to address those concerns.
Have you ever fundraised for our (or any) organization?*
How often do you donate?*
What is your average gift size?*
Do you give primarily online or offline?*
How did you learn about our organization?
What frustrates you about the organizations you support?
*Some questions may be more appropriate to investigate on your own. For instance, asking donors whether
they have ever donated to your organization can give the impression you don't pay attention to their support. If
possible, use your CRM or donations data to find this information.

Chapter 3
Create your donor personas.
Now that you’ve done your research, it’s time to piece together your donor personas. Analyze your
data to identify patterns that will help you develop 4 to 7 personas. Having multiple personas is key,
but it’s important not to create too many. Each persona should represent a segment of donors, but still
remain specific enough that you can create hyper relevant and meaningful messages. Then, format your
information into straightforward, easy-to-read templates. This will allow you to quickly share personas
across your entire organization, so everyone can understand who they’re speaking to and craft their
messages accordingly.
S U PP O RT E R T Y P E S
One-time Monthly Blog / newsletter

Large donors Volunteers
donors recurring donors subscribers
I NT E R V I E W Q U E S T I ON S
Persona #1 Persona #2 Persona #3 Persona #4 Persona #5

Here’s an example of a complete donor persona to show you how to frame your information:
Last Updated: J anuary 2015
Donor Dana
Name your persona so that your staff can easily identify and refer to this group of donors.
DEMOGRAPHICS
• Age: 25-35 years old

• Gender:Female
• Occupation: Magazine Writer
• Household income: $35,000–$55,000
• Location: Urban
IDENTIFIERS / TRAITS Note attributes that help your teams identify the persona, including
interests, mannerisms, where they spend their time, and how they get their information.
• Works full-time • L ives an active lifestyle, enjoys

• College graduate running/jogging
• Tech-savvy • L earns about nonprofit causes through

friends, family, and social media
• Active on social media
GIVING HISTORY
• Average donation size: $30

• Donation frequency:2x / year
• Donation type: Online
CHALLENGES Identify any obstacles that might hold the persona back from increasing their
support for your organization.
• Limited financial means to donate

• Has an interest to volunteer, but is unaware of volunteer opportunities
HOW WE CAN HELP
• Suggest starting a fundraising page to raise more money than Dana would personally give
• Share upcoming events or initiatives for which Dana can volunteer

QUOTE(S) Include one or two real quotes from your interviews that illustrate the persona’s
character, concerns, and inspirations for giving.
• “I want to help others, and it feels good to give back.”

• “ Fundraising seems like it would take up a lot of my time, but I love the idea of bringing my
friends together around a cause.”
OBJECTIONS Identify your persona’s most common objections, so your teams will be prepared
to address them during conversations.
• Doesn’t feel a sense of urgency to donate

• D
oesn’t have a solid understanding of how her donations are being used, nor how she is
making an impact
SUPPORT ASSETS Determine what content and materials your organization can offer to combat
the persona’s objections, frustrations, or concerns.
• Compelling stories that demonstrate a need for your organization’s work

• Photos, blogs, and videos that show your programs’ impact
• A step-by-step instruction sheet to show how easy it is to set up a fundraising page
• A report that clarifies how donations are distributed and used
Now it’s your turn. Create a few copies of the blank template on the next page and plug in your own data
to finalize your new donor personas.

Last Updated:
Name your persona so that your staff can easily identify and refer to this group of donors.
DEMOGRAPHICS
IDENTIFIERS / TRAITS Note attributes that help your teams identify the persona, including interests,
mannerisms, where they spend their time, and how they get their information.
GIVING HISTORY
CHALLENGES Identify any obstacles that might hold the persona back from increasing their support for
your organization.
HOW WE CAN HELP

QUOTE(S) Include one or two real quotes from your interviews that illustrate the persona’s character,
concerns, and inspirations for giving.
OBJECTIONS Identify your persona’s most common objections, so your teams will be prepared to address
them during conversations.
SUPPORT ASSETS Determine what content and materials your organization can offer to combat the
persona’s objections, frustrations, or concerns.

Chapter 4
Identifying untapped audiences.
After evaluating your current donors, you should now have a solid understanding of the people with
whom your organization engages. On the flip side, your research should also help you discover
untapped audiences. Are there any demographics you’re not currently reaching, whether it’s a certain
age group, gender, income range, job status, or education level? Paying attention to these gaps in your
donor base can help you identify new pools of prospective supporters.
For example, let’s say your supporter base
is generally older. This might indicate an
opportunity to target younger supporters who

AGE 65+
are eager to fundraise, volunteer, or share your
cause on their social networks. If your current
audience skews 30-percent male and 70-percent
AGE 40-64 female, perhaps you can look into how you might
attract more male supporters.
Look at your own data and identify at least two

AGE 18-39 untapped donor segments you want to pursue in
your next campaign. Then, repeat the previous
research and interview process, and develop donor personas to help you understand how you can
reach and engage these specific audiences. Taking these steps will help you create targeted campaign
materials that attract new prospects and expand your donor base.

