Category: Fundraising Techniques That Work

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WHY DONORS GIVE MORE

Want to know why Donors Give More? The Burk Donor Survey provides some revealing answers!

Want to know why Donors Give More? The Burk Donor Survey provided some great info about donors and guess what? 21,000 donors completed this survey and 1/3rd of those donors said they could give more! Better watch for some handy tips as you get ready now for year-end fundraising!

Why Donors Give More

We can really boost our fundraising with a little insight into our donor’s minds. Fortunately, The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported the results from The Burk Donor Survey. The report includes some great information about why donors give or don’t give and how to inspire them to give more.
21,000 donors completed the survey and a third of them said that they could give more!!!

Research

Your donors are researching what you are doing. Here is where they are finding their information:
• 54% look at your website.
• 42% consult an online charity watchdog.
• 27% search online for information about your group.
• 26% ask people they trust about your organization.
• 23% review news media reports about your group.
The research your donor’s conduct has a big impact on their decision to make a gift.
• 41% decide not to donate after seeing a charity’s website.
• 41% say a charity’s results determine whether they make a gift.

Donor Quotes

“I would prefer to give more to fewer causes where I can see the results.” Donors want to make an impact!

“Non-profits would do better focusing on success stories … then by trying to make those of us who are considering donating feel privileged and guilty.” Stories are important!

“I dislike being bombarded by donation requests.” Be strategic in your appeals!

“A number of causes left me feeling personally unappreciated.” Saying thank you is essential!

Giving MORE

So why do donors give more? Here are the two biggest reasons donors gave:

• 41% were impressed with the efforts of the nonprofit.
• 26% responded to a special request for support.
How can you inspire your donors to give more? Here are the top five answers:
• 22% would give more if the charity demonstrated an extraordinary need for support.
• 22% would give more if they saw reduced administrative and fundraising expenses.
• 21% would like you to stop sending unwanted gifts and trinkets.
• 19% would give more if the charity sent fewer solicitations.
• 15% would like more information on what gifts accomplish.

Remember, 31% of donors said they could have given more. And 41% of donors under the age 35 said they could have given more. Don’t leave this money on the table! Every little effort – your stories, your website, your donation page, your thank you notes – it all adds up and will pay off.

WONDROUS WEBSITE CHECKLIST

NonProfit Website Checkup For Year-End Success

Website Check Up
October is the perfect time to get your website ready for year-end success! 270 million Americans use the internet daily on any number of devices. For great advice on how to improve your website, watch now.

Be Mobile Friendly
Did you know that more than half of your internet traffic is coming from mobile devices but that only a third of websites are mobile responsive? Make sure your website looks good on your mobile. It must be neat, simple, organized, and have great content. And it must have a prominent donate now button. Do a mobile friendly test like the one available from Google, to make sure it works perfectly.

Keep Them On Your Site!
Don’t surprise your visitor with cumbersome external sites. You want to keep potential donors on your website while they are entering their donation information.

Get First Time Visitors Involved
Create a way first-time visitors can communicate with you. Have a newsletter sign up or an opt-in page for first time visitors so they stay connected. This will make them more likely to come back and make a donation.

Are They Ready?
Visitors who click the “donate now” button on nonprofit sites are usually ready to make a donation. First time donation page visitors are 44% more likely to give than previous visitors. So keep them there the first time they visit with an easy to use, easy to find Donate Button.

Create a Landing/Campaign Page
To retain and grow your supporters, engage and inform your website visitors about the progress of your campaigns and projects. Your supporters want real time updates to feel connected and to entice them to continue supporting our project. A great way to do this is by creating a campaign page that your donors can visit to keep up with your goals, progress, and successes.

Don’t disregard BabyBoomers
Many of us think of baby boomers as non-internet users. But the fact is, our baby boomers are spending an average of 38 hours a month online. In fact, 70% of baby boomers have a Facebook account.

Donate Now Button!!!
This is the most important action item! Make sure you have a prominent donate now button. It should be way up on top, and easy to use. If potential donors have to search for your donation page, they’ll move on and make their donation elsewhere.

Why Monthly Giving Should Top Your To-Do List Now

Make Monthly Giving work for in time for year-end success!

It’s never been more important to put Monthly Giving ‘front and center’ in all your donor communications! Learn how to make it work for you and your year-end success!

Landing the Big Major Gift Now

Major Gift Success Tips In Time For Year-End Success

Major Gifts Success

With only 90 days left in the year, do we still have time for major gifts? Of course! But you need to start now.

Your annual giving program is the primary source of major gift prospects. Five to twenty percent of all donors who give by direct mail really have more than $1 million in liquidity and gift capacity. This means there is a treasure trove of prospects right there on your mailing list. You just need to find them and start cultivating them.

