One night about two years ago, Ana Aguirre-Lee was watching television at her home in Valencia, Calif., when she saw a commercial for Operation Smile, an international charity that provides free cleft-palate and cleft-lip surgeries to children in poor countries.
Feeling compelled to donate, she called the phone number provided in the TV spot. Immediately, Operation Smile’s structure to support Hispanic donors kicked in. An agent asked Ms. Aguirre-Lee, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico years ago, if she’d like to speak to someone in Spanish. The would-be donor was also asked whether she would prefer follow-up correspondence to be written in Spanish.
Ms. Aguirre-Lee, 61, was struck that the organization had done so much to make her feel welcome. She thought, They must have a lot of Spanish-speaking people who donate. She’s still a regular contributor, giving $18 a month, or a little more when she can.
That phone call is just one small example of an expansive, seven-year old effort by Operation Smile to woo Hispanic donors. Fundraising experts say the charity is one of few to target the growing number of Hispanics in the country — in part because outreach does not always go as smoothly as Ms. Aguirre-Lee’s cultivation. Quality mail lists are scarce, and there’s no guidebook for targeting Hispanics in culturally appropriate ways. Some groups have rolled back efforts to attract the population after struggling with low returns.
Yet for Operation Smile, the effort appears to be paying dividends. More than 16,000 people who have chosen to receive the charity’s materials in Spanish donated in 2015, collectively contributing $2 million — quadruple what that cohort gave in 2010. The overall return is modest — about 3 percent of Operation Smile’s gift and grant revenue — but the group believes the effort is critical as the country’s demographics shift. By 2030, Hispanics will make up 20 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau.
“This is a really significant portion of the population that, in many ways, we had been ignoring or not speaking to in the way that they wish to be spoken to,” said Adrian White Slagle, Operation Smile’s vice president of mass marketing and fundraising.
Rosa Del Angel, a digital-marketing consultant who has advised nonprofits seeking to attract Latino activists and volunteers, says Operation Smile’s recruitment is akin to what nonprofits are doing to draw millennials. The return on that effort isn’t high yet either, she said, but charities are betting it will build a donor base for the future.
“I would make the case that is the same with multicultural groups, particularly with Latinos,” Ms. Del Angel said.
Made for TV
Operation Smile’s outreach to Hispanics started in 2009, when the nonprofit released its first television commercial in Spanish, “Hide,” featuring actress Roselyn Sánchez (of Without a Trace and Telenovela, among other TV series). Airing on Discovery en Espanol and other Spanish-language stations, it asked donors to contribute $20 a month, or 65 cents a day.
The group started with television because it had produced many TV spots and had experience with the medium, Ms. Slagle said. The Spanish-language ad was tweaked from a commercial previously aired in English.
The charity saw results, fast. Within about two years the number of Spanish-preference donors grew to 4,000, up from about 1,000 in 2009, with revenue from this group hitting $500,000 in 2010. Since then, the organization has released other commercials on Spanish-language television and built its customer-service system to support Spanish speakers when they contact the organization. Bilingual agents like the one who spoke with Ms. Aguirre-Lee greet donors when they call in response to the ads. The charity also has a website in Spanish.
Next: Direct Mail
With its TV fundraising flourishing, Operation Smile began in 2013 to reach Hispanics through direct mail. Traditional charity mailing lists don’t have an abundance of Spanish-speaking donors, and targeting individuals with Hispanic-sounding surnames is tricky; many Filipino-Americans have Spanish last names, for example, but don’t speak Spanish.
To get donor data, Operation Smile purchased lists from Spanish-language magazines, businesses, and charities that serve Latino communities, said Alexandra Franco, a senior account executive with direct-marketing firm Russ Reid who works with the medical charity. She said the organization sends its initial letters to Hispanic donors with one side in English, the other in Spanish. Prospective contributors can check a box noting which language they prefer for future correspondence. (A slight majority opt for Spanish, Ms. Franco said).
From the outside, the English and Spanish versions of the appeal are nearly identical. Fronting the envelope of each is a photo of a boy with a cleft lip, a tear slipping from his eye. Both promote a message that a donation can save children from a “lifetime of shame.” (“Salva a un niño de una vida humillante,” reads the Spanish.)
The text in Spanish is not a word-for-word translation of English, Ms. Slagle said. Nonprofits that venture into the Hispanic market should hire a copy editor fluent in Spanish and its subtle differences from English, she added: “You can’t just pop it into Google Translate.”
Ms. Franco said Operation Smile uses Mexican-style Spanish in its communications, because Mexican-Americans make up the largest portion of the U.S. Hispanic population. She said the organization uses the “tú" — or informal — version of Spanish when attempting to acquire donors. It switches to the “usted” — or formal — version when it’s cultivating or stewarding contributors. Established donors tend to skew older, making the formal version more appropriate, she said.
‘Two Separate Worlds’
Ms. Del Angel, the digital-marketing consultant, says many nonprofits are trying to engage Hispanics in advocacy work, but few look to them when raising money.
“It’s almost like two separate worlds: On the advocacy side, on the communications side, there are definitely several nonprofits that are looking to engage a Latino audience,” she said. “But on the fundraising side, this is not something I see a whole lot.”
The March of Dimes ran a direct-mail campaign aimed at Hispanics for three years, beginning in 2006. But it suspended the effort when response rates didn’t match those for other donors, according to Kim Haywood, the organization’s vice president of direct response. The average gift from Hispanic contributors was less than $10, while other donors gave more than $15.
On the plus side, the organization added 4,500 Hispanics to its donor files. It continues to solicit those individuals today, albeit in English. One takeaway from the March of Dimes’ effort: According to Ms. Haywood: consultants told her that mail solicitations to Hispanics should not be boring, but more “like a celebration.”
San Jose State University, where Hispanics make up 25 percent of the student body, has found success with Hispanic donors without a lot of effort to tailor appeals, says Paul Lanning, vice president for university advancement. The Northern California campus focuses instead on training staff to work with different cultures. “Ensuring that we have culturally competent professionals, but also a diversity among staff, is going to be very critical in the long run,” he said.
Among the university’s major donors is Latina real-estate investor Lupe Diaz Compean, who with her husband had been giving to the college for years, though neither attended. In February, Ms. Compean made a $15 million commitment.
“The story of the institution is the story of our students, and our students are incredibly diverse,” Mr. Lanning said. “As far as changing our communication or our identity depending who we’re interacting with, I don’t think we’ll see that.”
‘Treat These Donors Right’
Ms. Slagle said nonprofits don’t need to go to great lengths to reach out to Hispanics. “I feel like a lot of times nonprofits can get a little shy about trying new things, because they feel like it has to be all or nothing,” she said.
Still, Ms. Franco, Operation Smile’s consultant, said organizations that can’t build a minimal structure to support Hispanic donors shouldn’t jump in right away, because problems can arise. For instance, donors who receive acquisition letters in Spanish might be confused if they get a thank-you letter in English or can’t find a Spanish-language website.
“You want to treat these donors right,” Ms. Franco said. “They are taking the time to donate to your organization, and they really appreciate everything coming to them the way they signed up for it.”
Note: In a previous version of this article, Ana Aguirre-Lee was referred to in two places as Ms. Lee instead of Ms. Aguirre-Lee.