Conclusion
CONGRATULATIONS!
You’ve made it to the end of the Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide, and you’ve earned
your Know Your Donors badge! To recap, here are the steps you should take to gain an in-depth
understanding of your donor base:
1. Conduct research and interview donors from your existing donor base
2. Develop your donor personas
3. Identify untapped opportunities for new donors
4. Get ready for campaign planning (aka the next Campaign Field Guide!)
Completing these exercises before each of your main campaigns will help you know where to focus
your time, resources, and outreach to effectively target constituents. This, in turn, can help grow your
organization and audience in a consistent way. By identifying both your current and potential donors
before each fundraising initiative, you’ll know how to engage the donors you already have, while adding
more people to your donor base with every campaign.
Now that you have a solid understanding of your audience, you’re ready to start planning your
fundraising campaign. Stay tuned for the Plan Your Campaign Field Guide (it's going to be a good one)!
P.S. If you've downloaded this Campaign Field Guide, the next installment will be automagically emailed
to the same address. See you soon!

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of Tomorrow’s Nonprofit
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The Pocket Guide to Fundraising Psychology Classy.org 22

Plan Your Campaign Field Guide classy.org 1
Table of Introduction
Contents Page 3
Chapter 1 Chapter 2
Understand the campaign brief. Learn by example.
Page 5 Page 7
Chapter 3 Conclusion
Present your new campaign brief.
Page 20
Page 17

Introduction
What is this Field Guide about?

Welcome back. If you’re following our Campaign Field Guide series, you know each Field Guide covers
one of the three main phases of successful campaign preparation.

STRATEGY
In the previous Know Your Donors Field Guide we covered the first step to preparing for your campaign:
identifying your current and potential donors to effectively engage them. If you missed it, don’t worry. You
can check it out here.
The next step of preparation is to build your campaign roadmap. In other words, you need to draft your
campaign brief.
Though often overlooked, a campaign brief is an important tool for planning your campaign. It is a
document that spells out the key details of a fundraising campaign, including its goals and the steps
necessary to achieve them. It also identifies any gaps in your overall marketing or communication
strategy and what you need to close them.

In this Field Guide, we will do the following:
1. Explain the value of a campaign brief
2. Take you step by step through a sample brief
3. Offer tips and best practices you should consider while planning your campaign
4. Provide a completed campaign brief for your own campaign
Onward!

Chapter 1
Understand the Campaign Brief.
A campaign brief is a central document that states the major facts about a campaign. It serves as a
planning tool to help chisel out your campaign goals and key metrics, enabling you to stay on track the
whole way through.
A well-crafted campaign brief allows you to do two major things:
• Stay focused on your campaign goals.

Drafting a brief enables you to establish and
stay focused on specific goals throughout
your campaign. It also helps to shape your
campaign’s overall marketing strategy to
support these objectives.
• Unify efforts across multiple teams.

Fundraising campaigns are usually executed
by multiple departments, so creating a brief helps keep everyone on the same page. This central
document outlines the vision, goals, and guidelines that every team will stick to, aligning efforts across
your organization.
Who should create the brief?

Drafting a campaign brief is not a one-person job. A number of different teams typically help to carry
out a fundraising campaign, so it’s extremely important that all campaign stakeholders create the brief
together. This ensures that everyone agrees on the same goals, ideas, and expectations going into the
campaign, preventing any miscommunication down the road.

Your key stakeholders include anyone involved in the execution of your fundraising campaign. They
might include the following individuals:
• Development/fundraising officer
• Web developer in charge of updating your website or campaign micro-site
• Graphic designer
• Social media manager
• PR/marketing officer
• Staff member involved in donation processing/tracking
Make sure to keep your brief clear and simple so that it helps you to stay organized and communicate
the campaign to your entire staff.

Chapter 2
Learn by example.
To help you master your own campaign brief, we’ve created this hypothetical example to show you how
to structure your information. Keep an eye out for “Pro Tips” that can help you think through each section
and inspire creative ways to upgrade your campaign.
After each section, use the space provided to fill in the information for your own campaign. Your answers
will automatically fill into a complete campaign brief in Chapter 3.
Background and Significance
Before planning a campaign, you need to understand its purpose. In this section, jot down why your
organization is running this campaign, why people should care, and how it will help advance your cause.
This way you have a clear understanding of how this campaign fits into your organization's
broader mission.
Trees provide homes and food to countless animals and people. This campaign aims to
preserve our world’s forests and the wildlife and communities that inhabit them.
Now it's your turn.

