Survey

We created a survey, completed by 460 people, to gauge audience perceptions of JFGLA. From their responses, we drew the following conclusions:

• The safety of Jewish spaces and people were a top concern, given the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, we adapted the way we discussed safety, incorporating security (ex. people with weapons) and sickness (ex. people battling COVID-19).  

• The average number of respondents (8.24 out of 10) said food insecurity, social isolation and other coronavirus-related issues in Los Angeles should be a high priority for JFGLA.  

• The Los Angeles Jewish community is diverse and complicated — far from monolithic. 

• JFGLA received a -7 Net Promoter Score (NPS), which tests how likely someone is to positively discuss or suggest an entity to another person. In our experience, a healthy nonprofit NPS would sit between 10-40. The score indicated a lack of trust of or good will toward JFGLA. However, because people were seeking community amid a time of isolation, we saw an opportunity for JFGLA to change perceptions.

Messaging

In previous campaigns, JFGLA messaging used a somber and needy tone, heavily leaning on guilt and communal responsibility. After evaluating this approach through the lens of the survey results, I revamped messaging tactics for “100K to Strengthen Jewish LA.” My copy focused on the impact of the donor on the Jewish community rather than the impact of JFGLA on the Jewish community. I also leaned on hope rather than despair.Instead of using language that suggested, “Something bad will happen if you don’t make a donation,” I used language that suggested, “Something good will happen if you do make a donation.”

Fundraising Emails

I wrote 26 emails, almost all of which used A/B testing. Some shared the same content but had different subject lines. Some had slight content changes based on the audience. This approach helped our team test a wide variety of strategies and adapt future emails based on the results of early sends. With each email, we reviewed the relationship between subject lines and open rates, as well as the relationship between content tactics and click-through rate, to determine results. We adjusted our campaign based on these findings:

• Short, simple and ambiguous subject lines generally yielded higher open rates. 

• Using email-specific terminology like “Re:” and “FWD:” led to strong open rates.

• Wednesdays performed best, with an average 23.7% open rate. The emails with 10 a.m. send times achieved the highest average open rate and click-through rate, 19.2% and 1.05% respectively.  

• There was a small indication that multiple dollar amounts (ex. $25, $50, $75 and $100) drove more clicks than a single call to action, such as “Give Now.”