Which Fundraising Stat Impresses You Most?
In his Friday post, Roger asked: How many donors must we lose before we learn?
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that initial results from #GivingTuesday show terrific growth. As they put it, the initial “haul” of #GivingTuesday looks to be $168 million, up from the estimated $117 million last year.
On the other hand, in an article titled The Big Problem in Charity That Giving Tuesday Can’t Fix, Slate cites figures from Target Analytics that the number of people giving money in response to direct mail appeals fell by 25% between 2005 and 2015. And it’s not that they’ve all migrated online.
Parenthetically, the article, authored by Helaine Olen, makes a case for small-dollar donations — steadier stream of income, no strings, etc. She notes the example of Jared Kushner, whose father, Charles Kushner, donated to Harvard before his son’s successful application to the elite institution. “Yes, it’s giving,” she says, “But it’s giving that reflects the priorities and needs of the donors, which are not necessarily the priorities and needs of the greater society.”
But I digress.
Back to my original question. Which news should be more important to fundraisers, the striking growth in donations on #Giving Tuesday or the striking decline in numbers of small-dollar donors?
I think you know my answer.
Tom
One response to “Which Fundraising Stat Impresses You Most?”
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I’m not sure about the “hint” your giving us here (that small donors don’t seem to matter as much anymore). And, listen… I’m usually the first one to tell people to focus on the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle). “Ask people with capacity first!” is my mantra. “Focus on major donors!”
But, back to your hint…. Common Cause supplied a chart analyzing small donation percentages of candidates. Unfortunately it stopped at Sept. 2015. I’d like to see how it ended after the election.
Anyway, they reported that (at that time) 77% of Bernie Sanders’ campaign dollars came from small donations followed next by Donald Trump (70% of his campaign revenue came from small donations). Next is Ben Carson— 60% of his campaign dollars came from small contributions.
Interestingly, Hillary Clinton was (at that time) at the bottom of the list under Rick Santorum (who’s that?). She only garnered 17% of her fundraising from small contributions. Yeah… I was surprised too. But again I wonder how the final tally will look. Jeb Bush was at 5%! Chris Christie just 3%.
http://www.commoncause.org/democracy-wire/new-analysis-small-donors-2016-presidential-election.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/
My point is that small donations do happen and can make a difference and, Yes, I agree that fundraisers should be aware of the numbers to which you are referring. But I think they’d be much better off if they focus much more on the value and customer service they provide to donors than wallowing in the misery of “poor us… the rich are controlling what happens to us.”
An exchange of money from small donors to nonprofits will only occur if the value proposition is fair and the result of giving makes the donors feel good. If nonprofits aren’t getting people to give, perhaps it’s because the value proposition isn’t good enough for small donors and those same people aren’t feeling good about giving. Perhaps it’s the nonprofits that need to do something different.
Keep in mind that while some in the sector have been fretting about the number of small donations on Giving Tuesday, Netflix has grown substantially at a “cost/donation” of about $10/month (the same amount as a monthly donation). And, people still buy $4 coffees at Starbucks to the tune of $20+/week or $80/month… etc. Not to mention that Black Friday online sales this year were 21.6% more than last year. http://fashionista.com/2016/11/black-friday-2016-results
Tom, I submit that it ain’t so much about the rich getting richer. Rather, it’s about the failure of nonprofits to provide enough value to people… especially small donors. Start there. Increase the value. Make donors feel good. Then, the nonprofit sector will generate more donation dollars from small donors on GivingTuesday 2017 and everything else will work out just fine.