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

Acting on the new information, Heritage used telemarketers to solicit donors who had not given for as many as 13 years. The effort to win them back currently is proceeding at a break-even pace, with the donors’ potential lifetime value in mind.

Also in 2002, the foundation was given the building next door to its 214 Massachusetts Ave. location and used the gift as a reason to solicit extra donations and upgrades in giving. The campaign, in which donors were offered various namesake options (such as having their names etched into a glass wall), resulted in 500 members — whose previous giving was in the $100 range — making gifts of $1,000 or more. And even though bricks-and-mortar campaigns are few and far between, the foundation came away with the knowledge that if you carefully nurture relationships over time, donors will come through.