Overview:
Montclair Local partnered with BlueLena to run a disciplined, audience-first campaign focused on growth, personalization, and trust. By expanding its newsletter audience ahead of the appeal, segmenting outreach, activating staff and trustees, and pairing urgency with real-time stewardship, the newsroom turned a targeted 15% goal into an 90% year-end revenue increase—raising $143,135 and more than doubling its new donor target.
The Challenge
Like many independent nonprofit newsrooms, Montclair Local has worked to cultivate a highly engaged readership but entered its year-end fundraising season needing a strategy that could reliably convert that engagement into financial support through a focused, time-bound campaign.
The team established a clear, realistic goal of increasing donor revenue by 15% over last year, which would yield an additional $12,000 between November 1 and December 31.
But as a mission-driven community news organization, the objective is not just to raise more money, but do so in a way that strengthens trust, respects the audience, and builds long-term donor value.
The Strategy
Working with BlueLena and using its donor CRM and moves management system, Montclair Local focused on three core levers: audience growth, targeted outreach, and personalized stewardship.
Ahead of the year-end appeal, the newsroom expanded its newsletter audience through website prompts, social media distribution, and a modest investment in Meta lead-generation ads. This growth, especially among non-donors, materially increased the size of the potential donor pool.
The fundraising campaign itself emphasized relevance and trust:
- Segmented email appeals tailored to donors, lapsed donors, and non-donors
- Emails sent from staff and trustees, using familiar “from” names and conversational subject lines
- Trustee-led outreach, including handwritten notes and one-to-one emails
- Clear value messaging, reinforcing Montclair Local’s free, community-first journalism
- Urgency-driven tactics, including time-bound appeal emails
- Real-time stewardship, with handwritten thank-you notes sent to mid- and major-level donors during the campaign
Social media amplification reinforced visibility and momentum throughout the fundraising window.
The Outcomes
The campaign dramatically outperformed expectations:
| Metric | Goal | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $86,691 | $143,135 (+90%) |
| New Donors | 100 | 220 |
| Newsletter Subscribers (Added) | – | 880 |
What began as a 15% growth goal became a transformational year-end outcome.
Why It Worked
Montclair Local’s success was driven by a thoughtful, holistic strategy:
- Audience growth preceded donor growth, expanding the top of the funnel before asking for support
- Personal outreach built trust, with staff- and trustee-led emails outperforming generic appeals
- Segmentation ensured relevance, avoiding one-size-fits-all messaging
- Stewardship happened in real time, reinforcing donor confidence and appreciation
- Urgency and social proof motivated action during a compressed campaign window
- A free-access value proposition resonated strongly with readers and reinforced mission alignment
Together, these elements created a disciplined, repeatable year-end fundraising framework that delivered exceptional results, and has positioned Montclair Local for sustained donor growth going forward in 2026.
About Montclair Local
Montclair Local Nonprofit News is an independent local news organization founded in 2017 with the mission to “spark dialogue, objectively inform and build community in Montclair.”
The mission of the Montclair Local is to strengthen our hometown through independent, in-depth, factual reporting on the issues and events that affect you: your tax dollars, your schools, your elected officials, the institutions and businesses that serve you, and the restaurants and cultural events that enrich your life. We cover the people who make Montclair the engaged and vibrant community we call home.
Montclair Local is a member of Institute for Nonprofit News, LION: Local Independent Online News Publishers, Report for America and was a 2024 recipient of a Press Forward grant to close local news coverage gaps. It’s site is powered by Newspack.
About BlueLena
BlueLena is a strategy consulting and audience management platform founded in 2020 to support the sustainability of independent local media. By combining cutting-edge technology with expert-driven services, BlueLena helps over 250 news organizations across North America develop and manage subscription, membership, and donation models. Its unique shared-resource management approach provides publishers, regardless of size, with access to enterprise-level tools and personalized support, enabling them to focus on high-quality journalism while building loyal, revenue-generating audiences
BlueLena is majority employee-owned, and backed by investors including Automattic (the parent company of WordPress), the Local Media Association, and Old Town Media.