Purpose & Profit Club® – The Nonprofit Fundraising & Marketing Podcast · Christina Tzavaras Edwards

164: From 17 to 114 Donors: Missouri’s National Veterans Memorial’s Record-Breaking Email Campaign

·34 min·3 clips

Michael Murphy went from 17 to 114 donors in one month by revamping his nonprofit's email campaign.

This episode features host Christina Edwards interviewing Michael Murphy, the development staff member at Missouri's National Veterans Memorial. Murphy is a first-time nonprofit professional who successfully transformed his organization's email fundraising strategy. He explains that the memorial hosts an exact replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and aims to expand its campus to honor veterans from every generation. Murphy took Edwards' "Easy Emails for Impact" course and subsequently ran a flag sponsorship campaign. He redesigned the campaign by adding multiple donation tiers at $25, $50, and $125, with the highest level including a retired flag. He shifted the email writing style from a formal "C-suite" tone to a conversational, first-person approach. The campaign ran for one month and included a series of emails, with content shared on social media as well. One email was ghostwritten from the perspective of an 82-year-old Vietnam veteran volunteer, which became the best-performing message. Murphy also utilized a feature in the Bloomerang CRM to log email replies as donor interactions by forwarding them to a specific BCC address. Before the course, a similar campaign attracted only 17 donors, but the new strategy generated 114 donors and increased revenue from $1,900 to $9,000. Murphy discovered that even older donors, like a group of women in their seventies, used Apple Pay after receiving an email. He emphasizes the importance of a seamless donation form that allows giving from a phone without requiring an account. He is now planning a monthly giver campaign with a dedicated quarterly print newsletter for sustainers, designed using Adobe InDesign. Murphy previously worked as a commercial truck driver for eight years and transitioned into nonprofit work through a personal connection. The conversation is highly practical and instructional, focusing on actionable email marketing tactics for nonprofits. The tone is encouraging and collaborative, with the host celebrating the guest's successes. Listeners interested in nonprofit fundraising, especially those new to email marketing or seeking to revitalize their digital strategy, will find concrete value. Those looking for high-level strategic discussions or critiques of fundraising models might find the episode too narrowly focused on tactical execution.

As heard by us

Five emails, one ask, and a practical lesson in using different voices to shape a fundraising campaign.

The episode stays with Missouri's National Veterans Memorial and the email fundraising work around it. Michael Murphy lays out how one appeal turned into five emails by changing point of view: an 82-year-old Vietnam veteran, the executive director, and volunteer voices.

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Why you'd press play

You want one fundraising story to become five emails, each with a different voice.

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