International Justice Mission UK celebrates 203% increase in recurring donors

About International Justice Mission UK

As one of the world's largest international anti-slavery organizations, International Justice Mission UK works alongside local authorities, governments and police to protect people from slavery, violence and trafficking. Working in more than 29 regions across 17 countries, IJM has successfully brought over 90,000 children, women and men to safety from slavery and has reduced slavery by up to 86% in the regions it serves.

The challenge

Setting sights on digital transformation

In the years after COVID, many nonprofits realized — and prioritized — the value of online fundraising and digital innovation. Such was the case at International Justice Mission UK (IJM UK). With limited digital infrastructure and an email provider that wasn't keeping pace with their ambitions, it was time for the organization to establish a bold, new vision for their fundraising, marketing and growth.

The bulk of IJM UK's online fundraising efforts relied on internally built forms and donations collected through PayPal. Their email marketing platform was proving insufficient for a growing organization with big ambitions.

Dean Gillespie, Lead, Fundraising Development and Marketing Growth, explains: "We recognized we needed to integrate seamless user experiences into our website. And we heard how lead generation techniques used in B2B could actually drive better leads and better conversion in the nonprofit sector."

IJM UK had clear objectives: maximize supporter retention, re-engage lapsed supporters, replace lost supporters through highly targeted recruitment, provide a much higher level of service to supporters, and create sophisticated, personalized donor journeys.

With goals of increasing new donor acquisition and building lasting supporter relationships, IJM UK searched for an optimized web donation platform and marketing automation solution that could revolutionize their digital fundraising.

The solution

A powerful partnership with Fundraise Up and strategic marketing tools

IJM UK found the perfect fundraising software partner in Fundraise Up. Excited by the platform's many features, integrations, and partners stack, IJM UK felt confident they found a best-in-class solution.

The team was most excited by Fundraise Up's dedication to the donor experience. Says Dean: "Fundraise Up's been an incredible catalyst for changing people's mindsets and it's a vital link to strategic goals and growth."

To complement their online giving platform, IJM UK also implemented Salesforce Marketing Cloud with support from implementation experts Giveclarity, creating a comprehensive digital fundraising ecosystem that included:

Fundraising infrastructure: The new setup delivered a seamless, optimized web donation experience with advanced payment processing and recurring giving tools, plus real-time donation tracking and analytics.

Marketing automation: By integrating Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud with Marketing Cloud, IJM UK built a custom data model for sophisticated audience segmentation and personalization. They automated high-priority donor journeys including welcome sequences for new donors, implemented GDPR-compliant consent management, created five custom email templates, and set up automated thank-you messages sent within minutes of donation.

The results

An incredible catalyst for bigger impact

The results were nothing short of transformational. Within the first month following implementation of Fundraise Up, IJM UK achieved:

203% increase in the volume of new monthly gifts

92% increase in the value of new one-off donations

By three months, the momentum had accelerated even further. Compared to marketing campaigns during the same period the previous year, IJM UK's supporter base increased by 71%, new regular donors grew by 23%, and the value of new monthly givers jumped by 140%.

Within a year, total donations went up by 91%. In fact, IJM UK's digital fundraising campaigns recruited more online regular donors through its website alone than the total number of new regular donors across all marketing channels in the previous year.

Email marketing transformation

The implementation of Marketing Cloud created equally impressive results in supporter engagement. The email list grew by 71%, new email sign-ups increased by 26x compared to the previous year, open rates rose by 52% year-on-year, average email click-through rates jumped by 190%, and new regular donors via online channels increased by 41%.

"The service we are now giving to supporters is of a much higher level than before and the ability to tailor customer journeys is great," says Dean.

Building lifelong supporters

Thanks to an innovative, new digital marketing strategy at IJM UK alongside the powerful technology of Fundraise Up and Marketing Cloud, online giving results are incredibly successful.

"Every charity wants more supporters, more money, more impact,” adds Dean. “And Fundraise Up could easily have just been another tool in our tech stack, but it's far more than that. Fundraise Up has shown us how to turn donors into lifelong supporters. Fundraise Up brought to us the idea of how to get more people into the pipeline."

Originally, IJM UK set 15 targets into its five-year plan. Thanks to their partnership with Fundraise Up, they've completed 14 of the 15 in the first year.

More importantly, Fundraise Up is helping IJM UK reach a new generation of people who are passionate about making a change in the world: “Together, we're radically changing lives and building a movement to stop slavery and trafficking worldwide," says Dean.