Retention is Key DRM Component
Retention is Key DRM Component
March 7, 2006
By Abny Santicola, associate editor, FundRaising Success
One of the key indicators of your donor relationships' quality is your retention rate. Lapsed donors and those failing to send second gifts are the No. 1 signs of failed relationships. And everyone knows that trying to reactivate a lapsed donor is far more costly than nurturing existing ones.
This was the topic discussed by Heather Burton, production marketing manager at Sage Software Nonprofit Solutions; Nick Stavarz, president of Synergy Direct Marketing Solutions; and Jon Thorsen, general manager at Kintera, in their session on donor retention at the DMA Nonprofit Federation 2006 Annual Washington Nonprofit Conference in February.
Burton outlined some tried-and-true retention strategies used by one of her company's clients, Portland West, a Portland, Maine-based organization that provides low-income, at-risk children, teens, and families with affordable housing, and educational and community-outreach programs. Burton said the organization found success using grassroots tactics such as donor newsletters, a quarterly community newspaper, and enhanced open houses, as well as a redesign of its Web site. In addition, it added "personal flair" to direct-mail appeals by including handwritten notes and thank-yous. The handwritten notes were so successful that they prompted some recipients to send notes back to the organization, an action that then was noted in the donor's profile.
Portland West also added donor-management software to its retention efforts, Burton explained, which provided staff with a one-stop shop to view donor profiles, giving history, past communications, event attendance and volunteering, as well as a tracking and reporting capability for appeal rates. The donor management software, she said, allowed the staff to know who the major donors were and send "red flags" when donors seemed on the verge of lapsing.
As a result, Portland West's individual donor base increased by 300 percent, with a retention rate of 95 percent over three years.
Stavarz hailed a direct-mail campaign done by the Humane Society of the United States that used handwriting on the letter, carrier envelope and BRE. Handwritten efforts, while expensive, are hard for recipients to resist, he said, and can result in response rates two to three times greater than mailings without, along with 25 percent and higher increases in average gifts.
Heather Burton can be reached at heather.burton@sage.com; Nick Stavarz can be reached at nicks@synmar.biz; and Jon Thorsen can be reached at jon.thorsen@kintera.com.
