At the start of the year, you’ve got tons of tasks to accomplish. There are gifts to process, books to close and a mountain of thank-you letters to write. It's a lot of clerical work that your organization is counting on.
Still, if you can find time for deep thinking and planning, and for nurturing your donor relationships, you’ll see a huge difference in your year’s overall revenue.
One of the most important things to do in January and February is take a thorough look at your caseload and do a caseload refresh. That is to say, once all your year-end gifts have been processed, review each and every donor on your caseload to determine if that donor should stay on your caseload.
Some organizations close the 2024 books by the second week of January. In other organizations, it’s as far out as the second week of February! But here’s the point. Right now, put a reminder on your schedule to find out when the books close in your organization and how soon you can get the info you need on how your caseload donors performed last year.
This is important. Effectively, this is like performing one giant audit within your 150-donor portfolio. You want to make sure every donor is qualified and actively giving to your organization, right? Well, the only way to know that is to open the books and see for yourself.
Let me take you through this process.
1. Remove Lapsed Donors
To start, you’ll want to identify and remove any donors who haven’t responded to your attempts for connection. Before you remove them, make sure that they’re not just on an extended vacation or have had a personal life circumstance (like a lengthy sickness) crop up. Ideally, these donors can move back down into your mid-level program.
2. Confirm Donors’ Current Giving Level
The next data point to collect is determining whether any donors on your caseload are giving less than your caseload criteria. Maybe you’ve got a donor that has retired and they aren’t able to give at the level that they once were. These donors might be better served by a mid-level program, too.
3. Ensure Donors Are in Correct Giving Tier
At the same time, take a look at the tiers within your caseload where you’ve assigned each donor. Based on what you know about that donor or their giving level, do you need to move these donors up a tier or down a tier? The tiers are there for a reason: They help you determine how much time you’re going to spend with that donor. Don’t assume every donor is stuck in one tier.
4. Add New Donors Who Meet Your Criteria
Finally, you’re going to need to replace the donors you removed with donors who meet your caseload criteria. That means qualifying new donors to make sure that they actually want to connect with you. In most cases, you’ll want to build a qualification pool and work in conjunction with your mid-level program to discuss who may be ready to move from mid-level to major gifts.
It’s my recommendation that you do a caseload refresh twice a year, once in the early winter, and then again in July or August. You have precious and limited time to connect with your donors, but following this process ensures that you’re working with the right donors on your caseload. You’d be surprised by the number of organizations that simply hope lapsed donors will come around and eventually give like they used to. It’s a losing bet.
Even if your books haven’t closed yet, you can still plan ahead for a refresh. Over the course of the year, keep a note of donors who may need to move up or down a tier, and, at year-end, be aware of any donors who haven’t communicated with you or given like you thought. That will give you a head start as you sort through your caseload.
This process can be challenging, but it’s important to remember that you’re trying to grow the value of your portfolio. Naturally, caseload refreshes will improve your revenue goals. You’ll be cutting out lapsed donors and ideally be bringing in fresh and inspired ones. Make sure to communicate these changes with your staff so everyone is on the same page and has updated expectations for the year ahead.
To this day, I find way too many major gifts officers and managers forging ahead through January thinking that most of their donors are concerned about their fiscal years. The truth is, it’s crucial to use January to review and retool your caseload.
If you haven’t made this a biannual practice, it’s time to get started. Be tactful and urgent about it. Your success this year depends on you getting this right.
The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.
Related story: How to Create Your Caseload Communication Plan in 2 Hours or Less
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Jeff Schreifels is the principal owner of Veritus Group — an agency that partners with nonprofits to create, build and manage mid-level fundraising, major gifts and planned giving programs. In his 32-plus year career, Jeff has worked with hundreds of nonprofits, helping to raise more than $400 million in revenue.