30 Ideas for Fundraising Success, Part 3

[Editor’s note: This is the third and final part of a three-part series on the session “30 Ideas in 60 Minutes: Your Hour of Creative Power” held on June 10 at Fund Raising Day in New York. Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.]

At the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater New York Chapter’s Fund Raising Day in New York last Friday, three fundraising experts shared 30 ideas in one of the first sessions of the day. Here are ideas 21-30 that Joe Manes, senior vice president of A.B. Data, Bryan Terpstra, vice president of fundraising at LW Robbins, and fundraising and communications advisor Jennie Thompson offered attendees.
Try a package rotation strategy in acquisition
After receiving many mailings of your acquisition control package, prospects on your control prospect lists may tire of your package, Terpstra said. So he suggested that you test another package that could work and alternate packages to see what happens.

"If you can find two prospecting messages that work, it makes life easier," Terpstra said.

The bottom line is that two acquisitions controls are better than one.

Read, shop, buy like your supporters do
"Be sure your organization has more windows than mirrors," Thompson said.

That means you should be focusing on what your donors do, how they view things, not on what you do and how you perceive your organization. Live more of donors' lives to understand them, and mimic that behavior, Thompson said. Be there when donors get there — don't trail behind them.

It's only $5
Manes said he's been frustrated with the lack of movement in average gifts for a while now. One way to combat that is to test asking for $5 more than the highest previous contribution as the lowest ask amount in your variable dollar string, he said. After all, "it's only $5," which makes it much more likely that a donor will increase her gift than if you ask for $50 more.

Test this, and watch your average gift go up with little to no impact on percent response, Manes said.

Test lower gift arrays to keep donors giving
Conversely, Terpstra said that while it is a scary thought to lower gift arrays, he has seen it work in certain parts of many organizations' programs. If you are struggling to retain donors, Terpstra suggested you:

• Try smaller ask amounts and multipliers: for lapsed audiences, test 75 percent of last gift, 125 percent of last gift and 150 percent of last gift.
• Try gender-based gift arrays — lower gift arrays for women have spiked response rates for some organizations, he said.
• In acquisition, try lowering entry ask arrays to see impact on response rate. Getting more donors in the door and then upgrading them may be a better solution than losing out on certain donor segments.

Address your communications to just one person
"Have one person in mind when you're writing you letter/e-mail so you have that personal I/you connection," Thompson said.

And be sure you are writing to a person and not your policy department. Make it personal and realistic.

Mine your lapsed-donor file
Rather than treating your lapsed donors as one big group, you should segment them, Manes said. Everyone puts lapsed donors back in acquisition, but how detailed is your select? Not all lapsed donors are created equally. To get the most out of them, you must communicate with each appropriately.

Mail your best appeals to monthly sustainers
Monthly givers are vital to your program, Terpstra said, so don't "protect" them from some of your best mailings. Mail them two or three of your highest-performing renewal appeals (matches, urgent needs, holiday appeals) every year. Recognize that they are monthly donors by mentioning their special relationship with you, but mail them those other appeals.

Many organizations have seen 12 percent to 17 percent response rates from monthly donors in their annual year-end matching-gift appeals, Terpstra said.

Write and speak of benefits, not features
"Give your donors news they can use, and don't confuse efficiency with effectiveness," Thompson said.

She said you should promise your donors you will get back to them about how their support made a difference, and don't forget to say thank you.

Audit your data orders
Do you know what the criteria is for every suppression file in your merge, Manes asked. You should.

Hygiene matters
Better address hygiene can significantly improve response rates, Terpstra said. For better hygiene:

• Run your file against the National Change of Address and Proprietary Change of Address files quarterly.
• Conduct a complex duplicate process, which finds and omits one of two or three records you may have for just one donor.
• Update ZIP code tables quarterly.