GabaConcept
Strength in Numbers - this theme allowed us to quantify different aspects of our work and make the point that all aspects of Tor are stronger when more people participate.
Income
$207,500 raised during the campaign and $463,000 raised from individuals in all of 2018.
Engagement
- 16,425 now on the email list when we had 6,905 at the beginning of 2018
- 547,187 total donate page hits in 2018
- Donate page hits from Tor Browser Banner total across all languages: 175,984
- Donate page hits from Twitter: 42,609
Swag
11.2% of donors chose the campaign t-shirt in 2018
Successes to repeat and build upon
- Recipients of bulk emails generated $69,137 - continue to build the email list and send out a variety of messages throughout the campaign.
- Recipients of personal emails generated $19,900 - be sure to communicate with certain segments of the database who are not on the email list.
- Recipients of postal mail generated $10,575 - continue to utilize this as an option for donors with no email address or as an opportunity for multi-channel fundraising.
- Challenges on Twitter and Mastodon increased income and engagement - think of a variety of challenges to have throughout the campaign.
- Many donors tweeted about their donation - be sure to encourage donors to do this.
- Tor employees and community members amplifying social media messages - encourage all community members to engage in the campaign.
- We received 100 new monthly donors. We need to continue to build this committed group of donors.
Areas for Improvement
- Start planning theme, assets, and strategy in May 2019.
- Tor Browser banners resulted in more hits to the donate page, but fewer donations. Consider changes to the donate page to increase conversions. Also consider functionality of the banner in that it shows up to a user again, even if the user visits the donate page. The hypothesis is that a user doesn’t necessarily decide to give upon their first visit to the page, but will donate if reminded again via the banner. Have better communication between the Fundraising and Tor Browser teams and thorough testing of the banner functionality.
- Increase number of social media challenges, but make sure not to have so many that engagement decreases. Consider kicking the campaign off with a challenge.
- Get early engagement by conducting a public vote on the campaign t-shirt. Fewer donors elected to receive the t-shirt in 2018, so early engagement could increase interest.
- Increase the number of postal letters sent for multi-channel fundraising.
- Better coordinate external validators and ask some to write blogs for the campaign.
- Offer an easy way for donors to give a wider variety of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin values were down as compared to 2017 and we had several complaints from donors about our use of Bitpay. We also had several donors request to make donations of other types of cryptocurrency like Zcash, litecoin, etc. In 2018, we raised less than $5,000 from cryptocurrencies when we raised over $50,000 from bitcoin in 2017.
Timeline of Efforts with Results
| Date | Blog | Website Tor Browser/TBA | Tweets/Social | Media/Press | Notes | Results | Donate Page Income By Day (not including recurring gifts) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/23/18 | Campaign launch [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-double-your-donation-mozillas-match] | Cross-posted on social media | ||||||
| 10/23/18 | Campaign covers for all channels, Updated logo, Announcement posts on IG, FB, Twitter, MD, LI [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1054734014479826945] | Twitter: 11,546 hits to the donate page, Mastodon: 16,199 hits to the donate page, Facebook: 244 hits to the donate page | ||||||
| 10/23/18 | Sent a press release | TechCrunch, ZDNet, Linux Journal [https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/tors-strength-numbers-campaign-new-askkritaorg-site-kodi-announces-limited-edition] | ||||||
| 10/23/18 | Donation Banners included in updates [https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/23925] | Banners disappeared after 1 click. Next year: change back to 2017 method of remaining until n views. | 102,301 hits to the donate page in first round | |||||
| 10/23/18 | Match language added to Tor Browser download page | 137,220 hits to the donate page | ||||||
| 10/23/18 | Support.torproject.org updated for campaign [https://marvelapp.com/a131e34/screen/50250666] | |||||||
| 10/23/18 | Banner added to torproject.org [https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/28277#no2] | 86,444 hits to the donate page from banner, 12,0745 hits to the donate page from the donate homepage button | ||||||
| 10/23/18 | Campaign announcement to non-givers [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=114] | Sent to 6,758 people | 1,083 hits to the donate page from both versions of the email combined | |||||
| 10/23/18 | Campaign announcement to past donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=117] | Sent to 3,733 people | $1,966.00 | |||||
| 10/24/18 | $5,344.00 | |||||||
