Debate On Recession Fundraising Tactics

December 16, 2008      Admin

Yesterday, Roger offered "contrarian" views on fundraising in the recession from "dean of fundraising copywriters" Jerry Huntsinger.

Here’s more to chew over regarding fundraising tactics in tough times from AB Data consultant Jeff Malloch. Jeff is particularly unhappy over cost-cutting advice proffered in the Chronicle of Philanthropy back on December 11.

Here’s a snippet to give you a sense of his POV. But he "rebuts" the advice given in the Chron articles very carefully — and to my mind — correctly. His full response is worth a read.

"One of the unfortunate offshoots of the difficult economic times in which we live today is that development officers and nonprofit leaders are under enormous pressure to cut costs in the face of declining revenue. All too often, this leads to really bad decisions …

In the December 11, 2008 edition of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the article “Trying to Spread the Giving Spirit” surveyed what various charities were doing to "ensure that donations flow over the holidays." Unfortunately, the article was short on new or innovative ideas for nonprofit mailers and long on various cutbacks and economies that some groups seem to think made a lot of sense.

Make no mistake — every nonprofit should be looking for ways to reduce its direct mail costs. The danger, of course, is making knee-jerk decisions that seem sensible on the surface, but have the potential to profoundly impact direct marketing revenues in both the short and long term. Test. Don’t panic. And remember that cost cutting is only desirable if it contributes to higher (or stable) net revenues."

So, tell us what you think.

Tom

P.S. Back on Nov 21st, Roger and I conducted an hour-long telebriefing on raising funds in tough times. You can download the audio file, as well as the "ten tips" each of us separately prepared, right here.

2 responses to “Debate On Recession Fundraising Tactics”

  1. Joan Smyth says:
    December 16, 2008 at 9:23 am

    I love the advice to mail acquisition this Spring cause so many others are cutting back and mailboxes will be less crowded. But – where do we get the money to pay for it? I’m not eliminating acquisition but when my cash flow is squeezed incredibly tight, I have to choose between housefile mailing – paying me back $10 for every $1 I spend (and getting the return this year) or acquisition – paying me back yes- but no net for 18 or 24 months or more. It may seem like a knee-jerk reaction but the $10 this year lets me take care of the kids who are here now.

  2. Frances Post says:
    December 18, 2008 at 12:26 am

    Please keep this conversation going – Jeff and others concerned about ‘emotional reactions’ are correct, in our mind. We see clients including the development/marketing areas in the overall down-sizing without recognizing how this will impact their future revenue streams. Your earlier advice about how critical it is to measure the effectiveness of each approach and then pursue the ones with highest yield needs to remain the clarion call. Although I hate the underlying reason for this discussion, part of me does hope that we will be strengthening the overall Fund Raising area as too many have been resistant to using objective analysis to guide their efforts.

    Thanks as always for your work – we forward the emails to a broad audience and have been told many have signed up themselves.

Ask A Behavioral Scientist

    Behavioral Science Q & A

    The Agitator Tool Box

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