Welcome to your Clairification Dashboard and Monthly Tips!
You’ll find something new here each month — paralleling what you’re likely thinking about during this time period.
Consider these tips your New Year’s Resolutions. They’re simple to accomplish, relatively inexpensive, and they’ll give your fundraising program a big boost in the coming year.
As the folks at Nike would say: JUST DO IT!
Plus, scroll down for some extra advice about donor retention — a hugely important topic!!!
TIP ONE: Correct Your Bad Addresses
Give donors the gift of reconnection!
Did you know in the U.S., at any point in time, on average 5%-7% of your database is undeliverable? Over a four-year period 30 to 40% of people in your database will have changed addresses or died. Some folks will let you know when they move, but a majority will get busy and neglect to do so; you’ll fall off their radar. Do you really want to lose your ability to communicate with these supporters? Absolutely not! These are folks who know you and at some point told you they wanted to connect with you.
Don’t let your donors wander away by failing to take this simple action: Run a National Change Of Address (NCOA) update. Roger Craver of the Agitator-DonorVoice estimates this will yield a revenue boost of 5%-7%. If you raised $100,000 last year, this will get you an extra $5,000. Raised $1 million? This will yield an extra $50,000! No arguments, this is well worth your investment. [Estimated cost: $20 max through TrueNCOA regardless of the size of your donor file; estimated time: 1 hour].
NOTE: Make it policy to clean up your database at least annually, and more if you have a big list and/or mail frequently. Sending mail to undeliverable addresses is expensive and a waste of resources. Some donor databases offer built-in data stewardship updates [e.g. Bloomerang does this nightly, scanning and updating all U.S. addresses for updates, deceased information (when applicable), and some optional demographic information.]. Check with your provider to see what’s offered, and consider this a feature to look for if you’re in the market for a new database.
TIP TWO: Remove Deceased Donors
Avoid sending embarrassing or triggering mail!
Penelope Burk’s groundbreaking Donor-Centered Fundraising research found a key thing donors want is for you to “show them you know them.” When you send lapsed donor reminders to people who are deceased, you fail big time in this regard. You don’t make grieving family members feel very good either. Can you imagine how you, and your donor, would feel if you called to ask for a major gift by beginning with the common “So, how is your other half doing?” only to learn they’d passed away six months ago? They’ll think, if you know them as you should, you should have known that.
Don’t unnecessarily make donors feel bad by failing to take this simple action: Run a deceased donor update to identify people in your file who’ve passed away. [Estimated Cost: $50 max through TrueDeceased, regardless of the size of your donor file; estimated time: 1 hour.]
TIP THREE: Keep Your New Donors
Show genuine, prompt, personal and powerful gratitude – and keep it coming!
There is nothing that boosts retention more than a thoughtful thank you. But it can’t be just a pro forma automated message or formal mailed receipt. When Penelope Burk’s Donor-Centered Fundraising research first came out two decades ago (it’s been repeated numerous times since), I was bowled over by the primary finding that if nonprofits did just three things donors would likely give again. Or give more. What was this holy trinity?
Don’t ignore the “3 ‘P’s” of donor gratitude:
I write dozens of posts annually on the power of thank you (e.g., see here, here, here and here for just a few), and will continue to do so until donor retention rates start to rise. Alas, they’ve been plummeting for over a decade per Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) reports – and I truly believe it’s because most nonprofits don’t put real energy into developing and carefully implementing a written Donor Love and Loyalty Plan. Make this the year you do this – in spades! And please send heartfelt, genuine thank you’s that make donors feel good. Here’s an example from Vida Joven that knocks it out of the park:
NOTE: If you get a second gift from a donor the chance you’ll get another jumps from 19% to 61% per FEP research. And the best way to get that second gift is to thank well. A ‘gratitude program’ is more than simply saying “thank you” once; then ignoring the donor until your next appeal. You need to plan a cycle of communications. Begin with your prompt personal thank you for their year-end gift; then get rid of all your excuses for not letting folks know their gift was appreciated more than just that one time. “Cut the crap” and consider other ways to demonstrate gratitude throughout the year.
Research shows for gratitude to really be effective it must be repeated. Across multiple channels in multiple ways. This will make your donor feel loved. When we’re loved, we’re likely to return the favor.
And… a Bonus!
Speaking of donor retention, here’s an answer to a question on this topic which I answered in the Bloomerang “Ask an Expert” feature. I thought I’d share it with you here as well, because I get this question a LOT.
Dear Charity Clairity,
What tips would you give to a small to medium-size shop to improve first-time donor retention? Alas, we’re right on parallel with the Fundraising Effectiveness Project data and are losing roughly 8 out of 10 new donors. This isn’t sustainable, of course, but I don’t want to dial back on our acquisition efforts. What can I do to make the ROI better?
— Losing Too Many New Donors
Dear Losing Too Many New Donors,
You’re right to call this out as a problem, and you’re not alone. Even though donor attrition has been abysmal for over a decade, too few nonprofits are engaging in the best practices proven to improve results.
