Lead generation

The goal with lead gen is to generate as many leads as possible, with a longer term goal of converting those leads to donors, and grow your donor base.

A classic lead gen campaign might be driven by an online petition or a handraiser, but it could be a quiz, a game or an activity, usually posted on your website or social media platforms, to generate telephone leads for telephone fundraisers to follow up.

Lead gen opens up a fantastic opportunity to talk to people interested in the work you do. The majority of prospects won’t become financial supporters immediately, but it doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future; if anything, they will be much more open to supporting.

Lead conversion

This is the process of turning a lead into an actual donor. The lead will have arrived in the same way we described in lead gen, usually via an online campaign or initiative, but the purpose is to convert to a donor.

Leads may already be donors; for example, have made a one-off donation to an appeal, and then you wish to convert them to a regular donation – which is an example of a cash to conversion campaign. And sometimes, a campaign can be both a lead gen AND a lead conversion campaign!

Value exchange

Also known as valex, the potential donor provides something of value to you (such as their telephone number) in exchange for something they consider of value (such as a pin badge,car sticker or tote bag).

These small tokens of appreciation can be powerful motivators for people to provide their contact information and become a part of the charity’s fundraising efforts to convert supporters into donors.

The telephone fundraiser follows up to thank the supporter and collect the mailing address for posting the badge or sticker or bag, and the majority of respondents are happy to provide this information.

The added value is in the conversion through conversation from supporter to regular donor.

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