Time’s running out.  It’s too late to implement some elaborate year-end strategy.

BUT…here are two Agitator tips –one free and one costing no more than $20—that any organization, small or large, can put in place quickly and easily to boost year-end revenue.

Tip #1:  Database Address Update.

 Estimated Potential Benefit: 5%-7% Revenue Boost

  [Estimated cost: $20 max; Estimated time: 1 hour]

If 5%-7% of your database is undeliverable (the average for nonprofits in the US) you’ve handicapped your brilliant year-end plans and copy from the git go.

As we previously reported, a  review and updating of donor addresses and deceased donors over a group of 1,200 small and mid-sized organizations containing a total of 9.6 million records found 545,000 bad addresses (5.66% of the total) and 268,000 deceased donors (2.79% of the total).  That’s a lot of wasted appeals and communications…lots of lost income and donor retention.

Fundraiser T.Clay Buck poignantly illustrates the problem of what he calls “Compounding Data Quality”— the compounding negative effect that bad addresses have on an organization.  As Clay warns, even a 1% per year loss of correct addresses costs an organization with 25,000 donors at least $157,000 over a five-year period.

[For a detailed explanation of this calculation see Clay’s post in his Annual Fund Lab.]

If you apply Clay’s Compounding Data Quality exercise and assume an average gift size of just $40, in the first year alone those 1200 organizations we reviewed would have lost $21.8 million. And if those addresses were not corrected the five-year loss would exceed the $100 million mark.

Sure, I know that updating addresses ain’t exotic, shiny or new. But failure to follow this basic practice damages your organization and borders on malpractice.

How To Get It Done

Until I started digging into the seemingly dull subject of “database hygiene”, I was certain almost everyone takes care of such a fundamental function.  Was I ever wrong!

And that’s why we worked with our sister company TrueGivers to put TrueNCOA and TrueDeceased into the AgitatorToolbox . Just go there and with less than an hour’s time on your part and a cost of $20 max regardless of the size of your file you can update the postal addresses on your database. (For an additional small fee you can also identify the deceased donors on your file.)

Alternatively, you can also check with your CRM to see what they can do to update your addresses and identify deceased donors.  For a summary of popular CRMs and their practices see the CRM NCOA Report Card. Of these, only Bloomerang provides its users with free, automatic, nightly updates on addresses, and notification of deceased donors. Others offer address correction services, but charge fees ranging from reasonable to exorbitant.

So, if you’re wondering why in the world The Agitator would be dealing with something as “mundane” as bad addresses and dead donors you now know the reason. All the great copywriting…all the donor care imaginable…and all the brilliant strategies in the world don’t matter if the donor no longer receives   your communications.

Tip #2:  Spike Your Ask String.

Estimated Potential Benefit:  20% Increase in Average Gift; 7% Increase Response Rate

[Estimated cost: $0 to .01 cent per donor; Estimated time: Minutes]

‘Tis the season for spiking and spicing up the punch bowl.  Consider doing the same for year-end Ask Strings.

Many fundraisers really don’t know the best “ask amount” for each donor.  They guess, or resort to traditional, tribal wisdom ask strings like 1X Highest Previous Gift (HPC), 1.5 X HPC,  2 X HPC and Other $_______

The result?  They’re often leaving massive amounts of money on the table.

The ask string –also known as ask array, ask ladder, or suggested gift amount–is one of the more underappreciated parts of a direct response piece.  And yet the standard string of highest previous contribution (HPC), HPC x 1.5, HPC x 2, and a blank for a donor-entered amount generally rules the day without a challenge to its throne. Sometimes a fourth option will pop in. Sometimes the ask string will be accelerated to HPC, HPC x 2, HPC x 4, other. But all are still distinct echoes of the first customized strings.

Fortunately, we no longer have to abide tradition and tribal wisdom.  Thanks to behavioral science research and predictive analytics no more guessing! 

“Does all this really matter?”, you ask.  It sure does.  In applying science and predictive analytics, the folks at DonorTrends have seen increases in performance ranging from 17% to 306% in revenue; and from 12% to 800% increases in average gifts.

Research shows that even a single, simple change can make a huge difference—a change as simple as putting $100 in your ask string.  Reiley and Samek did a study in which they tried two different ask strings.

The first string was $35, $50, $75, $95, $250, and “other”.  The second was the same as the first, but with $100 swapped in for the $95.  Revenue per solicitation went up 29%.  Average gift went up almost 20% and response rate went up 7.6%.  It’s rare to ask for more money and not decrease response rate but this did it.

If you want to go beyond changing a single number as in the test above the following will help you make the most out of building ask strings for your year-end efforts and beyond, I have two recommendations to consider:

Recommendation #1:  Try OptimizeAsk™.  Drawing upon a wide range of academic research, proven techniques and machine learning the folks at DonorTrends have designed a system of predictive analytics for creating ask strings for each individual donor.

For the cost of 1 penny – that’s right, one cent— per donor record they’ll identify those donors most likely to upgrade.  In addition, they’ll provide custom tailored ask strings/suggested asking amounts for each donor.

For the rest of your donors –those you’re looking to reactivate and for those donors who are not as likely to make a big upgrade – DonorTrends will also provide custom ask strings for those donors as well.  Click here for a convenient chart prepared by DonorTrends that outlines the basic ask string approaches used by various organizations with varying goals.

Best of all the process is fast the DonorTrends team will provide personal guidance and suggest the most efficient upgrade strategies.  You can find out more about OptimizeAsk™here.

Recommendation #2:  Read the 29-page white paper The Art and Science of Ask Strings.  You can download this fact-packed, heavily researched guide written by our own Nick Ellinger and it’s free.

If you want to know the ins and outs of ask strings and the science behind them Nick’s masterpiece is for you.

Using the available scientific literature, coupled with his own years of fundraising experience Nick looks at why ask strings affect us psychologically and culturally. He’ll lead you through the process of how to establish goals for the ask string and explain how different goals apply to particular types of ask strings.

Regardless which of our recommendations (or all them) you choose the follow the main purpose of this post is to focus your attention on the importance of no/low cost steps you can take to 1) make sure your message is being delivered; and 2) you’re gaining optimal value from your year-end request.

Roger