DonorTrends / DonorVoice - Agitator

Communications

“Your Call Is Important To Us. Please Continue To Hold.”

Do you really know what good donor service looks like? I sure hope so, because as we’ve reported before, nearly 20% of all donors who drop out quit because of lousy donor service. Consequently, any organization serious about improving its retention rates had better be deadly serious about the quality of donor services it provides. […]

Learn More October 23, 2013

Participate In Agitator Drug Trials

If The Agitator were part of Big Pharma, we’d be writing to invite you to participate in the development and testing of vaccine to ensure retention – a breakthrough in the war against donor attrition. At the end of this post we’re going to call for 5 nonprofit professionals working within organizations and 5 outside […]

Learn More October 16, 2013

Dangerous Myth #1: Too Much Solicitation Causes Poor Retention

In the run-up to last year’s winter holidays I posted Don’t Eat the Poinsettia as an appropriate reminder that in fundraising — as in life — there are many myths we take for gospel. Some false or untrue myths like “Don’t swallow your gum; it stays in your stomach for seven years”, or “Don’t sit […]

Learn More October 3, 2013

The Rest Of The Retention Story – Part 4

Mastering ‘retention’ requires hard work: research, organization-wide involvement across departments, and a willingness to swim against the conventional currents in the Sea of Sameness that is drowning our sector. Unlike ‘acquisition’, fundraisers can’t just sign a purchase order for lists, printing, copywriters and consultants then hope for the best. To briefly recap my points so […]

Learn More September 12, 2013

The Rest of The Retention Story – Part 2

We’ll never make much progress solving the retention problem until we get rid of the myopic and wrong-headed metrics used by most direct response fundraisers to measure ‘success’. One reason for the mistaken use of myopic metrics stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the term ‘attribution’. In reality it means assigning results or performance to […]

Learn More August 27, 2013

Stop Trying To Beat The Control

Direct mail fundraisers who use ‘donor fatigue’ as an excuse for frequently changing acquisition packages are in the charlatan business. Same for fundraisers who attempt to hook or trick the donor — with silly teaser copy, oversized outer envelopes, omitting the organization’s logo. They’re charlatans too. So says Kevin Schulman, our provocative pal over at […]

Learn More July 18, 2013

Do You Know Your ‘Failure Rate’?

This is a long, but very, very important post. So freshen up your coffee before proceeding. The other day I received an email from an Agitator reader asking: “Why do you think most fundraisers are so resistant to innovation and change?” A good question. An important question. I batted out a kneejerk and facile response […]

Learn More June 20, 2013

The Foibles & Follies Of Donor Conversion

A quick Google search for “converting donors” turns up all kinds of sage and not so sage advice on how to do it. But ‘conversion’ is a mis-used term tossed around with far too much abandon and far too little real understanding. The result? Tons of false and unrealizable expectations and far, far too much […]

Learn More May 21, 2013

Fairy Tale Fundraising

Roger recently presented at Fundraising Success’ Engage Conference. Now, he undoubtedly said many, many wise things, but he read the following fairy tale, which arguably contains the nub of his message. Enjoy! Snow White and the Seven Small Woods People There was once an evil fundraising queen. So vain and out […]

Learn More May 17, 2013

Stop Mailing! Don’t Stop Mailing!

Here’s a perennial debate that occurs in nonprofits that are large enough to have separate programs (staffs, bureacracies, silos) for direct response versus major gift solicitation … When should the ‘peanuts’ crew — the staff that generate those $25, $50, $100 contributions — give way to the ‘plums’ people — the major gift officers who […]

Learn More May 3, 2013

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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