Not for profit, by the numbers
YoY growth in child sponsorships for World Vision Australia
267%
ROAS on WIRES' EOFY appeal, up from 1.8
10.87
Increase in average donation value for WIRES
227%
Registered walkers for Oxfam Trailwalker
500+
Why not for profit is different
Giving is a high-consideration decision.
The Garden is an integrated marketing agency with teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, built for high-consideration decisions, and choosing where to give is exactly that. Donors research, compare and commit slowly, and a regular giver is weighing a relationship, not a transaction.
Not-for-profits also pay the steepest version of the Complexity Tax: the cost of running a complex supporter journey through disconnected parts. A wasted media dollar in retail dents a margin. In an NFP it is a dollar that never reached the mission, and boards, donors and regulators all know it.
So we run supporter acquisition, nurture and fundraising as one accountable system, measured to donated dollars rather than clicks.
Supporter journeys, end to end
Fundraising ROI you can defend
Creative that honours the cause
Trusted by Australia's most recognised causes
Regular giving & sponsorship
Regular giving programs that compound.
Regular giving is the hardest ask in fundraising: a stranger agreeing to an open-ended commitment. It is won with full-funnel acquisition, creative that gets tested rather than guessed, and nurture that carries interest to commitment.
For World Vision Australia’s child sponsorship program we built a Meta-first full-funnel architecture with HubSpot nurture behind it, working alongside Essence Mediacom and M&C Saatchi in an agency village. Child sponsorships grew 267% year on year, with 10% month-on-month growth and video creative delivering 5x the click-through of static.
Full-funnel supporter acquisition
Video-first creative testing
Nurture from interest to commitment
Appeals & campaigns
Appeals that outperform last year's.
An appeal is a sprint with a fixed finish line: EOFY, Christmas, an emergency. The difference between a good year and a record one is creative that connects and measurement that lets you back the winners while the appeal is still live.
WIRES’ EOFY campaign after the bushfires ran on user-generated content and returned a 10.87 ROAS against 1.8 the year before, with average donation value up 227% and a 12.41% conversion rate. Same cause, same season: the system was the difference.
UGC and story-led creative
EOFY and Christmas surge planning
Winners backed mid-flight
Fundraising events
Events that fill the start line.
Event fundraising is registration marketing with a deadline: acquire, convert and mobilise enough participants, city by city, before the day arrives. Digital fills the funnel; a phone call closes the commitment.
For Oxfam’s Trailwalker we ran acquisition across four cities with our Melbourne call centre converting interest into commitments, delivering 500+ registered walkers at a cost per sale 33.6% below target, with a 12.54% lead-to-registration rate in Melbourne.
Multi-city acquisition campaigns
Phone follow-up that converts- Cost-per-registration accountability
Key services
The system behind every cause we back.
Not-for-profit engagements draw on the full Marketing Operating System. These carry the most weight.
Media Buying
Fundraising media planned full-funnel and measured to donated dollars.
Creative Strategy
Cause creative that gets tested, not guessed, from UGC to campaign platforms.
Social Media Marketing
Community, story and supporter voice where giving decisions start.
Marketing Automation
Donor journeys that turn one-off givers into regular ones.
CRM
Every supporter, gift and conversation in one clean system.
Phone Sales
Our Melbourne call centre converts interest into registrations and commitments.
How we work
One loop, run to the giving calendar.
The Loop, The Garden's growth loop, runs weekly against the calendar fundraising actually lives on: EOFY, Christmas, awareness days and emergencies.
Sense
Supporter, campaign and donation signals in one view of what is working.
Decide
This week's highest-value fix: a lagging appeal, a leaking journey, an audience fatiguing.
Create & activate
Creative, audiences and journeys shipped while the appeal is still live.
Learn & improve
Every appeal teaches the next one, so fundraising ROI compounds year on year.
The proof
Results our causes can put a number on.
A Meta-first funnel and HubSpot nurture grew World Vision Australia's child sponsorships 267% year on year. Here's how The Garden built it.
UGC and paid advertising broke WIRES' digital donation records: 10.87 ROAS against 1.8 the year before, with donation value up 227%.
UGC-led advertising and call-centre conversion registered 500+ Oxfam Trailwalker walkers at 33.6% below the cost target.
A same-day EOFY donor campaign for Children's Ground: 9,668 users reached in a week at $1.74 per click, with no pixel and no database.
A pro-bono Salesforce reimplementation gave Children's Ground clean data, integrated platforms and a CRM its team runs independently.
A decluttered Salesforce with custom dashboards gave charity Igniting Change confident, independent impact reporting.
Answers to the questions we hear most.
What does a not-for-profit marketing agency do?
A not-for-profit marketing agency grows the things a mission runs on: donors, regular givers, event participants, members and volunteers. At The Garden that means media, creative, social, nurture, CRM and phone conversion run as one system, measured to donated dollars rather than impressions.
How do charities improve fundraising ROI?
By testing creative instead of guessing, and measuring to donations rather than clicks. WIRES’ EOFY appeal moved from a 1.8 ROAS to 10.87 in a year on the strength of user-generated content and mid-flight optimisation, with average donation value up 227%.
What is different about marketing regular giving?
Regular giving is a relationship decision, so it needs a journey, not just an ad. World Vision’s child sponsorship growth (267% year on year) came from full-funnel acquisition feeding HubSpot nurture, so interest was warmed into commitment rather than asked for cold.
When should an EOFY appeal start?
Before the surge, because the surge is when everyone else is shouting too. The creative and audience testing that makes June efficient happens in March and April; by the time EOFY arrives you should be scaling proven ads, not launching experiments.
Can smaller not-for-profits compete with the big charity brands?
Yes, on system rather than spend. A smaller cause with tested creative, clean supporter data and fast follow-up routinely out-converts a bigger brand running loose campaigns. WIRES is not the biggest brand in its category; its 10.87 ROAS was earned, not bought.
What our clients say
Our reviews
Our clients love our work in not for profit. Here's what working with The Garden feels like.
The Garden were able to provide valuable insights that helped to continually refine our advertising campaigns and support improved lead conversion. Their client support team delivered added value every step of the way…we were delighted with their performance..
Based on 47 reviewsTalk to us
Tell us about your mission.
Appeal, program or event: tell us the fundraising number you need to move.
* indicates required fields