In this article, we examine how you can create a mass email communication to transition your existing recurring donors into Keela. The email will include a button linked to a Keela Donation Form where your donor can enter their credit card details securely to create a new recurring donation in Keela.
Important Note: We recommend reading our What is a Campaign? article first.
Campaign Details
| CAMPAIGN INFORMATION | DESCRIPTION | EXAMPLE |
| Campaign Name | A clear and concise name to call your Campaign. Make sure it's something that you and your team members will be able to understand when viewing this in Keela! | Moving Recurring Donors to Keela 2020 |
| Campaign Purpose | What are you hoping to achieve? Why? | We aim to transition all exiting recurring donors from our old CRM to the new Keela system. |
| Campaign Due Date | When are you hoping to finish your Campaign? It could be dependent on a specific date or perhaps the current year that you're in. | Before our old CRM is closed on December 4th, 2020 |
| Who will be working on the Campaign | Got a team ready to take on this email communication or are you a one-person show? It's important to know who will be responsible for achieving your purpose! | Elsie Coffey, Laura Taves |
| How will you communicate the Campaign to your Contacts? | Many Campaigns involve reaching out to your donors, contacts, volunteers, or sponsors to encourage them to support you. If this is the case, how will you reach out to them? How often? | 2 mass emails (Email Marketing) to all existing recurring donors sent over a 3 week period. |
| How will you collect the recurring donation sign-ups? | How will you use Keela to achieve your Campaign? Will you be accepting payments? Will you be accepting sign-ups? | Online, via a Keela Donation Form. This will be shared via 2 x Email Marketing threads. |
Step 1 - Import your Contacts into Keela
Before you can reach out to your recurring donors and ask them to move over to Keela, you'll need to make sure their contact information is in Keela! We recommend adding a Tag to your Recurring Donors before you import them into the system which will allow you to keep track of them once you're finished.
Learn how to format your Contact Data (including adding a Tag to a Contact) here.
Learn how to import your Contact Data here.
Step 2 - Create a Project in Keela
We've included a list of steps to help you achieve your Campaign below. You can use these as a guide to add a new Project for your Campaign in Keela. Don't forget to add each individual Task and deadline to the Project and make sure everyone knows what they need to do!
Learn how to create a Project in Keela here.
Learn how to add tasks to your newly created Project here.
Step 3 - Create a Campaign
Remember when we asked you to brainstorm all of the details of your Campaign above? Yes? We do too! Here's where it will come in handy.
Learn how to create a Campaign here.
Step 4 - Create a Donation Form
You may already have a Keela Donation Form published on your website that you would like to use for this Campaign - that's completely fine! But if you would like to keep all of the Donations that you receive separate from your everyday donations, we recommend creating a new form that is linked directly to your Campaign. This way, any payments that are received through the form will be automatically attributed to your Campaign - easy peasy!
Learn how to create a new Donation Form here.
Important Note: Be sure to connect your new Donation Form to the Campaign that you created back in Step 3.
Step 5 - Create an Email Marketing Template
An Email Marketing template is a great way to create an outline for an email that you're going to be sending a lot of. You can create the basic structure of your Email Marketing and make sure that all of the colors and branding are in place. Then, when it's time to send your Email Marketing, most of the work will already be done for you!
Learn how to Create a new Email Marketing Template here.
Step 6 - Create a Segment that you can send your Email Marketing to
In this step, you can use our Segments tool to create a list of Contacts that you can send an email to. In Step 1, we recommended adding a Tag to your Recurring Donors so that you can keep track of them later on. Create a Segment in Keela and filter it by this Tag.
Learn how to Create a Segment in Keela here.
Step 7 - Create and Send Email Marketing
It's time to share the news of your move to Keela with your Contacts! You can create new Email Marketing and select your pre-made template to start with! We've even written up an example that you can use.
Learn how to Create a New Email Marketing here.
Important Note: Be sure to connect your new Email Marketing to the Campaign that you created back in Step 3.
Email #1: New Vendor
Subject Line: We’re moving, and we’d like to take you with us
Dear {{smartname}},
Your recurring gift is more than just a donation. It helps [insert impact].
We’d like to let you know that we’ve upgraded our technology in order to serve both our donors and our communities better.
This means we would like to cancel your current giving schedule and restart it on the new platform.
There are two options:
(1) You can fill out [This Form]
(2) Call us with your credit card information and we can complete the form on your behalf
Note: the recurring payment will re-start on the date you call or fill out the form, so if you’d like to continue on the 15th of every month, fill out the form on that date! As soon as you register in the new system, we will be sure to cancel the other giving schedule.
If you do not wish to fill out the form, don’t worry! You’ll still continue to support us using our old technology. While we would appreciate if you moved over to our bigger and better platform, we respect your right to choose when, how, and where you give.
If you have additional questions, please visit our website at [website] or contact [name and details].
Thank you for your ongoing care.
Sincerely,
Sarah Padillo
Executive Director
Step 8 - Cancel the recurring donations in your Legacy System & remove the Recurring Donor Tag
If you are a Follower on the Donation Form that you created in Step 4, you'll receive a notification every time a donor creates a new recurring donation in your Keela account. When this happens, be sure to cancel the existing recurring donation record that you have for this Contact in your legacy system!
Once a donor has finished transitioning their recurring donation to the system, remove the "Recurring Donor" tag that you added to this profile during import. This will automatically remove them from your Recurring Donors Segment so that they won't be included in the followup in Step 9.
Step 9 - Create and Send Email Marketing (Reminder)
Send a gentle reminder to those Contacts who have not transitioned (and therefore haven't' had their Recurring Donor Tag removed) yet. You can create a new Email Marketing and select your pre-made template to start with or you can duplicate the previous email that you sent! We've even written up an example that you can use.
Learn how to Create New Email Marketing here.
Learn how to duplicate Email Marketing here
Email #2: Reminder
Subject Line: Don’t get left behind! Reminder about your recurring gift
Dear {{smartname}},
We’ve made the exciting shift to our new software platform and we really want to take you with us.
Simply fill out [This Form] and we’ll get back to impact!
Just be aware that the recurring payment will re-start on the date you call or fill out the form, so if you’d like to continue on the 15th of every month, fill out the form on that date! As soon as you register in the new system, we will be sure to cancel the other giving schedule.
If you would like us to do this for you, please contact us at [contact details] with your credit card information and we will ensure your generosity is uninterrupted.
Thank you for your ongoing support.
Sincerely,
Sarah Padillo
Executive Director
Step 10 - Follow-up again or simply log the Recurring Donation without a Payment
You can continue to reach out to your donors via email or maybe give them a call. Otherwise, you can always log the record in Keela without a payment and come back to this later.
Head back to our Moving Your Recurring Donations article to learn more about this here.