The AFP Blog: The Research is Clear: Invest in Donor Retention and Cultivation

The AFP Blog: The Research is Clear: Invest in Donor Retention and Cultivation: "The Research is Clear: Invest in Donor Retention and Cultivation
There’s more great research out now from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, delving deeper into statistics on donor retention.

The data in the new FEP supplement points to an inescapable fact: we have to focus on donor cultivation and major gifts. An ever-increasing proportion of fundraising revenue is coming from an increasingly smaller pool of donors. And as the FEP data shows, we’re not necessarily talking “major” donors, but individuals who give $250 or more. "



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A surprising tweak to increase donor retention | FundraisingCoach.com

A surprising tweak to increase donor retention | FundraisingCoach.com: " The webinar was presented by the legendary fundraiser Ken Burnett. He was talking about how effective stories can be in the answering the donor's question, "Did my gift make a difference?"

Then he dropped a bombshell: Ken said that when a donor makes a gift, the need to know "Did my gift make a difference?" is almost instantaneous! When it comes to answering that question, 2 weeks is too slow. It is almost like donors get "buyers remorse," that feeling of let-down we experience after making a big purchase. Apparently donors seem to get that after making a gift."



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Report: Charitable Giving Nears Pre-Recession Levels - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times

Report: Charitable Giving Nears Pre-Recession Levels - The NonProfit TimesThe NonProfit Times: "Charitable giving and donor retention levels increased last year, according to a new report from the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), as they continued to inch near pre-recession rates."



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Retention is the New Acquisition | npENGAGE

Retention is the New Acquisition | npENGAGE: "Lack of stewardship has a price, and nothing proves that more than the AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Survey. While organizations focus on their development goal and raising money through major gifts, events, direct mail, grants and online, we continue to see a lack of focus on stewardship and retention.
Consider that for every 100 new donors gained, 105 donors were lost through attrition. "



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After Windfall, ALS Group Grapples With 2.4-Million Donor Dilemma - Donors - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

After Windfall, ALS Group Grapples With 2.4-Million Donor Dilemma - Donors - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas



The ALS Association’s chief chapter-relations and development officer
is confident that the $107-million reaped so far from the ice-bucket
challenge will go to good use fighting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.


"This isn’t a spending problem," he says.


What concerns him most are the 2.4-million new donors the challenge has attracted to the organization

Low Donor Retention Takes More Than A Board Meeting To Solve | GuideStar Blog

Low Donor Retention Takes More Than A Board Meeting To Solve | GuideStar Blog: How involved is your board in the fight against low donor retention?

Business owners, executives and other for-profit professionals are used to customer renewal rates of 90% or more. That’s why most board members are shocked when they learn that the charity they serve has a low donor retention rate.

How big is your donor? � 101fundraising

How big is your donor? � 101fundraising: Along with the World Cup (depending on the team, of course), we celebrate fund raising achievements. We look at results and trends from last year and partly with a sigh of relief and hope for this year: in 2013 in US charitable giving was at the same level it was before the financial crisis and in UK there was an �800m increase in donations. So, why we shouldn’t do better this year? In reality we should also ask ourselves if this is the result of more people giving or if we are simply fishing in the same pond with a lower offer. Mark Astarita, the fundraising director of British Red Cross and outgoing chair of UK Institute of Fundraising, simply put it “Over 30 years of professional fundraising have we grown the pie, are more people giving? I’m not so sure.” And Ken Burnett argued that the actual costs of acquisition with typical low retention rates are not sustainable and charities would be stupid if they don’t take action to avoid eating their seed corn.

[INFOGRAPHIC] Nonprofits and Communication Segmenting

[INFOGRAPHIC] Nonprofits and Communication Segmenting: t’s no secret that effective donor communications is the secret to higher donor retention rates – but what makes for effective donor communications?

Segmenting your emails, newsletters and acknowledgement letters are a great way to customize and individualize your messaging to donors. But are most nonprofits doing this?

We recently conducted a survey with our friends over at Nonprofit Marketing Guide to see how nonprofits are (if at all) segmenting their online and offline communications. You can view the results in the infographic below

Is face to face fundraising really worth it?

Is face to face fundraising really worth it?: Is face to face fundraising really worth it?
Before I start I should make two confessions:

1) I am biased - my companies analyse data, help donor retention programs, acquisition, legacies and major donors and regular giving conversions by phone, mail and online, mostly in NZ and Australia. I don't 'do face to face'

2) I am not very good at face to face fundraising. The photo below is of me, as fundraising director at Mind (a mental health charity in the UK) giving it a go in London in the late 90s. I was not very good. The guy I am chatting to was French, and we couldn't get foreigners to sign up. But we had a good chat.

