Understanding your audience is the key to fundraising success
As charity fundraisers working in prize-led fundraising, it's crucial to understand your weekly lottery and raffle audience profiles to optimize your fundraising strategies. In this blog post, we'll highlight the importance of audience profiling and offer suggestions on how to gain a better understanding of your own supporters.
If you're a charity fundraiser working in raffles and weekly lottery, you might find our Prize-Led Fundraising Benchmarking and Trends webinar of interest which is available on-demand.
Player personas: past and present
A few years ago, Woods Valldata compared the personas of raffle and lottery players to cash and regular donors. The findings revealed that raffle players were typically older, wealthier, and had a higher likelihood of owning their homes. Lottery players, on the other hand, tended to be slightly younger, more affluent than regular givers, and content with their lives. These personas provided a foundation for understanding the audience landscape at that time.
Potential new audiences
The study also identified potential new audience segments for raffles and lotteries. For raffles, there was an opportunity to target slightly younger, moderately affluent families who were comfortable with technology. Lottery programs could potentially engage young families in their late 20s to mid-40s who were also more tech-savvy. These profiles offered avenues for expanding the reach of these fundraising programs.
Stability in audience personas
Repeating the analysis with more current data has seen that, overall, there has been little change in the audience personas for raffles and lotteries – even though channel and message has diversified. Raffle players continue to be mature, retired, and affluent, making them a reliable source for legacy giving. Lottery players still fall into the range of empty nesters, retired individuals, and mature families. However, lottery programs attract a slightly less affluent segment, which helps bridge the gap between regular giving and raffle programs.
Implications and future considerations
While the current personas remain largely consistent, there is still the potential for change in the future. That change may be through a changing attitude towards existing products with a few minor changes or through more significant changes to the product. For lotteries, for example, change may occur naturally over time. The introduction of high value products such as Omaze and the opportunity for ‘money can’t buy’ experiences are some examples of how younger audiences are engaged. However, raffles may require a different approach or product to attract a different audience segment.
Exploring new channels, such as transitioning from direct mail to digital platforms, looking at prize hierarchies and offerings, providing more flexibility and ways to pay, for instance, can all be key methods in expanding reach and engaging a wider audience.
Understanding your audience
It is crucial for charity fundraisers to understand their own audience profiles. Surveying and engaging with supporters can provide valuable insights into their motivations, preferences, and demographics. Consider conducting surveys or leveraging CRM tools to gain a comprehensive understanding of your supporter base. If feasible, investing in a thorough audience review with a specialist organisation such as Sequoia will certainly increase your relevance and engagement with your player audiences.
Engaging supporters in direct discussions fosters a sense of involvement and the wider understanding built through profiling work helps tailor fundraising initiatives to audience needs and desires. In turn, this helps you create relevant supporter journeys which increase supporter loyalty and ultimately increases lifetime value.
Case study: varied audience profile
Although most charity raffle and lottery programmes reflect a similar persona to those identified above. Different charities can experience diverse audience profiles depending on their specific remit. For example, Over The Wall Children’s Charity, a charity that helps seriously ill children and their families rediscover the mischief and magic of childhood, discovered that their lottery players were predominantly aged 35 and under, with a significant majority being female. This contrasted with their regular givers, who were typically aged 50 and above. Their new Affinity lottery program has not only attracted a new demographic of financial supporters but has also introduced a reliable source of income with a low attrition rate.
Conversion from prize-led to charity supporter
Prize-led can be an excellent acquisition tool for charities, introducing new supporters to the charity with a view to exposing them to additional ways to support in the future. If this is a strategy for your charity it is even more important to understand the needs and motivations of your raffle and weekly lottery players. For example, do players identify themselves primarily as supporters of the cause rather than specifically as raffle or lottery players motivated by prize – or vice versa? Or are there cause-led and prize-led segments within your player bases? Are there trends, such as acquisition channel, within these segments?
Cross-selling initiatives can be effective, but the key lies in understanding the motivations and preferences of different audience segments and tailoring your supporter journey strategies accordingly.
To conclude: Understanding your prize-led audience will enhance supporter experience
Understanding your prize-led audience profiles is vital for successful charity fundraising through raffles and lotteries. While the current general personas remain relatively stable, there is potential for change in the future. By leveraging insights from past studies, conducting your own audience profiling, and engaging with supporters to understand their needs and motivations, you will be able to refine your strategies, explore new channels, and adapt products to attract a wider and more diverse audience. Staying attuned to changing demographics and adjusting fundraising approaches accordingly will contribute to sustained success in raising funds for your cause.
Partner with us to achieve more
Prize-led fundraising is an exciting fundraising stream to be working in right now. Competition is increasing with more and more charities offering products in this stream, and that's why understanding your prize-led audience is more important than ever to help increase engagement, build loyalty and enhance your supporters' experience. Working with an expert fundraising partner, like Woods Valldata, can really make a difference to your income and supporter experience. Our prize-led strategic expertise is second to none - offering you tailored analysis and recommendations to elevate your ability to achieve more.
Sound like something you might like to find out more about? Drop us a line, we'd love to talk through how our people and processes, technical capabilities and breadth of expertise in house means the service you get is the best it can be.
