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In not-for-profit Direct Response Television, what percentage of donors are giving via in-bound toll-free call versus going to the organization's web page and are there any demographic characteristics of the difference?
Hello! Thanks for your question about the percentage of donors that give via in-bound toll-free-call versus going to the organizations web page during a Direct Response Television (DRTV) fundraising campaign. The most useful sources that I found to answer your question were "Expert Advice on Running DRTV Campaigns in the Netflix Age" and "DRTV: engaging, attention grabbing and for charities of all sizes."
The short version is that, as you mentioned in your original query, exact data on specific DRTV campaigns is not available to the general public. What I did find was a research report that, through a survey of around 3,000 participants, found that when it comes to giving as a result of DRTV campaigns, 51.5% are more likely to "donate or respond later", and 47% are more likely to "donate or respond now".
You will find a deep dive of my findings below.
METHODOLOGY
After coming up short searching for specific statistics on DRTV fundraising campaign engagement, I took a deeper dive and discovered the Fundraising Media DNA report, which provides valuable insight into the engagement and demographics that respond to DRTV campaigns.
The report has created an Index to present it's findings, but discloses that the 100 = 50%, and using that information, I was able to calculate that 51.5% are more likely to "donate or respond later", and 47% are more likely to "donate or respond now". The report mentions that "donate or respond later" means that they will research the company online, before deciding to donate, which usually occurs online.
DEMOGRAPHICS
The report also has some key insights into the demographics that are engaging with this type of fundraising media "DRTV has the highest overall engagement rate of all channels," beating out direct mail, email, street, social media, door-to-door, SMS, and telephone campaigns.
Overall, the highest engagement with DRTV campaigns is from those aged 35-54, and "while it does have broad appeal to both genders, DRTV resonates more with women than men, generating higher engagement amongst females." This gendered difference has a bigger gap in DRTV campaigns then in any of the other campaign channels. Those aged 55+ came second, and the group with the lowest engagement were those aged 18-34.
Millennials are more likely to donate online as a result of a DRTV campaign, or miss out on seeing the campaign altogether: "18-to-24 year olds, who watch the least amount of television of all demographics… consume [only] 7.5 hours of traditional TV per week." They also prefer to donate online, because it helps to build their online persona. "Millennials are avid users of social media, and they bring a social media sensibility to their charitable giving. Their online identities express who they are and what they care about. They want to share the causes they care about with friends and colleagues."
FUTURE TRENDS
At this point in time, "more than 40% of all online [nonprofit] sales are driven by offline media – DRTV, Radio or Direct Mail. That means a significant portion of… consumers are influenced offline, and go online either to find more information or with the intent to complete a transaction."
According to Robert French, president of Northern Lights Direct (a direct response ad agency based in Chicago), the shift in TV watching habits, and the way that people are looking for information, is going to have to make DRTV campaigns multi-channel. "Almost all responders go online for more information. However, they will not put your URL in the search bar—instead, they will Google you. Which means every organization needs a digital strategy in place that is specifically designed to capture those searches coming from DRTV, direct them to the correct place (your DRTV landing page), convert as many as possible into donors and put the remainder into a lead management system."
Ultimately, while "DRTV fundraising can do a great job of getting people’s attention and being memorable," in order to remain relevant, it also has to have an online element that is also sharable, personalized, and engaging.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, when it comes to giving as a result of DRTV campaigns, 51.5% are more likely to "donate or respond later", and 47% are more likely to "donate or respond now". Overall, the highest engagement with DRTV campaigns is from those aged 35-54, and females are more likely to engage than males.
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