In yesterday’s Neglected Gold Mine of Lapsed Donors  I closed with two questions: What are you doing to find out why your donors are leaving? And what are you doing to get them back?

Although no one responded to the ‘why’ question, three experienced veterans and pros were the first to respond to the ‘what’ to do to get lapsed donors back.

The advice from each deserves your attention.

First, communications guru Lisa Sargent , following the Bloomerang chart I posted [I’ve posted it again on the left)] writes and advises as follows:

“What if I master the bare-bones, good-manners, grateful basics first?

“1. Almost 1 in 10 donors have no memory of supporting you. Why? If you send one annual fund appeal each year, guess what? No memory. If you don’t send a timely thank you, guess what? Forgotten. If you don’t have a donor newsletter (and I mean NOT a ‘we-fest’ publication), guess what? Erased! This alone is almost a 10% boost if you recapture these folks.

“2. 67% say they leave over lousy donor service: Let’s go back to the thank-you. If I do something nice for you as a donor (i.e. I give), I deserve a thank you. Not seven weeks later (true story: this just happened to me as you know Roger). And make it something nice. Warm. Sincere. Just about every one of us practitioners, from Mary Cahalane to Claire Axelrad to Pamela Grow to me via free TY clinic on SOFII, has written about this. You cannot mess this up.

And, fyi, give people a way to call you w/ questions. Give them a human-looking email address to reply back to. Keep a talking points sheet by the phone. Give all donor-facing staff some love, and help them to be star service reps.

“3. Reinstatement mailings: true story, again. This year I have received 5, count ’em, five “FINAL REMINDER” notices from the same charity. Identical window-outer pack. In giant red caps. It ain’t final if you keep sending it. What about something that reflects you still give a damn about me? What about, “Hey, we noticed you haven’t given for awhile. If you’re not able to give, but still want to be involved with and informed about [cause], we’d love to keep you in the loop because you’ve meant so much to us. Then, when you’re ready, you can give again — and be really knowledgeable around it when you do. But of course, if you are able to give today, the work still needs you.” Action step for this one? Stop sending reinstatement mailings on auto-pilot. If you have an agency, ask them why they’re charging you for this exact same pack ad nauseum, and ask to see what results it’s bringing in.

“4. Lapsed donors as hidden legacy prospects. There was a survey referenced several years ago, I think by Pentera, which noted that in the 3-4 years leading up to a bequest gift, donors often stop giving. And I thought, holy smokes. Think of all those good people who get banished to donor communications gulag from organizations who don’t know this, when a database moves them to the ‘deeply lapsed’ category?

“5.  Surveys. I’m not saying they’re all bad, I’ve done ’em. But in my experience nonprofits get way too wrapped up thinking if they implement a survey, it will all be okay — but they have no back-end capacity to process (or thank donors for, or follow up on, or restrategize as a result of) the feedback, or maybe don’t know which questions will help them in the first place. So it sputters, stalls, stops. If you’re on twitter @naptownjeremy (aka Jeremy Hatch) had a prescient comment on this https://twitter.com/naptownjeremy/status/767780810304913408.

“Let’s start with what’s doable.

“Let’s send timely, sincere thank-yous. Let’s welcome new donors (and I’m talking to you, charity-to-which-I-just gave, do NOT tell me I’m donor #76508909). Let’s send regular, donor-driven newsletters. Let’s send appeals more than once a year. Let’s drip-feed legacy language. And let’s rethink those endless FINAL REMINDER mailings.

“Last thing. Park yourself on SOFII to see what one organization did when they took lapsed donor mailings off autopilot, with this case study from the RI Audubon Society. Several years old. Not mine. Pure genius. [ See also Agitator post Make Your Donors Feel Appreciated.]

“Every nonprofit could do this.”

NEXT… Erica Waasdorp author of Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant added to the treasure trove of advice.

“Two other important factors: staff turnover and erratic decision making. The number one reason why lapsed donors have not given in many cases because they were simply not asked.

“I see it happen all the time, especially with small to mid-size organizations. The new exec or development director comes in, does not know what was done in the past so does not know who was appealed to and connected with.

“Case in point: When I started working with a local human services organization, we broke out their donors in active, inactive, lapsed (who had not given between 25-60 months ago) and deep lapsed (who had not given in 61+months) ago.

“We then sent them a letter and you wouldn’t believe the response:  the 25-60 mos group generated a 9.5% response!!!! the 61+ mos group generated a 4.5% response!! The active donor response was absolutely through the roof too and boy, this was probably one of the simplest letters I’ve ever done. Clearly, these donors had simply not been communicated with in recent years.

“Especially for small to mid-size organizations, having to create lots of special things can be tough.  But, if you’re sending an appeal to your donors anyway, just include your lapsed and deep lapsed donors, segment them out so you can see the results. You’ll have to run them through National Change of Address anyway so a good way to keep your database up to date and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

“So, I always recommend at least mailing lapsed and deep lapsed once a year, preferably now in the fall. Make sure to give them at least one touch point a year, without breaking the bank.”

AND FINALLY… copywriter and strategist Fern Sanford added another solid dollop of great advice:

“Erica and Lisa make excellent points. I would add to this looking at where donors are coming from, recreating the experience and messaging that brought them in, and keeping communication fresh. I know that most organizations do not have the manpower to go back and physically look at the packages. But someone (consultant or organization) needs to.

“What were the message points? How passionate was the package? It could be something as simple as what the carrier looked like? Was there an organization branding change? Was something going on in the news or within the organization drawing people to them? It’s all in the context. Did the organization continue to reflect that passion and need? Did they continue those message point?

“I think true and thoughtful creative (and that includes providing real information and a sincere tone) is overlooked as an added expense and segmentation is considered king. But our business is individuals communicating with individuals. Formulas only go so far. I know from years of experience that “even” in direct response, people respond to authentic and personal communication.”

Great advice and insight from all.  Thank you. And an Agitator Raise for Lisa, Erica and Fern.

Roger

P.S.  No sooner had we locked up this post than Kathy Swayze of Impact Communications brought her helpful contribution to the table and  earned herself an Agitator raise:

“Years ago I attended a session taught by Tony Elischer (may he rest in peace) in which he outlined a wonderful approach for lapsed donors. His advice: 1) Acknowledge that they are a former supporter and thank them for that support. 2) Acknowledge that you haven’t heard from them in awhile and that you are simply writing to give them a quick update on what’s been happening (Sort of like the letter you send grandma when you have’t seen her in a while.) 3) End the letter by letting the donor know that the organization is still doing great work, and if they are ever in a position to donate again, it would be welcome and appreciated. 4) Include a return envelope and reply form with no hard ask.

“In other words, write to them as you would write to any old friend. Most of us wouldn’t write a friend we had lost touch with and say, “I know we haven’t spoken in years but I’m hoping I can come stay with you, and bring my 3 kids and two dogs.” We shouldn’t do this to our donors either.

“Over the years, I’ve been able to convince two clients to try Tony’s approach and in both cases, the package performed well. Give it a try and let us all know how it goes.”