YEAR END: One Year Ends; The Next Begins
Hopefully, this week has prepared you for your year-end giving season. You’ll get your communications set and you’ll watch the donations come in. And when, at 10:27 local time, you hit your online giving goal, you will celebrate the New Year in a way that makes you not want to give up until at least January 2nd.
Allow me to be the party pooper.
Yes, you got the gifts. That is great. It’s a large part of your job. But it is not the entirety of that job. The other part is to get them to give again. What you do in those January doldrums will dictate a large part of that.
So now is the time to set up your:
Thank yous. Researchers looked at DonorsChoose projects. They found that a significant predictor of whether someone would donate again was how quickly they got their thank you after their gift. No surprise there.
They also found that another significant predictor of return giving was how quickly they got their thank you after the project was completed.
Oh. That thank you. In the frenzy of getting the year-end gift, are you reporting back on post-year-end, telling donors they were a part of you hitting your goal and here’s where your gift is going?
If not, let’s start.
Learning. You can consider January to mid-November as your testing laboratory. If you have a good idea, or a bad one, this is the time to test it when it won’t make an impact on The One Month To Rule Them All.
But that’s not actually the type of learning I meant.
You got a lot of new donors at year end. Congratulations! What are you doing to learn about them, most especially:
- Who are they and why did they give? Consider the 230% lift ASPCA got by asking for identity and topic preference online, then playing that back to donors.
- Were they satisfied with the experience? Look to Catholic Relief Services. By learning about their donors, they could better serve them as individuals. That’s nice. They also learned things they could do to improve their donation form, like stop requiring title on the donation form and making it easier to direct donations to specific mission area. That’s even better, because those changes increased their conversion rates for donations.
- What do they want their relationship to be with you going forward? By learning donor channel and frequency preferences, diverse organizations have increased results and decreased costs by mailing, phoning, and emailing donors according to their wishes.
As we’ve argued, this learning should come at point of acquisition or as soon as possible thereafter.
Customization. Learning about your donors is worthless if you don’t use that knowledge to improve their experience. (In fact, it’s probably worse, because after telling you what they want, the donors will expect it.) Now is the time to set up different journeys for donors based on who they are, what they want, how committed they are to you, and how they want to deal with you.
So when the new year asks should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind, you have the answer: no. 2019 comes right after 2018 with no break in between. You need to plan for both.
Nick
2 responses to “YEAR END: One Year Ends; The Next Begins”
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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Great post as usual, Nick. Excellent points for YEND consideration.
“They also found that another significant predictor of return giving was how quickly they got their thank you after the project was completed.”
One thing that I’ll add, as I see a lot of non-profits miss it when conducting comp analysis is: In addition to reporting back and thanking a donor in a timely fashion, do not forget to tell your donor what’s next! We are building long-term relationships with the goal of connecting [as per individual affinities as much as possible] at various points through a donor’s lifecycle. Narratives that donors can write themselves into.
So tell donors what’s next, or what else they might be able to get engaged in, what to expect now that they’ve put their hands up. Maybe it’s introducing them to advocacy work, an event, other projects, or just regular updates on gifts. This not only strengthens the relationship but keeps them engaged – increasing retention, but also allows you to cross-promote your other product offerings.
I often see a lot orgs simply ask, thank, radio silence, ask [urgent appeal!], thank, radio silence, ask, attrition.
Alex
Alex, agree. So often the asks are occurring in a different universe from the thank yous, report backs, and other opportunities to get involved (if people say they want that).