Repeat Donors Always Welcome
This week, I’m going to wear you down on the subject of retaining donors! It’s THAT important.
Here’s more advice on how to hang on to them … this time from Bill Peck of Organizational Solutions, writing in Philanthropy Journal.
Bill’s recommendations (amplified here):
- Send a timely thank you letter within five to seven business days of gift receipt. [Ed: faster if you can!]
- Personalize your thank-you letter.
- Share stories that demonstrate how your agency is making a difference.
- Don’t just ask, but inform.
- Create opportunities for face-to-face visits.
If all that fails, Bill adds:
“To better understand why people stop giving, consider conducting a survey of lost donors every few years that asks why they no longer give. You may be surprised by what you hear, and the feedback could influence future communications as well as help you reclaim lost donors.”
Amen!
Tom
P.S. Have you taken The Agitator’s online survey on donor retention? We ask one simple question: What percentage of your nonprofit’s 1st time donors make a second gift? Answer here. Do it now! We want to publish the results Friday or Monday.
3 responses to “Repeat Donors Always Welcome”
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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I strongly suggest that you can (and should) do better than a five-to-seven day acknowledgment of a donation. The standard should be two business days (unless the gift is online, in which case it should happen right away). And, major gifts should also get an immediate phone call by the Executive Director and/or a Board member. -Terri
This is my first attempt at blogging so be gentle. I have been in business for 30+ years and realized a major void in fundraising with a surprising commodity that stares us in the face on a daily basis…tickets! Please note the my thoughts below and thanks for your consideration.
tix4cause.com, an “outside the box” marketing solution
You gain a whole new perspective of a situation by adding a dose of empathy and taking a walk in someone else’s shoes; when you shift your focus and look at something from a different angle.
The situation I am speaking about is entertainment tickets and how they can be used to drive incremental dollars to non profits. We all accept the idea that 70% of non profit auctions items are sports, theater, music tickets or events such as golf foursomes, dinners, spas and hotel resort packages. Sure, for one night a year, we enlist hundreds of volunteers and charity resources to deliver what we hope to be an extremely successful night of fundraising and improved donor relationships. Yet, donors with season tickets to sports, entertainment events, corporate skyboxes and golf memberships have the potential to donate more frequently than one auction night. All they need is the awareness and the vehicle. At tix4cause.com both are provided. Non profits are invited to spread the word among their donor base that at any time throughout the year for any event, their inventory of unused tickets and events can be donated and posted for sale 365 24/7 on our website with up to 100% of proceeds going to the charity. While the team at tix4cause utilizes social media tools to spread the word to the public to purchase great seats, sometimes selling tickets within three minutes after posting.
On average up to 20% of season ticket holder’s tickets go to waste. When you apply this factor to just the four major sports (baseball, basketball, football and hockey), this equates to over $1.5 billion in ticket sales that go to waste. Concierge Live, a software company that manages over 60 different corporation’s tickets, skyboxes and events validates this fact. And as a corporate executive for 25 years, I can personally validate that in many instances, regardless of the event, clients are not interested in attending weekend events. Therefore, next time you’re at a basketball or baseball game check out the dark rooms in the skyboxes and apply the “tix4cause calculator” that suggests each empty sky box is an opportunity to raise $2-4k for a charity. For that matter, next time you’re at any event, check out the number of empty seats and do the math. Ask yourself how many of these tickets could have been donated to a non profit. No rent, no resources, no upfront investment and when sold on tix4cause.com the non profit earns up to 100% of the sale proceeds.
tix4cause.com allows non profits the opportunity to turn unused tickets/events into donations for charity. Everyone wins in this “outside the box” proven charity solution. Donors are issued a tax receipt, purchasers get great seats at great pricing, charities receive incremental funding, and the beneficiaries of the non profits efforts continue to reap the benefits. In a little over a year, over $50,000 has already been raised for non profit members without non profits deploying any resources. tix4cause is an efficient and transparent e-marketplace poised to disrupt the ticket distribution industry, turn a wasted commodity into incremental charity donations and deliver a common message that the entire tix team and our non profit members share … empty seats can be turned into cash for non profits using tix4cause.com.
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Kevin Nemetz is the founder of tix4cause, after a 30 career path as an executive in Fortune 100 Consumer Products Companies. He is located in Naperville, IL and can be reached at 630-689-9930. He has spoke at numerous industry conferences on Trends in Technology to Corporate Development Officers and Non Profits executives as well as Innovations in Fundraising and the Business of Fundraising.
In addition to the five ideas here, I vote for a phone call thank you. In addition to showing some supporter love, I’ve also found this to be a good tactic for engaging boad members who are hesitant about fundraising. It gets them involved but doesn’t require them to “ask” and makes the donor feel great since someone from so high up the chain is calling.