Fundraising Ideas & Donor Retention Tips from npEXPERTS | Blackbaud

Fundraising Ideas & Donor Retention Tips from npEXPERTS | Blackbaud: Download the FREE Fundraising Ideas eBook
Donor Retention Strategies from Nonprofit Experts

Spring and Special Events – Magical or Deadly? | Karen Osborne |

Spring and Special Events – Magical or Deadly? | Karen Osborne |: Back-to-back events, exhausting staff and volunteers, not netting enough, no time for follow-up from one because another is on its heels. Poor donor retention from one year to the next, so you have to find NEW people to attend. The returnees are bored and want NEW, exciting venues, more sparkle and entertainment (or so the lead volunteers report). Major gift work? Who has time for that?

Who Better To Talk To? | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits

Who Better To Talk To? | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits: If you are seriously interested in arresting your nonprofit’s declining retention rate, there are several approaches you can take — tactical improvements to your cultivation and renewal streams, improving ‘customer service’ aspects of your operations, telling a more compelling story (delivering both emotion and results).

Of course these are not mutually exclusive approaches … probably all are neede

Questions I'm Most Often Asked about Direct Mail Fundraising

Questions I'm Most Often Asked about Direct Mail Fundraising: Is the Internet the death knell for direct mail?

Not even close. Direct mail is a long way from death. It's still the most effective fundraising medium (after the church offering basket) and it's many times more effective than email.

But the way it works is changing. One important change is the way direct mail and the Web are becoming intertwined. Donors are moved by the warmth and personal touch of direct mail, then going online to give. It's the best of both worlds when they do that: The higher average gifts we get from online donors, combined with the higher frequency and retention we see with direct-mail donors. This is on its way to becoming the typical way giving happens.

Survey Shows Donor Retention Still Undervalued by Nonprofits

Survey Shows Donor Retention Still Undervalued by Nonprofits: It was a disappointment to read in Kivi Leroux Miller's 2014 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report that donor retention is still not highly valued by many people working at nonprofits.

The Report states:

"Donor retention continues to be a hot topic . . . But are nonprofits doing more than talking about it? In our 2013 report, acquisition beat retention as a goal by nearly 2 to 1. In 2014, the number of nonprofits selecting retention as a top three goal held steady at 30%, while acquisition as a top three goal fell from 57% to 53%."

Retention: Right Questions … Wrong Answers | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits

Retention: Right Questions … Wrong Answers | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits: Retention: Right Questions … Wrong Answers
By Roger Craver | November 19, 2013
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As you can see from Tom’s post yesterday, when it comes to fundraising planning and budgeting, The Agitator clearly believes the most important questions should focus on boosting retention and increasing lifetime value.

Tom phrased the ‘Boss’s’ key planning questions this way:

Angie Moore-Why Do We Have to Keep Writing About Donor Retention? : FundRaising Success

Angie Moore-Why Do We Have to Keep Writing About Donor Retention? : FundRaising Success: It's almost like "retention" is in my inbox as much as "weight loss solutions" — and, similar to losing weight, I ask, why is this so hard? In my opinion, there are three reasons this seems to be such a problem for the nonprofit industry:

Focusing on growth as the priority vs. renewal
Not running the numbers
Inability to make changes in strategy

A simple retention calculation packs a powerful punch | Anita Lee |

A simple retention calculation packs a powerful punch | Anita Lee |: "It’s symptomatic of our approach to retention.  We focus on individual program delivery. We do it in bits and pieces, here and there and then cobble it together.  An overarching strategy that looks holistically at how we are going to grow our active supporter base and increase the amount that base gives is more powerful than a piece-meal approach."

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The 8 Basics of Donor Retention : FundRaising Success

The 8 Basics of Donor Retention : FundRaising Success: There was an interesting stat that caught my eye from the Association of Fundraising Professionals about growth and retention. Its research states that "every $100 gained in 2011 was offset by $100 in losses through attrition." In Haguewood's article, he reminds the industry that sometimes we just need to get back to the basics. I'll let you read it for the detail, but his basics are centered around customer service being the foundation for achieving good retention across your constituent base.

Fundraising Intermission #1: Retention (Again!) | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits

Fundraising Intermission #1: Retention (Again!) | The Agitator - Fundraising, Direct Marketing and Advocacy Strategies for Nonprofits: hus, in this two-part Agitator Intermission we want to: 1) reinforce attention to what we consider the most fundamental problem facing nonprofits — donor retention; and, (2) give a reminder that there are a set of basic principles that guide us all. Virtually immutable laws we ignore at our peril — and disastrous retention rates.

No Money for Donor Acquisition? Focus on Retention

No Money for Donor Acquisition? Focus on Retention: At a FundRaising Success conference, Roger Craver reminded attendees of the importance of donor retention. Craver is the founder of DonorTrends and chief blogger at The Agitator.

In his keynote address at the conference, Craver said that, during these difficult times, we should focus our resources on our organization's "missionaries," "loyalists," and "lapsed donors."