2010 Fundraising Plans – Investment Priorities
Yesterday, in our first report on The Agitator’s 2010 Fundraising Plans survey, we commented on the general mood of nonprofit fundraisers as they looked ahead to next year. Our assessment … creeping optimism. We noted that most fundraisers were expecting improvement in new donor prospecting, major gifts, and online giving.
Today we’re looking at where fundraisers plan to invest their resources in 2010.
We asked: "For each of the following areas, indicate whether you expect to invest more in 2010 than in 2009, less, or about the same." Here are the results for "More" (and in parens, "Substantially more"):
| More | Sub More | |
| Online Fundraising | 55% | 12% |
| Major gift solicitation | 51 | 20 |
| Screening for gift potential | 49 | 13 |
| Planned giving | 42 | 9 |
| Direct mail | 33 | 4 |
| Foundations | 29 | 7 |
| Copy/offer testing | 24 | 4 |
| Predictive modeling | 23 | 3 |
| Database upgrade | 22 | 8 |
| Fundraising staff | 22 | 2 |
| Events | 22 | 2 |
| Telemarketing | 21 | 3 |
Some observations …
1. Given fundraisers expectations of where they expect performance improvement in 2010, the top three investment areas — online giving, major gifts, and screening for gift potential — are no surprise at all. Note that 20% are investing "substantially more" in major gift solicitation … it looks like a lot is riding on an assumption that major donors are prepared to "return to the fold."
Also, with fundraisers betting big on online giving, here’s an article from Fundraising Success that might be useful … it talks about how to "sell" online fundraising to executive management and boards! It links to an entire guide on the subject from not-disinterested Convio.
2. The commitment to investing in planned giving is gratifying to see. For too many nonprofits outside the education and health sectors, planned giving is an afterthought.
3. We confess to being a bit surprised that more investment in direct mail doesn’t get a stronger endorsement, particularly given respondents’ expectations that prospecting for new donors will improve (77% believe that prospecting results will improve in 2010). Are nonprofits finding new donors online? We’d like to see more evidence of that.
4. Similarly, the relatively poor showing for offer and copy testing is curious. In fact, 41% of respondents say such testing "doesn’t apply." We would think that heaps of testing should occur as groups seek to expand prospecting (whether in the mail or online) and to adjust their messaging and "asks" to suit changing donor moods.
5. It’s no surprise to see telemarketing bring up the rear. Indeed, 44% say this tool doesn’t apply. In our experience, telemarketing is a very effective channel for quickly assessing donor giving mood in general, and for message/offer testing.
Finally, it’s good to see that at least some groups — nearly one-in-four — expect to bring on fundraising staff in the coming year. We sense a great deal of fundraising staff fatigue out there … more on that tomorrow.
Roger & Tom
P.S. Complete results of our 2010 Fundraising Plans survey, including all stats and verbatim comments, will be emailed to The Agitator’s Premium subscribers on Friday.
2 responses to “2010 Fundraising Plans – Investment Priorities”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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With the ways things have gone any hope is good to have. Let’s hope that the optimism expressed does indeed come to pass. I too found it interesting that so much was going to be invested in online approaches. At this point it is so new that we have seen very little hard returns on the effort spent. I certainly think we need to be online but I worry that we are throwing out the baby with the bath water and shunning more traditional means of raising support. I think that main thing from this report, beyond some hopefulness, is that you have to have a multi-faceted strategies to make it in this economy.
As a social media blogger, I take it as a positive sign that the “substantially more” column boasts such robust numbers. People (and especially nonprofits) must think the economy really is improving. Let’s hope they’re right. I am impressed that Online Fundraising topped the list for investment in 2010. That means leading organizations may very well be investing in the private, branded online communities that I frequently write about. If not, I might be looking for a new gig!