Customized Donation Pages For Each Audience

Like all public radio stations, WDCB, located in Chicago, fundraises from many different segments of its audience. From long-time donors, to newsletter donors, to first time web site donors, WDCB had many different targets to contact, and only one online donation form to use for all of them.

WDCB turned to thedatabank to develop a solution that would enable the development staff to use different online forms, or campaigns, to target and track each audience segment separately. thedatabank created multiple campaigns that WDCB could edit themselves to build as many forms and targeted landing pages as they needed for each audience. Each appeal has:

  • A specific target audience
  • An email message customized to that audience
  • A customized online giving page
  • A report showing response rates and amount raised for that appeal

“For instance, during a drive, one of our eBlasts targets current members asking for additional gift. That group gets a specific donation link which lands on a very specific page, which speaks to them as specific members asking for an additional gift.” said Ken Scott, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at WDCB. “It’s very targeted to that specific audience segment. Of course the page is pre-populated with the member’s data!”

Now, WDCB has multiple campaigns for each specific audience they want to target. When they need to update their campaigns, they are able to login themselves and make the edits they need.

Streamlined Over-The-Phone Pledging With an Online Form

Up until three years ago, WDCB, a public radio station in Illinois, experienced a challenge that affects many public radio stations – during their pledge drives they would take over-the-phone pledges and donations by hand, and at the end of the day, they would have a mountain of donor information to be entered into the computer. WDCB was tired of spending their time re-entering this information into their database and came up with an efficient solution for their radio station.

WDCB contacted their database company, thedatabank, to ask for a one-page donation form that only the volunteers could access. The one page form was customized to include everything they needed to make a smooth pledge process for both the caller and the pledge-taker. The form has a script for volunteers in red, pictures of the pledge gifts for the donor to choose from (so the volunteer can describe it if needed), is PCI-Compliant, and at the end all the volunteer has to do is hit submit and all the information is entered into their Databank automatically.

“At the end of the day, we’re sending out pledge letters instead of having a big stack of paper pledge forms to enter.” said Ken Scott, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at WDCB. Scott said that not only did one-page form speed-up the pledge taking process, it shaved off a lot of wasted time at the end of the day so they can focus on sending out pledge letters instead. “And of course if the pledge is immediately fulfilled with a credit card, the donation is processed by the end of the phone call.”

For more info about WDCB, visit www.wdcb.org

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