StopTheWar.com
Building Your Email List of Prospects
Building a list of prospects that can be cultivated by email and converted to donors over time should be a central goal of any online fundraising program. Special campaigns that drive traffic to your site and give visitors reason to leave their email addresses are a great way to grow that list. The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation's StopTheWar.com campaign added over 10,000 email addresses to their prospect file. Here's how it worked:
The online campaign capitalized on the success of the movie "Traffic" to stimulate conversation about the fundamental flaws in the war on drugs. Two involvement devices were used - a game where people tried to win the war on drugs, and a special site with a specific call to action - sending a fax to President Bush. Entry in a daily drawing for a free Traffic DVD or video was offered as an incentive for faxing the President, and email addresses were collected from everyone who did so. Participants were able to opt-out of future emails, but most people opted-in.
To promote the campaign, like-minded organizations, news sites, and other sites were contacted and asked to place banner ads on their sites or promote the campaign in their e-newsletters. Stories about the campaign were pitched to on and offline media. Once the email list of participants grew to several thousand, the list was emailed with an update on the campaign and encouragement to tell their friends about it. The site also prominently featured a "tell-a-friend" component.
RESULTS
With 10,000 email addresses collected, the goal of the campaign - building an email list of sympathetic prospects - was well reached. Though donations were made on the site during the course of the campaign, the real fundraising opportunities will be realized as the email list is cultivated and converted to donors over time. Furthermore, with over 200,000 user sessions during the course of the campaign and coverage in major print and online media, the campaign gave the cause and the organization great visibility.
