A quick Google search for “converting donors” turns up all kinds of sage and not so sage advice on how to do it.

But ‘conversion’ is a mis-used term tossed around with far too much abandon and far too little real understanding.

The result? Tons of false and unrealizable expectations and far, far too much wasted money on efforts that should never be thought of as ‘conversion’ in the first place.

Why am I about to climb on this soapbox?

At last week’s Engage Conference presented by Fundraising Success (you can see the presentations here), my colleague Kevin Schulman and I were both struck by an observation made in the wrap-up session by Tom Harrison, the CEO of Russ Reid.

“Why are nonprofits mad at about 50% of their donors at any given time for donating in the “wrong” way? And why do they persist in attempting to convert them to behaving differently?”

Apparently — and fortunately — Kevin wrestled with these questions long after the conference ended. His musings resulted in Stop Trying to Convert Donors  — a piece that appears in the current issue of The DonorVoice Newsletter.

I urge you to read the article in its entirety. Kevin asks and answers the question: “So what gives with all the effort time and wasted trying to convert donors who give in one way, even predictably so, to another way?”

Here are the key takeaways:

• Unlike sophisticated commercial marketers, the nonprofit sector treats ‘conversion’ as a process that takes a new donor with at least some small relationship and connection to the organization and then systematically destroys it by barraging the donor with inordinate amounts of direct mail. (Kevin doesn’t put it this gently.)

• “If the same energy, resources and time were put into building legitimate product extensions and upgrades — a mainstay in the commercial sector — then the nonprofit sector and the causes supported by it would be immensely better off.”

Kevin goes on to cite what he calls “a few classic examples of the folly of conversion”, assuming the goal is net income and lifetime value.

Converting Event to Mission Donors

Too many nonprofits waste too much time and money trying to convert event donors to ‘mission’ donors — a fool’s errand. The goal of ‘conversion’ because someone in the organization has decided to make everybody a direct mail donor is misguided at best.

Converting Premium to Non-Premium Donors

The false assumption here is that premium donors are not real donors. Why feel compelled to convert them? Why not use better products and more products and the pricing value curves assigned by donors to these products to increase margin and lifetime value?

Converting Disaster Donors to Mission Donors

It’s assumed in the US (but not in the UK) that disaster donors don’t convert well to longer-term higher value donors. The main reason the conversion process doesn’t work well in the US is because it’s not properly executed. According to Kevin: “What will be tried with reckless abandon in spite of repeatedly lousy results is putting these same disaster donors into the direct mail stream to ‘convert’ them.”

I’m sure Kevin’s insights will get some blood boiling, but they’ll also sharpen your thinking.

Care to share your conversion experiences?

Roger

P.S. Kevin argues that the reason so many organizations fail at conversion is they don’t realize “the truer reality that they have, almost in spite of themselves, different lines of business and product lines. Instead of cross-selling and upselling on these products too many fundraisers attempt to merge and blend the various lines of their business into a mythical donor pyramid that is built and defined by response to direct mail.”

As one reader, Charlie Hulme, Creative Director at Pell & Bales in the UK, puts it: “Great article — makes total sense. Why do we insist on forcing people into a model they haven’t shown interest in when there’s another (very lucrative) one that they have?

“It’s the equivalent of a big supermarket viewing my purchasing history, seeing I’m a vegan, but deciding they get a better return on steak and so constantly try to sell me that instead of the food I want!”