Campaign Dates
Maximize your chances of success by splitting your campaign launch into two phases: a soft launch
and a hard launch.
PRO TIP
A soft launch is a 1- to 2-week period during which you recruit core supporters into your campaign
before opening it up to a wider audience. By reaching out to your biggest advocates and asking them to
get involved first, you can build some initial momentum and social proof for your campaign before your
public hard launch. This helps to create a frame of success that will encourage potential fundraisers to
get involved and join your winning story.
Soft Launch Hard Launch
• Start Dates: March 18 April 1
• End Date: April 29 (Arbor Day)
Fill in your dates!

• Start Dates:
• End Date:

Goals
Every campaign needs a specific goal to work toward, beyond just the monetary goal. Here, you should
define exactly what the money raised will go toward. Are you funding a tangible service (e.g. three new
schools), or a sum to be distributed more widely (e.g. funding overall operations for the next six months)?
Specify the work that needs to be accomplished and calculate your monetary goal based on the need.
Make sure your campaign goal is realistic. Your supporters will be motivated to boost their fundraising
efforts when they feel like they can actually help your campaign cross the finish line. If you’re running a
peer-to-peer fundraising campaign, do some quick math to check if your goal is realistic:
1. Count your core supporters, active email list, and social media following.
2. Estimate how many people will actually fundraise for your campaign.
3. Calculate how much each would have to raise to reach your initial campaign goal.
Is this a realistic figure for an individual fundraiser? If not, you should adjust your campaign goal.
• Outcome: Plant 50,000 trees in the Amazon
• Monetary Goal [ Public ]: $50,000
• Monetary Goal [ Internal ]: $75,000

Consider setting a public goal and an internal stretch goal.
While your public goal should be realistic, an internal stretch goal is a "reach" fundraising goal known
PRO TIP
only amongst your staff. This ambitious goal can inspire energy and creative thinking as your team
administers the campaign. Your public goal might be $50,000, but perhaps your internal goal is
$75,000. Don’t be afraid to raise your public goal once you near it.
Alright, you're up!
• Outcome:
• Monetary Goal [ Public ]:
• Monetary Goal [ Internal ]:
Success Metrics
Choosing a financial goal is critical, but it’s also important to specify other ways you will quantify
campaign success. On top of your monetary target, define additional measurable goals you want your
campaign to achieve. Here are a few sample benchmarks:
Acquire 250 new donors
Recruit 20 fundraisers to make personal campaign pages
Raise 25 percent more in total donations than last year
What will success look like to you?

Theme
Create a more cohesive and compelling experience for supporters by establishing a campaign theme.
Your theme comprises your campaign’s basic marketing concept, including the campaign title and
framework for your communications. When developing your theme, think about your campaign's
background and significance, and your overall goal, to help you stay focused on what you're looking to
achieve and how you want to achieve it.
Decide whether your campaign’s theme is outcome-driven or activity-driven.
In outcome-driven campaigns, your actual campaign goal will frame the messaging you use to
PRO TIP
rally support. For example, if you’re funding 10 schools, then your campaign title, appeal copy,
and campaign pages would focus on building those 10 schools. In activity-driven campaigns, your
campaign messaging revolves around a fun or engaging activity to encourage involvement. An example
of an activity-driven campaign would be a campaign that encourages fundraisers to shave their heads
to raise money. When fundraisers take up a particular challenge, it can excite and motivate prospective
donors to give.
Campaign Title: A Spring of Hope
Outcome-Driven Description: Plant 50,000 trees
Activity-Driven Description:
Determine your campaign's theme here.
Campaign Title:
Outcome-Driven Description:

Key Message
This might sound similar to the campaign theme, but it’s not. While the theme keeps your messaging
consistent, a clear, key message expresses your campaign’s purpose while motivating supporters to take
action. Drawing from your campaign theme, goal, and background and significance, single out the main
compelling idea you want to communicate to your supporters. To make it more effective, you can break
down the message into the following elements.
“The Problem” should state clearly and precisely what is the problem you are trying to solve. “Sense of
Urgency” should elicit an emotional response in your supporters. “Donor as Hero” should motivate your
supporters to act.
• The Problem: The Amazon’s forests are threatened by deforestation.
• Sense of Urgency: Without the trees, critical habitat and resources are lost.
• Donor as Hero: Help save your forests.
Develop your own key message.
• The Problem:
• Sense of Urgency:
• Donor as Hero:

Target Audiences
The next step is to identify your target audiences and segment your communications to effectively
engage your fundraising community. If you need help identifying your audiences, check out the Know
Your Donors Field Guide to gain a solid understanding of your current and potential donor base.
In this section, you can list the different groups of supporters your campaign will target. Also note any
special instructions or conditions you want to apply to your outreach.
Segment Instructions / Conditions
Volunteers Recruit to fundraise during soft launch.
Donors (Less than $200) Donation form giving levels start at $75.
Large donors ($200+) Donation form giving levels start at $200.
Recurring donors Ask to give extra one-time gift.
List your target audiences segments and conditions.
Create custom donation forms for different donor segments.
If you segment your donor database by past average gift amounts, you can whip up customized
PRO TIP
donation forms with tailored messaging and adjusted giving level options for each group. This way, you
can try to upgrade certain cohorts of supporters, without inadvertently downgrading larger donors.

Calls to Action
Great calls to action tell supporters exactly what to do next. Map out what CTAs you want to use
throughout the campaign. This will help you to figure out what materials you need in order to bridge any
gaps in your communication strategy.
CTA Destination
Fundraise Landing page to create personal fundraising page.
Donate Donation form
Read blog post Blog
Share content Video
What calls to action will you use? And where will they go?
CTA Destination

Campaign Assets
Create a checklist of the major campaign assets you need to create your entire branding and
communication strategy. This should include all the key assets you know your campaign can’t
exist without.
Content Channel Asset List
Microsite Header image, copy, API calls
Fundraising Pages Header image, suggested copy, media images
Donation Form Background image, copy
Emails Images, copy
Social Media Images (internal / fundraiser), suggested copy, videos
Blog Posts Header image, copy
Additional Ads Newsletter footer ad
Now list the content channels and assets that you'll need.

Incentives
Incentives are a great way to energize supporters and get them to participate in your campaign. Talk to
your team about the incentives you plan to offer—from free swag, to donation matching periods, to a
website leaderboard that highlights top fundraisers. Also note when you plan to announce
each incentive.
While you can promote some incentives during your campaign launch, make sure to save a few for the
middle of your campaign.
PRO TIP
Oftentimes, campaigns experience a lull in activity at the midway point, which is the perfect time to
announce a new incentive and reinvigorate supporters.
Incentive Announcement Date
Website leaderboard of top fundraisers Hard Launch
Donation matching period up to $5,000 (Owens Family) Mid-Campaign
Each gift of $50 receives packet of seeds End of Campaign

Chapter 3
Present your new Campaign Brief.
Congrats, you’ve completed your campaign brief! Now share it with the rest of your staff so everyone is
on the same page.
Background and Significance
Campaign Dates
• Start Dates:
• End Date:
Goals
• Outcome:
• Monetary Goal [ Public ]:
• Monetary Goal [ Internal ]:
Success Metrics

Theme
Campaign Title:
Outcome-Driven Description:
Key Message
• The Problem:
• Sense of Urgency:
• Donor as Hero:
Target Audience

Calls to action
CTA Destination
Campaign Assets
Incentives

Conclusion
Congratulations!
You’ve completed the Plan Your Campaign Field Guide, and earned your Plan Your Campaign badge.
Hurrah!
Now that you’ve built your campaign brief, you’ll be able to zero in on your campaign goals. This
roadmap will keep your entire staff focused on these objectives, helping your campaign to stay on
course the entire time. You can also identify the tools you need to create a cohesive fundraising
experience for your supporters.
With your brief in hand, you’re ready for the final stage of campaign preparation: developing your
communication strategy. Our upcoming Build Your Communication Strategy Field Guide will walk you
through this phase, so stay tuned!
P.S. If you've downloaded this Field Guide, the next installment will be automagically emailed to the same
address. See you soon!

Ready to learn more?
Now armed with your Plan Your Campaign badge, take it a step further and
watch as Classy’s resident fundraising experts share tons of advice on how to
plan your best fundraising year ever.
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Build a Communication Strategy Field Guide classy.org 1
TABLE OF INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS PAGE 3
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2
PAGE 5 PAGE 7
CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4
Mid-Campaign End of Campaign
PAGE 10 PAGE 14
CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6
Campaign Follow-up Campaign Checklist
PAGE 16 PAGE 18
CONCLUSION
PAGE 24

Introduction
Welcome to the final installment of our Campaign Field Guide series. For those who are just joining us,
each Field Guide walks you through one of the three main phases of campaign preparation.
In the first Know Your Donors Field Guide, we covered the first step to prepping for your campaign:
identifying your donors and what drives them to give. The next Plan Your Campaign Field Guide helped
you create your campaign roadmap, aka a campaign brief.

STRATEGY
What is this Field Guide about?

