Before acquiring new donors, learn how to cultivate the ones you have.

In a nutshell, that’s the challenge posed by one of the respondents to The Agitator’s donor retention survey. [BTW, two more days for you to take the survey.]

I’m reproducing Stephen Best’s entire response below, not because I necessarily want you to stop acquiring donors, but because he absolutely nails it in terms of the attitude and approach nonprofits should bring to engaging with donors.

The reward, in his organization’s case, a phenomenal 70% retention rate for new givers.

From Stephen …

“At the non-profit I’ve been working with since the mid-1990s, Animal Alliance Environment Voters (AAEV), we retain over 90% of people who have given more than one gift. We lose people usually because of personal issues: financial problems, health problems, family discord, death, etc. Rarely due to issues with the organization or its campaigns.

For new supporters, we retain about 70%.

However, because the organization is small (~$1 million) it’s done no acquisition fundraising (i.e. direct response) since 1999. We don’t believe it is ethical to tell a donor that “your donation will save [something]” when in fact the organization is using all of the donor’s contribution and most future contributions to pay off postage, printer bills, ad buys, or TV time–and will be for years in some cases. In most direct response programs, new, modest and small donors will never make a positive contribution to an organization’s mission unless they die and leave a sizable bequest.

Since 1999, all new AAEV supporters have joined due to word of mouth and earned media. Despite no direct response fundraising since 1999, the organization has grown, but more importantly net income has increased dramatically. What’s the secret?

Genuinely appreciating that supporters are those all too rare people who actually make our world a better place. We work for them, and everything we do reflects that understanding. Our supporters and our volunteers are our family, all 5,000 of them and we treat them like a community of friends, because that’s what they, in fact, are. This attitude is shared by everyone in the organization.

People who don’t appreciate how special people who support non-profits are, don’t last long at AAEV. Every donation is thanked, hand written by a volunteer on the day we receive it. Our core of volunteers has been helping for over a decade. At noon every day they are treated to delicious vegan lunch. Our executive director spends time on the phone with any supporter who wants to speak to her. Any supporter’s complaint or concern is handled personally by phone, usually by the executive director. The fact is complaints are, generally, the best fundraising, supporter retention opportunity an organization ever gets.

The list of practices used at AAEV that keeps its family growing and at home is too long for this post. But let me offer this observation, in the consulting work I’ve done, I’ve yet to encounter any organization small or large prepared to treat supporters with the respect and admiration they truly deserve.

Generally, (there are a few notable exceptions) fundraisers, directors, managers, and even activists and program managers want a quick, cheap, “business” or “technological” or “creative” fix that produces a magical result in the current budget cycle—the future be damned. More troubling in this digital age is that a fix is usually wanted that can be done via the Internet so that no real contact with supporters is required. Most of the non-profit community usually treat supporters, particularly small contributors, as a necessary evil not as people who’d like nothing better than to invite you to dinner.

I’m well aware of all the excuses for not giving supporters the appreciation and time they deserve and have earned. Large organizations say they have too many supporters to give them the personal time they deserve. Small organizations say they don’t have the money. Every excuse is bogus and—and like so many excuses–serves only to justify not changing the organization’s comfortable status quo. However, it’s supporters who decide what works in fundraising, not fundraisers or non-profit directors and managers.

There are few non-profits who would not benefit by stopping all campaigns to acquire new supporters, and spend at least five years becoming excellent at working personally and closely with current and past supporters. It is truly stupid to invest in acquiring a new supporter if an organization lacks the philosophies and procedures to keep them part of the family forever.

The “Golden Rule” or ‘Inconvenient Truth’ of fund raising, in my view, is ‘To succeed, treat every supporter as you would have him or her treat you’.”

I’m inspired. Hope rekindled. Well done AAEV. Stephen, you and your colleagues deserve a raise!

Tom