How to use email effectively in fundraising

Email is one of the most cost-effective ways to stay in touch with supporters and to keep them involved with your cause. Yes, many charities tend to exploit this communication tool effectively to increase donor engagement and to fundraise online. 

Have a look below and see how you can improve the effectiveness of your charity's emails: 

Start segmenting your email list. If you are running a robust direct mail programme you are probably segmenting your database and sending different asks to different donor groups. So, why send everyone in your email list the same fundraising ask? Now is the time to customise your email campaigns based on how you acquired the email addresses and the relationship you have with them. 

A good place to start is to divide your list into some broad segments and determine some source codes for future email segmentation.

 Integrate your direct mail appeals with your email appeals. Follow up your direct mail letters with email appeals a few weeks after sending out the paper appeal. Share the appeal stories and fundraising asks in these special emails and encourage the supporter to give online. Send a second round of emails to past donors who have not responded to the appeal or the previous email.  

Test the marketing mix of your emails frequently. You can take advantage of the simplicity of A/B tests and the low cost of email testing to test the creative mix, the key messages, the fundraising offers etc with different email audiences. You can see very quickly how donors respond and then re-launch the emails that have performed better than others. 

Create easy and simple to navigate landing pages. You can send out some great emails and link them to your website but if donors have to click three or four times to get to the donation page then you would have lost most of them.  So link your emails to landing pages that tell your charity impact story, ask for a donation and allow the donor to complete the giving transaction without clicking through to another page. 

Add links to podcasts or videos  in your emails. Many donors want to experience your charity's work in one way or another and videos or podcasts can help them to see your work for themselves and to meet the people whose lives them are impacting with their gifts. 

Make it easy for readers to share your messages on social media sites.  Place social media buttons prominently within your e-mails and encourage your readers to share the stories or photos.

Become more intentional in gathering email addresses. Incorporate a request for email address in various printed communications, if you are offering resources etc make special offers available online, think of something of value that you can offer to supporters in return for their email address. 

Make your emails mobile friendly. These days probably half of your donors are checking and reading their emails on their mobile phones. So keep your content short and the design of your emails simple. 

Use email to turn contacts and one-ff donors into regular givers. Design a set of three emails that focus on converting non-donors or one-off donors into regular givers. Share a strong impact story and emphasise why and how regular gifts can change lives. Use these emails at regular intervals with different segments of your email list. 

Please feel free to suggest other ways of using email effectively for fundraising and marketing your charity's cause. 

Four mistakes Christian charities make when approaching donors

The first mistake is treating everyone in the same way. The fact of the matter is that different donors are at different stages of their relationship with the charity – some need to be encouraged to make their first gift, others need to inspired to give again or to give larger gifts and others need to be nudged gently to renew their support.

Another mistake is failing to incorporate the donor’s reasons for giving in fundraising appeals. In other words, the appeals are often ‘ministry-centric’ focused on what the charity needs to do its mission, donors are asked to stand in the gap to support the charity to meet its financial targets and so on.

The thing is donors are not interested in helping the charity meet its financial targets they are interested in changing lives, impacting the world, seeing the Gospel spread and so on. The more you talk about their/ the donors reasons for giving to change the world, to impact lives etc the more you are going to get the donor’s attention and their money.

A third mistake is that some Christian charities fail to thank donors appropriately. I have seen one too many response forms lately where the charity is asking the donor to tick a box if they don't want to be thanked. And they proudly state that 'thanking donors costs money - so they are cutting the costs by not thanking people.' In my opinion, this is a big mistake. Why? 

Because most donors want to hear whether the charity got the money they sent and how that money will be used. They also want to be assured that they have made a difference and feel involved in the charity's work. A good thank you letter does all these things...makes a donor feel special and satisfied that they have done the right thing. And, the truth is - satisfied donors keep giving to the charity for the long run. 

A fourth mistake is that many Christian charities fail to engage with potential supporters. In other words, they fail to invest sufficiently in getting new donors. I have come across many charities whose donor bases are ageing rapidly and where some donors have stopped giving a long time ago but they are still being mailed. These charities get a handful of new donors every year and they lose a few hundreds. I genuinely believe that there are sufficient funds out there, in the potential donors’ bank accounts but Christian charities are not accessing these funds because they are not working hard enough to engage with these potential donors. 

