Chaining: making the most of the giving moment
May 25th, 2005 at 01:11am Under Trendspotting+ What's working
I’ve been watching a trend in online advocacy campaigns that is starting to be picked up by online fundraisers.
Chaining is the idea of linking online actions together so that completing one action leads into the call to another action. For instance, the feedback message that appears after someone signs an online petition can include a specific followup action such as forwarding a message to friends, or joining a mailing list.
Chaining is also an important way to captialize on the online giving “moment” and encourage supporters into deeper or alternate forms of engagement. A supporter who makes an online donation is acting out of a strong sense of connection with that organization, and may be very open to other recruitment messages - for cyberactions, or volunters, or even higher forms of giving. This is where the tactic of “chaining” can be most effectively employed. Online donation confirmation pages and autogenerated Thank You emails are the best opportunities for chaining, as they appear or are sent within seconds of the donation transaction, and can engage the donor before he or she moves on to something else.
Here’s an example chaining action from the Thank You email autogenerated by an online donation to emergency relief program. The chaining action asks the new donor to engage in a simple viral action followup by forwarding a pre-wrtten recruitment message to their friends/family/personal contacts.
** Other ways you can help **
Tell your friends, family and associates about your commitment to help Oxfam. Cut and paste the message below into a new email message you can forward to people you think would support Oxfam’s emergency response program.
————– Message start ———————
Hi,
I wanted to let you know that I have recently decided to support Oxfam Canada’s Emergency Response Program. That means I have committed to making a small, regular monthly donation that will be used by Oxfam to help communities at risk around the world to prepare for and recover from tragedies like the Asian Tsunami that killed 300,000 people last year.
We’ve all seen how emergency relief was urgently needed by communities that were caught in the path of the Tsunami. Oxfam relief operations were active on the ground just 24 hours after Tsunami. Within 72 hours Oxfam had begun to deliver vital aid supplies to the worst affected communities.
Oxfam’s Emergency Response Program ensures that Oxfam will be ready to respond immediately when disasters happen anywhere in the world. As well, the program will help communities at risk to prepare for disaster, and minimize the loss of life.
Every hour counts in saving lives. That’s why I hope you’ll join me in supporting Oxfam’s Emergency Response Program and help make sure that emergency relief arrives as quickly as possible when the next disaster strikes.
Please click the following link to find out more about how you can support Oxfam’s Emergency Response Program:
http://www.oxfam.ca/emergencyresponseprogram
Thank you.
————— Message end ——————–
Chaining actions should be simple, and require just a few clicks of a mouse button. Signing petitions, sending e-postcards, subscribing to email mailing lists, and surveys are all good chaining actions.
Chaining is part of a strategy that engages donors more widely as supporters and participants in different areas activity - not just fundraising but also campaigning, advocacy, public awareness and volunteerism. Chain can help you get the most value out of your donors and engage them as key participants in other activities. Chaining is also a central process in the construction of a campaign “gauntlet” that is designed to swell the ranks of campaign supporters as quickly as possible by stringing together a series of signup and spread-the-word actions into a single stream.
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