Animal Welfare Professionals

What are your organization's top fundraising strategies with the highest return on investment? Examples might be events, planned giving, online fundraisers, direct mail fundraisers, Facebook birthday fundraisers, selling of merchandise, paid social media ads, etc. If you can ballpark the approximate dollars raised each year, that'd be extra helpful :) We're looking for new strategies to try in 2020.

For our shelter (Front Street Animal Shelter in Sacramento), our top strategies are:

1) Our Front Street Brewfest and Paws to Party events, netting about $180,000 annually (includes both ticket sales and sponsorships)

2) Online fundraisers (social media and email) three times a year generating $130,000 - $160,000 annually.

3) Grant contests (such as Petco Foundation Holiday Wishes) generating $10,000-$50,000 annually.

Direct response marketing using a firm that specializes in animal welfare. Cost is higher but ROI is better too. Should include managing your Google grant, digital and direct mail appeals.

Interesting! So they create online and direct mail advertisements encouraging people to donate? Which firm do you guys use and about how much do they charge?