Florida Rising Together works across the state to build power with Black and Latinx communities through civic engagement and organizing. Founded on the principle that grassroots movements require sustainable funding to create lasting change, the organization has spent years developing its capacity to engage individual donors as long-term supporters of their work.
With a grant from Progressive Multiplier, Florida Rising Together tested whether treating donors as members from their first interaction would increase the likelihood of second gifts and monthly giving commitments. The project broke down silos between development, communications, and organizing teams to create an integrated approach to donor engagement. By implementing bi-weekly newsletters, personalized phone outreach, event invitations, and text messaging campaigns, the organization built the infrastructure needed to sustain and scale their revenue generation efforts beyond the grant period.
Florida Rising Together designed their experiment around two core audiences. For new donors acquired through recent campaigns, the team deployed bi-weekly newsletters designed specifically for members rather than traditional donor communications. These emails included both educational content and clear calls to action. The team supplemented digital outreach with one-on-one phone calls inviting new donors to member orientations and events, followed by text message campaigns before and after these gatherings.
For established donors who had given in 2024 or earlier, the organization applied the same membership engagement tactics while testing how many touchpoints were needed before someone committed to monthly giving or made an additional contribution. This approach required close collaboration between teams that had previously operated in separate lanes. The communications team crafted newsletter content in partnership with the development team, while organizers made direct calls to donors to invite them into programmatic spaces.
The project revealed that email and SMS outreach alone face significant challenges in cutting through the noise of what people receive daily. As the team reflected in their final report, the solution lies in being more audacious with people-powered approaches rather than relying solely on technology-mediated communication. When thinking about scaling these efforts, Florida Rising Together recognized they would need to use labor strategically to maximize impact.
One of the most valuable outcomes was creating a container and structure for sustained collaboration between departments. The team now thinks systematically about engagement funnels across all their work. During the project period, they labored carefully over language in their communications, learning to weave educational opportunities with fundraising requests throughout the process. This shift in approach means fundraising is no longer treated as separate from mission work but integrated into how they communicate about their organizing victories and policy campaigns.
The level of support from Progressive Multiplier proved essential to maintaining momentum. Monthly meetings allowed the team to bring in different staff members as priorities shifted, and the ability to get feedback between meetings kept the work moving forward rather than stalling until the next scheduled check-in. While the detailed blueprint required significant upfront effort to complete, the team later appreciated having captured that level of specificity as they looked ahead to longer-range planning.
The project achieved a 5% conversion rate to monthly giving among new donors and a 25% conversion rate among established donors. These results exceeded initial projections and demonstrated that the membership approach could work at scale. The organization invested the $50,000 grant primarily in staff time across development, data, membership, and organizing teams, building capacity that will continue generating returns beyond the grant period.
The infrastructure created through this project positioned Florida Rising Together to press play on sustained revenue generation efforts. As Andrea Romero noted, this work became the flagship enterprise for building their project management capacity. The team now uses the blueprint framework to model out revenue generation possibilities and set key performance indicators for future initiatives.
Beyond the immediate fundraising results, the project built organizational muscle that crosses departmental lines. Teams now share a common language around engagement and donor stewardship. The development of a points system that assigns value to different types of engagement creates the possibility of blending programmatic participation data with traditional fundraising metrics like RFM scores. This integrated view helps the organization understand where to focus their outreach efforts for maximum impact.
The timing of this capacity building matters. With Florida having fallen off the map as a funding priority for many national foundations after the 2022 midterm elections, Florida Rising Together needed to develop stronger independent revenue streams to maintain their organizing momentum. The systems and collaborative practices established through this grant create the foundation for that financial independence, ensuring the organization can continue building power in their communities regardless of shifting foundation priorities.