| 10/25/18 | Sent personal email to major donors | 20 recipients, Message was asking them to participate in this year’s campaign | $2,514.30 | |||||
| 10/26/18 | Sent personal emails to monthly donors and recent donors who are not on the email list | 288 recipients | ||||||
| 10/26/18 | Sent personal email to past donors not on the email list | 78 recipients | $2,046.00 | |||||
| 10/27/18 | Sent personal email to past donors not on the email list | 56 recipients | ||||||
| 10/27/18 | Campaign Reminder post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1056185014788988930] | $3,419.00 | ||||||
| 10/28/18 | $1,594.00 | |||||||
| 10/29/18 | Sent personal email to past donors not on the email list | 307 recipients | $2,176.00 | |||||
| 10/30/18 | $1,197.00 | |||||||
| 10/31/18 | Tor News [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=123] | Sent to 14,302 people | 266 hits to the donate page | $1,799.56 | ||||
| 11/1/18 | Campaign update with counter image [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1057997081879699458] | $1,605.00 | ||||||
| 11/2/18 | MotherBoard article mentions Tor [https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/zm9jd4/old-school-sniffing-attacks-can-still-reveal-your-browsing-history] | |||||||
| 11/2/18 | Tweet asking users to help us get to $80K with match [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1058352527312334849] | $2,812.00 | ||||||
| 11/3/18 | Posts about MotherBoard article [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1058760018105905152] | $852.00 | ||||||
| 11/4/18 | $2,206.00 | |||||||
| 11/5/18 | General campaign post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1059525049416331265] | |||||||
| 11/5/18 | Universal Declaration post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1059523023466909697] | $861.33 | ||||||
| 11/6/18 | Sent personal email to past donors not on the email list | 8 recipients | ||||||
| 11/6/18 | Campaign update posts [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1059884603807358976] | $1,205.00 | ||||||
| 11/7/18 | $1,191.29 | |||||||
| 11/8/18 | Snowden mentioned Tor on Twitter [https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1060569659009888260] | $510.00 | ||||||
| 11/9/18 | Campaign post #internetfreedom [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1060901942535299072] | |||||||
| 11/9/18 | Ask for help to get to $100K [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1060902798701879296] | $1,031.00 | ||||||
| 11/10/18 | $1,425.00 | |||||||
| 11/11/18 | $962.00 | |||||||
| 11/12/18 | $562.00 | |||||||
| 11/13/18 | Board diversity [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-growing-our-board-directors] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1062408891890311168] | ||||||
| 11/13/18 | Update and case for giving even $1 helps [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1062347721531629568] | |||||||
| 11/13/18 | Swag Gif [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1062465129437110273] | $742.00 | ||||||
| 11/14/18 | $1,106.00 | |||||||
| 11/15/18 | Update $120K [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1063142081676394496] | |||||||
| 11/15/18 | Retrospective [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-onion-blooms] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1063179956593876993] | ||||||
| 11/15/18 | Shari’s retrospective to non-donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=126] | Sent to 14,061 people | 316 hits to the donate page from both versions of the email combined | |||||
| 11/15/18 | Changed the support.tpo page to have the ask string anchored at $75 instead of $125 and added $10 button | $4,010.00 | ||||||
| 11/16/18 | Shari’s retrospective to past donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=127] | Sent to 522 people | ||||||
| 11/16/18 | Sent personal email to major donors not on the email list | 37 recipients | $1,340.00 | |||||
| 11/17/18 | $492.00 | |||||||
| 11/18/18 | $740.00 | |||||||
| 11/19/18 | Campaign Post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1064526437879824390] | $654.00 | ||||||
| 11/20/18 | Internet freedom threat / censorship [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-internet-freedom-line] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1064896365451505664] | ||||||
| 11/20/18 | Iranian user quote [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1064927638060494848] | |||||||
| 11/20/18 | Made banner @support.tpo smaller and removed the word ‘independent’ | Sent personal email to major donors not on the email list | 22 recipients | $653.00 | ||||
| 11/21/18 | Community [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-community-key] | $768.00 | ||||||
| 11/22/18 | Thank you post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1065609632037707777] | $819.50 | ||||||
| 11/23/18 | Other ways to give/Black Friday [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-there-are-many-ways-give] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1065975704909684737] | AmazonSmile, Stocks, Bitcoin, get a Tor shirt for a family member or friend, corporate matching | 301 hits to the donate page | ||||
