How Denver Rescue Mission Leveraged Data Insights to Boost Recurring Giving

Results in 5 Months Using ACH payments:

Denver Rescue Mission is a nonprofit working to serve the needs of people experiencing homelessness and addiction within its community. The nonprofit provides emergency services, rehabilitation, transitional programs, and community outreach. It has been active in the community for over 129 years. Denver Rescue Mission’s online fundraising success is in part thanks to a robust monthly giving strategy that aims to meet donors where they are and provide easy, low-fee options for their recurring gifts.

Through improved donor-focused messaging and targeting, the nonprofit has been able to drive greater traffic and raise more funding through its email campaigns. Since switching to Classy in August 2020, Denver Rescue Mission has also highlighted Classy’s ACH giving option to their donors.

Remaining in Touch With Recurring Donors

Historically, Denver Rescue Mission would blast out the same emails across its entire donor base. The nonprofit found that this approach didn’t convert as well as they’d like. Now, they send out solicitation emails for their Pathways of Hope Monthly Giving Program to specific supporters who are most likely to join as recurring donors—those who have already given five or more times per year. Denver Rescue Mission sends out three to four emails per year to people they’re targeting to become monthly donors: “Each of our sustainer conversion emails talks about the long-term, positive impact of monthly giving as well as the perks of Pathways of Hope membership, like exclusive updates throughout the year.”

To maximize conversion for recurring donors, Denver Rescue Mission sets a dedicated Classy campaign that only offers a monthly recurring donation option: “Donors can’t accidentally give a one-time gift.”

Keeping Each Touchpoint With Donors Intentional 

Denver Rescue Mission continues to increase the effectiveness of its fundraising through tracking the different routes supporters take to land on a Classy campaign page. Using Classy’s built-in marketing source codes, the nonprofit can see if donors come from a specific email, blog, webpage header, or even their print newsletter which also has its own special URL for donations. When the nonprofit found that 80% of its newsletter donations come through its webpage home header, it created a new campaign to raise $70,000 for new shelter beds and put the ask on its homepage. “Being able to tell where people are coming from would not be possible without Classy, and that gave us the knowledge to make the most impactful decisions.” The nonprofit has used this sourcing information for its ad campaigns, as well. When Denver Rescue Mission previously used BlackBaud, Raiser’s Edge and Luminate Online weren’t well integrated, so they had a hard time seeing where their donations were coming from: “Now all of our information syncs to Salesforce directly. Classy has given us the ability to see the performance of each individual ad.”