The third and final part of this series will go over how to build your campaign’s communication strategy. In
order to keep supporters engaged throughout your fundraising campaign, you need to deliver the right
content through the right channels at the right time.

To help you achieve this, we’ll:
1. Take you step by step through every stage of your fundraising campaign.
SOFT HARD END OF CAMPAIGN

LAUNCH LAUNCH MID-CAMPAIGN LULL CAMPAIGN FOLLOW-UP
0 1 2-6 7 8+
WEEK # IN CAMPAIGN
2. Offer best practices for planning your communications for each stage.
3. Provide a checklist you can use to help guide your campaign communications.
Let's get started!

Chapter 1
Soft Launch

0 1 2-6 7 8+
WEEK # IN CAMPAIGN
As we discussed in the Plan Your Campaign Field Guide, your soft launch is the 1- to 2-week period
during which you recruit core supporters into your campaign before you push it out to your entire
audience. Asking your biggest advocates to get involved first helps you to build some initial momentum
before your main campaign launch. By the time other people find out about your campaign, your soft
launch supporters will have already boosted your campaign’s progress and shown it to be active and
promising. This can encourage those who are more hesitant to hop on board.
Reach out to these supporters personally. While calling would be ideal, plan to at least send a
personalized email to ask them to get involved. Contact your core supporters, including:
• Passionate volunteers • Social media evangelists
• Past power fundraisers • Supporters you can count on to fundraise
EMAIL Send a personal message to core supporters.
A personalized email can go a long way. Remind them of how they’ve been involved in the past, and
why their support was crucial to your organization’s mission. Frame the ask as an invitation to be part of
your campaign’s “inner circle.” Make your core supporters feel special and let them know they’re part of
a handpicked group that will help drive your campaign’s success. If you’re asking them to fundraise, you
can offer to work with them to personalize their fundraising page and set their fundraising goal.

SOCIAL MEDIA Build anticipation.
While you’re reaching out to your closest supporters through email, you can also use this preliminary
week to tease out your campaign to a wider audience on your social channels. One way to build
anticipation is by tweeting or posting messages counting down the days until your brand new campaign.
This is also the time to introduce your campaign hashtag, which will help you pull and monitor any
messages that mention your fundraising campaign.
Pencils of Promise, for instance, used Instagram to count down the few days until their newest campaign,
and each post included the campaign hashtag. A photo series like this can build excitement and curiosity
within your community before your main launch.

Chapter 2
Hard Launch

0 1 2-6 7 8+
WEEK # IN CAMPAIGN
The hard launch is when you open your campaign to the entire public, so you need to be ready to
promote it through every marketing channel you have.
EMAIL Send an opening 3-part email series.
Out of all your promotional options, your emails are the most important. These will go out to your entire
list of supporters. Rather than sending just a one-off message, increase your chances of reaching people
by delivering a 3-part email series. According to an M+R study, 2- to 3-part email series have four times
the response rate and almost double the average donation size.1
1. Email #1: Direct call to action (CTA) to join campaign.
a. Introduce your campaign. Weave in your theme, goal, and the basic marketing message that
you outlined in the Plan Your Campaign Field Guide.
b. Include direct CTA to create a personal fundraising page or donate.
2. Email #2: Message that links to content asset/blog.
a. Send a couple days after your first email.
b. Share a personal message from your staff, or a quick story of an individual impacted by
the cause.
1
Fox, Eve and Karen Matheson, “Online Fundraising Tactics: What Works?” M+R Strategic Services. http://www.
mrss.com/news/Online_Fundraising_Tactics_May_2007.pdf

c. Include a CTA to check out the full blog post on your website.
d. Include a CTA to fundraise or donate.
3. Email #3: Short and sweet with a direct CTA.
a. Send at the end of your hard launch week.
b. Include a quick message that creates urgency to get involved.
c. Include a CTA to fundraise or donate.
WEBSITE Promote the campaign on your home page.
Spotlight your campaign front and center on your home page. If you have a rotating banner, it’s a good
idea to feature your campaign as the first slide image. Anyone who lands on your website should
immediately come across your campaign.
SOCIAL MEDIA Ramp up campaign promotion.
The same goes for your social channels. Promote your campaign extensively on your social networks.
Make sure to:
• Update your profile pictures, banners, and background images with your campaign’s branding
and imagery.
• Turn your regular daily social media posts into campaign promotions. Ideally, you should post about
your campaign at least once on every channel, everyday. At the very least, post at least once a day to
promote your campaign.
• Use your campaign hashtag in each post.

