Stay The Course Or Step Change?
Yes, there are some ‘uncontrollables’ that will influence your fundraising success in 2014 — consumers’ confidence about their economic well-being, major breaking events/tragedies (political or natural), and of course the extent to which you laid proper groundwork (or failed to) in 2013.
Still, in no small part, your nonprofit’s fundraising performance in 2014 will be determined by the choices you make, starting right now in January.
Have you identified and ranked your biggest opportunities or most urgent needs for improvement? What innovations will be required to get the results you want?
Will you be looking to maximize net income this year, or invest in growth?
Will you be giving higher priority to improving retention or to boosting acquisition?
Are you planning to ‘stay the course’, tweaking here and there, satisfied with incremental gains? Or are you looking for a ‘step change’ in performance, which will require innovation and more substantial change in approach, priorities, organization-wide commitment, and even talent acquisition?
There’s no silver bullet answer for what’s best for your organization — given unique marketing opportunities, investment resources, organizational life stage — although as you’ve heard from Roger and me with insistence, you can’t go wrong improving retention!
But we can at least help you base your planning on the correct performance measures. Roger calls them ‘value metrics’ and explains them in detail here. They are:
- Number of New Donors Making Second Gift.
- Number of New Donors Retained Into the Second Year.
- Multiple Year Retention Rates.
- Lifetime Value of a Donor (LTV).
- Donor Commitment.
If you focus on improving your performance against these measures, you cannot go wrong. And you won’t get fired in 2014!
Tom
P.S. You can tell by this post’s title that Roger and I are hoping to see some Agitator readers set your sights on step-change in 2014. If that’s you’re goal, we’re in your corner … tell us what you have in mind.
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 […]
Read Full Answer
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 […]
Read Full Answer
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 […]
Read Full Answer
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 […]
Read Full Answer
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 […]
Read Full Answer
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 […]
Read Full Answer