Donor Relationship Management

Our researchers here at the Easier Said Than Done Pavilion and Golf Course have turned their considerable skills to predicting your future. To discover what’s ahead for your nonprofit organization in 2008, simply match the year of your founding with its Chinese zodiac symbol. (See the paper place mats at your local Chinese restaurant if you don’t know which years go with which creatures.) Year of the RAT Your organization will become infested with vice presidents. Most of them will be harmless, genial types who make excellent lunch companions. One of them, however, will have an addiction to massive, organization-wide initiatives that are meant

In most mid-size to large nonprofit organizations, there are two distinct areas from which revenue is generated from individual donors. The names vary: Membership hands off to development; direct marketing supports major gifts; marketing feeds donors to advancement. In each situation, one group is dedicated to generating broad-based support via a bevy of direct-response techniques. Another very separate group raises large or major gifts utilizing relationship-based techniques. The impact of this structure is, in most cases, a siloed system that doesn’t make it easy for staff to transition donors — and a jarring experience for the donors themselves.

At one time, having a static Web site was all a nonprofit organization needed to communicate with its supporters and the public. Times have changed. Sure, there are still plenty of static Web sites out there, but we’re also seeing more nonprofits with dynamic, interactive sites with plenty of compelling content. In fact, organizations are generating an increasing volume of electronic content — information pertinent to donors, advocates, program recipients, volunteers, staff and other constituents. So how are these organizations managing and updating these content-rich Web sites, usually on a daily basis? If you answered, “By keeping our webmaster busy 24-7,” think

Who do you picture when you think of a sports fan? A big, shirtless guy beating his painted chest with his fists? Sure, sports fans are a passionate bunch. But if your nonprofit strategizes properly, you might get that guy — and his passion — on your side.

Airplanes and on-ramps. Talk to Atul Tandon about fundraising, and you get a lot of metaphors about movement. Whether it’s drawing a picture of specific programming as on-ramps to the highway of donor engagement, or comparing the development of an overall donor-centric attitude within an organization while also keeping a variety of strategies robust to repairing an airplane while it’s still in the air, the senior vice president of donor engagement at World Vision U.S. is clear about his point: Fundraising is far from a static endeavor and, to keep up, an organization — even one as venerable and stalwart as the 57-year-old World Vision — has to keep moving.

For some months now, I’ve been collecting samples — giving small donations to a number of charities (in addition to those I usually support), so that I can get an idea of who’s doing what with their “post-gift” donor communications.

To solve the deepest problems related to membership recruitment, renewal and retention, you need to take an integrated look at your membership program. The five major touch points that I use in discussing the life cycle for an association member are awareness, recruitment, engagement, interdependence and renewal. Here’s a look at the role each plays. 1. Awareness. Membership development starts with one very important question: Do prospective members know who you are? Awareness is the measure of how successful your branding efforts have been to gain share of mind in your target audience. Until people know your organization, they’re not likely to become members or

Rick Whelan on Renewals

“Credit card relationships open up a world of data-driven possibilities for your cause, including: multichannel relationship building; demographic overlays; donor mapping; and donor upgrading.” So wrote Jim Killion, chief e-strategist for is7, in a June 19 post on the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s blog, The Integrator, in which he extolled the virtues of credit cards in regards to philanthropy, noting that credit cards offer nonprofits a golden opportunity to turn donors into monthly givers. “The greatest power of the card in an online environment is the ability to turn a one-time donor into a monthly donor (or a one-time buyer into a continuity

Donor retention is a huge issue for every nonprofit organization. Given the cost of acquisition of individual donors — not to mention major donors — it’s important that organizations properly steward current donors so that they’ll feel compelled to continue giving. This is the focus of the book “Building Donor Loyalty: The Fundraiser’s Guide to Increasing Lifetime Value,” by Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay. In order to succeed in retaining donors, Sargeant and Jay advise that organizations proactively plan their retention strategies, which “involves far more than simply devising the communications that donors will receive” (Page 171). What kind of relationship will your organization