A great source of major gifts information is the book Rainmaking, the Fundraiser’s Guide to Landing Big Gifts by Roy C. Jones and Andrew Olsen.
Here are the steps you need to take now to have major gift success this year:

Step 1: Review
First, review last year’s numbers. Who were your biggest donors? Are there donors on your list who could be giving more?
Step 2: Prioritize
Now you can decide who your best suspects for becoming major donors are. Move these individuals to prospects. This is called moves management.
Step 3: Get on the phone
The next step is to make phone calls! These calls must be important, scripted, and purposeful. Make a calling plan and stick to it. Your goal for these phone calls is to secure a meeting. Likely, it will take a lot of time and phone calls to reach this goal. To simply talk to 10 people, you have to dial the phone over 50 times and leave over 20 voicemails. Talking to those 10 people will yield you about three meetings. Yes, it’ll take you 50 phone calls to get just three meetings. So start calling!!!
Step 4: Meeting preparation
Now that you’ve got some meetings set up, the next step is to attend the meetings, right? Not so fast! You need to seriously prep and plan for the meeting first. Put a customized cultivation plan together for every donor you are going to meet with. Make sure you know what you are going to talk to them about, which of your programs interest them most, and what you are going to ask them for. The more prepared you are, the more likely you are to have a successful meeting.

SUCCESSFUL 7 STEP MAJOR GIFT PROCESS

Borrow these seven steps for Major Gift Success

Major gift fundraising isn’t rocket science! That is what major gift fundraising experts Jeff Schreifels and Richard Perry from the Veritus Group tell us in their blog. They do acknowledge that it is very hard work and it does require a process. Fortunately for us, Jeff and Richard developed a brilliant major gift process.

Here is their process broken down into seven steps:

Step 1: Cultivate the right donors.
You should have a qualified list of donors right now. These are donors that you plan to present to before year end. Now is not the time to chase unqualified major gift donors. Keep your list updated and organized.
Step 2: Have a revenue goal for each donor.
Setting goals is necessary to success. It gives you your destination. Look at each donor individually and determine a realistic goal for each.
Step 3: Have a strategic plan for each donor.
It is important to carefully plan how you’re going to achieve each goal. If you don’t have a roadmap you aren’t going to be able to stay focused and accountable. Your plans should be donor focused, so take time to identify and ensure you are serving the interest and passion of the donor.
Step 4: Meet face-to-face.
Half of your time now should be spent face to face with your prospects. You’ve already done the research and know all about them so now you need to meet in person.
Step 5: Be donor-centric.
Match your program ask with the hopes, dreams, and desires of the donor. Know exactly what about your mission that they are passionate about and be sure you are focusing on that anytime you talk to them.
Step 6: Thank your donors.
When they give, thank them immediately. Make sure it is heartfelt and personalized. Have leadership in your organization call them in addition to the standard letter.
Step 7: Report back.
Make sure they know they made a difference and understand their impact.

Magic ‘Moves Management” Steps for Major Gift Success


Moves Management Skills

Perfecting moves management is essential to securing major gifts. David Dunlap is a moves management pioneer. He says the moves concept focuses major gift fundraising on changing people’s attitudes so they want to give.

What are moves?
A cultivation opportunity. Any great way to get to know your prospect better and let them get to know your organization, mission, and programs better. A move must be important enough and passionate enough that the prospect regards this as wonderful giving opportunity to your organization. You must know something about the prospect before this visit. Cultivation must be according to a plan and mission directed. You must know exactly what you want to accomplish.
Examples of cultivation opportunities:
• Behind the scenes tour or your facility
• An invitation to a small special event
• An insider’s newsletter
• An invitation to lunch or dinner with Director of Development, Executive Director, or a member of your Board of Directors
• An invitation to give feedback on latest event or case statement

Cultivation Visits
In order to have a successful cultivation visit, you must have a plan and a clear goal. The visit should be focused and goal oriented.
Here are five things to consider while preparing for your visit:
1. What is the best possible outcome and the minimum acceptable outcome?
2. Review the key points you are going to cover.
3. List a small number of benefits that you believe will appeal to the prospect.
4. Determine what you will ask your donor to do, agree to, or react to.
5. List anticipated questions and your responses. Remember questions are good, you just want to make sure you have a great response.

Here are eight steps to get started:
1. Select 10 – 25 of your best prospects.
2. Gather research on each and every one of them.
3. Identify volunteer board members and staff for each prospect.
4. Consult board members and staff that you think know each donor the best to find out as much as you can about the donor and their motivation.
5. Develop a strategy for each donor with definite gift amounts and opportunities.
6. Plan your next moves based on your strategy.
7. Implement those moves!
8. Review your moves

It is very important to be able to track your moves and your progress. Your database should include a pre-programed moves management system with reporting. If you don’t have access to this, use a calendar software. Just enter the moves you want to make and set a reminder for each.

