Growth Marketing Blog | Growth Marketing Firm

Automating Gratitude: A Webinar for Non-Profits Using HubSpot

Written by Growth Marketing Firm | Jun 2, 2023

The holy grail of long-term nonprofit success involves delighting the donors you already have while consistently engaging new ones. 

But with countless moving parts, it’s a challenge to manage and keep track of everything - even for the most seasoned fundraisers. 

This is where HubSpot steps in to offer tools and workflows to save time and help non-profit organizations focus on human-centric tasks.

Recently, Growth’s HubSpot Specialist, Katrina Horne (who leads our HubSpot Support Services team) shared invaluable insights in a Tech for Good webinar and demonstrated how nonprofit organizations could effectively use HubSpot's workflow features to increase donor engagement. 

 

Table of Contents

Automatic Engagement: HubSpot Automation

In the webinar, Katrina talks about the value of automated (but personalized) email campaigns when specific actions or events occur. 

"Your contacts for the emails will derive from your contact list in HubSpot. These can be a static list, a list of contacts that maybe you're importing from another database, or another list at your organization." 

Just think, every time a new donation is received from a previous donor, a personally crafted email automatically goes out, thanking that donor. 

This automation guarantees consistent and timely engagement, marking a big win for your organization.

HubSpot for Donation Confirmation + Event Communication

In this insightful webinar, Katrina provided an overview of two essential aspects that nonprofits can leverage using HubSpot: 

  • donation confirmation
  • event communication

Let’s get into what that means and how to set these workflows up in HubSpot. 

Donation Confirmation: Automating Gratitude

When a donation is received, it's essential to acknowledge it consistently and promptly. 

HubSpot makes that easy by allowing you to set up an automatic email that gets triggered when a donation is made. 

The workflow also includes a task to mail a formal letter of thanks to the donor, adding a personal touch to your gratitude.

Here's a quick breakdown of how this workflow works:

  1. Create a Payment Link: Establish a link for processing the donations.
  2. Set Payment to Populate on Donation Pipeline: Configure your HubSpot account to track each donation.
  3. Create the Workflow: Set up the process that will run every time a donation is received.
  4. Create Automated Email: Prepare the content of the email that will be sent to the donor.
  5. Create a Task for Manual Letter Send: Add a reminder for your team to mail a formal thank you letter to the donor.
  6. Test the Workflow: Ensure that the process runs smoothly.

Remember that Sales Pro + Marketing Pro (or Enterprise) is required to set up this workflow.

Event Communication: Boosting Engagement

Beyond donation management, HubSpot also shines in event communications. 

Whether it's pre-event announcements, follow-ups with attendees, or engagement with those who couldn't make it, HubSpot has got you covered.

Here are the steps for setting up this workflow:

  1. Create Your Contact List: Import or gather the contacts you want to engage for the event.
  2. Create Automated Emails: Design the emails that will be sent out at various stages of the event cycle.
  3. Create Registration Form: Design a registration form, either standalone or integrated into a landing page.
  4. Create Workflow with Exit Criteria: Set up the process for event communications, including when to exit contacts from the workflow.
  5. Test Your Workflow: Make sure the process runs as intended.

For this, the Marketing Pro (or Enterprise) is also required.

Understanding Your Donors: Data-Driven Workflows

With the workflow tools in HubSpot, you can gather the right information in an easy-to-read customizable report for analysis, paving the way for data-driven decisions to re-inspire donors to reconnect.

Your handy HubSpot workflow tools can also aid in understanding what's happening when donors are disengaged. 

Katrina explained it this way, "With HubSpot, you can understand the overall performance of your events and campaigns when you know how many new contacts are generated from an event, how many new deals may have been generated, and if any revenue was generated from the event." 

Special Content for Special Donors: Segmented Lists

Katrina highlighted how easy it is to segment your donor list by criteria such as location and donation level in HubSpot.

"You can also use workflows to help segment or score your database of prospective donors. This way, you’re able to give an internal score to show you each donor's potential and alignment with your organization’s overall mission." 

The potential for creating personalized content and campaigns for specific segments is boundless and ensures that your efforts resonate with each donor segment.

Dynamic, Delightful Content

One of HubSpot's most valuable features is its ability to help you create dynamic content and personalized emails based on each donor’s information. 

That way, each message is more relevant, helpful, and valuable to its recipient. 

Your organization now has more time to brainstorm innovative ways to make a difference, all the while delighting old donors and engaging new ones.

Task Manager, Time Saver: HubSpot Overview

At the end of the day, HubSpot is more than just a marketing tool; it's a robust platform that allows nonprofits to better understand, engage, and retain donors. 

With HubSpot's workflows and automation tools, you'll find yourself saving significant time and energy for donor strategy, activity planning, and relationship building. 

HubSpot has you covered in all aspects of non-profit management: 

  • contact management
  • email marketing
  • social media management
  • lead generation
  • marketing automation
  • sales enablement
  • reporting
  • analytics

Additionally, the Growth team offers a free checklist of HubSpot workflow and automation action items for your team to put to work for your organization. 

Start leveraging HubSpot for your non-profit and watch your donor engagement soar.

Want more HubSpot knowledge or assistance from our team? Talk to us about what you need. 

Let’s make it happen together. Happy fundraising!
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