You want to post engaging content that will direct traffic back to your website and inspire people to take
action. This is when the content assets you prepared before the campaign come into play. These might
include:
• Stories about individuals impacted by the cause.
• Photos and videos highlighting your work on the ground.
• Snippets of blog stories that link back to your website for the full story.
NEWSLETTER Include campaign CTA in regularly sent newsletter.
You should keep up your standard communications during your launch and the rest of your campaign.
For example, if you send out a regular biweekly or monthly newsletter, make sure it still goes out on time
and includes your campaign.
It’s important to keep your newsletter primarily about your mission, rather than just a direct appeal for
your campaign. But you can feature your fundraising campaign at the bottom of the newsletter, along
with a CTA to participate, donate, or learn more.
Promote Incentives
If you have any incentives you want to roll out during your campaign launch, whether it’s free swag or a
website leaderboard for top fundraisers, promote these through all your communication channels.
Be sure to save a few really exciting incentives to announce during the mid-campaign lull
(see next chapter!)
PRO TIP

Chapter 3
Mid-Campaign

0 1 2-6 7 8+
WEEK # IN CAMPAIGN
After your big kickoff, it’s time to dive into the thick of your campaign. In a typical eight-week campaign,
these four or five weeks comprise the core time you’ll engage and motivate supporters. Through all your
channels, deliver content that will excite them and keep them connected to the important work they’re
doing.
EMAIL Segment your communications.
In order to recruit as many fundraisers and donors as possible, you need to deliver targeted messages
that are tailored to match each contact’s relationship with your organization. In other words, you need to
segment your email campaign.
The first step is to identify the different types of supporters within your audience. This is where the donor
personas you created with the Know Your Donors Field Guide come in handy. Then, if you completed
the Plan Your Campaign Field Guide, you will have listed out the different groups of supporters your
campaign will target, as well as any special communication plans for each group.
Now that you have your target audiences, you should think about what kinds of asks are appropriate for
each group. You want to tailor each ask to each segment’s level of involvement and history with your
organization.

Create Custom Donation Forms
A great way to do this is by linking your email appeals to custom donation forms for different groups.
For instance, let’s say you segmented your donor database by past average gift amounts. You can send
the same email appeal out to each group, but link the CTA to different donation forms with tailored
messaging and appropriate default gift ranges. Not only does this ensure you make a reasonable ask,
but it also allows you to try to upgrade certain donors without downgrading larger ones.
Make sure to send all your contacts at least one email once a week.
Launch a Separate Email Campaign for Fundraisers
Fundraisers require special campaign emails to guide and motivate them. An excellent way to
communicate with them is to schedule a series of emails in response to their fundraising activity. This
maintains consistent, relevant communications with each fundraiser, energizing them to boost
their efforts.
Here are some ways to guide fundraisers
throughout your campaign:
• Send a fundraising tips sheet s hortly

after they create a personal
fundraising page.
• Plan automated emails that congratulate

fundraisers for reaching certain
milestones toward their goals. C
heck
out this example from Liberty in North
Korea. This type of recognition can keep
supporters motivated as they’re cheered
on by your organization.
• Send emails to energize fundraisers

whose pages have been inactive for a
few days.

• Remind fundraisers to donate to their own pages. N
ot only does this demonstrate their own
commitment to their campaign, but it also helps build their own progress. People are more likely to make
contributions the closer the individual fundraiser gets to his or her goal.
SOCIAL MEDIA Engage donors and fundraisers.
Throughout the campaign, use your social networks to sustain excitement in your fundraising community.
Update your networks multiple times each day, and focus on initiating and joining in conversations to
keep supporters engaged.
To keep donors and fundraisers motivated, try
the following:
• Emphasize your campaign hashtag throughout

your campaign.To engage supporters a step further,
ask them to tweet or upload their own pictures using
your hashtag.
• Show support by tagging and calling out individual

donors or fundraisers.
• Give shout-outs to sponsors, w

hich they can then share and retweet to their own networks.
• Answer questions and offer quick fundraising tips and advice to fundraisers.
• Ask followers to share and retweet your posts to boost visibility.
Also continue to post interesting and engaging content that will excite and remind supporters about the
important work they’re doing. Here are some ideas to fill up your content arsenal:
• Photo blogs of your work in the field and the people it impacts.
• Video testimonials from beneficiaries, staff members, and volunteers of how they’re impacted by
the cause.
• Interesting stats and infographics about the issue.
• Inspiring video messages from your staff leaders.

Mid-Campaign Lull
While fundraising usually ramps up at the start and end of a campaign, activity often dips midway. This is
the perfect time to roll out any incentives or fundraising activities that will reinvigorate supporters.
For instance, you may want to:
• Announce a donation matching period to excite supporters about stretching their dollar.
• Kick off a social media or fundraising challenge(e.g. get X donations in X days, and win a chance to
be entered in a drawing for a prize).
Whatever the incentive, announce it through both email and social media to spread the word.

