The question was simple and direct: “What’s the best way to evaluate our fundraising programs for efficiency and effectiveness?”
The questioner was a nonprofit fundraising executive who had a wealth of experience and an impressive track record of success. Without a doubt, she knew her stuff. But despite her experience, she and her colleagues didn’t have a firm handle on what parts of their program were producing the best long-term results. They’re not alone.
There’s widespread agreement among direct-marketing professionals that the industry will continue to change dramatically over the next few years. Now, new research from Forrester Research Inc., an independent research firm, confirms it: Direct marketing is being transformed before our eyes.
The Forrester Trends report, titled “Five Predictions for the Future of Direct Marketing,” focuses on commercial direct marketers, but the findings easily can be applied to fundraising. Here’s an overview of the significant Forrester findings.
The nonprofit industry lost a true pioneer when Don Kuhn passed away last November. He was 83. I didn’t really know Don; I spoke with him a few times, usually at DMA Nonprofit Federation conferences. But I know his work and his legacy.
I’ve heard the explanation so many times now that I’m sick of it. It goes something like this: “When our direct-mail donors give more than $1,000 in a single year, we move them out of the regular mail program and over to the upper-level or even the major-donor program. They deserve special treatment.”
The dollar threshold might be different from organization to organization, but the underlying thinking is the same: Once donors reach a certain giving level, they need to be “protected” from the regular direct-mail appeal program.
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.
You don’t have to be a cyclist to know who Lance Armstrong is and what he’s accomplished. The seven-time Tour de France winner and survivor of testicular cancer is a mainstay in the media — whether he’ll compete for his eighth Tour de France win next year; his recent engagement to singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow; or his organization, the Austin, Texas-based Lance Armstrong Foundation, which raises funds to fight cancer through education, advocacy, and public health and research programs.
Debra Neuman is on intimate terms with the tsunami that devastated southern Asia in December 2004. Just as you would never refer to a friend as “the Bill” or “the Mary,” she calls the killer storm simply “tsunami” — no preceding article — as though the word should be spelled with a capital T.
So the race is run, and the party’s over. Your walkathon, golf tournament, masquerade ball or dance-off raised thousands of dollars and introduced hundreds of people to your organization.
Now what? Sure, it’s time to start planning next year’s event. But even more importantly, many fundraising pros agree, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to get the people who gave at the event to keep on giving.
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.
As charitable giving continues its steady upward climb and more Americans value the crucial role nonprofit organizations play in sustaining our cultural, social, religious and economic life, a significant threat lingers.
It’s time to identify this threat, speak out against it and unite behind the common cause of advancing fundraising. If we don’t mobilize and speak out, we’ll have nobody to blame but ourselves when the most sweeping, intrusive and draconian federal regulation of nonprofit organizations takes effect.
