Donor Relationship Management

As your mother said, saying “thank you” is really important. For nonprofit organizations, it’s essential. In fact, if you don’t express gratitude quickly and well, your donors are likely to give somewhere else.

There were 13.2 million black households in the United States in 2001,constituting 12.4 percent of all households in the country. Within these households, income, wealth and charitable giving have risen at a steady rate in recent years.

This according to “Wealth Transfer Estimates Among African-American Households,” a recently released report by researchers at the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, authored by Paul Schervish and John Havens.

For Catholic Relief Services, the international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community, donor intent is a serious matter. And communicating that it takes donor intent seriously is a serious matter as well.

“One of our No. 1 priorities is to make sure the donor’s money goes to the area that they want it to go to,” says Donna Adair, development officer for CRS.

You might have a plan in place to grow your donor base. But do you have a strategy to grow each of your donors? Ways to move them up the hierarchy of commitment so the relationship will endure and raise as much revenue as possible over the long haul?

That we should establish and continuously develop more meaningful relationships with donors is a given. Finding new solutions to help potential donors donate faster, easier and with greater impact is a challenge as nonprofit organizations continue the process of understanding more about the different needs, habits and demands of multi-generational donors.

Having worked with three nonprofits over the past 17 years has taught me the importance of identifying and nurturing one of the most significant resources of any organization — its older donors. Cultivating these donors enriches their lives and allows them to have a positive impact on their favorite charities beyond their cash-generating years.

One of TV’s hottest shows right now is “Law & Order: SVU,” which dramatizes the society-wide problem of sexual and domestic violence. The sorrowful stories make for great TV, but what about when it comes to raising money for organizations that support its victims and work to eradicate it?

What significance does your organization place on donor-relationship management?

One hot topic within educational fundraising programs is whether or not to expend precious staff time and financial resources on courting recent graduates and younger alumni, who often don’t have the capacity to give large gifts.

Development leadership often is hesitant to redirect efforts away from more immediately fruitful major and principal gifts to chase these smaller participation gifts. But if your program doesn’t make this initial investment in educating younger alumni about the importance of supporting your institution, then when they’re more financially stable, it might be too late. They already will have focused their philanthropic efforts somewhere else.

The fundraising world is changing rapidly, and those who aren’t prepared will be left behind. Are you ready for these changes? Are you, in fact, leading your organization to embrace these changes? If you’re not, or if you don’t like change, perhaps now is the time to think about a career change.

Here, from my perspective and experience, are some of the more significant changes happening right now. Perhaps you can grab hold of these opportunities, change your fundraising, and soar.