Temptation No. 1: Starting the project by writing the letter.
Here’s what’s happening: You’ve been assigned to create an acquisition package. You’re up for it because you have a great idea. You feel really good about that idea. You are sure it’s a winner. So you sit down and start writing the letter, right? Wrong. The letter is the very last thing you should create.
Sugarcoat it all you want, but offering premiums in an acquisition campaign is, essentially, bribery. And pretty unsubtle bribery at that.
You’re saying to a prospect, “Look, I’m afraid you don’t care enough about my organization’s work to support it out of
passion or principle, so I’ll offer you this trinket to try and buy your loyalty.”
The dilemma is obvious. You’re going to have much greater loyalty from people who support you because they believe in your cause. But those premiums sure can bring in more donors. At least in the short run.
To a development director, the promise of the premium can be very alluring. For a relatively small investment in mailing labels or tote bags or whatever, you can reasonably predict that significantly more people will respond to your mailing.
Sure, raising money online is a bit more
complicated than renting a mailing list and testing various packages on the names to see what works and what doesn’t. For starters, in the spam-challenged online world, you need donors’ permission to continue communicating with them. And to be sure, your organization can raise serious cash online without sending a single e-mail, particularly during December when many donors seek you out. Heck, you can even raise a few dollars (but only a few) on Facebook these days.
But eliminate all the jargon and the steady
stream of innovative ideas, and you’ll find that acquiring donors online boils down to five key steps.
I recently came across an announcement that Do Something, an organization missioned to empower teens to make a difference in their communities, is accepting applications for its annual Do Something Awards. Bulleted at the top of the announcement were three questions: "Have you identified a social problem and done something about it? Have you created measurable change that has tangibly improved the lives of people in your community? Are you 25 or under?"
The 800-pound elephant in the room at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2009 Washington Nonprofit Conference that took place in Washington, D.C., in January was, of course, the economy and how fundraising execs planned to cope with what could be a very tough time for charities.
If fundraising is the communication of a need in order to elicit a philanthropic response, then it’s obvious that in order to raise funds, you need to get the communication part right. The digital age was supposed to make things easier, but are we taking full advantage of electronic communications?
The fact that you can process a donation electronically makes it more convenient, but it doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in donation revenue. This was the first mistake by the sector — we thought that opening up donation pages on our Web sites would attract large numbers of new donors. But apart from isolated cases, that didn’t happen. And while e-mail also has become part of our communication strategy to existing supporters, we’re still struggling to see the digital age improve donor acquisition.
If you’ve checked your 401(k) balance lately, you might have tasted that metallic tang in the back of your mouth that signals raw, animal fear. It’s not a nice feeling. It’s a feeling that can make you want to do something wild, like grab what’s left of your money and hide it in your mattress.
Don’t. Trust me — it’s totally uncomfortable. And the Mattress Plan is going to play even worse havoc with your retirement than the economy has.
Recent discussions we’ve had with clients, prospects and colleagues have centered around launching or re-energizing acquisition programs. Here’s a list of tips you can use to make your acquisition program more successful as you continue planning for the year ahead. 1. Aggressively test list categories and lists. Work with your agency and list broker to audit your current list universes, then create a testing plan for list markets that might have been successful but are not fully tapped into. Explore new categories: Direct response-acquired donor lists work best, but also test subscriber lists, catalog buyer lists and specialized compiled lists. Analyze the list-usage patterns of other organizations
In every successful nonprofit organization, there is a small percentage of donors that will support it no matter what. Usually, these donors (who are called many things, but mostly “major”) can account for approximately 75 percent to 85 percent of the charity’s total revenue.
Editor’s Note: This article contains some words and passages that some readers might find offensive or unsettling. We chose to leave them in so that the author could make his point, as well as to illustrate the powerful effect they can have on a reader. We apologize in advance for any offense.
