Monthly Giving Webinar Questions Answered, Part II

In January, three fundraising professionals came together in a FundRaising Success webinar titled “Everything You Need to Know About Obtaining and Retaining Monthly Donors.” Though our pros were able to answer a number of the questions posed by the more than 100 attendees, they couldn’t get to all of them. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be highlighting our experts’ answers to some of the questions that didn’t get answered during the webinar.

This week, we’ll hear from Brian Cowart, senior director of mail acquisition and donor retention at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, who is responding mainly to questions about St. Jude’s monthly giving program, called Partners In Hope.

Click here to read answers provided last week by Linda King, sustaining membership coordinator/Leadership Circle coordinator at the Iowa Public Television Foundation. If you’d like to access the entire webinar online, Click here for access and pricing information.

— Margaret Battistelli, Editor-in-Chief, FundRaising Success

Q: Do you ever use telemarketing to acquire monthly donors or have you tried in the past?

Brian Cowart: I have not ever used telemarketing to acquire monthly or single-gift donors. It is something that I would like to test at some point in the future. If telemarketing acquisition was going to work, I think the primary offer would have to focus on securing credit card or [electronic funds transfer] monthly gifts in order to offset the high cost of donor acquisition.

Q: Did you telemarket current donors or acquisition lists for your Partners In Hope [monthly giving] program?

BC: We called our current donors.

Q: What percentage of your donor file is a part of your PIH program?

BC: Approximately 10 percent of our active donors are PIH monthly donors.

Q: How many additional mailings/appeals is appropriate for a committed monthly donor?