Is there anything else you would like to add to this list? 

Making friends for life: practical insights to help you retain your charity’s donors

What is the primary purpose of fundraising? – To raise enough money for our charity’s work – you might say. Wrong answer!  

Let’s approach this question in another way. Sure your charity needs money to carry out its programmes but where is the money coming from? – From donors, individuals, trusts, wealthy people, churches etc. So, what a fundraiser or a fundraising team does is develop and implement a fundraising plan to engage with individuals, churches, businesses or trusts and invite their support.

In this context of engaging with people and organisations - the primary purpose of fundraising is to help you find and keep your charity’s donors!  

Once an individual, a church or a business has made a gift to your charity it is vital that they renew their support in the future. You probably know from experience that finding new donors is a costly business so the only way a charity can benefit from such new donors is when most of them give again and again and again.

Many fundraising advisers, including your boss, would tell you to work hard at retaining donors – by doing this you wouldn't have to acquire new ones very often. At face value this seems like the right advice but, when you take a closer look at the return on investment (ROI) from your donor retention activities you
are likely to discover that retaining donors can be harder and sometimes even more expensive than acquiring new donors.

Over the years, working with a variety of charity clients I have noted that retention rates can be affected by many factors including:

• the quality of the newly acquired donors and their propensity to keep giving, 
• the timing and frequency of a charity’s appeals, 
• the efficiency and warmth of thank you letters, 
• the content of appeals,
• the presence or absence of a regular giving programme, etc.  

Another factor that has a huge negative impact on retention is the assumption that the majority of donors are not going to renew their support because they have received too many requests for money! In my opinion, the opposite is true – a decrease in retention rates represents a failure to ask donors in a compelling
and inspiring way to make another gift to your cause. Here is a simple truth: if you are not grabbing a donor’s attention you are not going to get their gifts!

If you want to retain 60%, 70% even 80% of your charity’s donors and turn them from one-off givers to long term friends consider some of these insights.  I have already seen client’s retention rates moving in the right direction by doing the following:

1. Thank your donors within 48 hours of receiving their donation.  
2. Make time to call as many of your charity’s donors as possible - not to ask them for a gift, but simply to say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ for their support.  
3. Re-use a fundraising package that you know works well to ensure that your first time donors make that valuable second gift. 
4. Develop and implement a regular giving programme inviting donors to make monthly contributions to your cause. 
5. Strengthening the impact of direct mail appeals by using follow up emails. 
6. Don’t let donors disappear into thin air! 
7. Incorporate ‘soft’ fundraising asks in your newsletters.  

But be aware, that whatever you do you are not likely to retain all of your charity’s donors – some of them will stop giving and you will never know why. But, rather than trying to guess why they stopped giving you can focus on acquiring new donors and on implementing some of these insights and other ideas that can help you retain your charity’s donors.

Finally, make sure you are always measuring the impact of your retention activities and are learning from your successes and your mistakes.

Is your charity using 'churn and burn' fundraising techniques?

A recent LinkedIn post by Giles Pegram on the Institute of Fundraising discussion board about 'churn and burn' practices in fundraising got me thinking about the why and how this approach to fundraising is alive and well in so many charities today.

If you don't know what I am talking about - let me explain first what 'churn and burn' is. By definition, in a charity fundraising 'churn and burn' is about bringing in new donors/ or new contacts, bombarding them with irrelevant communications and fundraising appeals in order to get the most out of them in terms of donations and then letting them go.

Most charity fundraisers I talk to would never admit that their charity practices the 'churn and burn' approach. Here are some reasons why:

Firstly, many charity fundraisers are genuinely unaware of the 'churn and burn' practices under their roof. They just don't see it. Why? Because they might be doing very little new donor acquisition thinking that the times are hard and people will not give to new charities. Often 'churn and burn' approaches are fuelled by agressive new donor acquisition efforts. The problem is that these new supporters are bombarded with requests to give more money straightaway or included in the current communications cycle that is designed with long standing donors in mind. In other words, new donors feel little or no connection with the charity and they leave.

Secondly, because they are not measuring the effectiveness of their fundraising activities in terms of the how donors give and what kind of relationship they have with the charity. They are not measuring retention/ attrition rates of their donor file or contacts/ donor conversion rates and can not see how their charity might have the 'revolving doors' syndrome. Donors enter, stay a short while and leave.

Thirdly, fundraisers are under pressure from their line managers, CEO's and Boards to meet these year's targets often expressed in total amounts raised and numbers of new donors brought in. So, short- termism becomes the name of the game - let's get the most out of these donors now for meeting today's targets but not really focusing on growing relationships with donors naturally for the long term.

Fourthly, some direct marketing agency is practicing 'churn and burn' on behalf of the charity. Some charities outsource the new donor acquisition activities or even the whole fundraising function. So, a direct marketing agency finds new donors on their behalf or does their fundraising giving the charity the money. While at face value this looks like a good proposition and can work well on many occasions. There are times when the agency, working on behalf of many clients, engages in 'churn and burn' practices to meet the fundraising targets.

Finally, although many fundraisers talk about 'donor-centric' communications what they are sending out  is generic communications pieces that don't really speak to donors' concerns or motivations for getting involved with their work. If you disagree with me just pick up one of your charity's welcome letters, newsletters or fundraising appeals. Take a look, can you find more 'you' than 'we' in these materials? Do your newsletters contain any stories about donors, about what motivates them to participate in your work? Do your appeals contain three or four reasons - from the donors perspective - as to why they should give? If you answered 'No' to these questions that your charity's communications are not donor-centric.

Here are some action points to help you start identifying any 'churn and burn' practices in your charity's fundraising and uprooting them for good:

1. Run some fundraising reports to track donor behaviour, to identify the donors who are lapsing and ineffective fundraising activities;

2. Calculate lifetime value of your donors and start including the numbers of multi-year donors, new donors, reactivated donors etc in your fundraising reports for your CEO and other senior leaders.

3. Start educating your CEO and your Board about the importance of building long term relationships with supporters and the pace of such relationships, in that they do  not happen overnight.

4. Evaluate your communications standing in donors shoes. Show your appeals and newsletters to a group of friends and ask for their honest opinions. Do they understand what you are saying? Are they moved by your stories? Would they support this charity? Would they be impressed by your thank you/ welcome letters?

Please feel free to add any more points to this list...

Why generate fundraising reports? - Part One

Measuring your fundraising performance can help you identify the strengths and weaknesses of your current fundraising activities.


Many charities carry out several fundraising activities in the course of the year including: fundraising appeals, new donor acquisition campaigns, fundraising events, major donor appeals, legacy campaigns, email campaigns, etc. Often fundraisers doing these activities tend to measure only two things: how much money they got from each activity and how many donors gave.  


Few fundraisers are prepared to drill deeper into the data by asking the right questions and generating the fundraising reports that can show them which fundraising activities recruited more new donors,  larger donations or, which activities brought in more donors with a greater lifetime value than others, etc. But, those who do measure the performance of their fundraising activities often reap better results from their future fundraising activities.  


A case study 
  
As part of our Fundraising Fitness Test for one of our clients we calculated the Return on Investment (ROI) of all their fundraising and non-fundraising (e.g. newsletters, educational materials, etc) packages mailed to the database in the last three years. And, we noted that their charity’s bi-annual newsletter was the best vehicle for converting contacts from the database into first time givers. 


So, we recommended that the charity increased the frequency of their newsletter from twice a year to four times a year and strengthened the fundraising ask in it. The result - in the last 18 months this charity has seen a steady increase in the number of the first time givers through this tool.  


On another occasion, we helped a client to start measuring the financial contributions from new donors coming from different sources. A few years ago they were investing in getting new donors at exhibitions, regional events, inserts in the Christian press, donors introducing the charity to a friend, offering a free book in return for a modest donation and radio advertising, etc.  


Today, they are investing only in three of new donor acquisition activities described above. Why? – Because, our fundraising reports helped them to identify the activities that bring in the majority of donors who are likely to give again and again to this charity. 


To find out how your charity can benefit from our Fundraising Fitness Test email: redina(at)mcconkey-johnston.co.uk 

How is the recession impacting Christian giving?

The majority of evangelical donors (93%) answered our question about the impact of the recession on their charitable giving. The good news for churches and charities is that more than half of those who responded (62%) said that the recession had not impacted their giving while 38% said that their giving had been impacted. (The survey was carried out in Autumn part of 2009)

Furthermore, when asked whether they were donating the same amounts as they did six months prior to the survey the vast majority of evangelical donors (80%) said ‘yes,’ 9% said they were donating less than they did six months ago and 11% of donors did not answer this question.

Unfortunately, the opposite is happening in that charities and churches are tightening their belts and shying away from investing in their fundraising or stewardship programmes. Christian charities keep cutting their marketing budgets, or making fundraising staff redundant and some have even stopped their new donor acquisition activities.

If this trend continues, bearing in mind that 53% of current donors are either not likely to respond to new giving opportunities or are undecided, then charities who will grow their income are ones who are investing wisely in new donor acquisition campaigns amidst the recession.

Here are some more research insights that you might find useful:

Empty nesters are more likely to keep giving in recession
Evangelical donors without dependents at home are more likely to continue giving in recession compared to donors with dependents at home. 24% of donors with dependents stopped giving compared to 15% of donors without dependents.

Wealthy donors will continue to give
As expected, recession is having a stronger impact on the giving of donors from low household incomes. One in four donors from households making less than £10,000 stated that their giving has been impacted by recession, this figure fell to 22% for donors with household incomes of £20,000 - £30,000 and to 13% for donors from households making £50,000 or more annually.
Regular giving is safe amidst financial turmoil
The presence of dependents at home is not likely to be a key factor in a donor’s decision to stop giving regularly to a charity. We noted that 5% of donors with dependents at home and 6% of donors without dependents at home had stopped giving regularly to one or more charities as a result of the recession.

This data does not contradict the point we made earlier but can be taken to indicate that the majority of donors with dependents at home whose giving has been impacted by recession have probably stopped making one-off gifts. In other words, once donors decide to give regularly to a charity they are likely to follow through with their commitment despite the recession.
Men are steady givers
Men are more likely to continue giving in recession compared to women. Nearly half of women donors (47%) stated that their giving had been impacted by recession compare to 33% of male donors.

Older donors are most likely to be affected by recession
The economic recession is having a stronger impact on the charitable giving of older donors. Half of evangelical donors in the 75+ age group and 41% of donors in the 65-74 age group stated that their giving impacted by the recession. This figure fell to 35% for donors in the 54-65 age group and 30% for donors in the 45-54% age group.

Donors in employment still likely to give
Evangelical donors who are still working are more likely to continue to support their favourite charities through recession compared to donors who are retired or not working. 69% of donors currently working stated that their giving has not been impacted by recession compared to 58% of donors who are not working.

So, how focused are you on recruiting new donors from the empty nesters group? Have you got any plans to grow your major donor giving? How will you target men in a focused way to keep them connected to your cause? What about payroll giving schemes to encourage those in employment to support your charity?

Four simple steps to get a second gift from a new direct mail donor

Our Fundraising Fitness Test often shows that a typical charity loses over 60% of their first time donors acquired via direct mail. Often charities put a lot of money and effort in acquiring first time donors and somehow they lose most of them through the ‘back door.’ Often the main reasons for such high attrition rates are failing to treat new donors in a special way and not asking them soon enough for a second gift.

If you want to increase the percentage of new donors who make a second gift to your charity here are four steps you can take:

1. Thank new donors in a warm and personalised way for their first gift.

2. Send them a welcome pack. Tell them why they are a valuable part of your organization. Your welcome package should include: a welcome letter, a general brochure, your latest newsletter or magazine, and a basic questionnaire to help you get to know these new donors. Make sure you don’t overwhelm them with too many things.

3. Show new donors how you are using their gift to change the world. You can do this most effectively with a donor-centred newsletter or e-update containing a few inspiring stories of how you are putting their gifts to work.

4. Ask for a second gift within three months of receiving the first gift. Many charities leave it too late to ask for a second gift and they lose 65% of the new donors in the process. The longer you wait, the less likely you are to secure that all-important second donation. So, make sure you have a good fundraising package you can use to secure a second gift from your donors.

Do these things consistently and see your new donor retention rates go up from one year to the next.