Fair Count: Converting Volunteers Into Monthly Donors

Founded in 2019 by Stacey Abrams and anchored in Georgia, Fair Count works to build long-term power in communities that have been historically undercounted in the decennial census, underrepresented at the polls, and whose communities are often torn apart in redistricting.

Overview

With support from Progressive Multiplier, Fair Count developed a digital fundraising strategy to generate independent revenue while advancing their core mission. By pivoting from an initial volunteer-to-donor conversion approach to a broader list acquisition strategy, Fair Count built a foundation for financial independence while strengthening their movement-building capacity. The project provided valuable insights about donor behavior and effective messaging that will inform their future fundraising efforts.

Key Strategies & Tactics

Fair Count's digital fundraising initiative consisted of several integrated components designed to diversify revenue while engaging different segments of their supporter base:

• List Acquisition: Purchasing over 12,000 emails from Stacey Abrams' previous political campaign to expand their reach beyond existing volunteers

• Email Marketing: Developing structured email ladders and welcome series with urgent messaging that outperformed celebratory content

• Visual Storytelling: Incorporating authentic photographs of team members at work, which generated stronger engagement than generic graphics

• Geographic Expansion: Targeting supporters beyond their immediate service area, discovering that out-of-state donors were often more responsive

Lessons Learned

• Volunteer Engagement Doesn't Equal Donor Readiness: Assumptions about converting engaged volunteers into financial supporters proved incorrect

• Message Urgency Drives Action: Emails framed around urgent needs consistently outperformed celebratory or accomplishment-focused messages

• Authentic Visuals Enhance Engagement: Real photographs of team members at work created stronger connections than generic graphics

• Staffing Continuity Matters: Staff transitions created significant implementation delays and disrupted project continuity

• Geographic Diversity Expands Potential: Looking beyond immediate service areas to national supporters significantly expanded their donor pool

By The Numbers

Impact

Through this experiment, Fair Count gained critical insights about digital fundraising that extend far beyond the immediate financial returns. Their discovery that out-of-state donors were more responsive than their in-state volunteer base challenged conventional assumptions about supporter engagement. The organization found that urgent appeals featuring authentic visuals of their team at work consistently outperformed other messaging approaches.

The initiative also revealed important geographic patterns in donor behavior. The purchased list was roughly 40% Georgia donors, 10% Mississippi donors, and 50% national donors, with the majority of donations coming from outside their primary service areas. This insight is prompting the organization to explore how they might better understand volunteer perspectives on financial contributions.

While the project faced implementation challenges including staff turnover and lower-than-expected conversion rates, it successfully established a foundation for financial independence. Fair Count now has a clearer understanding of effective digital fundraising strategies and is positioned to build on these learnings by engaging external expertise, focusing on urgent messaging with authentic visuals, and targeting supporters beyond their immediate service area.