Communication Objective: Behavior or Information?

I was initially convinced that my commuication objective was Behavior. After all, I want to get current donors to donate again. I'm now wondering if the communications objective should be information?
I asked a few people the following question: What would get you to donate again to a cause you'e donated to in the past?
Based on the answers I got I conclude the following for my project:

Current donors know LEDC, they know what LEDC does, and they like it! Hence why they have donated. However, to get them to donate again I need them to better understand what LEDC does and to develop a stronger personal connection with LEDC and its work. To buld this connection and understanding I need to inform them of what LEDC is doing and what the impact of the work is.

Checking that it all makes sense

I also found it helpful to make sure everything makes sense to do the exercise suggested in the Big Picture book:

To "Target Audience", "brand name", delivers "key benefit" because of "reason to belief"

Here's my attempt:

Because LEDC has great relationships with the local businesses that it serves and strong business consulting skills, current donors know that its contributions are having a local impact and that they can experience first hand the impact of their contributions by visiting one of LEDC’s clients

More 4B's

My Retention Stimulate Demand has 2 objectives:

1) Retain Donors
2) Increase the amount of donations

As I was thinking through each part of the marketing plan once agian, I realized that I need 2 sets of 4B's. LEDC can probably retain a large percentage of their target donor base, however, the percentage of retained donors that will actually increase the size of their donations will for sure not be as large.

I'm realizing that it can be helpful to get more granular with the 4bs and 5 boxes to get a better grasp on what exactly needs to be done to accomplish the marketing objective. Don't want to break down things too much, but it helps.

Below are my 2 sets of 4b's.

4B’s for Donation Retention
Bodies: LEDC’s individual donors $50+ in the past 2 years. (Non corporate, foundation donors) 700 Donors.

Beliefs:
Before: I donated to LEDC because I like their work
After: By donating to LEDC year after year I will positively impact local entrepreneurs. I’m committed to donating year after year (90% of beliefs changed).


Behaviors:
Before: I donated to LEDC in the past 2 years, and haven’t thought about next year.
After: I donated to LEDC in the past 2 years and I am committed to continuing to donate (40% of behavior changed).

Bucks: 700 donors * 90%* 45%= 283 donors retained= 40% of total donors retained
$ Avg. donation $150= 283*$150= $42,525


4 B’s for Donation $Dollars
Bodies: LEDC’s retained donors 283

Beliefs:
Before: I donated to LEDC because I like their work
After: By increasing my donation to LEDC year after year I will positively impact local entrepreneurs. (90% of beliefs changed)

Behaviors:
Before: I donated to LEDC in the past 2 years, and haven’t thought about next year.
After: I donated to LEDC in the past 2 years and I am committed to increasing my donation for the next 2 years. (30% behavior changed)

Bucks:
283 donors * 90%* 35%= 89 of retained donors increase their donation= 31% of
retained donors increase their donation
Avg. initial donation $150| Avg. New donation $175= 89*$175= $15,575

TOTAL BUCKS $44,765 [ (283 Retained) 89*$175=$15,575 + 194*$150= $29,100 ]

Had not posted my Category Definition and Main Variable

I had forgotten to post my exploration of the category and main variable:

I initially had a hard time identifying the category. Although it was clear to me that for fundraising purposes the best source of volume was stimulating demand, it wasn’t obvious what the category definition and main variables should be:
In coming up with a category definition I explored some of the following categories:

- Domestic Economic Development
- Domestic Small Business Growth
- Support for immigrant Entrepreneurs
- Small Business growth in Washington, DC
- Successful immigrant entrepreneurs in Washington, DC

Most of LEDC’s donors are DC based. They have a passion not only for supporting Latino immigrants but also for entrepreneurship and small business growth in the Washington, DC area.
Rather than competing for funds with the many nonprofit organizations involved in Economic Development, it makes sense for LEDC to focus on growing a new segment of donors (mostly a younger group of residents and successful entrepreneurs who are passionate about the Latin culture, small independent businesses, their unique character and the value they bring to communities. By defining the category, LEDC is better positioned to stimulate demand for two reasons: First, LEDC is the leading service provider in this category, by defining a new category, LEDC is filling a donor need (being connected to their donations/seeing where their dollars are going) while at the same making it easier for LEDC to distinguish itself from the many organizations soliciting funds for economic development in the DC area.
Category Definition: “Supporting Latino entrepreneurs in Washington, DC-Thriving Small Businesses”
Main Variable: Visible connection to local businesses/Transparency