STEPS AND STAIRWAY TO MAJOR GIFT SUCCESS

You still have time in 2017 to make your major gifts super successful with these 13 steps from the book, Rainmaking: The Fundraisers Guide to Landing Big Gifts. Roy Jones and Andrew Olsen give us great ways to engage and connect with our major gift donors right now.

13 Tips for Major Gift Commitment

It is always great to find new ways to engage and connect with your major gift donors. Roy Jones and Andrew Olsen offer 13 ideas for on how to do just this in their book, Rainmaking: A Fundraisers Guide to Landing Big Gifts.

Tip #1: Meaningful experience

There is no better way to create engagement than giving your donors the opportunity to experience working with you. It will help them understand what you are doing and become more committed.

Tip #2: One-on-One

Spend time with your major donor prospects one-on-one. This will help build a deep meaningful relationship.

Tip #3: Host small group events

Engaging your major donors with small intimate events is a wonderful way to build commitment. Small lunches at the home of a board member is a great way to do this. You will be able to gather great insight into your donors at these events.

Tip #4: Ask for feedback

It is a great idea to ask your major donors for feedback on a program they support or your future plans. Everyone likes it when their opinion is sought after and it will make your prospects feel respected and valuable.

Tip #5: Special event special gathering

For your upcoming events, create special pre- and post-event gatherings that are by invite only. This will give your prospects an opportunity to engage with leadership and with other major donors.

Tip #6: Leadership access

Invite your major donors to meet your board and senior executives. Your major donors expect a certain level of access. Ensuring they have a clear line of communication with your leaders is an important step in building trust

Tip #7: Special communication

Create a special monthly communication from your executive director just for your major donors. This could be email or snail mail. Be clear that this is an exclusive message just for your closest supporters.

Tip #8: Donor club

Establish a major donor club with multiple levels of recognition. This will give your donors an additional incentive to give even more and make them feel special.

Tip #9: Donor feature

Include a “donor feature” in your newsletter where you focus on one of your major donors. This is a great way to honor your most committed donors by asking them to share about themselves and why they give.

Tip #10: Special article

Place an article of appreciation in a trade publication relevant to their business. This will reach your donor’s colleagues outside your organization and share the news of their commitment to your cause.

Tip #11: Exclusive web access

Create a special secure access portion of your website just for your donors. Here you can share behind the scenes videos, updates, and reports. Give them information they need to be sure their gifts are being used effectively.

Tip #12: Personalized video messages

Your donors will love to receive a personalized video message on social media. Make sure to personalize it specifically to each donor by calling them by name
Go for it and ask for another gift! It is human nature to want to be needed and major donors love to know they are needed and wanted. They will appreciate being asked even if they can’t say yes every time.

 

Tip #13:  ASK AGAIN

A WINNING NEW DONOR WELCOME KIT

Most new donors will never give again, 70% to be more specific! So how do you keep them and turn them into loyal advocates for your cause?

Follow these brilliant steps from the New Welcome Plan Save the Children has put together! It Works!

And put together a welcome plan now in time for those #GivingTuesday new donors you are going to acquire this year!

Donor Retention Success Hacks

We all know how important it is to keep our donors, that we could not meet our mission and fundraising goals without them, but do we know why they stick around? Roger Craver, in his book, Retention Fundraising, conducted research and shares his findings, the top 7 reasons that drive your donor to stay!

What Drives Your Donors To Stay?
Now that you know how important keeping your donors is for achieving your fundraising goals, let’s explore how to make sure your donors stick around. In Roger Craver’s book, Retention Fundraising, he conducted research to find out what makes drives donors to give.

Here are the seven most important reasons, in order, that your donors choose to give to your organization.
#1 – Your donors believe you are achieving your mission. This means you have shared information with them about your successes and the impact of your programs.
#2 – Your donors know what to expect from you. You are consistent, reliable, and trustworthy.
#3 – Your donors receive timely thank you’s. This helps them to feel important to the mission and valuable to your organization.
#4 – Your donors feel they can express their opinion. You are personable and reachable. Your communications with them do not feel automated and cold.
#5 – Your donors feel they are a part of your cause. You made them the hero.
#6 – Your donors feel appreciated. You’ve taken the time to get to know them and made them feel special.
#7 – You are getting information to them that shows their impact. They feel they are doing something important.
Based on this research it is clear that the most important thing we can do is communicate with our donors! Thank them, tell them how they are impacting your mission, make sure they know they are contributing to a vital need.

Segmentation Steps for Year-End Success

The only way to great year-end results is to go over your database carefully and segment your donors into specific groups in order to direct specific communications they really want to see, hear or read. You need to know how to reach them and segmentation is the answer!

Donor Segmentation for maximum fundraising results

First things first: What is segmentation?
Segmentation is the act of dividing your donors into groups based on specific criteria. It is critical that you are able to segment your donors. A donor database with CRM (customer relationship management) technology will help you do this.