| 11/23/18 | Swag promotions [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1065995909442531328] | |||||||
| 11/23/18 | Other ways to give [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1066065111083876352] | |||||||
| 11/23/18 | Father quote [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1066011011772227587] | $961.00 | ||||||
| 11/24/18 | $1,545.00 | |||||||
| 11/25/18 | $625.00 | |||||||
| 11/26/18 | Campaign update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067062873099313152] | $825.00 | ||||||
| 11/27/18 | Snowden quote image [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067407717780922368] | #GivingTuesday | Twitter: 2,019 hits to the donate page, Mastodon: 1,126 hits to the donate page | |||||
| 11/27/18 | Extra $20K match for new donors [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067412150052884480] | |||||||
| 11/27/18 | Swag post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067437459343007746] | |||||||
| 11/27/18 | New donor challenge update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067457060386873345] | |||||||
| 11/27/18 | Campaign update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067526920013787136] | |||||||
| 11/27/18 | Why Every Dollar Counts [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-why-every-dollar-counts] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067461825292316674] | ||||||
| 11/27/18 | Giving Tuesday/Isa’s Vision to recent donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=134] | Sent to 578 people | ||||||
| 11/27/18 | Giving Tuesday/Isa’s vision to past givers with no recent gift [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=130] | Sent to 3,400 people | ||||||
| 11/27/18 | Giving Tuesday/Isa’s vision to non-donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=133] | Sent to 10,804 people | 228 hits to the donate page from this message | |||||
| 11/27/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 96 recipients, Message was about Isa’s vision with her message attached | $2,955.19 | |||||
| 11/28/18 | New donor match [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1067784930887901184] | $2,071.31 | ||||||
| 11/29/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 150 recipients, Message was about Isa’s vision with her message attached | $1,952.00 | |||||
| 11/30/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 110 recipients, Message was about Isa’s vision with her message attached | ||||||
| 11/30/18 | Tor News [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=136] | $1,268.00 | ||||||
| 12/1/18 | Campaign update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1068907419441512448] | $1,750.11 | ||||||
| 12/2/18 | $1,693.00 | |||||||
| 12/3/18 | Banner launched on TBA | $1,134.17 | ||||||
| 12/4/18 | $544.00 | |||||||
| 12/5/18 | OONI [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-fighting-internet-censorship] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1070342380266631168] | ||||||
| 12/5/18 | Campaign update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1070332326733852672] | $987.00 | ||||||
| 12/6/18 | $775.00 | |||||||
| 12/7/19 | $479.40 | |||||||
| 12/8/19 | 2016 and 2017 990s [https://blog.torproject.org/transparency-openness-and-our-2016-and-2017-financials] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072123461827485697] | ||||||
| 12/8/19 | Campaign update [https://twitter.com/elkakai/status/1071415171078332417] | $452.00 | ||||||
| 12/9/18 | $1,045.89 | |||||||
| 12/10/18 | Human Rights Day to past donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=140] | Sent to 3,423 people | ||||||
| 12/10/18 | Human Rights Day message to non-donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=142] | |||||||
| 12/10/18 | Human Rights Day messages [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072128288796143616] | |||||||
| 12/10/18 | CyberScoop article featuring Isa [https://www.cyberscoop.com/tor-funding-isabela-bagueros-december-2018/] | |||||||
| 12/10/18 | ZDNet article about funding [https://www.zdnet.com/article/half-of-the-tor-projects-funding-now-comes-from-the-private-sector/] | $1,542.00 | ||||||
| 12/11/18 | Relays / network [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-measuring-diversity-tor-network] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072500316615135233] | ||||||
| 12/11/18 | $100K swag pack promotion [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072559042776707072] | Included in post-Giving Tuesday twitter hits to the donate page (9,761) | ||||||
| 12/11/18 | New donation banners added to Tor Browser update [https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/28540] | 73,683 total hits to the donate page from all versions | $1,633.00 | |||||
| 12/12/18 | Campaign and Challenge update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072911433543888896] | |||||||
| 12/12/18 | Challenge update [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072920617849110529] | |||||||
