Suppose a donor said this to you …

“I’ve decided to weed my giving garden. I’ve been giving faithfully to a dozen organizations, but I’m going to cut back by the end of the year to six at most. Why should you be one of those six? Take your time; I don’t need the answer right now.”

If you’re a major gift fundraiser, after you’ve taken a pill of some kind, you’d probably plan a level of investigation (profiling the donor’s past giving in detail) and further customized communication (based upon the donor’s clearly expressed passions and preferences) commensurate to their giving history and (potential) value.

Hopefully, you’d interact with the donor to gain a better understanding of their overall giving aspirations and how your organization might fulfill them, and to identify any ‘disappointments’ they might hold with your organization.

On other words, you probably wouldn’t yield that donor easily.

However, if you’re a direct marketing fundraiser, dealing with a universe of $25-$50 average gifts or a $20 a month donor, how would you respond and how hard would you work to retain that giver?

Now, in all likelihood, a donor in that category is very unlikely to ever reach out and deliver that message directly. They just disappear. You’ve been weeded!

Earlier this year, Jeff Brooks speculated about this weeding, in a post called How to keep up with changing donors. And he was reacting to a NY Times column, Don’t Give Till It Hurts, which gave reader-donors advice you don’t want to hear: Make a giving plan with limits; and don’t feel guilty about not straying from it.

Jeff observed:

“There’s some evidence that a growing number of donors follow a plan something like this. For something like 10 years, response rates and have been dropping but average gifts have been growing. That could be a sign of donors consolidating their giving: larger donations to fewer organizations — possibly following a plan or a philosophy.”

Does this pattern apply to your organization … fewer donors with higher average gifts?

The good news is that somebody out there likes you enough to give more. The bad news is you’re being weeded.

Shouldn’t you be aiming to get on each of your donors’ short lists — the fat cats and the small fry too?

Jeff offered some sage advice stressing donor-focused fundraising.

On Monday, check out Roger’s advice about the kind of donor experience you need to deliver to all your donors if you don’t want to be weeded … and how you can do it.

Tom