70 Nonprofit Trends for 2015

By Joe Boland

ACQUISITION
Allison Porter, president, Avalon Consulting Group
1. Acquisition is back! In the wake of the Great Recession, many organizations are feeling the pinch because they made the difficult and risky decision to slash or eliminate acquisition investment. While we sympathize with the realities that led nonprofits to this decision, we must pause to acknowledge its effects and learn lessons for the future, namely: (1) Reinvest in acquisition now. File sizes are dwindling because the spigot was cut off several years ago. If not turned back on, this spells disaster for net revenue into the future. (2) We shouldn’t overcorrect with a clear-cutting mentality. We still have to do the hard work to invest in new donors who are a good fit, who will renew their support year after year for a strong lifetime value, and who will be loyal, engaged partners for your organization. (3) We need to overcommunicate the case for investment to nonprofits’ senior executives. If they internalize this strategic need, then, when the next budget crunch happens, our acquisition programs may not be so vulnerable.