| 12/12/18 | Challenge complete [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1072934903371587584] | $2,937.00 | ||||||
| 12/13/18 | Tor ecosystem / reliance. World without Tor [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-entire-ecosystem-relies-tor] | Tweet that tagged all organizations mentioned in post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1073324930048110594] | This blog was pinned on Twitter for several days. | 911 hits to the donate page | ||||
| 12/13/18 | Crabapple poster challenge [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1073289884264210432] | $2,298.00 | ||||||
| 12/14/18 | Completed new donor match [https://twitter.com/elkakai/status/1073599007186972673] | $872.00 | ||||||
| 12/15/18 | $824.85 | |||||||
| 12/16/18 | $2,478.00 | |||||||
| 12/17/18 | Campaign post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1074770208311644161] | $944.13 | ||||||
| 12/18/18 | Localization and number of languages [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-internet-freedom-movement-must-be-localized] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1075057375827124224] | Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide [https://boingboing.net/2018/12/18/charitablegivinguide.html] | $2,669.41 | ||||
| 12/19/18 | Usability - is not about numbers is about the people [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-usable-tools-dont-need-be-invasive] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1075405444578009088] | ||||||
| 12/19/18 | Traveling onion announcement [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1075441020492496896] | $1,885.00 | ||||||
| 12/20/18 | Onion challenge and updates [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1075742782604697601] | |||||||
| 12/20/18 | Onion challenge complete [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1075970089667739648] | $3,506.50 | ||||||
| 12/21/18 | Challenge video surprise [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1076121033256648704] | |||||||
| 12/21/18 | HumbleBundle post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1076228025937813505] | $3,604.04 | ||||||
| 12/22/18 | Library freedom [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-library-freedom-intellectual-freedom] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1077229971968585730] | $1,051.14 | |||||
| 12/23/18 | $816.00 | |||||||
| 12/24/18 | $906.00 | |||||||
| 12/25/18 | Campaign post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1077607420652937216] | $951.00 | ||||||
| 12/26/18 | Looking ahead [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=148] | Sent to 14,598 people | ||||||
| 12/26/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 54 recipients, Message was the year ahead with Isa’s message attached | ||||||
| 12/26/18 | Discounted t-shirt promo [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1077945452090265600] | Through 12/29/18 | $3,097.00 | |||||
| 12/27/18 | $4,017.00 | |||||||
| 12/28/18 | Tor News [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=137] | Sent to 15,661 people | ||||||
| 12/28/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 15 recipients, Message was the year ahead with Isa’s message attached | $3,330.00 | |||||
| 12/29/18 | Activist quote [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1079014355499282432] | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 37 recipients, Message was the year ahead with Isa’s message attached | |||||
| 12/29/18 | Campaign post [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1078973923952394240] | $2,894.00 | ||||||
| 12/30/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 171 recipients, Message was the year ahead with Isa’s message attached | $4,642.47 | |||||
| 12/31/18 | Last Call message [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1079698694944051201] | Twitter: 4,058 hits to the donate page | ||||||
| 12/31/18 | Last Chance for past donors who haven’t yet donated [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=145] | Sent to 3,297 past donors | ||||||
| 12/31/18 | Last call for recent donors asking them to share [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=147] | Sent to 998 recent donors | ||||||
| 12/31/18 | Last call for non-donors [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=144] | Sent to 11,328 non-donors | ||||||
| 12/31/18 | Personal email to past donors not on the email list | 545 recipients, Message was the year ahead with Isa’s message attached | $7,678.00 | |||||
| 1/1/19 | Remove match note from gold button on download page [https://www.torproject.org/download/download] | |||||||
| 1/1/19 | Remove banner from tpo.org | |||||||
| 1/1/19 | Revert donate page to pre-campaign | WIRED article about Tor [https://twitter.com/WIRED/status/1080237584901722112] | $3,677.00 | |||||
| 1/10/19 | Thank you Blog [https://blog.torproject.org/strength-numbers-final-count] | Tweet [https://twitter.com/torproject/status/1083410664880771073] | ||||||
| 1/11/19 | Thank you email [https://crm.torproject.org/civicrm/mailing/view?id=149] | Sent to 1,139 donors who gave during the campaign |