Is Your Nonprofit Sustainable?
June is the last month of the fiscal year for many nonprofits, when supposedly the deep questions are being asked. Are we on the right track, programmatically and financially? Do we have enough Facebook ‘Likes’?
Bloomerang recently surveyed 600 North American nonprofits to gauge their sustainability. Some questions dealt with management practices; some with board and volunteer commitment; some with strategic and financial planning.
Interestingly, none of the questions dealt with actual fundraising performance; instead, Bloomerang relied on some indicators that might suggest fundraising smarts.
Here’s an infographic summarising their findings.
For Agitator readers charged with fundraising, note that only 35% of surveyed organizations utilized a marketing plan in the last quarter; a bit better, 62% utilized a fundraising plan in the last quarter.
I wonder what was going on in the other 38%?! I’d like to think they were too busy measuring donor lifetime values … Uh Huh!
And only 28% communicated about planned giving opportunities. That’s a real disappointment and major missed opportunity.
The takeaways as Bloomerang assessed the findings:
- goal setters: most organizations have organizational priorities and challenges defined
- know your role: most organizations have written job descriptions in place
- not-so-future-proof: few organizations have a succession plan in place
- what gets measured gets improved: almost half of those who measured impact saw that impact increase
- pitching in: almost half of organizations reported at least 101 total hours volunteered last quarter
- room for improvement: board giving is present in more than half of organizations, but just over a third reported healthy staff giving.
How does your organization stack up? Will you make it through another year? In which of these areas do you need improvement?
Tom
2 responses to “Is Your Nonprofit Sustainable?”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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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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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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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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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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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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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Thanks Tom!
Much more to come on this as this is so key to other success factors…
I recently analyzed the fundraising at a fair-sized charity ($6 million annual budget). What jumped out was what happened when the development head began investing in bequest marketing, using outside vendors. Bequest income soared almost immediately. And thank goodness it did, because over the same 6-year period of the analysis the charity’s pool of annual donors shrank 30%. Development managed to offset that loss by raising more money from fewer donors. But the only fundraising GROWTH came through realized bequests. This is NOT a pitch for bequest marketing vendors (though they can be quite effective). It IS a pitch for making some form of bequest mass marketing a mandatory part of every serious fundraising communications program. As Richard Radcliffe harps. As Pareto proved. As Fraser Green preaches. As Stephen Pidgeon confirms. Etc.