Corporate, Non-Profit, and Government Opinion Research

What do your nonprofit do?

It’s a simple question, but how do you answer?

Even when employees know the value or impact their organiztion has, many find it difficult to describe it.  Of course, you need to get your value across, but you don’t want to deliver the same canned speech for everyone.

A value proposition positioning statement is a compelling, tangible description of how a company or individual will benefit from your donations.

The RAIN Group has discovered 6 simple building blocks that will help you develop you own value proposition statement so that you can effectively communicate your value, have great conversations, and bring in more donations.

To get a full picture of your value across, you need to be able to cover 6 areas, including:

1. Target Donors. Whom do you serve? What makes for an ideal donor regarding attitudes, location, behavior, type and so on? This allows the person on the receiving end to know if you engage with donors like them. Know your target donors so you can craft messages that will resonate with them. In addition, the more you can position specialization for a particular donor set, the more you typically resonate and differentiate.

1. Need/problem. What types of needs and problems do you address? How do you help? This helps donor understand how and when they should use you.

1. Impact of solving need. What are the rational and emotional benefits of solving the need? Getting this right is a major factor in whether or not you resonate.

1. Your offerings. What’s your oraginzation and service approach, how do you run your organization, solve problems and work with the community? Notice that organization and offerings are a fourth here. Think giving first and asking second, and frame your offerings within the context of the needs you can help solve.

1. Proof of concept. How can you demonstrate that your approach has worked to solve similar problems for others? How do you substantiate your claims? How do they know that what you say will happen, will actually happen?

1. Distinction. Why is your offering preferable to other options for solving the need? Do you have something special about you that’s worthwhile to share? Is there some way to highlight how you’re distinct from others?

Once you’ve built all of these nuggets, practice it as one statement until you have it down. 

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Ever wondered where your donations are actually going when you write a check to your favorite charities?  Think your gift willl ”make a difference”?

Two-thirds of wealthy households surveyed for Bank of America’s 2010 study of high net worth philanthropy reported that they give to organizations when they believe their gift will make a difference and when they know the organization is efficient in its use of donations. However, a much smaller percentage of donors actually conduct the extensive research necessary to accurately make these determinations.  How should you go about this investigation to uncover where your donations are actually going? 

To learn more,  here is a great article from Forbes that will help you get started.

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Often overlooked, In-kind donations can save nonprofits thousands of dollars if the program is run correctly.  Executed correctly, in-kind donations may mean never having to pay for software, furniture or computers again.

“Taking in-kind donations seriously can provide an amazing array of goods and services to nonprofits. They just need to know where to look,” said Geri Stengel, founder of Ventureneer.

The goal of the webinar  is to show nonprofit executives that money isn’t everything. It is possible to upgrade software, furnish a shelter or feed the hungry by asking the right people for the right things.

Learn more about how to run an effective In-kind campaign here.

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Chris Wilson, CEO of WPA Research, spoke to the National Religious Broadcasters Research Symposium yesterday on the topic of evaluating and improving effectiveness in fundraising — measuring and improving donor engagement for sustainable support. 

Ministries and their consultants have invested heavily over the past decade or more in message development for fundraising appeals and in testing mail and e-mail concepts to determine which are likely to yield the greatest returns in each specific appeal transaction.  While this has been successful, in the most recent economic downturn many ministries struggled to maintain levels of support even with well-tested appeals.  Our work on behalf of several of these ministries suggests that one reason for this decline in support is that they had cultivated a group of donors who were characterized by high levels of transactional response but low levels of overall engagement with the ministry. 

In this analysis we explore patterns of engagement that we commonly see between donors and our ministry clients and share new tools for building and monitoring effective and sustainable engagement.

Full Powerpoint presentation can be found here.

Full white paper can be found here.

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With the emergence of new technology, it’s easier now than ever before to construct and field an online survey.  But what are the potential “pitfalls” in conducting a “do it yourself” survey?

The number one issue for DIY surveys is questionairre construction.  It’s all too easy to “load” questions or create leading questions.  The second issue is for surveyors not pre-testing the instrument.    Learn more about the pitfalls of DIY research here.

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An article in the Wall Street Journal this month warns donors to make sure they get (and keep) a letter from the nonprofit organization acknowledging the donation in order to be sure the IRS allows the deduction.  In one case, it notes, a six-figure gift to a university was denied a tax deduction due to the failure to produce the letter.  And in most cases, nothing can be done afterwards. 

This also serves as a reminder to nonprofits, though, to make sure that their donors know the importance of keeping the acknowledgement letter.  A poll earlier this year conducted by WRS for Dunham+Company found that a strong majority of those planning to donate to charity this year, as well as a majority of those planning to donate at least the same amount they did last year, report that tax deductions play an important role in deciding how much to give.  If deductions are not allowable due to technicalities, it is likely to quickly alienate supporters.

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According to a study done by Giving USA Foundation and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, charitable giving rose 3.8% total or 2.1% after adjusting for inflation. 

This upward surge in giving last year bucks a two year decline but the numbers show that charities have a long way to go to get back to pre-recession giving levels.

Learn more about this study in a related article here.

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