Nonprofits have constantly been looking for ways to keep their donors. On average, over 60% of donors who make a first gift fail to make a second. With falloff rates at all time highs, now is the time to refocus on connecting with new supporters. Here are three quick tips on how to keep them energized with your organization:
- Connect with your supporter as quickly as possible after their gift and personalize a “thank you” to them that explains the impact that gift will make.
- Gain an understanding of exactly what causes your donors wish to support and consistently communicate how these gifts are being used to further that specific cause.
- Quantify the impact your supporter’s gifts have made in helping your cause before you make another ask. The key here is to communicate the specifics on what the challenge was, what your organization did to solve that challenge and what the specific results were.
Remember, competition for every fundraising dollar is at an all time high. Your organization can find its way to the top if you concentrate on understanding your donors motivations for giving and communicating specific results.
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The good folks at LBG Research Institute have just released their survey “Doing More With Less: How the Economic Downturn Will Impact Corporate Giving in 2009″.
Bucking the trend of doom and gloom projections, the majority of the corporations surveyed anticipate no change or an increase in charitable giving in 2009. What’s more, they estimate an overall decrease in giving to be at 3% to 5%, much less than the 12.1% decrease reported by Giving USA in 2002.
Instead of outright cuts, more than 80% of corporations report that their giving will be more “strategic” next year, opting to give to charities that demonstrate greater impact.
Learn more about the study here.
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Our friends over at Blackbaud have released some interesting data on online giving for their clients in 2008. Most notably, the average gift size was up to $248.82. While December transaction volume accounted for only 21% of the year’s transactions, it represented an astounding 48% of the total dollars raised. Over 2,000 Blackbaud clients were analyzed for this study.
You can find the complete report from Blackbaud here.
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Frustrated by your Q4 acquistion numbers to date? Hang in there. But most importantly, do not cut your acquisition budget.
Erica O’Brien wrote an interesting article entitled ”Direct Mail Is Not Dead” in which she gives four interesting tips on how to keep your campaign afloat during this recession:
- Create compelling reasons for giving and engaging
- Do not be afraid to mention the difficulty your organization is experiencing
- Ask of those that will respond immediately
- Contemplate ways to get your respones and revenues in the door quickly
- Drastically scaling acquisition costs is a bad idea that will catch up with you in the long run.
You can download the full article in Word by clicking: “Direct Mail Is Not Dead”
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Tried and true fundraising strategies such as an active donor mailing campaign are vital to the success of nonprofits today. Identifying who your givers are and mailing appeals to them are not enough. Today’s donors are more knowledgeable than ever before. I ran across an interesting article entitled “Trash It” that describes how one such donor feels about the entire direct mail appeal process.
To captivate a supporter long-term, nonprofits need to clearly understand what their value proposition is to their supporters. Do you have a firm grasp of your supporters’ “spiritual ROI”? If not then it’s time to find out.
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Using segmentation to better target your donors
One of my favorite marketing blogs, MarketingProfs, wrote today about the importance of segmenting customers in a down economy. I couldn’t agree more.
But this also works for donors, and any organization that is worried about the size or frequencies of contributions in a down economy needs to consider a similar approach.
What are the goals of a segmentation study?
Identify receptive audiences:
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Using a series of cluster algorithms, you want to identify audiences that will be receptive to marketing efforts by your specific organization.
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The segments will take into consideration a measurement of appeal for specific initiatives and programs, allowing you to target, for example, by different goals for the coming year.
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You will also be able to target thorugh geographic, demographic and behavioral aspects that help classify reachable clusters.
Discover best methods to reach target audiences:
In addition to the goals listed above, a segmentation survey should ultimately decrease your overall marketing budget, because the targeting information will allow for precise tactical deployment.
Much like Price Segmentation isn’t for every business, donor segmentation isn’t a marketing tactic for every donor driven group. However if you’re appeals aren’t getting the type of returns you once enjoyed, a segmentation will align your donor segments with specific messaging and will bring immediate ROI.
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Now that the biggest fundraising months are behind us many fundraising professionals are stressed and asking themselves “what now?”. I ran into a great article entitled “How to Make Every Month a Time for Giving”.
These tips couldn’t come at a better time of the year for our community!
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I’m pleased to announce to the world the birth of my son, Brady Keith Shelton, on 12/18 at 7:09pm! What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. Mom is doing well and recovering quickly.
I’m back into the swing of things now so I wanted to pass along a good read that I ran across entitled “Ways to mazimize your charitable giving in tough economic times”.
We all know by now how difficult the economy has been to donors. Now is the time to think “out of the box” and explore creative ways to tap into your donor file. How many of these strategies has your organization explored?
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A fascinating research study conducted in 2008 by Bank of America and the Indiana University School of Philanthropy revealed the number one reason why high net-worth individuals choose to disengage with a nonprofit. In 2007, 38.0% of donors stopped supporting a charitable organization, with more than one-quarter of those surveyed (26%) discontinuing support for at least two organizations.
Just what was the top reason why donors stopped giving to a particular charity? Respondents voiced “no longer feeling connected to the organization” as the number one reason!
More on the study can be found here.
How can your organization precisely identify what these “connections” are? Click here to find out!
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The Chronicle of Philanthropy recommends working together on fundraising in this bad economy. We agree. In times like this it’s worth considering teaming up with other organizations to survey your donors and determine what the best messaging is to motivate the gift.
WRS has done studies for as many as ten organizations at one time in the past, costing as little as a few thousand dollars for each group. This can make all the difference in the world. Remember you’re still competing for every dime. Times like this just mean there is less to compete over.
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