30 Ideas for Fundraising Success in 2011 and Beyond, Part 2
[Editor's note: This is part 2 of a three-part series on the session "Getting Back to Growth: 30 Ideas for Success in 2011 & Beyond" held at the 2011 Washington Nonprofit Conference. View part 1 here.]
11. Invest in stewardship
- Make the case for involvement.
- Send "high-touch" mailings that don't ask for a gift to your best donors.
- Use economies of scale.
12. Coordinate mail and online
St. Joseph's Indian School's May graduation house appeal was coordinated online and offline and tested against a control group:
- Direct mail and Web graphics and content matched.
- The mail-only recipients had a 3.65 percent response rate and $20.12 average gift.
- Those who received direct mail and e-mail had a 5.7 percent response rate and $29.95 average gift through the mail.
- Additionally, $4,000 in gifts came in directly from e-mail.
13. Recruit monthly donors by phone
- Ask single-gift donors to become monthly donors via telemarketing.
- In 2010, ALSAC recruited nearly 40,000 new monthly donors with a response rate of 10.4 percent.
- The three-year lifetime value of monthly donors recruited by phone is $339 for ALSAC.
14. Send handwritten mail to new $10-plus donors
- This increased response 100 percent for the American Heart Association, though there was a lower net due to higher costs.
- However, significantly more donors made second gifts, and there is greater lifetime value from early second-gift donors.
15. Develop a unique giving site
- The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's traditional website is primarily dedicated to patient service and education, so in August 2009 it launched a giving site and promoted it through direct mail and e-mail.
- Unique pages were themed to mailings, and in 2010, 75,000 gifts were made online for MSKCC.
16. Implement cross-channel marketing
- Let donors engage where they wish.
- It increases retention and provides higher-value donors.
- All communications boats rise — channels do not cannibalize each other.
17. Invest in new markets and programs
- St. Joseph's Indian school has started marketing internationally.
- It's had success in Germany and France — started in Germany in 2000 and now has 120,000 0-12 month donors.
- St. Joseph's is testing in the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia.
- The school has launched a stand-alone mail program for Cheyenne River Indian Outreach to target more donors.
18. Place monthly-donor upgrade calls
- ALSAC calls monthly donors every six months to ask them to upgrade.
- In 2010, ALSAC upgraded more than 21,000 donors an average of $6.36 per month, and the response rate was 22 percent.
- It is now testing converting check monthly donors to credit card monthly donors for higher response.
19. Drop acquisition names based on contact frequency
By doing this, the American Heart Association reduced volume without losing donors or income, and it increased response 1.4 percent from rental lists, 47 percent from warm prospects and 17 percent from lapsed donors.
20. Invest in social media
It augments direct-mail efforts, builds new communities, and supports e-mail and Web initiatives.
