2 Nonprofit Acquisition and Agency/Consultant Partnerships Trends for 2015
To get a handle on what’s in store for 2015, NonProfit PRO rounded up some of the nonprofit industry’s finest, who were kind enough to share their nonprofit trends for 2015. Here are two of those trends, one on donor acquisition and the other on agency/consultant relationships.
ACQUISITION
Allison Porter, president, Avalon Consulting Group
1. Acquisition is back! In the wake of the Great Recession, many organizations are feeling the pinch because they made the difficult and risky decision to slash or eliminate acquisition investment. While we sympathize with the realities that led nonprofits to this decision, we must pause to acknowledge its effects and learn lessons for the future, namely: (1) Reinvest in acquisition now. File sizes are dwindling because the spigot was cut off several years ago. If not turned back on, this spells disaster for net revenue into the future. (2) We shouldn’t overcorrect with a clear-cutting mentality. We still have to do the hard work to invest in new donors who are a good fit, who will renew their support year after year for a strong lifetime value, and who will be loyal, engaged partners for your organization. (3) We need to overcommunicate the case for investment to nonprofits’ senior executives. If they internalize this strategic need, then, when the next budget crunch happens, our acquisition programs may not be so vulnerable.
AGENCY/CONSULTANT PARTNERSHIPS
Richard Perry, founding partner, and Jeff Schreifels, senior partner, Veritus Group
1. More outsourcing of work that was traditionally done in-house. Managers are beginning to realize that they can save money by outsourcing technical and management work and still stay in control of their brand, story, content and other management values. Some of the areas being outsourced are certain HR functions, some finance functions, IT, donor care, major and midlevel program management, grant writing, planned giving, creative work, PR work, etc. This trend is similar to a trend in the commercial world of using on-demand services that use freelancers and virtual labor to get work done.
