Help Isn’t On The Way
Here’s some bad Monday morning news from our friends at Analytical Ones. These are folks you might not want to bring along to cheer up your next Board meeting!
Last week The Agitator mentioned their article, Unsustainable Trends. There they were talking about the sad day when growth in your average gift size can no longer outpace your declining file size, with the result that your net income begins to trend down. Time to dust off your resume.
In case that wasn’t a grim enough future prospect, along they’ve come with Unsustainable Trends Part II: The Aging File. These two graphs tell the tale for what they consider the typical nonprofit.
The first shows the demographic ‘hump’ that probably characterizes many, many donor files.
The chart depicts the 5-year value of donors in the file by age. Note the downward trend in lifetime value just after the age of 60! Wait … that’s supposed to be the Boomer Bonanza we’ve all been promised! But it gets worse.
Seeing the LTV of your file diminish as the file ages, I’ll bet you’re hoping rescue is just over the horizon … in the form of all those new younger donors you’re expecting to recruit. Nope … look at the following chart and weep!
Even the new donors are old and aging!
Says Analytical Ones, rather calmly I think: “Non-profits need to unlock the secret to acquiring younger donors or this is another Unsustainable Trend.”
Uh huh! Have a good week.
Tom
Behavioral Science Q & A
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