A Co-Op Model for Every Challenge: A case study in long-term growth with The Digital Co-Op
Time travel with us for a moment.
It’s 2020 (we know, no one wants to go back there, but it’ll be worth it). Two seismic changes to how nonprofits grow have left a void in sources of places to find prospects to join their communities and become donors. 1) The erosion of performance from fixed-cost acquisition platforms and 2) changes to Apple’s operating system have just gone into effect, hampering advertisers’ ability to serve ads to supporters and would-be supporters over core digital platforms
With our partners in need of solutions, we delivered by launching The Digital Co-Op, a prospect and donor acquisition source combining the precision of AI modeling with the reliability of fixed-cost growth. Call it prescience? Or maybe we managed to time travel to the future? Either way, we’d been developing the co-op before Apple’s changes. When nonprofits needed a solution, we were ready with one – and today, now, it’s only getting better. (We’re fully back in the present now.)
With more than 200 members, nearly 150 million unique email addresses, a vast data lake offering insights into donor behavior, and cutting-edge models that are always ready to test for the next solution, The Digital Co-Op is more capable than ever of powering growth.
So what does it mean to invest in growth long term with The Digital Co-Op? For one of the very first nonprofits to join as a member, success with early investments led us to use the wealth of data and sophisticated modeling to create solutions for additional challenges to meet their program goals.
All told, their investments in The Digital Co-Op
over the past three years have resulted in:
4M
More than 4 million new audience members acquired to date
170%
Over 170% total return on their investment
$6M
More than $6 million dollars raised from donors acquired via the co-op
In this case study, we’re tracing the path this organization took to achieve these results over the lifetime of their membership in The Digital Co-Op. Taking advantage of a wide range of modeling options, the results they’ve seen over the past three years prove that whatever the challenge your organization faces, The Digital Co-Op can be the solution.
Reactivate by The Digital Co-Op
Like many co-op members, this organization initially joined the co-op to model audiences for reactivation. Using powerful predictive modeling, The Digital Co-Op pinpointed the best inactive supporters in this organization’s existing audience to target and bring back into the fold with an unmatched level of precision, driving strong return on investments while preserving deliverability. This co-op member was able to bring over 40,000 inactive subscribers back to their core list and return over 425% in 12 months.
AdvantageAI Email Acquisition by The Digital Co-Op
Having seen strong results with Reactivate, this organization turned next to acquisition. The Digital Co-Op’s award-winning tool, AdvantageAI, uses cutting-edge predictive analytics and a vast pool of donor and behavioral data to find new-to-you email prospective donors for your mission.
For this organization, email acquisition has played a critical role in moments of rapid response – during a recent rapid response moment, names acquired from The Digital Co-Op accounted for 50% of fundraising revenue and 70% of gifts.
Advocate by The Digital Co-Op
After seeing success with reactivation and fundraising list growth investments via The Digital Co-Op, this organization began modeling to solve new challenges and reach new audiences. Last year, strategic investments in advocacy modeling allowed this program to identify the leads most likely to align with their mission and take action to support their work. Names acquired for this model returned over 100% within 5 months, and in total, advocacy-modeled names are over 150% ROI positive for this program.
Custom Modeling for New Solutions
When this co-op member came to us seeking custom models to target specific audiences and drive specific supporter actions, we were excited to dive in. Over the past year, this organization has used The Digital Co-Op’s custom models to pinpoint donors primed to be responsive to asks for higher dollar donations, a move that has driven a 115% return on investment, raising nearly $1 million through prospects identified through The Digital Co-Op – and even bringing in a single gift of $300,000. While testing another custom model to solve their program’s unique challenges, this organization broke even in just three months on investments to drive recurring donations. These successes with new approaches to modeling have allowed this organization to make The Digital Co-Op a central tool to fulfill their program’s specific acquisition goals for 2023.
We can’t wait to see what new kinds of models will help this organization solve their challenges next – and we’re always excited to help new programs build a targeted acquisition plan to power forward their world-changing work. If you’re ready to learn more about The Digital Co-Op, you can get the conversation started by reaching out to thedigitalcoop@missionwired.com.
Interested in checking out more possibilities? We love sharing back case studies that highlight the strategies and success of our co-op members. For a look at how a smaller nonprofit saw their program grow through The Digital Co-Op, check out 3X Active Email List Growth in 6 Months. For a look at how another member drove unprecedented revenue through reactivation modeling, read 406% More Effective Reactivation.