Target Audience Description and 5 Boxes

Target Audience Description:
Natalie lives in Washington DC, last year she donated $100 to LEDC. Although she's only been to Latin America a few times, she loves all things latin including Spanish music, salsa dancing and delicious home cooked Latin meals. Natalie walks or takes the metro to work and enjoys walking by as well as shopping at independent stores and restaurant. She tries to avoid chains as much as possible because she loves the uniqueness of small businesses. Natalie has tremendous respect for entrepreneurs and she enjoys living in a community that she feels she is a part of. Although she is not wealthy Natalie likes to contribute to causes that she believes in.

Five Box Positioning Statement:

Current Do: I made a donation of $50-$200 to LEDC last year.

Current Belief: I like the services that LEDC is providing to enterpreneurs.

Consumer Proposition: LEDC uses your donations to provide services that allow small businesses in your community to grow.

Desired Belief: By donating to LEDC year after year I can impact a local business. The more I donate the more impact my gift will have in the community.

Desire Do: I donate to LEDC every year. Each year I increase as much as I can the size of my donation.

The Big Picture Part 1

The people at LEDC have lots of ideas and endless energy. This has made it harder than I thought to find a blance between taking their input and focusing on one idea to move forward. Somehow we always end up trying to incorporate everything in this one marketing plan!

We finally decided to go for a development (donor based strategy) rather than a volunteer based strategy. They have lots of initiatives on the volunteer fron at the momment and they want to make sure that they can cultivate and grow their relationships with current donors.

Here's the base that we have been moving forward with:

Business Objective: Increase unrestricted revenue for the Latino Economic Development Corporation with the goal of providing more comprehensive, better quality services to immigrant entrepreneurs.

Fundamental Entity: Latino Economic Development Corporation. I also considered defining the FE as one of the departments within the organization (business dept). The reasoning behind this is that the more measurable and specific that the beneficiary, the easier that it is for donors to identify which increases their likelihood to donate or engage with the cause (Kiva). However, for a small nonprofit it is much more beneficial to have unrestricted funds so as to fund where there is need within the organization.

Core Competence: Building relationships with Latino entrepreneurs. This is what the organization is known for. It is considered the place for the Latino community where they can get assistance and direction

Goal: TBD I’ve been brainstorming with people from the organization whether we should define the goal in terms of dollars, which would basically measure the year to year increase in unrestricted revenue, or whether we would be better of by defining the goal in terms of increase in donation from repeat donors from year to year

Time Frame: 2 years.

Category Definition: TBD

Strategic Quadrant: Retention Stimulate Demand. This strategy seems to make sense given that organizations become stronger when they have a more reliable source of revenue. The idea is to forge stronger relationships with current donors in order to retain them and make them repeat donors as well as having them increase their donation.

Customer Definition (Bodies): Current donors to LEDC

Behaviors: Current: I donated to LEDC this year Proposed: I donated to LEDC this year and I’m excited to increase my commitment to the organization for the next 5 years.

Beliefs: Before: I think there’s value in contributing to nonprofit organizations that focus on economic development. After: I want to commit to contributing to the Latino Economic Development Corporation for the next years.

Benefits: Donors: I’m having a positive impact on the lives of the less fortunate, while impacting the local economy by supporting the growth of local businesses.

Finalizing

Initially I thought it would be more valuable for me to develop a marketing campaign to attract volunteers (expert consultants) to LEDC than to develop a fundraising social marketing plan. The reasoning behind this is that I believe that the stronger the product is (LEDC) the easier that it becomes to fundraise and additional top notch consultants definitely make the services offered by the organization better. Since I wasnt sure, I had two brief conversations wth people in the organization and I agreed to put together an outline of the first two parts of the project for each of the potential proposals. I will present both to them tomorrow so we can discuss and decide on what will be more valuable.