If you ask well, you may get one gift. If you thank well, you may get a lifetime of gifts. Thank you kickstarts the relationship-building process. Without it, you just have one stand-alone transaction.
Here are 10 first-time donor retention tips that channel gratitude
- Call first-time donors immediately and thank them. Assign this to a personable administrative assistant, your annual giving manager, or a volunteer. Just make sure it happens promptly (48 hours is ideal), and make a record that the call was made (this will enable you to track whether donors who are called renew and upgrade at higher levels than those who are not called). Learn more about what to say on these calls (and messages left) here.
- Send new donors a great thank you letter.I believe every donor deserves a real letter. With a real, hand-written signature. Not a receipt. Not a pre-printed card. See what constitutes “great” here.
- Send new online donors an additional thank you by mail. Don’t just send them an automated email response. Even donors who give online should get something in the mail, especially if this is their first gift. Retention for new online donors can be poor, so anything you can do to encourage a bond with your cause may help retention and increase your fundraising results. A mailed thank-you letter is likely to be saved, put up on the fridge, or given a special place on the bulletin board. It “sticks” in a way an emailed thank you just doesn’t.
- Send new donors a welcome packet or welcome email series. Include volunteer opportunities, invitations to free events, and at least one heart-warming story about, or thank you from, someone their gift helps.
- Invite new donors to non-ask events. Schedule tours of your facility or get folks together at a board member’s home or office for socializing and a short Q&A. Or ask folks to serve as a focus group to give advice on programs or products (you don’t have to take the advice; it’s just nice to show folks you value them for more than just their wallets). Whatever you do, make sure someone follows up to see if your donor has any additional questions or ideas.
- Invite new donors to become volunteers. This can be either in direct service or as a committee member. For newbies this can be a great opportunity to simply showcase the depth and breadth of your services. They may be amazed you have so many involvement opportunities!
- Develop systems to ensure new donors get thanked more than once. You absolutely don’t want them to think you cared only about that one gift. Build a relationship. Encourage them to subscribe to your newsletter, and always thank supporters there. Send something at the end of the year (it can be through email, a postcard, or an insert in some other mailing all donors receive) that once again welcomes them to your ‘family’ or ‘community’ and lets them know what their gift helped make possible.
- 30 days after the first thank-you letter, send a warm, quick impact reminder like a text, an email with a video or heartwarming photo, or a postcard reiterating how much their first gift was appreciated.
- In the next quarter, send them a thank you from someone who was helped (e.g., a client, student, parent, etc.). You can get creative and have the thank you come from an animal, painting, or tree!
- A month before the anniversary of their first gift send them an impact piece describing how their gift was used. Depending on how many new donors you have, and whether you operate on a calendar or fiscal year, you could alternatively send a year-end thank-you letter to all donors at the same time.
If you’re small, and thinking it’s too expensive or time-consuming to thank first-time, small dollar donors this way, think again. When you’re small, you need every single donor to stick with you. And you never know. Plenty of organizations have received six, seven figure bequests from supporters who were low-level donors or volunteers. So, prioritize the thank you process.
TRUE STORY: I once worked with a client who was balking at sending thank-you letters to their small and online donors, let alone sending them a follow-up postcard or making a phone call. They thought it was overkill and, besides, their staff didn’t have time, but they only had 200 total donors. I could write and send postcards to every single one of their donors in a single evening (this could speak to why they have so few of them). If you’re small you have even more reason to treat every donor as precious!
If you’re larger, determine which donors are “must call” vs. “nice to call.” Perhaps you truly don’t have the bandwidth to thank everyone this way, but you certainly could select a subset of your best prospects among first-timers.
NOTE: According to Mal Warwick, author of Revolution in the Mailbox: Your Guide to Successful Direct Mail Fundraising, research indicates new donors of $15 or less are difficult to convert. On the other end of the spectrum, donors of $50 or more typically have the highest conversion rate. Warwick’s data suggests a high correlation between the level of the donor’s initial gift and the likelihood that donor will still actively support you more than a year later. If your organization has a limited marketing budget, you can use this to determine who receives additional follow up and who doesn’t. You also have a great opportunity to test whether those who receive more attention convert or upgrade at a higher level than those who do not receive this attention. If you do this, remember to take a random sampling (e.g. every fifth donor). A year later you can see if this group renewed at a higher percentage or dollar rate. If so, you can then justify putting more resources into this next year. Interesting stuff!
RESOLVE to make donor retention a priority.
Really! if you want to survive and thrive in today’s competitive nonprofit marketplace, there’s no better New Year’s resolution.
There are fewer and fewer new donors. So you absolutely must love the ones you’re with!
It’s not hard, it’s just work.
Work you want to do intelligently, according to a plan.
To paraphrase Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” Or not.
Are you currently going the “or not” route? Sadly, if your donor hygiene and retention strategies are catch-as-catch-can, you are headed to nowhere.
If I can help you do better, don’t hesitate to reach out. You may find this guide useful: How to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude and Keep Your Donors. Channel an attitude of gratitude and I guarantee you’ll lose fewer donors next year!