PORTFOLIO

WIKIPEDIA'S EMAIL FUNDRAISER

2014 - 2020

As the only not-for-profit top ten website, Wikipedia has a broad, international, multilingual donor base. The email program's primary purpose is to get donors in 20+ countries, speaking 10+ languages to renew and increase their donations.

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When I joined the Wikimedia Foundation, the email program was outsourced to a consultant. With experience in the Silverpop ESP (now Acoustic) used at the time, I took over management of the program, spearheading the launch of the very first multilingual email campaigns and growing annual email revenue from $4 million to $20 million over a three year period. 

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Through a commitment to A/B testing and thousands of experiments, we kept conversation rates 1000% above industry averages (per M&R's 2020 Benchmarks Study). I hired a team of four, in addition to managing contract copywriters and designers, and continued to exceed revenue goals.

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The complexity of this program, with a remote and international team, proved the value of transparent communication models, agile project management, and a commitment to collaboration. Designing projects using the DACI framework and clear timelines, and using Kanban and scheduling tools like Asana and Trello, I ensured team members were supported and well equipped to meet ambitious goals.

ANNUAL REPORT

June 2020

An Annual Report is a crucial fundraising asset, especially for communicating with high-dollar supporters, as a way to show the value of the donor's investment and give them a sense of what work still requires their support.

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I co-led the implementation of the digital report, working in coordination with our Major Gifts team to ensure the product was in sync with the print report. I created the report theme, managed the work of our copywriters to ensure our content was appropriate and respectful to the work of our volunteers, and collaborated with designers to create a report infrastructure on a tricky Wordpress installation.

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When COVID-19 lockdowns hit in the US just as the report was scheduled for publication, I jumped in to provide new copy for the report's cover page and contextualize why looking back on our past work is important for understanding how we can build a better future.

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Finally, I consulted the Major Gifts team on how to best circulate the report to their donor base, copyediting their appeal letter and employing my team to produce a companion email campaign and use this report as a springboard into our Fall fundraiser.

PLANNED GIVING LEAD ACQUISITION CAMPAIGN

December 2019 - January 2020

With the founding of the Wikimedia Endowment in 2014, the team was tasked with looking for longer-term revenue opportunities to support this fund. Planned gifts (or estate gifts) take seven years on average to be realized, which means we needed to invest in this strategy early.

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Using our already proven Facebook advertising program, with a Return On Ad Spend of 200%, I oversaw the launch of a lead generation campaign on Facebook for potential new donors interested in Planned Giving. We set up experiments to test audiences, such as age groups, interests, and affinity with Wikipedia, as well as tests for copy, image, and call-to-action. The top performing ad is shown here.

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We exceeded our stated goal of 1000 new leads with a Cost Per Lead (CPL) of $10, with 1,217 leads and a CPL of $7.20 (more than $10 under the average CPL), all while disabling Facebook's pixel tracking to protect our users' privacy, preventing the platform from doing its own optimization work. We came in under budget, over goal, and ready to support our Endowment team for the long haul.

ADAPTING A PROGRAM FOR GDPR & NEW PRIVACY REGULATIONS

September 2018 - August 2019

While the passage of the EU's General Data Privacy Regulations sent many websites into a tailspin, email programs were thrown yet another wrench with the EU Privacy Directive, requiring bulk emailers to obtain clear opt-ins and repermission parts of their list.

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I worked closely with the Wikimedia Foundation Legal team to learn the requirements of the law well, and determine the affect this law would have on our program. I charted potential projection scenarios if we lost portions of the list. Using the guidance I'd received from Legal, I became the lead for Legal advice on my team, guiding the team to create and test new opt-in forms that now receive a 95% opt-in rate from existing subscribers and 65% opt-in rate for new subscribers.

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I collaborated with our engineering team to remake the way we handled unsubscribes in our CRM, and consulted with our Donor Services Team in creating new workflows and messaging for data deletion requests.

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I also project managed designers and engineers to create bespoke assets like the landing page shown here, meant to leverage photos we know inspire our audience to generate more opt-ins. While these assets were a great opportunity for the team to stretch their capacity to innovate, ultimately, we found through testing that our best fundraising content was also the best repermissioning mechanism at our disposal.

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"REMIND ME LATER" ACQUISITION FEATURE

December 2014

In the midst of our biggest fundraising campaign of the year, a team member had the idea to test if we could acquire email addresses on the fundraising banner ads we display on Wikipedia when we aren't able to convince someone to give. We set up a "soft" test, showing a "Send me an email reminder" form that pointed nowhere, and ran it for an hour. Within that hour, we had over 100 signups and our donation rate hadn't taken a hit.

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With only a couple weeks remaining in the campaign to take advantage of this innovation, I created an automated email program to capture the new signups and send out a series of triggered appeals depending on whether or not the user donated. We took the feature on the road, testing all over the world, and observing donation conversion rates from the reminder series in the 4% - 10% range.

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Over the years, the "RML" program has amassed millions of interested users and tens of thousands of donations. Both through my own implementation and in guiding my team over the years, we have tested optimal cadence, content, features on the banner, and reengagement tactics, keeping this acquisition channel healthy--but with limitless potential on the horizon.