Powering up monthly donations by $22k/year with Partners In Health

About Partners In Health

Partners In Health (PIH) focuses on providing healthcare to fight diseases in impoverished communities around the world. It strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need and to serve as an antidote to despair.

The challenge: upgrading recurring donors sustainably

For years, Partners In Health grappled with a persistent challenge: making it easier for their loyal, recurring donors to increase their monthly contributions. Despite their best efforts, PIH’s previous donation management system proved cumbersome and inefficient, making it impossible for donors to upgrade their gifts.

Partners In Health’s leadership recognized the immense potential in empowering their recurring donors to contribute more. These dedicated supporters had already demonstrated a commitment to the cause, so with a seamless upgrade process, PIH could unlock even more donor generosity funds to further the organization's vital work.

The solution: implementing personalized Upgrade Links

PIH took advantage of Fundraise Up’s personalized Upgrade Links  to share with each monthly donor. This allowed donors to easily increase their recurring gift amount with just a couple clicks, rather than having to log in and manually update their payment information.

Says Jherod Bauders, Director of Digital, “Being able to manage the campaign in that way was useful for monitoring user experience. We had another vendor reach out to ask how we did it. I said, ‘I’m glad you asked. Fundraise Up did it!’”

Implementing this capability involved hashing unique links for each donor, syncing that data across various systems including Salesforce and HubSpot, and coordinating multiple teams including digital and development stakeholders.

As Reilly Hay, PIH email marketing manager, explains: "Having that engineering capability to do hash functions is the key to success in this program. It laid the critical groundwork for executing an effective multi-channel upgrade campaign.”

The results: $22k per year in upgraded monthly donations

Using a multi-channel strategy, PIH sent personalized Upgrade Links not just through email, but also via SMS text messages. Across both channels, the campaign reached an impressive 6,000 donors who were giving monthly to the nonprofit's unrestricted funds. This multi-pronged approach paid dividends.

• 72% of those who clicked through from email went on to upgrade their monthly gift.
• On average, donors upgraded their gift by 34%.
• The campaign yielded an additional $1,700 per month in recurring revenue for the nonprofit.

Key takeaways to upgrade your recurring donors

What made Partners In Health’s campaign so successful? A few key factors stand out:

Personalized Upgrade Links: By hashing unique links for each donor, the nonprofit made it incredibly easy for supporters to upgrade with just a click. This seamless user experience removed major friction.

Multi-channel outreach: Hitting recurring donors on multiple channels like email and text increased exposure and conversions. The text messages were an especially powerful driver of upgrades.

Targeting motivated recurring donors: Focusing the campaign on donors who had given for 12+ months and to unrestricted funds identified those most likely to upgrade.

If you’re looking to start or improve an upgrade initiative at your nonprofit, we recommend these tips based on PIH’s success story:

1. Invest in personalized Upgrade Links – creating an easy donor experience is key.
2. Experiment with a multi-channel approach – meet your donors where they are.
3. Target your tenured recurring donors first – capitalize on their affinity.

Ready to seamlessly upgrade your recurring donors? Check out our powerful Upgrade Link functionality. With an easy-to-use platform and robust reporting features, you can launch campaigns like Partners In Health's in just a few clicks.

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