GALEO: Adding a Donation Ask to A Statewide Survey

GALEO is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that focuses on increasing civic participation of the Latinx community and developing prominent Latino leaders throughout Georgia. They are currently conducting a statewide policy survey of the Latinx community across the state. With a grant from Progressive Multiplier, they add a revenue generation component to the survey. 

Overview

With a grant from Progressive Multiplier, GALEO developed a comprehensive Latino voter survey project in Georgia that served dual purposes: gathering critical data about Latino voter preferences while creating a new revenue stream through donor conversion.

This innovative approach leveraged GALEO's expertise in Latino civic engagement to generate sustainable funding for their advocacy work. The project aimed to bridge the gap between data collection and fundraising by adding a donation component to their existing survey infrastructure. By connecting with Latino voters directly, GALEO created opportunities to convert survey participants into one-time and monthly donors while gathering valuable insights about the community's political priorities.

Key Strategies & Tactics

GALEO's survey-based fundraising initiative consisted of several integrated components designed to generate independent revenue while advancing their core mission:

• Survey Development and Implementation: Creation of a 10-minute survey for Latinos in Georgia to gauge political leanings, conducted in multiple languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) to ensure accessibility across Georgia's diverse Latino community.
• Multi-Channel Promotion: To boost participation, they promoted the survey through social media, radio, and an in-person gala, leveraging their existing field team and canvassers to implement the survey.
• Email Fundraising Campaigns: Development of targeted email drip campaigns tailored for both donors and non-donor survey participants, with specialized appeals during high-giving seasons like Giving Tuesday and year-end.
• Legislative Report Creation: Compilation of survey findings into a comprehensive report presented to all statewide elected officials at Latino Day at the Capitol, creating both political impact and fundraising opportunities.
• Donor Conversion Strategy: Implementation of a multi-step process to engage participants through the community survey, convert them into one-time donors, and nurture them into monthly sustainers.

Lessons Learned

• Integrate Revenue Generation from the Start: Ensure fundraising components are built into project design from the beginning rather than added later.
• Leverage Existing Donor Relationships: The most successful fundraising came from prior donors rather than new survey participants.
• Invest in Email Infrastructure: Email campaigns require consistent attention and optimization to maximize results.
• Build Technical Capacity: Having the technical ability to integrate donation opportunities directly into surveys is crucial for conversion.
• Create Flexible Systems: Build adaptable processes that can pivot when initial approaches face challenges.
• Balance Program and Fundraising Goals: The project created significant programmatic value even when fundraising targets weren't fully met.

By The Numbers

The Multiplier Effect

Impact

While the project faced significant implementation challenges, including technical barriers and staff transitions, it succeeded in establishing GALEO's first structured end-of-year giving campaign and converting some existing donors to monthly giving. 

Through this experiment, GALEO was able to create a valuable resource that strengthened their advocacy work while building pathways to financial sustainability. The 2024 Latino Voter Report documented the growing influence of Georgia's Latino electorate, which now includes nearly 500,000 registered voters—a 29.3% increase since 2020. This data has proven invaluable for GALEO's advocacy work, positioning the organization as the authoritative voice on Latino civic participation in the state.

The survey became a powerful advocacy tool, with data compiled into a legislative report distributed to elected officials at Latino Day at the Capitol in January 2024.  GALEO's experience also highlights the importance of building internal capacity for IRG. Through this initiative, the organization developed stronger email fundraising capabilities, created frameworks for future survey-based initiatives, established baseline metrics for email performance, and built expertise in donor stewardship.