INSIDE A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE ADVOCACY & FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN

How ForestEthics changed the Tar Sands oil debate using Change.org & Salsa

PresentersAGENDA• Intro • Overview of Salsa &

Change.org• Advocacy & fundraising

campaigns• ForestEthics Example• Best practices• Q & A

Jeanette RussellSenior Partner Marketing Managerjnet@salsalab.com, 406-880-jnet

Lawrence GrodeskaNonprofit Community Managerlawrence@change.org

Hilary StamperForestEthics Online Consultanthilstamper@gmail.com

Hilary StamperForestEthics Online Consultant

hilstamper@gmail.com

• Through hard-hitting campaigns and negotiations, we harness the tremendous buying power of major companies like Staples, Victoria’s Secret, Chiquita, and dozens of others to leverage major forest-protection in North America.

• Expert campaigners help mobilize our 110,000 online supporter base (27K in Canada) for maximum impact.

Hilary is an expert in growing communities of online supporters and creating opportunities for them to promote positive change for our planet.

She has worked for ForestEthics since 2010.

Jeanette Russell Senior Partner Marketing Managerjnet@salsalab.com, 406-880-jnet Salsa Labs:

• Integrated online organizing and fundraising platform

• 2,000 organizations• 30K Salsa users • 45 million members• $25 million raised

18 years nonprofit experience

Email Fundraising & eCommerce

Website Forms

Events

Reports & StatisticsAdvocacy

3rd Party Plugins

Social Media

Supporter DatabaseCRM

Salsa Platform Capabilities

Lawrence Grodeska Nonprofit Community Managerlawrence@change.org, @lsgrodeska

Change.org:• The world’s fastest growing

social action platform• 2 million new users each

month• 10 million active users each

month• 17,000 organizations

Change.org Sponsored Campaigns

Full Contact Information

New, Highly Targeted Supporters

Predictable Cost-Per-Supporter Pricing

Salsa & Change.org Integration

Automatic Supporter Delivery& Campaign Replication

Salsa Connect

Change.org Relay

Crafting Your Campaign

Strategy, Tactics & Tools for Advocacy & Fundraising

The “Ladder of Engagement”

Online Advocacy & Fundraising

Theory of Change

ProgressCampaign

ProgressCampaign

ProgressCampaign

GOAL

• Must-haves:• Website• Online Donations• Email program

• Increasingly important:• CRM (Constituent Relationship

Management)• Email Acquisition

Campaign Tactics & Tools

Inside a Successful Online Advocacy & Fundraising Campaign

How ForestEthics changed the Tar Sands oil debate

Our mission is to protect Endangered Forests, wildlife, and human well-being.

ForestEthics

Problem: Canada's government wants to build a massive pipeline from Alberta's Tar Sands to the coast of British Columbia, introducing over 225 mega-tankers into pristine waters for the first time ever.

ForestEthics Enbridge Campaign

What’s at stake: Great Bear Rainforest wildlife, thousands of salmon- bearing rivers and streams, and Canada’s fisheries.

• Long term objective: Stop the pipeline

• Short term online objectives:Create online action opportunities for online supporters to create offline change and win short-term victories.

• Tools and tactics:• Petitions• Targeted Actions• Signup pages• Donation pages• Thank you pages

ForestEthics Enbridge Campaign

ACTION 1: SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT

• Created ‘targeted action’ on Salsa• Used Salsa to craft and send an appeal asking FE’s

supporters to take action• Printed and delivered action

Method

We invited British Columbians to sign up to speak at official Enbridge public hearings via a Salsa signup page.

ACTION 2: SIGNUP TO SPEAK

NEWS EVENT: GOVERNMENT RESPONSE

“ Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade(…)These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects…” – Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources

We shared news coverage of the government’s outrageous response with our supporters and encouraged them to fight back.

ACTION 3: MICROSITE & PETITION

FUNDRAISER 1: $10,000 Matching Grant

Offline Action:• Filed a motion demanding the public hearings our supporters signed up for would be fair and democratic.• Secured a matching grant

Supportive Online Action:Asked supporters to donate• Matching grant• Tight deadline (<24 hours)

In our next email: • Report back on

success• Soft ask to take

action again• Share supportive

comments from the community.

THANK YOU & ACTION 4

In rally city: We asked supporters to rally against the pipeline in Vancouver. Supporters signed up via a signup page.

ACTION 5: RALLY

Outside rally city: We asked supporters to sign our petition, which we printed and displayed at the rally flowing out of a faux pipeline (left).

• Offline recruitment at rally• Tell-a-friend drive• Paid member recruitment offsite

RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS

• Harper launched another massive legislative attack on the environment.

• In response, FE held a press conference to announce that we’d split our Canadian organization into two parts to more aggressively fight Harper.

NEWS EVENT

When we announced the launch of ‘ForestEthics Advocacy’ and asked supporters for financial support (not tax-free), they donated at record-breaking rates.

FUNDRAISER #2: HELP OUR NEW ORGANIZATION

Review metrics: • fundraising numbers • email response rates• compare different supporter sources

Prepare next arc

Campaign Debrief

• Be timely & relevant• Pick specific & achievable objectives• Target appropriate decision-makers• Start supporters with simple asks

Best Practices for Advocacy

• Think big, be bold!• Capitalize on responses from decision-

makers• Utilize paid acquisition for big

goals/moments• Track ROI with a CRM

Best Practices for Fundraising

THOUGHTS?

Hilary Stamper - ForestEthicshilstamper@gmail.com, (650) 560-9780

Lawrence Grodeska – Change.orglawrence@change.org, (415) 819-8495

Jeanette Russell – Salsa Labsjnet@salsalabs.com, 406-880-jnet