A kinder, back-to-basics approach to donor relations amounted to a 30 percent increase in contributions for D.C.’s Heritage Foundation.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

One of the accomplishments over the three-year period from 2000-2003 that Walter finds most significant is the “normalization” of donors who had sporadic giving patterns. The tests resulted in single-digit increases among donors who already were giving on a regular basis. But among the sporadic donors, giving increased by 20 percent.