A guest post by Bob Happy of Averill Solutions
Whether you’re launching a capital campaign or a smaller-scale fundraising initiative, a case for support is an essential tool for showing your supporters why they should give.
A case for support, also known as a case statement, is a document that outlines your campaign’s goals and needs while connecting the project back to your larger cause.
Just as important as determining what goes into your case for support is learning how to tailor it to your organization’s different audiences in your campaign marketing materials. If you can effectively adapt your core campaign messages to different groups’ needs and preferences, you’ll be better equipped to connect with them and make a compelling argument for why you need their individual support. Let’s dive in!
First Things First: Understanding Your Audiences
To cater to different audiences with your case for support, you first need to understand the various audiences you want to address. While you may want to invest in fundraising consulting services to take your research efforts to the next level, there are a few strategies you can employ on your own. These include:
- Analyze your supporter data. Brush up on what you know about your community of supporters by turning to the data you have in your database. Take a look at what the information says about your audiences’ demographics, engagement histories, giving patterns, values, interests, and motivations. If you see that your data needs to be updated, consider investing in data appending services.
- Solicit and apply feedback. Gather feedback about your supporters’ experiences with your organization through surveys, interviews, or focus groups. Then, demonstrate that you value that feedback by taking it into account when tailoring your case statement. This not only helps you get a more candid view of your supporters but also gives you a chance to build trust with them.
- Segment your audience. Segmentation is the process of sorting your supporters into different groups based on shared characteristics. For instance, you might segment your supporters by giving level, volunteer status, geographic location, or even age.
Throughout this research process, your goal should be to identify a handful of distinct audiences you want to reach during your campaign.
For example, you may choose to target supporters in your local area and around the country. Within the group in your local area, you could create subgroups of those who currently volunteer, those who have volunteered in the past, and those who have not yet volunteered.
Each of these groups will respond differently to your case for support, so it’s your job to use what you know about each to tailor your marketing materials, the format of the messages, and the delivery of the message to their needs and expectations.
Let’s now jump into some tips for doing just that.
Tip #1: Address your audience’s concerns.
No matter who your specific audiences are, there are likely concerns or hurdles they face when it comes to giving to your campaign. Whether your organization is an environmental conservation nonprofit and supporters worry that the gift they can give is too small to make a difference, or your organization is a church and you know some parishioners don’t understand the importance of your annual appeal, you can be proactive in addressing any issues.
Here are some strategies for doing so:
- Provide multiple ways to give (online, over the phone, via mail, etc.) and emphasize how quick and easy the process is.
- Share compelling impact stories that illustrate the importance of your supporters’ gifts.
- Assure your audience of your organization’s commitment to careful financial stewardship, giver privacy, and data security.
- Educate your audience about non-monetary ways to support your cause, like volunteering, making in-kind gifts, doing advocacy work, or simply spreading the word about your mission.
Tip #2: Experiment with different formats.
Your different audiences will inevitably have different preferences in terms of what communication channels they use and at what frequency they like to receive your messages. Address these by experimenting with different formats and channels for your marketing materials.
Here’s an example of how you might do this:
- First, you create a formal case for support document for use by your internal team. This includes a detailed description of your fundraising goals, projects you plan to complete with the funding you receive, and more.
- Next, you adapt the case for support document into a print brochure that you can mail to one of your key audiences. The brochure includes compelling visuals and the key reasons your organization needs the recipients’ gifts.
- You also use the case statement to develop a series of social media posts you can use on Instagram and Facebook. These are more concise, visual-heavy messages that stress the impact supporters can have on your beneficiaries by giving.
As you can see, using different formats will allow you not only to connect with different audiences and make a case for your campaign but also to spread out the narrative of your campaign across a variety of touchpoints. This way, when someone encounters a message about your campaign in multiple formats, the message will feel both consistent and fresh.
Tip #3: Seek feedback on the different versions of your case.
To take the guesswork out of tailoring your case for support to different audiences, consider going straight to the source and seeking feedback from your audiences on different versions of your case.
Sometimes there will be formal opportunities to do this. For instance, Averill Solutions explains that part of a feasibility study for a capital campaign involves going over your case for support with stakeholders and major givers. But in other campaign contexts, this will be a more informal process.
When you get the drafted campaign materials in front of your supporters, ask them the following questions to judge the different versions’ effectiveness:
- Is the information easy to understand? What additional details would you like to see included?
- Did this message evoke any specific emotions or feelings?
- Were there any design elements that were particularly effective or ineffective?
- Do you have any additional suggestions for improving our messages to make them more impactful or persuasive?
- How likely are you to support the campaign based on what you’ve seen/read in this material?
Make sure you seek this feedback well ahead of launching your campaign so you have time to incorporate your supporters’ comments and suggestions into the finalized versions of your campaign materials.
For your next fundraising campaign to succeed, ensure your supporters are on board with your campaign. Tailoring your case for support to different audiences within that community is a great way to start. Use the guidance above to get started, and don’t hesitate to reach out to a fundraising consultant if you need further assistance.
Bob Happy brings nearly 35 years of experience providing expert leadership and direction to clients across the not-for-profit sector to his current role as President of Averill Solutions.
Before forming Averill Solutions, Bob served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the nation’s largest fundraising firm. He has mentored hundreds of professional fundraising practitioners and many have joined him at Averill Fundraising Solutions.
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