DonorTrends / DonorVoice - Agitator

Breaking Out of the Status Quo

Testing Your Donor Identities

Previously on donor identity: It’s good to segment by identity But they must be the right identity/ies There must be meaningful differences among different identities And you must be able to get value by messaging them differently So, how do you know if you get value by messaging differently? You must test. Sorry. I wish […]

Learn More February 8, 2018

Instinct and Conventional Wisdom Are No Longer Enough

A variety of recent news items crossed our desk that bear on what we’ll explore this week –”segmentation”. ITEM: Civil Society in the UK reports in Top Charities See Largest Fall for Voluntary Income in 20 Years that the top 100 charities have recorded their most sustained drop in voluntary contributions in two decades. ITEM: […]

Learn More February 5, 2018

Donors Are Ticked Off by Excess, Unrequested Solicitation – Who Knew?

Why do results decline as volume goes up? At a basic level, each new communication cannibalizes results from those communications around it. Looking at one study here, researchers found that each additional mailing generated 1.81 Euro in revenues, but that 1.21 Euros of that was cannibalized from future mailings. Thus, only 37% of the revenues […]

Learn More February 1, 2018

Volume Has Been Tested. The Results Are In

Yesterday, I vented my spleen about the argument that volume leads to retention and that the volume of contact should be viewed as the lever to do so. Now, I’d like to put my case studies where my mouth is. Most of these are specific to mail. Why? Because that’s where the testing has been […]

Learn More January 31, 2018

Demographics: The Second-Best Way to Segment Your File

Yes, demographics are the second-best way to segment. The best way, however, is literally almost any other way. Take, for example, the experience of Todd Yellin, Netflix’s VP of Product Innovation. Netflix has one of the great treasure troves of data out there. What does he use? Quote: “There’s a mountain of data that […]

Learn More January 25, 2018

Are You Playing the Fundraising Lottery?

One of my favorite country music singer/songwriters is Brandy Clark. As we kick off this Agitator series on Fundraising Metrics I’m going to invoke Brandy because her song Pray to Jesus reflects the approach to decision making by all too many fundraisers unfamiliar with simple metrics, simple calculations. Brandy writes: “Cause there ain’t but two […]

Learn More January 16, 2018

Visions of Sugar Plums

As a kid I raptly listened as my parents and grandparents read my brother and me ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” every year until I went away to college and discovered there may not be a Santa Claus. I did the same thing to my kids. Each year I uttered “Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Dunder Blixem.” […]

Learn More December 21, 2017

Getting To Know Me

Yesterday, Roger wrote about the most fundamental and elementary step in communicating and building relationships with donors. That step: stop sending stuff to people who are dead or missing! If you didn’t read it, his post was about cleaning your lists … pretty basic (and he offers a great tool for doing the job). But […]

Learn More August 29, 2017

Fundraising Metrics That Matter

Yesterday I explored ‘vanity metrics’ and briefly explained why they’re not very helpful for serious decision-making. Or how, in the case of Benchmarking, they’re often ignored or mis-applied. Today, we’ll move to metrics that truly matter. By my definition an important metric – a metric that matters – is one that triggers the “What-should-I-do-differently-to-improve?” question. […]

Learn More June 29, 2017

In Pursuit Of The Trivial

Slowly, but surely, research in the field of behavioral science is making its way into Fundraising Land. Over the past several years commercial marketers have begun to discover practices which those pundits and commentators who favor high-blown ‘strategic’ insights often consider ‘trivial’. What once seemed relatively trivial has proven to hold monumental importance compared to […]

Learn More June 15, 2017

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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Breaking Out of the Status Quo

Testing Your Donor Identities

Instinct and Conventional Wisdom Are No Longer Enough

Donors Are Ticked Off by Excess, Unrequested Solicitation – Who Knew?

Volume Has Been Tested. The Results Are In

Demographics: The Second-Best Way to Segment Your File

Are You Playing the Fundraising Lottery?

Visions of Sugar Plums

Getting To Know Me

Fundraising Metrics That Matter

In Pursuit Of The Trivial

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?

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?

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?

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?

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

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