The mid-level giving program at World Wildlife Fund is called Partners in Conservation. Impact has had the honor to work with this fabulous team on some of their mailings. Last week, WWF’s Andrew Wiley and Maura Quinn generously shared their insights during a digital hangout organized by Sea Change Strategies.

First, get this . . . Maura is a digital strategist dedicated FULL TIME to mid-level. As a result of this dedicated staffing, WWF now earns 25% of all its mid-level revenue online.  And direct mail continues to be very productive.

WWF puts the $1,000 gift amount option on EVERY online donation form and always includes a brief description of the Partners in Conservation program.

Maura shared that WWF does email solicitations in conjunction with their mailings six times per year, and occasionally adapts other urgent low dollar email appeals to create a Partner version. They’re seeing 25% open rates on their email solicitations.

In 2016, WWF launched a dedicated Facebook page for Partners in Conservation which now has 150 members. They are also experimenting with SMS text messaging. But, according to Andrew, no matter what channel we’re using, we want our donor to experience a continuous conversation that feels personal to them.

According to Andrew, the three pillars that guide strategic decision making for the WWF Partners program acknowledge that donors want:

1. ACCESS (to people and information),
2. IMPACT (to know they are making things happen)
3. COMMUNITY (to engage with others doing good work)

Many thanks to Andrew and Maura for being so generous with their time and ideas. They run Partners in Conservation and they are true partners in excellence.

Finally, a big shout out to Mark Rovner and Alia McKee for everything they do to bring mid-level fundraisers together. The day is coming when mid-level fundraising will be recognized as integral in every organization, just like major gifts and direct response are today. On that day, we will have Mark and Alia to thank!

Photo credit: Paul Mansfield Used under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-2.0) license