Testing Everything: Optimizing Nonprofit Fundraising with Pardot

 

This session, featuring Kirsten Kiffin (Idealist Consulting) and Sheridan Marfil (World Food Programme USA), details how World Food Programme USA (WFP USA) implemented a rigorous, data-driven testing culture using Pardot to convert a surge of one-time crisis donors into long-term sustainers and improve overall fundraising effectiveness.

Key Takeaways

 

• The Crisis Donor Opportunity: WFP USA gained 50,000 new donors (a 200% increase) in 2020. The challenge was stopping the historically steep drop-off, as only 76% of new donors remained subscribed after three months.

• Crawl, Walk, Run Approach: They deliberately started with a small, simple welcome series after their initial Pardot launch, enabling them to perfect the system before running full fundraising appeals.

• Test Everything: Every email sent, including those in automated series, is tied to a specific test to enable rapid learning and optimization.

• Consistency is Key: Testing is most effective when the core Call-to-Action (CTA) is consistent (in WFP USA’s case, almost always “Donate”), allowing for focused testing on messaging and design elements.

WFP USA’s Pardot Adoption and Strategy

 

WFP USA migrated to Salesforce and Pardot in late 2019, choosing to use the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and creating new prospects as Contacts (not Leads), with Opportunities used for donations.

• Pre-Pardot Challenges: They had an outdated CRM with poor data quality and no segmentation, meaning they had a “one size fits all” communication strategy and no preference center for subscribers.

• Initial Strategy: They executed a massive data cleanup and deliberately had a soft, simple launch with just a basic welcome series (instead of an immediate year-end appeal) to catch glitches early.

• Welcome Series Strategy: They transitioned from one generic series to three separate series tailored for Non-Donors, One-Time Donors, and Sustainers. They shortened the time between welcome emails to ask for a donation or an upgrade more quickly, leveraging the fact that prospects are never more engaged than during the welcome series.

Pardot Features Supporting Testing

 

WFP USA uses a mix of native features and custom workarounds to run tests:

• Split Lists: Used heavily to split segments (e.g., Donors) and run A/B tests between the split audiences.

• Engagement Studio Test Split: Used a custom auto-number field on the Salesforce Contact record to generate a number, which they used in Engagement Studio rules to evenly split the audience for testing purposes.

• HML and Dynamic Content: Used frequently for merge fields and advanced personalization within test campaigns.

Specific Test Examples

 

WFP USA treats testing as a continuous process, revisiting old tests and monitoring conversion, click rates, and unsubscribes.

• Transactional Headers: They tested adding a customized header (e.g., “NO DONATION YET” in red, using a Salesforce ID field) above the main email copy. This increased Conversion but also caused a slight increase in unsubscribes. The revenue gain was deemed worth the marginal increase in opt-outs.

• Link Size: Increasing the font size of the primary link from 14px to 18px did not have a significant effect on click-through rates or conversion, leading them to maintain the smaller, consistent size.

• Hover Effect: Testing a hover effect that changed link color saw a 9% increase in click-through rate but resulted in lower revenue, highlighting the need to decide which KPI is most important for the specific test goal.

• Sender Name (In Progress): Preliminary tests showed that using the individual’s name (“Sheridan Marfil”) worked better than including the organization name (“Sheridan from World Food Programme USA”).

• Plain Text Email (Upcoming): They plan to test sending full plain text emails (resembling personal emails) against their standard designed templates to see if it increases conversions in automated series.

Cultivating a Culture of Testing

 

To make testing routine, WFP USA embedded it into their standard marketing workflow.

• Mandatory Testing: The team makes it a goal to test every email and automated series sent.

• Centralized Reporting: All test results are tracked and reported in a central Google Doc, ensuring transparency for leadership and the entire organization.

• Template Reliance: They honed their designs to a core of four standard templates, which simplifies test implementation and allows for quick email turnaround.

• Automated Series for Sample Size: They use automated series that run daily as a way to quickly and continuously collect statistically significant data over a long period.

• Revisit Tests: They regularly revisit previous test findings to ensure the results remain relevant as their donor file size and makeup continuously change.