America’s Second Harvest’s new direct-marketing approach yields ‘remarkable results’ and proves that donors are hungry for more intimate relationships with nonprofits.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Mining for Gold

Here, in no specific order, are some recommendations from Terri Shoemaker, manager of direct marketing at America’s Second Harvest.

1. “The biggest thing to look out for is being too involved to see the forest for the trees. When you are in doubt about something (from the detail level to an overall program perspective), ask for an outside opinion.”

2. Be sure to test everything and anything.

3. Don’t be afraid to make wise investments in your program. “Be a tireless advocate for your expense budget. Investments do pay off, and data bears that out.”

4. Listen to your donors. “The $5 donor has as much of an opinion about how they are treated as a $5,000 donor.”

5. “The truth lies in the data 90 percent of the time. The rest of the time, it’s pure instinct that will see you through.”

It’s a development office’s dream: You’re a nice-sized nonprofit and you score some big corporate and foundation partners who start throwing money at you.

Sweet. Lots more cash in your coffers. Lots more people getting help.

But what about when those project grants time out? If you’ve put too many of your fundraising eggs into that big-ticket basket, you might find yourself a yolk or two short of an omelet somewhere down the line.

America’s Second Harvest, the country’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, has teamed up with some heavy hitters over the past few years, including the ConAgra Feed Children Better Foundation; The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, which helped fund a big technology project; and the Starr Foundation in New York City.

All of that extra cash on the corporate and foundation side was a blessing for A2H, of course, but the puffed-up numbers made the funds coming in from other legs of the development plan look, well, puny. Direct marketing, especially, left something to be desired.

In the late 1990s A2H’s direct marketing program was pulling in roughly half of the organization’s contributed revenue each year, according to A2H Vice President of Philanthropy Dan Delany. But then the focus turned to corporate and foundation giving, and the direct marketing side plummeted.

“Suddenly the individual side [of the program] had fallen far out of whack versus philanthropy overall,” Delany says. “A lot of organizations never reach the 75 percent mark for individual giving, but we didn’t want it to be this low; it was close to only 20 percent.

“We wanted to get things balanced again,” he adds. “Corporate and foundation gifts are great. But they’re more project specific and, if they’re time sensitive, once that goes away, you need more balance.

A shift in focus
By late 2003, Delany says, A2H’s direct marketing had pulled in $12.5 million, or 44 percent of contributed income. To get those results, A2H “elevated the quality of the entire program.”

America’s Second Harvest

What: The largest domestic hunger-relief charity in the United States

Where: 35 E. Wacker Dr., #2000, Chicago, IL 60601

Phone: 312.263.2303

Fax: 312.263.5626

E-mail: bmalczewski@secondharvest.org

On the Web: http://www.secondharvest.org

The Mission: “We are a national network of over 200 affiliated food banks and food-rescue organizations that distribute donated food through 50,000 charitable agencies to Americans facing hunger. America’s Second Harvest distributes food to 23.3 million people in need each year.”

The Figures:
Employees: 90
Annual operating budget: $31 million
Total contributed revenue: $28.7 million (projected FY ending 2004)

What it Does: Feeds the hungry and disseminates information about hunger in the United States. Distributes almost 2 billion pounds of food and groceries each year.

How it Does it: The Chicago headquarters supports 217 affiliate food banks around the country. Food and, to a lesser extent, money go from the national headquarters to the affiliates, which in turn distribute groceries and foodstuffs to their member agencies, a network of 30,000 grassroots feeding agencies. Affiliates also solicit donations of food and money on their own, through food drives and other campaigns, as well as relationships with local food companies.

“In some cases, the national office directly cuts checks for an affiliate, but that’s mainly in the case of a corporate partnership where the company wants to have a direct local impact. But in a way, every dollar that comes to A2H supports the affiliates. The national office is responsible for half of the 2 billion pounds of food. It’s not directly cash, but it is all part of the community wealth.” — Dan Delany, vice president of philanthropy

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Cover Story: Feeding the Need