1 of 25

Maximising donor engagement with Culture Segments

2 of 25

3 of 25

Understanding deep-seated values:

What people are seeking to fulfill in themselves through cultural engagement

3

Jo:

One of the key tools we use in our work with the sector is Culture Segments – a powerful sector-specific segmentation system that MHM developed. Some of you here today may have some experience with Culture Segments - it’s been around and well in Australia for years, but its probably better known as a tool to drive engagement with the core cultural offer, rather than in fundraising efforts.

In a nutshell, Culture Segments is a way of understanding (and therefore responding to) your markets deep-seated values

Or put another way – What people are seeking to fulfill in themselves through cultural engagement

And just as people are seeking to fulfil deep-seated needs when they attend a performance or visit an exhibition, those values are just as present in their decision making around their support of you and your cause.

4 of 25

One size

doesn’t fit all

We can’t treat the market as

a single, homogeneous mass

5 of 25

5

But we can’t tailor our approach for every single individual

Segmentation is a

good compromise

6 of 25

mhminsight.com/segmentme

If you haven’t already segmented yourself

7 of 25

mhminsight.com/segmentme

If you haven’t already segmented yourself

8 of 25

Australian Culture Market

mhminsight.com/segmentme

If you haven’t already segmented yourself

9 of 25

Frequency of donating to the arts

mhminsight.com/segmentme

If you haven’t already segmented yourself

10 of 25

10%: pursuit of self-actualisation

26%: ‘people people’

14%: all about the big idea

20%: do the right thing

7%: through the lens of the past

5%: happy in their own bubble

10%: say they’re too busy

8%: looking for fun

11 of 25

Essence give to ‘self-actualise’

Motivated to give because the arts are essential to them (they believe in its value)
They want to nurture the development of ‘exceptional’ art in society (an inwardly focused motivation)
They look to support organisations that deliver deep personal outcomes and with whom they feel ‘connected’
They only support organisations that live up to their high standards (those ‘worthy’ of them!)

Why they give:

Donate regularly

Donate occasionally

Jo:

And thinking about Essence in relation to giving..

Essence give for personal reasons - to self-actualise
They’re motivated by how important the arts it to them - its essential to them - they believe in its value. And while they want to ensure and nurture the development of exceptional art in society, it’s actually quite an inwardly focused motivation. They’re doing this because art is their life blood – they need it
Essence look to support organizations that deliver deep personal outcomes and with whom they have a connection
And of course, only organsiations they see as ‘worthy’ of their support – those developing exceptional art and delivering peak experiences will have Essence part with their money!

Across studies we find Essence to be active in their monetary support of cultural institutions, especially at the higher level – less regularly than Expression, but often a higher value

12 of 25

10%: pursuit of self-actualisation

26%: ‘people people’

14%: all about the big idea

20%: do the right thing

7%: through the lens of the past

5%: happy in their own bubble

10%: say they’re too busy

8%: looking for fun

13 of 25

Expression give to make the world better

The most altruistic segment – Expression want to give something back
They give to organisations that demonstrate alignment with their social justice values (accessibility, inclusion, diversity etc.)
They support to make a direct impact
Prefer to support smaller, local, less recognised organisations
Expression also like to feel ‘part of something’ by giving

Why they give:

Donate regularly

Donate occasionally

14 of 25

10%: pursuit of self-actualisation

26%: ‘people people’

14%: all about the big idea

20%: do the right thing

7%: through the lens of the past

5%: happy in their own bubble

10%: say they’re too busy

8%: looking for fun

15 of 25

They want to align their personal brand with brands they feel affinity with
They want to support unique, new or cutting-edge initiatives
They seek exclusive access – to see something ‘first’
They give if a campaign is ‘too good’ to ignore (quirky, clever)
They give if something you do blows them away

15

Why they give:

Stimulation give for brand association

Donate regularly

Donate occasionally

And as for giving behaviour…

Stimulation aren’t’ naturally loyal so don’t always show up as regular donors – but if you understand what they value, you’ll know how and when you can target them
Stimulation like to align themselves with organizations that fit with their personal brand – so if you’re a cool, cutting edge type organization, it’s likely that Stimulation will want to align themselves with you.
They can be quite a self-conscious segment and like supporting to show others that they’re doing so - a status thing – so its great for Stimulation if there’s a way to showcase their support
If you’re building or wanting to implement something new and cutting edge – perhaps an amazing, high-tech visitor experience, then getting Stimulation onboard to support this won’t be hard – but they’ll probably also want to be assured they’ll be able to engage with it before everyone else, so make sure that’s part of the deal!
Stimulation too – and I’m speaking from personal experience here as someone who’s Stimulation myself – have been know to part with their money on an absolute whim because a campaign is too quirky or clever to ignore. They’ll give to you here as a ‘well done’ for the great campaign – you’ve made them take notice and that’s hard to do to fickle Stimulation
And likewise, if they engage, and you impress them, they’re also prone to give ‘well done’ donations.

16 of 25

10%: pursuit of self-actualisation

26%: ‘people people’

14%: all about the big idea

20%: do the right thing

7%: through the lens of the past

5%: happy in their own bubble

10%: say they’re too busy

8%: looking for fun

17 of 25

Affirmation are looking to ‘do the right thing’

Give to appease their social conscience…
… and to be seen as having a social conscience
They have aspirational brand alignment – want a relationship with the ‘right’ places

17

Why they give:

Donate regularly

Donate occasionally

18 of 25

Culture Segments at

West Australian Opera

19 of 25

19

Culture Segments use since 2018

20 of 25

20

Culture Segments use since 2018

Scott:

Culture Segments are a core part of the business and regularly referenced from a range of perspectives:

From a marketing perspective, WAO works with MHM on the development of each season’s campaign imagery and copy to ensure it’s speaking most effectively to appropriate audiences. In most instances, this is Expression which makes up the vast majority of the WAO audience profile. For WAO2025’s season, this also included a Stimulation-focussed project called SECRET OPERA – engaging audience members with minimal detail about a performance series.

Every member of staff and the company’s board completes the survey as part of onboarding with West Australian Opera – with segments and associated staff listed within the office. This, alongside working with MHM, becomes an internal reference point when programming work and determining its appeal to a wide-enough audience.

Similarly, audience members are tagged through CS surveys to allow WAO to target key segments with key messages as part of promoting specific productions.

�

21 of 25

21

Extending Culture Segments from marketing to philanthropy

22 of 25

22

Framing ‘the ask’ for Expression

“Your support has enabled voices to soar in theatres, schools, communities, the regions and help us to introduce more people to opera each year”�

Scott:

In previous end of financial year campaigns, WAO issued letters to database contacts as well as promoting ‘the ask’ more widely on social channels – a costly approach in terms of both resourcing and collateral
To maximise outcomes in 2022, WAO’s philanthropy team reviewed the previous year’s campaign and the segment profile of their database - possible because we have a Culture Segment Tagtool – a way of identifying the people in our database by Culture Segment (Jo can tell you more about the Culture Segment TagTool if you’re interested)
With close to half of WAO’s database identifying as Expression – and knowledge that Expression are the most philanthropic of the segments – we felt confident that, for best results, our ask should be Expression-aligned.
The letter issued was beautifully crafted with Expression in mind, sent to patrons telling them that their collective support ‘…has enabled voices to soar in theatres, schools, communities, the regions and help us to introduce more people to opera each year.’�

23 of 25

23

Understanding an individual’s ‘propensity to donate’

�

24 of 25

24

Building deeper relationships between individuals and WAO’s cause

Scott:

The EOFY fundraising campaign produced fascinating results. Existing donors increased their giving and there was strong conversion among new donors, including one new patron providing a single ‘supporter tier’ gift. .
Overall results included:

24% growth in the value of contribution from existing donors
5% new donors
and a year-on-year increase in the proportion of previous donors giving again (94% retention).

We firmly attribute these results to the application of segmented messaging and the use of the propensity to donate metric –identifying patrons who would not have been flagged as prospects otherwise
With such results, our philanthropy team have committed to Expression-forward messaging and the on-going mining of propensity to donate data as standard in their campaign.

25 of 25

What successes have you had using data to enhance your fundraising efforts?

Please discuss and share

jo.brehaut@mhminsight.com

scottw@victorianopera.com.au