Donor retention / loyalty / commitment

How To Measure Loyalty

In this mini-debate from DMNews, three approaches to measuring loyalty are advanced: 1. Lifetime value — the person who buys (donates) the most over the longest period. 2. Share of wallet — the person who devotes the largest percentage of their spend (or donations) in your category to your product/brand (or nonprofit). 3. Referrals — […]

Learn More July 21, 2009

Does Your Nonprofit Make Friends?

Last week, I raised the question of whether your donors relate to your organization as "friends" or merely "acquaintances?" The hypothesis being that donor loyalty requires building a "friend" relationship. I suggested a simple first step, like including photos of the signers of your letters and emails. So far, no one has dumped on the […]

Learn More June 15, 2009

Friend, Or Mere Acquaintance?

Our sister firm DonorTrends has just been in the field with a survey on donor loyalty for a major national nonprofit. This group has been around a few decades, long enough to develop some considerable brand awareness and loyalty. Here’s an interesting finding: Respondents are three times more likely (60% to 22%) to think of […]

Learn More June 10, 2009

The Payoff From Inspiring Donors

Yesterday, in light of declining donor retention rates, we raised the question of whether nonprofits were doing an adequate job of inspiring their donors. Here’s a response from Jay Love, CEO of software solutions provider eTapestry. His firm is participating in the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, an initiative sponsored by the Urban Institute, Association of Fundraising […]

Learn More June 5, 2009

How To Inspire

Terry Barber, "chief inspirator" at Grizzard Communications, recently offered some critical advice in Forbes.com to business readers. His article was called Your Business Can inspire People the Way Nonprofits Do. It’s not often you see consultants telling businesses to model themselves after nonprofits. In this case, he’s dead right. Here are the four key nonprofit […]

Learn More June 4, 2009

Most Important Rule in Marketing?

My vote goes to Pareto’s 80/20 rule — 80% of the value or activity tends to come from 20% (or less) of customers, or whatever the active universe. The rule is confirmed in marketing scenario after scenario, including fundraising. Most recently, a Harvard Business Review study, reported here in Business Insider, finds that 90% of […]

Learn More June 3, 2009

Who Gets The Most Loyalty?

This week, a brand you’ve all heard of — and probably enjoyed — announced it was beginning its first ever loyalty program. Here are some quotes from the brand’s spokesman, Mike Giresi, as reported in DM News. Try to guess the brand. "We’ve been talking about this for quite some time." "Creating a loyalty program […]

Learn More May 28, 2009

Donor Superstars Now Available

Our latest white paper on donor loyalty, Donor Superstars: Working with Your Missionaries, is now available. Based in part upon our DonorTrends survey research, Donor Superstars looks at two very special groups of donors — Recruiters and Loyalists. Recruiters are the donors who actively recommend your mission or cause to others. Loyalists are the donors […]

Learn More May 26, 2009

Thank You, Thank You

Is there anything more important to fundraising than getting the second gift, and quickly? [OK, wise guys … other than getting the first gift?] If there is, I don’t know what it is. But I’m open to suggestion. Tell me. Here’s a great example of direct mail acknowledgment, courtesy of copywriters Deborah Block and Paul […]

Learn More May 11, 2009

More Re Online Loyalty Building

Last week, The Agitator posted on online loyalty building and asked readers what they are trying along these lines. Here are two helpful replies we’d like to share. First, from Lisa Sargent at Sargent Communications: Tom, I covered this to a lesser extent when I wrote about trigger emails in my April e-newsletter. Two of […]

Learn More April 27, 2009

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

Behavioral Science Q & A

Q: Do you have any insight on whether integrating an individual giving appeal with other comms from the charity in both appearance and messaging can uplift results? Or does the actual appeal become ‘lost’ for lack of stand-out?

Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]

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Q: Is there any research on response rate impact in direct mail when referring to a sustainer gift as ongoing or recurring (catching all frequencies) v. monthly or annual?

I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]

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Q: A major conservation nonprofit sends me lots of mail, many of which have on the envelope “time to renew” or “2nd notice.” I find this practice deceptive, especially as I haven’t given to said organization since 1997. It must be effective or they wouldn’t do it. But is it ethical?

Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]

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Q: I find it irritating when some nonprofits accept my “gift” and then ask me to cover their credit card fees separately. It feels like a practice that does nothing to help win donors and runs the risk of turning others off. Is there any data on this either way?

Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]

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Q: What are the three most important things to consider when designing a brilliant supporter journey?

There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]

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Q: Is there any evidence that changes to the tax laws in the USA changed end of year giving behaviors? Previously, ~30% of US taxpayers filed itemized tax returns allowing them to receive a deduction for charitable giving. Tax law changed in 2017 so that now only ~10% itemize. This should mean tax year-end giving should not matter to millions of people for whom it used to matter. Is there any data evidence to support this?

I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]

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The Agitator Tool Box

Ideas, applications, tools, processes, and case studies of break-through solutions in fundraising, including: