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.

How to evaluate your charity's communications

Before designing the communications strategy for next year take some time to evaluate the marketing and fundraising communications your charity sent out this year. Here is a hands-on, simple evaluation framework that can reap great dividends.
 
Step One: Gather the various mailing packages, and other related online fundraising and marketing materials that your charity has prepared and sent to donors and contacts on the last 18 months. What you have in front of you and on your computer screen is likely to represent the sum total of intentional messages received by your charity's constituents.

 

Step Two: Take a highlighter and mark every purpose statement, expression of your charity's mission and fundraising asks you find embedded in your communications pieces.
 
What do you think? Can you see message consistency? Clearly stated fundraising asks?
 
Are you speechless? Stunned? Pleased? Alarmed?

 

Step Three: Ask yourself and - get your colleagues to ask themselves too - the following questions as you evaluate your charity's communications. Remember to be honest, otherwise there is no point in undertaking this exercise.
 
1. Does every communications' piece contain a clear statement of your charity's vision and mission? - Your goal should be to have bite-size version of our mission and vision in all communications so that donors are reminded of what you do and why their participation in your wok is important.

2. Do your printed and online materials communicate your charity’s brand? - Examine the language, style, design, use of images, headlines, colour schemes - do they adhere to your charity's style guide? Do they express your charity's unique personality and style? - Donors should be able to recongnise your materials and your messages in a crowded marketplace.  

If a donor visits your website, facebook page, or reads one of your promotional mailings, they should be able to easily identify elements (both copy and design) that set your charity apart from others involved in similar work.  

3. How are you telling your charity's stories? - People connect with a cause through compelling stories. How are you telling your stories in words and images? Are they inspiring? Memorable? Captured in headlines, copy as well as powerful authentic images?

4. How are you communicating the impact that the donors are making through their giving? - Today's donors want to know how the money they give is being spent. Openness and transparency helps to build donor trust in charities. So, have a look at your communications? How often do you let donors know how the money is being used? Do you report back on how much was raised through various appeals? Do you let them know what your administration costs are and how much money goes to the project in the field? Is there consistency in these messages or do they contradict each other?

5. How do you thank your donors? - Saying 'thank you' is a way of strengthening relationships with donors and assuring them that their gifts will be used as intended. It is also a way of securing future gifts. How do you say 'thank you'? Are there any thank you messages incorporated in your newsletters, emails, etc as well as personalised letters? Are the thank you messages dry and formal or warm and encouraging?

6. Do you encourage donors to engage with your charity? - How many of your charity's communications give donors opportunities to offer feedback, ask questions, share their views about your work, or even tell you why they support your charity? Do you give donor's a voice through your printed materials, your website or online forums? Do you act on their suggestions and offer them feedback? - In a connected world one way communications are becoming extinct and collaboration is the name of the game. 

These might seem like simple questions but you would be surprised as to how many time charities get them wrong .... so take your time with this exercise, evaluate the findings and improve the effectiveness of your communications in 2012.

 

Ten ways of nurturing new supporters

In these difficult times of government funding cuts finding and keeping new donors is of strategic importance for many charities who want to be around in 2011 and beyond. What's more, I believe nurturing those new donors can be a richly rewarding experience for both the donor and the charity that shows them that they are special.

A donor's involvement, contribution, effectiveness and satisfaction are deepened by that nurturing process. Strengthening relationships opens up opportunities for regular giving, major gifts and even legacies.

As always, identifying the type of donor to be nurtured is important – it won’t be everybody on your database. By using specific criteria of recency, frequency and amount donated you can identify segments of new donors who are already showing an interest in what you do. For example, someone who gave within the last 12 months, has made 2 or more gifts or one substantial first gift could be the kind of donor you want to nurture.

Here are some simple ideas for nurturing your generous donors:

1. Write warm and personalised thank you letters.

2. Respond quickly to supporters’ enquiries, questions or comments.

3. Make phone calls to donors when they send in large gifts. Every now and then call regular supporters who have given to your charity over a period of time.

In my opinion, a CEO or fundraising director should be making up to 10 courtesy calls a week to show appreciation to donors and also to keep the finger on the pulse getting their opinions about the charity's work. Think about it 2-3 short calls every day should be in your agenda.

4. Make sure you send out a newsletter at least three times a year offering feedback and information on how donor’s gifts are making a difference.

5. Establish multi-tier regular giving programmes/offerings and provide special feedback and involvement opportunities to participants in these groups.

6. When asking for a gift, always thank donors for their past generosity.

7. Ask board members to send personalised thank-you notes to major donors.

8. Offer e-mail updates and communicate with donors in ways appreciated by them.

9. Send one mailing a year with no reply device – just a letter of thanks and/or information about current projects.

10. Pray for your donors regularly that they will grow in their love and service of God through their giving and everything that they do.

One thank you too far....

Recently I have received thank you letters by two charities I don't support. Amazing - I haven't given them a penny and they have managed to make me feel good about my generous nature.

But, let me explain. One is a letter from a large international relief and development charity which is thanking me for my support in such general terms that it could be a letter from any charity. 'We are very grateful for your support. Together we have fought poverty, etc.' The other letter is from a small youth charity - I helped them write a fundraising appeal last year and now I have got a letter saying 'Thank you for your support. We raised £xxx through our latest appeal which exceeded our expectations.' It is clear that this is a letter to all their contacts in their database though ... not just me as their consultant.

I know I have not donated to these charities - so, why am I being thanked for support I have not given? I can accept the fact that the small charity has a lot to learn about donor segmentation etc.. but, imagine thousands of people receiving a thank you letter from the international development charity that makes them feel good about the giving they have not done.

One thing I had done though was participate in facebook campaings on behalf of the international development charity - but the only good deed on behalf of that charity had gone unacknowledged. I guess the social media guys are not in talking terms with the donor relations ladies...

Both charities have missed the opportunity to write to their non-givers (like me) a letter that said ...we know you care otherwise why would you be in our mailing list... today you have a chance to right the wrongs of poverty/ or to help young people by making your first gift.

Fundraising lessons from this situation:

1. Take time to evaluate your segmentation procedures and packages that go out with your newsletters or updates... what are you sending out to different donor groups? Why? What are you seeking in return?

2. Evaluate your thank you letters or other general mailing packages. Are they old and tired and generalistic? Are you or your charity's CEO signing things off that don't sound at all like you or them? Authentic communications win the day.

3. Get rid of the silo mentality - get people within each team and from different departments to work more closely and purposefully together.