Talking the Talk: Communicating with your BFKS Participants

1. Talking the Talk:Communicating with your BFKS Participants

2. Communication with BFKS participants has changed over the past 10 years: • E-mail • Website • Phone calls • In person visits • Mail • Ads • Social networks Your agency will need to find a multi-media solution that works for your specific participants

3. With limited staff resources, you’ll need to get creative to get your message out: • Websites can provide up to date information and connect people quickly • Mail is more likely to get read than e-mail, however e-mail is more likely to get acted on. Save the Dates and information about the mission of Big Brothers Big Sisters could be more impactful if delivered through the mail. However, if you want someone to visit the website and register, e-mail is the best bet! • Phone calls & In person visits have the highest success rate, but also consume the most time. Be strategic in your allocation of resources! Decide which calls and visits staff must perform verses which the BFKS Committee or Team Captains can perform. • Ad’s, Social Media- Great for driving traffic to a specific place, like a website. Make sure you know where people are going and have a plan for what to do with them once they are there!

4. The BFKS Communication Calendar is tiered to three groups. E-mail can allow you to quickly send out customized messages to your participants • Recruitment of last year’s participants • Retention is key to growth of your BFKS • Leadership Development • Team Captains are your most valuable participants and need different messaging • Underperforming Bowlers • $0 participants make up 45% of our online registrations

5. Retention • Multi-year team captains raise two to three times more than new team captains • Not only do team captains retain donors, they also retain team members • Retained participants account for about 53% of revenue. • From Understanding the Value of Team Captains

6. Retention Communication Calendar • 3 months out: Send weekly e-mails to all Last Year Not This Year (LYNTY) Team Captains • 2 months out: Call LYNTY Team Captains, starting with the teams that raised the most amount of money. Send weekly e-mail to all LYNTY participants (including Team Captains • Last month: Incorporate other asks into your e-mail messaging, including becoming a Virtual Bowler or making a general donation Don’t Forget: Check your e-mail reports to see your open rate/ click through rate. Ask your BFKS Committee to help out with phone calls for your ‘difference maker’ teams.

7. Leadership Development • In Peer-to-Peer fundraising events, team captains account for only 13 percent of the participant population, yet they raise an average of one third of the overall participant revenue. • Team captains receive larger gifts than team members and individuals. • Team captains also received more gifts than other participant types. Team captains received an average of nine gifts vs. team members and individuals who received an average of three gifts each.

8. Captain’s Corner E-mail Chain • 12 weeks of e-mails that give Team Captain’s bite size steps to increase their fundraising • Messages remind them of their Team Captain responsibilities, update them on goals (both agency BFKS Goals and their own team’s performance), and include 1 clear call to action • Should be supplemented with Social Media and Phone interactions.

9. Underperforming Bowlers • What is your biggest growth opportunity? • 46% of participants don’t raise money online. • 13% of participants have more than 4 donors • Average donation is $47 (up 7% from 2010, 16% from 2009) • Participants raise, on average $153 in 2010

10. Underperforming Bowlers • One clear call to action that is Easy & Impactful • One ‘Missional Moment’ • Give them a mentor (someone they can mimic)

11. The BFKS 2012 eMail Campaign • Important: • Create your BFKS website using the BFKS 2012 Template and activate it by November 25th, 2011. • For instructions on how to create an event, please use the At-a-Glance Guide and the online trainings available in the Learning Center by searching FD00011. • The BFKS 2012 e-mails will be automatically delivered to your Sphere account. Your agency will need to edit and send each e-mail. Agencies not using Sphere can locate the e-mail text in the Mission Focused Fundraising section of the BFKS Tool-Kit.

12. Things to keep in mind as your customize the templates: • If nothing else, at least change the From Name & From e-mail address • You cannot enable tracking for dynamic content links, such as [Link to event home page] • You can use the same customized agency logo as you used for your BFKS website • Even if you only change one thing, test every e-mail before sending it.

13. Things to keep in mind as your localize the templates: • Tell them why • Tell them how • Tell them what other people are doing • One clear call to action

14. How do I find help?Agency Resource Center

16. How do I find help?Online Trainings in the Learning Center: Search FD00011

17. How do I find help?Blackbaud

18. BBBS Home Office Contact InfoJennifer Ashbaughjennifer.ashbaugh@bbbs.org215-701-5658