Roger Craver

At the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association Year-End Luncheon, veteran fundraising expert Roger Craver, founder of DonorTrends and editor of The Agitator, shared five fundraising trends to get on top of in 2011.

In the past 15 years, the number of public charities has increased from 600,000 to nearly 1 million. This increased competition, coupled with changing demographics, has resulted in declining acquisition rates, rising acquisition costs and declining retention rates.

What if there were no new donors? That was the first question nonprofit veteran Roger Craver asked in his presentation, “Where It’s At! A 12-Step Program to Get You to Tomorrow,” at the first ever FundRaising Success Virtual Conference & Expo held last Thursday (and available on-demand until Aug. 24). Craver, founder of DonorTrends and editor of TheAgitator.net, said that is the reality today — with declining acquisition rates, rising acquisition costs, declining retention rates and declining income playing factors.

Loyal donors are vital to keeping nonprofit organizations afloat, especially in tough economic times. They give repeatedly over time, give a greater share of wallet, make referrals and likely also engage in nonmonetary participation.

In a webinar in June, nonprofit consultants and Agitator bloggers Roger Craver and Tom Belford delved into the issue of donor loyalty, sharing some statistics from a recent Agitator donor study, thoughts on things that impact donor loyalty and recommendations for how to improve it.

June 6, 2009, The Chronicle of Philanthropy — Loyal donors who give to the same cause for several years and those who recruit others to donate are the most-valuable supporters any charity can have.

On Feb. 25, FundRaising Success hosted the webinar, “Integrated Direct Mail 101: An hour with Roger Craver.” Joining Roger, a fundraising guru and founder of Craver, Mathews, Smith & Co., for this lively conversation was his colleague Ryann Miller, managing director at the newly formed consultancy, DonorTrends.