Renewal

Pay particular attention to renewing your relationships with those loyal supporters as you reach out to potential new donors. Never make the mistake of thinking that one can replace the other.

Focusing on high-cash giving not only maximizes actual year-end returns, but more importantly, builds motivation and commitment in the segment of your donor base with the greatest inclination to give.

In 2005, Jennifer Bielat, vice president of direct marketing at Easter Seals and member of the FundRaising Success Editorial Advisory Board, shared ways to increase long-term value of premium donors.

You don’t need a single new donor to raise more money. Given that the cost to acquire a new donor is often $1, or more, for every $1 raised, finding a new donor does not even help most organizations with short-term mission fulfillment. So, how can you raise significantly more money for mission fulfillment without acquiring new donors? Here are just six ideas: 1. Ask for more. 2. Send a second-gift appeal. 3. Recruit monthly donors. 4. Get a challenge grant. 5. Retain donors. 6. Ask for planned gifts.

Bad news for entry-level fundraisers. When you send out a prospecting letter, and new donors respond — most of them will never give you a second gift. Why does this happen? Probably because a lot of new donors respond on a sudden impulse. Then later, if that impulse is not triggered again, they are not interested. Their lives have moved on.

So how do you attack this situation? You begin with — yes — a thank-you letter.

Lose your mid-level donors, and your major gifts will dry up sooner than you might imagine.

This year, the FSV advisors tackled the issues every-sized organization and mission need to know to thrive well into the next decades.

These days, renewing donors takes a fully integrated, multichannel effort. In this excerpt, fundraising guru Roger Craver shared "5 Ways to Get the Most From Your Multichannel Fundraising Renewal Efforts."

In her January 2011 DM Diagnosis article, "Baby, Come Back," fundraising copywriter and creative director Kimberly Seville shared what happened when she deliberately became a lapsed donor.

Let's face the facts, there is no such thing as single-channel fundraising any longer, not even for renewal campaigns. In our November 2012 issue, direct-response fundraising guru Roger Craver, editor of the Agitator and member of the FS Editorial Advisory Board, laid out the keys to a renewal program in this feature, "The Multichannel Renewal Campaign."