Sustained Revenue Growth Is This Food Bank’s New Reality

Cassie Gilman, Chief Development Officer for the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, explains why TrueSense Marketing continues to be the right fundraising partner for her organization.

When the food bank decided it was time to make a change, its leadership came to TrueSense. At the time, acquisition, retention, and overall revenue were in decline, and less revenue meant less nutritious food available for the community members who were depending on the food bank. Staff members didn’t have the insights they needed to fix those critical issues, so they put their trust in TrueSense to turn their program around.

Within just six months of working with TrueSense, the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma saw tremendous growth in new and regained donors, retention, and net revenue. Now, two years into the partnership, results continue to soar, and new fundraising opportunities abound.

How has TrueSense Marketing helped you make progress toward your fundraising goals during these past couple of years?

When we first hired TrueSense to come in and work with us, we were seeing a shrinking file, and so we really needed to make sure that we were diversifying our donor base, and also adding to our file. And so that was really the goal when we started, and we saw immediate gains right after we made the switch to TrueSense.

But then we did a Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) model, looked at our database, and noticed that we have a lot of support at what we consider a mid-level.

We’re fortunate to have a lot of donors who contribute in that area, but we don’t have the staff here at the Regional Food Bank to appropriately manage those donors. We reached out to TrueSense and said, “What if you could help us manage this mid-level caseload? And what if we tried a few things, like putting out a really nice proposal?” And TrueSense said, “Yes, and what if we did a survey first to gauge donor interest?”

So, our mid-level program starts out with surveying donors — really identifying their preferences for why they contribute, and what areas are they most passionate about. Maybe it’s kids’ programs, senior programs, food for families, health. That was done in a multichannel approach, so there were phone calls as a follow-up to a direct mail survey. And then those preferences were collected, and the prospectus that was prepared was prepared specifically for that donor that highlighted their preferences.

We really didn’t know what to expect with that program, but we’re seeing gifts come in, and we’re seeing gifts increase, and it’s been really exciting.

Have you heard from mid-level donors about how they like the way you’re communicating with them in this new program?

When we first got a couple of those gifts in, I get notifications of larger gifts that come through. And there was someone who made a gift that was three times the amount that she typically gives. We had some prospect research that said that she had that giving capability, but we’d never asked at that level.

So, I reached out immediately to say, “Hey, why did you make this gift? What is going on?,” not realizing that she had been a donor who was segmented out for TrueSense to manage.

And she just said, “I just love what the Regional Food Bank’s doing. We want to continue to be a part of this.”

It was a $5,000 gift!

How has digital played a role in your fundraising efforts, and how has TrueSense helped you?

Before we were working with TrueSense, we weren’t managing our Google grant well. TrueSense picked up our Google grant and has really helped us. It’s really interesting to see what motivates people to give, and how just a few words in an ad — in a paid ad on Google, or in a nonprofit ad on Google — will change their behavior, where they click and go on to the website.

We learned a lot from that process, and we’re continuing to learn, and it’s going to be interesting to see what that next thing is. For example, how do we engage people on social so they feel motivated to make a contribution? And what’s behind the behavior of the donor?

And now, after a big acquisition campaign, there’s a welcome series for those donors. So, what I love about this is that donors who have just been acquired digitally will get a series of three emails that thank and affirm them. Digital is really the … I won’t even say it’s the future, because it’s here now.

In just two years, we've seen growth in both Direct Mail and Digital efforts. Year to date, digital revenue is 40% higher than the previous year.

You’ve really been building a full multichannel fundraising program, reaching a number of donors at different giving levels.

Yes, it’s all integrated, because if a donor or a prospect is seeing, for example, the Food for Kids Challenge campaign on a billboard, hearing it on the radio, seeing it on Facebook, or they see it in our digital ads, and they see it in our direct mail efforts or mid-level communications, they’re motivated to give, or at least go to our homepage to learn more. I mean, by hitting it in a multichannel approach, we’re building trust with the donors, and the layered effect of all the efforts is having a positive impact on the effectiveness of our fundraising overall.

What challenges have you encountered, and how has TrueSense helped you resolve them?

Now with the environment in philanthropy, we’re seeing a lot of moving parts and changes as it relates to tax laws, which have affected how donors contribute.

So, seeing those changes, and having a market downturn in the economy at the end of the year really affected us, so we were looking at what are kind of new ideas, or new ways, to bring in revenue for the Regional Food Bank. We were coming up with all these ideas, and we had a crazy idea of doing a radiothon: our Food for Kids Challenge.

We reached out to TrueSense because we knew that in order to reach our $150,000 goal, we’d want to make the most of the campaign in all channels.

The reason why I love the partnership with TrueSense is that this was very last minute. This wasn’t something that we budgeted for; it wasn’t something that we planned. But we have such a great relationship and trust, and we’re able to be agile, which makes additions and changes to our marketing plan easier. So, the campaign was multichannel, from radio to our Food for Kids direct mail campaign in the summer. We beat our goal and raised over $165,000 dollars!

What do you like about working with TrueSense Marketing?

I will tell you: the TrueSense team. I feel like TrueSense has a very deep bench, meaning that you’ve got people who are experts when it comes to everything, like mining our data and knowing our file. I feel like I can pick up the phone to talk to the team and they’re always on. And they’re proactive with recommendations and telling us, “Here’s what trend is happening in our world.” I just love having conversations with the team … because of the new ideas they bring.

What makes TrueSense stand out from other fundraising agencies you’ve worked with?

I think what sets TrueSense Marketing apart from others is that they’re responsive. So responsive. We love the attention that we get, and we love that there’s that open line of communication. I can pick up the phone and talk to the person on the team who can give me an answer. I have their phone number and get a person, rather than sending an email, getting in a queue, or calling and leaving a message and hoping that I get a call back.

So truthfully, I think that it’s just the best customer service we’ve had working with a direct marketing fundraising agency. TrueSense is like an extension of my own team, and if I have a problem that needs troubleshooting — anything — the team is ready to jump in.