30 Ideas for Fundraising Success, Part 3

[Editor’s note: This is the third and final part of a three-part series on the session “30 Ideas in 60 Minutes: Your Hour of Creative Power” held on June 10 at Fund Raising Day in New York. Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.]

At the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater New York Chapter’s Fund Raising Day in New York last Friday, three fundraising experts shared 30 ideas in one of the first sessions of the day. Here are ideas 21-30 that Joe Manes, senior vice president of A.B. Data, Bryan Terpstra, vice president of fundraising at LW Robbins, and fundraising and communications advisor Jennie Thompson offered attendees.
Try a package rotation strategy in acquisition
After receiving many mailings of your acquisition control package, prospects on your control prospect lists may tire of your package, Terpstra said. So he suggested that you test another package that could work and alternate packages to see what happens.

"If you can find two prospecting messages that work, it makes life easier," Terpstra said.

The bottom line is that two acquisitions controls are better than one.

Read, shop, buy like your supporters do
"Be sure your organization has more windows than mirrors," Thompson said.

That means you should be focusing on what your donors do, how they view things, not on what you do and how you perceive your organization. Live more of donors' lives to understand them, and mimic that behavior, Thompson said. Be there when donors get there — don't trail behind them.

It's only $5
Manes said he's been frustrated with the lack of movement in average gifts for a while now. One way to combat that is to test asking for $5 more than the highest previous contribution as the lowest ask amount in your variable dollar string, he said. After all, "it's only $5," which makes it much more likely that a donor will increase her gift than if you ask for $50 more.