Chapter 4
End of Campaign

0 1 2-6 7 8+
WEEK # IN CAMPAIGN
Your campaign is drawing to a close, but don’t sit back and kick up your feet just yet. Now’s the time to
make your final sprint to the finish line.
EMAIL Send your closing email series.
Your closing email series is just as important as your opening series. Send these two emails during the
final week of your campaign.
1. Email #1: Last week reminder.
a. Send at the beginning of the final week.
b. Let supporters know there’s only one week left.
c. Demonstrate what’s been accomplished to date, then rally support to increase impact in
these last few days (e.g. “We’ve funded four wells so far. Help us make it six!”).
d. Include a CTA to donate.
2. Email #2: Last chance to donate.
a. Send 2 to 3 days before campaign ends.
b. Thank supporters and celebrate what you’ve achieved together.
c. Ramp up urgency to make last minute contributions to help boost your campaign over
the edge.
d. Include a CTA to donate.

SOCIAL MEDIA Build a sense of urgency.
To stir last minute support, use your social channels to build a sense of urgency and encourage people
to know they can still make a difference.
• In the same way you counted down to your campaign hard launch, broadcast your approaching
deadline in a series of images, tweets, or social media posts.
• Showcase stats about your campaign’s impact to date,and encourage supporters to help amplify it
even further.
• Feature thank-you messages from beneficiariesfor everything your community has helped make
possible so far.

Chapter 5
Campaign Follow-up

0 1 2-6 7 8+
WEEK # IN CAMPAIGN
A fundraiser’s work doesn’t end when the campaign ends. Following up is a crucial part of your
fundraising strategy and can turn a one-time donor into a lifelong supporter.
When it comes to post-campaign communications, there are two main things you must remember to do
through all of your channels:
EMAIL, SOCIAL MEDIA, & WEBSITE
Thank Your Supporters
Whether it’s through handwritten letters or personalized emails, express your sincere gratitude for
their involvement and support. Your thank you is a crucial opportunity to solidify donor relationships. If
possible, use segmentation to thank donors specific to their involvement and really make them
feel special.
• Send personal handwritten notes to your large donors.
• Send personalized emails thanking lower-tier donors for their support.
• Treat your fundraisers as a separate segment.Sending them an email thanking them for a donation
will not only make your organization seem careless, but it will also downplay all the hard work they
devoted to your mission. This group is special, so let them hear it!

Share the Campaign’s Results
• Demonstrate the impact of their support through concrete numberslike total dollar amount raised,
tangible resources funded (e.g, 10,000 backpacks for kids), or even the number of fundraisers who
raised over a particular amount.
• Use personal stories from the field. T

hese stories can create an emotional impact that strengthens
donor/fundraiser relationships and provides a narrative for how their contributions will be used in
the future.
The goal of your follow-up is to get new donors and fundraisers into your regular communication stream,
so you can keep them engaged and strengthen your overall fundraising community. Because it’s all
about nurturing relationships, these intentional communications should last until your next
fundraising initiative.

Chapter 6
Campaign Checklist
There it is—the basic framework for your campaign communications. We know that was a lot to cover, so
we’ve whipped up this quick checklist you can use to map out your strategy.
SOFT
Soft Launch
HARD END OF CAMPAIGN
EMAIL
0 0
WEEK 1 2-6 7 8+
 Send a personalized
WEEK #email to core supporters (volunteers, past power fundraisers, social media
IN CAMPAIGN
evangelists)
• Plan by / Launch Date:
SOCIAL MEDIA
 Launch a photo or tweet countdown to your brand new campaign • Plan by / Launch Date:
D  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
C  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
B  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
A  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
 Introduce campaign hashtag
• Hashtag:

HARD
Hard Launch END OF CAMPAIGN
LAUNCH MID-CAMPAIGN LULL CAMPAIGN FOLLOW-UP
EMAIL
WEEK
1 1 2-6 7 8+
 Send
WEEKemail #1: Direct CTA to join campaign
# IN CAMPAIGN
 Send email #2: Softer message that links to content asset/blog
 Send email #3: Quick message with a direct CTA
 Announce appropriate incentives
SOCIAL MEDIA
 Update profile pictures, banners, and background images using campaign’s branding and imagery
 Plan at least one post on social media everyday, and make sure it promotes your campaign
• Post Subject or Theme: • Plan by / Launch Date:
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5

