Unlocking Charity Growth: 5 Ways Scorecards Turn Followers into Fundraisers
In today’s digital landscape, charities face growing challenges when it comes to generating leads and building meaningful relationships with potential supporters. Traditional methods like donation appeals or static sign-up forms often fall short of capturing genuine interest or long-term commitment.
This was the case for Derby City Mission, a homeless support and poverty prevention charity, as they sought to boost participation in their fundraising efforts. They needed a tool that could engage supporters in a personalized way, while also collecting valuable insights. Enter the fundraising scorecard—an interactive, data-rich tool that not only gathers leads but also helps build deeper connections.
In this blog, we’ll explore five key reasons why scorecards are becoming the future of charity lead generation, with real-world results from Derby City Mission’s recent campaign.
1. Personalisation Drives Engagement
In charity work, personalisation can make or break engagement. Supporters want to know that their contributions—whether in time, money, or effort—are valued and making a real difference. Scorecards allow charities to personalize the experience right from the start, offering tailored responses based on each participant's input.
With Derby City Mission’s fundraising scorecard, we designed a series of questions that asked potential fundraisers about their motivations, experience, available time, and preferred involvement levels. Instead of a generic sign-up process, supporters received personalised suggestions on how they could contribute based on their individual responses. Depending on how they answered the questions, the potential fundraiser was provided with an insightful result, detailing whether they should attempt an entrepreneurial, athletic, adventurous, servant-hearted, or performance-based fundraiser.
The results? In the first day after launch, without any paid advertising, the scorecard attracted:
71 landing page visitors and a 32% completion rate.
The average time spent on the scorecard was 2 minutes and 22 seconds, showing a high level of engagement for a tool that requires active participation.
By delivering a personalised experience, we encouraged deeper engagement, making supporters feel seen and understood from the outset.
2. Interactive Content Captures Attention
In a world where digital distractions are everywhere, interactive content like scorecards captures attention far more effectively than static forms or appeals. A study by Demand Metric found that interactive content generates twice the engagement of static content, which makes sense when you consider that people are more likely to interact with something that offers immediate value.
Unlike traditional lead generation forms, which often ask for a simple name and email, the Derby City Mission scorecard encouraged participants to spend time answering thoughtful, relevant questions. This interactivity kept users engaged, with an average completion time of over two minutes—ample time to build a meaningful connection.
By guiding potential fundraisers through the interactive scorecard, Derby City Mission captured attention in a way that felt both valuable and rewarding for the participant. And it wasn’t just about gathering information—it was about starting a conversation.
3. Scorecards Generate Data-Rich Insights
One of the biggest advantages of scorecards is the wealth of data they provide beyond just basic contact details. They offer deep insights into your audience’s motivations, availability, and preferences—key information that can help you craft more effective, targeted follow-up strategies.
For Derby City Mission, the scorecard allowed us to gather important details about each participant’s fundraising readiness. We collected information about how much time individuals had to commit, the types of fundraising activities they were interested in, and their level of motivation. This kind of data enables the charity to segment and prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert into active fundraisers.
Instead of sending a one-size-fits-all follow-up email, Derby City Mission can now personalize its communication with each lead based on their scorecard responses, ensuring a much higher likelihood of success in their outreach efforts.
4. Scorecards Build Trust Through Immediate Value
People are more likely to support a charity when they feel a sense of trust, and scorecards help build that trust by offering value right away. Whether it’s a personalized report, actionable insights, or simply the feeling of being understood, scorecards provide immediate value to users—something that traditional lead generation forms rarely do.
For Derby City Mission, the scorecard gave participants immediate feedback on how they could get involved in fundraising activities based on their unique preferences. This instant value builds trust with potential supporters, making them more likely to continue engaging with the charity over time.
It’s a strategy that works: According to Salesforce, 84% of consumers say being treated like a person, not a number, is crucial to winning their business. By offering a tailored experience from the start, Derby City Mission demonstrated that they valued each individual’s time and effort, fostering a sense of trust that’s essential for long-term engagement.
5. Scorecards Streamline Charity Lead Generation
Finally, scorecards offer a highly efficient way to streamline lead generation for charities. Instead of relying on broad, untargeted outreach, scorecards help pre-qualify leads, allowing charities to focus their efforts on individuals who are most likely to get involved.
With Derby City Mission, the scorecard pre-qualified potential fundraisers by gauging their interest, availability, and motivation. This meant that when the charity followed up, they could prioritize the most engaged leads, significantly increasing their chances of success.
In the first day of the campaign, we saw that 21 out of 23 people who started the scorecard completed it, meaning that nearly everyone who began the process was already highly engaged. This high conversion rate of 32% showed that the scorecard was not only capturing interest but also qualifying leads effectively, helping Derby City Mission streamline their follow-up efforts and focus on those most likely to contribute.
Increasing your charity’s R Value!
One of the most powerful aspects of this fundraising was its ability to turn a single small donor into a significant fundraising force! Imagine someone who initially donates £10. Through personalised engagement, they can be transformed into a fundraiser who mobilises their network to raise £1,000 or more. This virality effect is similar to the concept of the COVID-19 R rating: when the R value is above 1.0, the virus spreads exponentially, infecting more people. In the same way, a motivated fundraiser who inspires others to contribute can have an R rating of 1.1 or higher, leading to a ripple effect where every supporter brings in even more participants. By leveraging scorecards, charities like Derby City Mission can engage individual supporters and turn their small efforts into far-reaching, community-driven fundraising movements.
Scorecards are revolutionizing charity lead generation
Scorecard offer a more interactive, personalised, and data-rich approach to engaging potential supporters. For Derby City Mission, the scorecard campaign led to a significant increase in engagement and provided valuable insights into their audience, allowing for more effective follow-up strategies.
Whether you're looking to boost donations, recruit volunteers, or drive participation in fundraising events, scorecards can help your charity connect with supporters in a more meaningful and impactful way. Interested in learning how scorecards can transform your charity’s lead-generation efforts? Contact us today to find out how we can help!
TL;DR: Scorecards are transforming charity lead generation by offering personalised engagement, interactive content, and data-rich insights that help build trust and streamline outreach. For Derby City Mission, this approach led to higher participation and more effective follow-up strategies.
We at Sticky Bee Marketing can help build your Scorecard so that it maximses results and helps to grow your charity’s fundraising, volunteering or impact.
Ready to take your charity’s fundraising efforts to the next level? Contact us today to see how scorecards can help you engage supporters and drive results.
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