The unofficial motto of Seinfeld, according to Larry David, was “No hugging, no learning.” In short, there would be no growth in relationships and characters.

(For the young’un’s, Seinfeld was a 90s observational comedy show from that guy who talks to comedians in cars while drinking coffee, the titular Veep, and some other people.)

Because we fundraisers want to stimulate growth in our relationships with donors, we should aim to do the opposite. Hug, learn and grow relationships.

Those who preach and act on the “ask, thank, report, repeat” formula of donor care are halfway there.  They do a good job of the hugging (thanking) part.

But if we’re not learning, we’re not growing.  And just how effective is that hug going to be if we list out the litany of things their donation could be doing instead of focusing on the one thing the donor wants her contribution to be doing?

There needs to be a fierce urgency to learning more about each donor as they come into the organization. 

An effective report and appeal to the donor — including a good second gift ask — should incorporate information you’ve learned about the donor.  In my next onboarding post I’ll talk about what information to collect, but suffice it to say that knowing why a person gave and how they experienced that act of giving are critical factors.

How soon is too soon to seek this information?  After all, we don’t want to interfere with a smooth frictionless donation process.

Sooner than you might think.  Some examples by medium/channel:

Telemarketing: asking for more information works before the donation is even made.  One UK animal organization (anonymized) asked people in the beginning of the call if they considered themselves cat people or dog people.  There were then three versions of the script: one for cat, one for dog, and one for both/neither/declined.  This simple change resulted in a 15% increase in response rate and a ten-pound increase in average annual gift.

(For our American readers, ten pounds converts to approximately twice my Thanksgiving weight gain.)

It’s tempting to think of this as a neat one-time direct marketing response raiser.  And it is.  But this approach also informs every interaction this organization has with these donors with similar increases in response.

Face-to-face: asking for how committed donors are to the organization and how satisfied they are with the interaction they just had while the solicitor was still with the donor helped Amnesty Belgium increase their six-month retention rate from 60% to 80%.  The full story is available in detail here but some important points:

• Commitment and satisfaction were the most predictive variables in their modeling. This means they had a better idea of who would lapsed with just these questions.  (It got even better when incorporating traditional F2F data like age and amount of first gift.  But if you could only have self-reported data or transactional data, you’d want the self-reported data every day of the week.)
• Learning the level of commitment and satisfaction allowed them to prioritize outreach to donors who love the organization, but didn’t like their interaction. These are the donors most likely to forgive and become productive long-term donors with a bit of apology.
• They could reward the solicitors and solicitation tactics that brought in the most committed donors, not the most donors. This greatly diminished high-pressure tactics that may boost acquisition response rates, but only briefly.

Online provides opportunities to ask both on the confirmation page and the email confirmation.  Consider Catholic Relief Services’ donor-focus efforts (examples from DMA Chicago, including samples).  Comments helped CRS better serve their donors.  They also got actionable intelligence on how to improve their donation form, such as stop requiring title on the donation form and making it easier to direct donations to specific mission areas.

Mail: a conjoint analysis from one organization found that donors liked to be asked what mission area was their priority for giving as they made their gift by almost a two-to-one margin.  Moreover, donors didn’t necessarily need this choice to be binding.  Simply asking for preference scored almost as well (mere points on a 0-100 scale) as being able to restrict one’s gift.

Moreover, acknowledgments and onboarding mailings are ripe for learning more about the donor.  If it is in the acknowledgment, it must be done with some care.  In fact, Penelope Burk admonishes against this in Donor Centered Fundraising, saying “[t]o avoid leaving the impression that you are already gathering information that will help you plan the next solicitation, it is preferable to leave space between a thank you and any other request.”

This is true, so best not to ask questions aimed at planning the next solicitation.  Rather– especially for new donors– you can ask about their wants, needs, and preferences and then honor those needs and preferences. After all, this is respectful – we appreciate your gift and want to make sure we honor who you are and why you give.

Please don’t shy away from standalone mailings to secure this information.  Catholic Relief Services also mailed a survey to donors that asked questions designed to gauge satisfaction (and capture email address and ask about their monthly giving program).  It’s slide 22 in this PDF.  While this mailing had no ask, it had a seven percent response rate, more than broke even and garnered valuable insights to boot.  Additionally, many donors wrote that they appreciated the mailing.

So, long story short, onboarding is the best time to get additional information about your donors.

But the second-best time is right now.  That’s right: even your multiyear stalwarts can benefit from your learning more about them.  Consider Pamela Grow’s Could you borrow the smartest thing I ever did? (yes).

The whole piece is worth a read, but the upshot is that she took a file and program in decline and asked some of the best donors what their motivations for giving were. The results?

“Eighteen responded.  Several sent in checks, although I hadn’t asked for money.  Three eventually became major donors.

Their responses were illuminating. They were poignant and sometimes humorous. They shaped my strategy going forward and many of their comments played a permanent role in the agency’s marketing materials.”

So, good news!  It’s never too early – and it’s never too late – to learn more about your donors.  You can take a continual, iterative process to learn more.  Next, we’ll talk about what to learn.

What steps are you taking to listen and learn about your donors?

Nick