Creating a forever home for hundreds of retired and rescued chimpanzees is no small task. It got even tougher when Save the Chimps outgrew its CRM. They knew it was time to turn to an agency that understood nonprofits and their needs.
On the hunt for a better way to connect with donors and track their success, they turned to Digital Reach and our HubSpot team to make it happen.
Here’s how we used HubSpot to help a great cause do more good.
Founded in 1997 by Carole Noon PhD., Save the Chimps is one of the largest chimp sanctuaries in the world. Their mission is simple: provide refuge and care to chimpanzees in need.
And they have done exactly that, housing and caring for more than 300 chimps during their 25 years in operation. Many of the chimps were liberated from biomedical research labs and Air Force testing facilities, where the deeply emotional and intelligent creatures were seen as little more than experiments. Others arrived at Save the Chimps from the entertainment industry and exotic pet trade.
Powered by the dedication of volunteers and the generosity of donors, Save the Chimps has united a family of passionate people to free chimps from exploitation. The sanctuary established its long-time home in Fort Pierce, Florida, maintaining a state-of-the-art facility on 150 acres of island hillside.
The high standard of quality care Save the Chimps is able to provide depends on a steady flow of community contributions. That’s why they contacted Digital Reach.
When we first started working with Save the Chimps, they were hoping to achieve more stability for the organization. Donation pops, or one-time donations, were welcomed contributions, but the sanctuary needed more consistency.
They also needed to know more about the people in their donor pool - who they were, what motivated them to give, and how to convince them to give again. Save the Chimps understood that gaining visibility into their existing audience would enable them to create more effective campaigns and calls to action.
Save the Chimps was relying on a legacy CRM to keep track of their contacts. While this was working fine enough, it lacked the insights and capabilities the organization needed to achieve its goals. They wanted and needed something more, but were apprehensive about the transition to a new system.
Save the Chimps kicked off 2021 with an action plan provided by Digital Reach. With their goals in our sights, we were eager to get started. Here’s how we spent the year:
Save the Chimps was ready for a change. They required a set of tools that would be able to keep up with the mounting complexity of their marketing needs, without disrupting their existing processes. For example, they wanted a platform with stronger reporting and tracking capabilities so they could understand the efficacy of their email marketing.
HubSpot was their answer.
The Digital Reach HubSpot team got to work making the switch from Save the Chimps’ legacy CRM to HubSpot. While we migrated their contacts and established their hub, an integration allowed for all new and updated contact information to still sync with the legacy CRM. As a result, the transition brought no disruption or downtime for Save the Chimps.
With their new CRM up and running, the next objective was to tackle audience visibility and attract new donors. We used HubSpot's integrations to track donation activities, funneling contributors into deal pipelines so we could strategically thank them, market to them, and nurture them. Their Google, Facebook, and Instagram performance metrics were accessible in HubSpot as well, giving us a complete view of their audience online.
Engagement insights allowed us to thin the herd of unengaged contacts and focus on the people who were most likely to give again soon.
Historical and contemporary data on Save the Chimp’s existing contacts allowed us to create a lookalike audience, too. That set of targeting parameters would expand the organization’s reach to include new potential donors who shared interests, demographics, and social spaces with existing patrons.
Armed with a fresh lookalike audience, plus new insights about their existing contacts, Save the Chimps was primed for a donation-driving ad campaign. We first integrated all of their ad accounts with HubSpot for centralized ad management. Then images were made, copy was written, and we were off to the races attracting new donors and re-engaging old ones.
We didn’t stop with creating ads! As Save the Chimps saw their contact list expanding thanks to targeting and retargeting efforts, we made the most of people’s interest with email marketing campaigns. HubSpot made it easy for us to create dynamic email templates that could feed recurring nurture campaigns and evolve for special communications throughout the year.
The combination of simplified email marketing and new audience insights empowered savvy strategy moves for Save the Chimps. For example, using HubSpot’s smart rules, we were able to target giving campaigns based on past donation behavior. And A/B testing let us experiment to see what really worked with that engaged audience.
We can confidently say Save the Chimps is pleased with the HubSpot transition Digital Reach enabled for them. The results speak for themselves: HubSpot made it easier for Save the Chimps to engage with patrons and drive donations. Meanwhile, better reporting helped them see those wins with each campaign.
“With [HubSpot’s] ad integrations we have been able to track the performance of all ads along with emails in campaigns. This has all been a big upgrade over the previous CRM we were using.”
As campaigns continue and new opportunities are unearthed by our diligent HubSpot team, we anticipate that Save the Chimps will continue to see lasting gains congruent with their goals.
Is your nonprofit craving a success story akin to Save the Chimps? If you’re grappling with an outdated or underperforming CRM or your marketing isn’t making headway the way you hoped, stop the cycle now.
Connect with a team dedicated to seeing you do more good. We can:
Growth is possible. Are you ready to reach for it?