 Use campaign hashtag in each post
 Promote appropriate incentives (be sure to save some announcements for your mid-campaign lull)
 Post engaging and interesting content (e.g. photos, video testimonials, etc.)
WEBSITE
 Update homepage to promote campaign
MID-
Mid-Campaign
CAMPAIGN
EMAIL
2-6
WEEKS 2-6
 Segment your donor database (e.g. low-tier, mid-size, and high-tier donors)
 Schedule at least one email per week to each segment
• Email Subject or Theme: • Plan by / Launch Date:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
 To fundraisers: Schedule an email to send a fundraising tips sheet after they create a personal
fundraising page

 Plan automated emails in response to fundraisers’ activity
• Fundraising Milestone: • Plan by / Launch Date:
 Announce any new incentives (e.g. donation matching period)
SOCIAL MEDIA
 Remind supporters to tweet or upload their own photos using your campaign hashtag
 Give shout-outs to individual donors or fundraisers
 Call out and thank sponsors
 Offer quick fundraising tips and advice to fundraisers
 Ask followers to share and retweet your posts
 Post engaging content (e.g. infographics, stats about the issue, video messages, etc.)
 Announce new incentives
NEWSLETTER
 Feature campaign at bottom of newsletter
 Include CTA to participate, donate, or learn more

END OF
End of Campaign
CAMPAIGN MID-
CAMPAIGN FOLLOW-UP CAMPAIGN
EMAIL
7 7
WEEK 8 2-6
 Send email #1: Friendly reminder about upcoming deadline
 Send email #2: Last chance to donate
SOCIAL MEDIA
 Broadcast stats about campaign’s impact to date
 Feature thank-you messages from beneficiaries
 Launch a photo or tweet countdown until end of campaign • Plan by / Launch Date:
D  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
C  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
B  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
A  Hours  Days  Weeks  Months Before
CAMPAIGN
Campaign Follow-up
MID-
FOLLOW-UP CAMPAIGN
EMAIL, SOCIAL MEDIA, & WEBSITE

8 8+
WEEKS 2-6
 Thank supporters
 Share campaign’s results
• Result Highlights:

 Large donor follow-up
 Lower-tier donor follow-up
 Fundraiser follow-up

Conclusion
CONGRATULATIONS!
You’ve completed the Build a Communication Strategy Field Guide, and earned your Build a
Communication Strategy badge to boot.
Use this communications checklist to help collect and schedule the content you need to engage donors
and fundraisers for your next campaign. Keep in mind these practices should serve as a starting point,
so enhance or adapt them to fit your own fundraising campaign. And remember, no relationship is built
without ongoing communication; after your campaign, continue to reach out to your supporters to nurture
these relationships and boost donor loyalty.
With these three Field Guides under your belt, you’re ready to kick into high gear for your campaign.
Cheers to your best fundraising campaign yet.

Fundraising campaigns you and
your supporters will love.
Join 1,000+ of the world's top nonprofits
& social enterprises.
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Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.

Online Fundraising for the Modern Nonprofit classy.org 2

Just what is a Campaign Field Guide?

phases of successful campaign preparation:

KNOW YOUR PLAN YOUR BUILD A

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 3

develop donor personas, and discover untapped pools of prospective donors.

worksheets and a customizable donor persona template.

Let’s get started!

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 4

audience is to develop donor personas.

What are donor personas?

interests, concerns, and personal

histories with your organization.

These profiles give you a holistic

image of the people with whom

your organization wants to

The value of donor personas

• Guide content creation. N

• Attract people to your site. B

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 5

• Align practices across your organization. S

achieve campaign success, and grow your donor base.

supported your mission.

useful tool that can help you quickly reach a larger

audience. In-person or phone interviews are an

especially great way to learn people’s interests

and needs in more detail. They can also add a

human element to your donor profiles, providing

a personality and mindset that help you better

understand supporters’ decision-making processes.

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 6

• Monthly recurring donors

• Blog or newsletter subscribers

then use to develop your personas (as seen in Chapter 3).

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 7

What is your age range?

What is your gender?

Are you married?

What is your annual household income?

What is your educational level?

What is your occupation?

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 8

What are your daily activities?

What types of events do you attend?

Do you use social media? If so, what platforms?

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 9

Have you ever fundraised for our (or any) organization?*

How often do you donate?*

What is your average gift size?*

Do you give primarily online or offline?*

How did you learn about our organization?

What frustrates you about the organizations you support?

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 10

One-time Monthly Blog / newsletter

Persona #1 Persona #2 Persona #3 Persona #4 Persona #5

Know Your Donors Campaign Field Guide classy.org 11

Last Updated: J anuary 2015

• Age: 25-35 years old

• Works full-time • L ives an active lifestyle, enjoys

• Tech-savvy • L earns about nonprofit causes through

• Average donation size: $30

• Limited financial means to donate