So how should you segment your donors?
There are hundreds of ways you can segment your donors: by zip code, gift size, age, and even (if you’ve kept very careful data) what day of the week they have made a donation. Here are some of the most useful methods of donor segmentation.

AFFILIATION AND INTEREST
Segment on how your donors are affiliated based on your mission, organizational structure and community involvement. Which programs and causes is this donor interested in? This will tell you what to focus on in your appeal letter to get the best results.

ENTITY TYPE
What type of entity is this donor? This type of segmentation is critical in creating a strategic plan and forecasting so you can plan for gifts coming from individuals, corporations, government, and foundations.

GIVING CHANNEL
How is your donor making their gift? You want to make sure you are offering your donors the opportunity to make a gift in the manner that is most convenient for them. Know when to use mail and when to use email or social media.

GIVING LEVEL
Segmenting by the annual giving level will help you know what gift amount you should be suggesting to your donor. Make sure you are ethical and courteous but you must also be careful not to insult or disrespect the donor’s ability or capacity. Remember it is imperative not to ask for too much or too little.

GIVING STATUS
Another important segment to look for is giving status. An appeal to a new donor should have a different focus and message than one to a lapsed donors. Retained donors can be segmented too – ones who have increased gifts, decreased gifts, or stayed the same.

Final thoughts
Segmentation gives you creative, intentional ways to engage your donors. It helps you craft your message in a way that your donor will find appealing and personalized. And we all know that the more your donor feels cared for and connected, the more likely they are to make another donation for your cause!

POWERFUL DONOR LANGUAGE

Empowering Language

We all want to grab our donor’s attention, persuade them to read our message, and inspire them to make a gift. A fantastic way to do this is by using empowering language. Statements that excite the reader or that paint a picture will do wonders to help your message stand out. Here are some examples of regular language versus empowering language

PLAIN LANGUAGE EMPOWERING LANGUAGE
Make a contribution or Donate Now!
Click here to donate or Make a difference today
Give what you can or No donation is too small
Please we need your help or Be a hero to someone in need
We can’t do it without you or Donors like you make this possible
Every dollar helps or Donate $5 now

Empowering language makes a huge difference in how your message is received. Dazzle your donors with the language you use and they’ll dazzle you with their gifts in return!

4th Quarter Calls for Donor Retention & Upgrading


Retain and upgrade

Did you know that Individual donors account for 72% of all giving? Just think of how much more you could raise if you could retain and upgrade all of your donors. The sky is the limit! It is essential that you take the necessary steps to not only keep your donors but to encourage them to give more.

How to Retain Your Donors

Your current donors are your low hanging fruit, your easiest targets. You already know they are invested in your cause and they care about your mission. However, if you don’t handle them correctly, they could very easily take their donations elsewhere. Here’s how to keep them:

APPRECIATE THEM!
Organize a call unit to make phone calls to thank them for their past donations. Mention how grateful your organization is for their support in each appeal letter. Make sure they feel special and valued.

TELL THEM HOW THEY MADE A DIFFERENCE.

What did you do with the last gift your donor sent you? Did it pay for 10 children to attend camp? Buy food for 20 families? Sharing the tremendous impact that your donor made on the lives of others will not only make them feel good about their last gift, it will make them eager to give again!

How to Upgrade Your Donors

A sure way to raise more money for your cause without even having to find more donors is to get your current donors to give more. Some donors tend to send the same check year after year, while others may jump around based on their personal situation. Here are a few ideas for getting them to upgrade:

SUGGESTED GIVING LEVELS
How will your donor ever know that you could really use $150 instead of the $100 they’ve been sending every year? Simply suggesting a higher gift amount is sure to get your donor to at least consider upgrading. As long as it is done respectfully and thoughtfully, you’ll never offend a donor by suggesting a higher gift amount.

USE SPECIFIC DATA
Use specific numbers, goals, and costs when suggesting a donor increase their gift. Tell them why you need it and what it will do. Justify your ask.

MOVES MANAGEMENT

The most important thing you can do to upgrade your donors is develop a good moves management program. Look through your donor data and chart out who you plan to upgrade and how you plan to get there. Then, of course, make sure you follow your plan!

How to Handle Downgrades
Some donors are going to downgrade. That’s life. Maybe they were hit with unexpected bills, a job change, or felt like they needed to spend more of their donation dollars somewhere else. Regarding these donors with care and respect is vital. Don’t lose these donors!

RECOGNITION
Form a recognition society based on longevity of giving. This will make your donors realize that they are still important to you. They’ll want to keep on giving to stay in the “club.”

COMMUNICATION
Keep the lines of communication open. Make sure they are still receiving information about your programs and the impact of their donation. You could even explore other methods of giving from in-kind gifts to planned giving.