LW Robbins Associates

Lose your mid-level donors, and your major gifts will dry up sooner than you might imagine.

It took regular judging, two additional polls of the judges and then a special guest judge to get the final decision in 2007 — and it was still just too close to call.

Lynn Edmonds
President
L.W. Robbins

When FS' parent company, North American Publishing Co., set out to launch this magazine in summer 2003, the launch team wanted to establish an editorial advisory board that would ensure it started out on the right foot and stayed that way. The board had to include people from all areas of fundraising who were entrenched enough to have a solid grasp of its history but still open enough to be able to see into its future and head there without fear.

Matthew Bregman
director of development
El Museo del Barrio

Since Matt Bregman's arrival at El Museo del Barrio in spring 2006, private giving has soared from $2 million in FY02-05 to more than $6 million last year. But as impressive as those numbers are, it's not always just about numbers. According to Julián Zugazagoitia, director and CEO of El Museo del Barrio, Matt's leadership made it possible to reopen the museum to the public after a $35 million renovation.

Lynn Edmonds, president, L.W. Robbins Associates
Loyal donors are being conservative but holding on. Since the spring, we have seen a slight increase in giving in some audiences but not all. And in certain cases, we have been able to reactivate lapsed donors by decreasing the gift asks.

In the DMA Nonprofit Federation workshop “45 Top Strategies to Survive and Thrive in Today’s Economy” held in May in New York, presenters Lynn Edmonds, president; Bryan Terpstra, vice president of fundraising; Amy Beaudoin, associate creative director; and Kevin Eagan, vice president of production services, all of LW Robbins Associates; and Jenny Floria, senior director of account management at ParadyszMatera, offered practical guidance on the best strategies to strengthen donor relationships and increase net revenue during the economic downturn.

Holliston, MA, June 16, 2009 — LW Robbins Associates, an all-media direct response fundraising agency that has served nonprofit organizations exclusively for over 38 years, won 15 awards at the New England Direct Marketing Association's (NEDMA) 2009 Awards for Creative Excellence Show held at The Roxy in Boston on June 10, 2009.

In fall of 2008, the 25-year-old Food Bank For New York City was facing a crisis. A quickly souring economy was a double-edged sword — making for an increased need among people requiring food assistance, and decreased donations of both food and money from businesses and individuals feeling the pinch.

Do you need help developing long-term relationships with your mid-level donors? Do you want to launch some special mailings and tailored communications for these high-level donors but don’t know where to begin? Or is your current mid-level program in dire need of some fresh ideas?

Several organizations have made a big impact on the bottom line by attracting donors to the mid-level and by maintaining long-term, fruitful relationships with them, L.W. Robbins Associates President Lynn Edmonds said at Blackbaud’s 2008 Conference for Nonprofits held last month in South Carolina.

Bryan Terpstra, vice president of client services at Robbins, added that, “A big focus is on the creative approach used to attract the mid-level donors and how this differs from the approach used for other segments of the donor file.”

All donors are not created equal. As in the for-profit world, the most financially valuable ones are the ones who undertake long-term relationships with an organization — those who embrace a nonprofit’s mission and make donations again and again. In a perfect world, fundraisers would be able to discern these individuals from the 70 percent of newly acquired donors whose first gifts are also their last, and invest in them accordingly.