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For nonprofit organizations, doubled the number of alumni donating to Breathe
fundraising is their lifeblood. the school and added many new names to new life
But what happens when its database for the subsequent year. into your
fundraising
your fundraising goes flat? 3. Create custom gifts. efforts!
How do you breathe new life
into existing efforts? Here are One nonprofit children’s organization were encouraged to visit a personalized
five ways that real nonprofits funds itself through sales of custom note URL, provide feedback, and begin a dialog
have kicked it up a notch. cards and merchandise. Previously, it had with the organization. It worked — 6% of
produced its custom cards by imprinting recipients logged into their personalized
on offset printed shells but knew it was URLs and 90% of those completed the
survey. The dialog had begun!
1. Personalize the content. leaving money on the table through
unsold inventory, high error rates in 5. Develop ideal donor
profiles and clone your list.
When one historical museum found order processing, and slow turnarounds.
What if everything you are doing is
its fundraising going flat, it decided It switched to an online working . . . you just need more of it? You
create a demographic and psychographic
to test personalized communications catalog powered by a profile of your best donors, then go out
and find new donors just like them. One
versus nonpersonalized Web-to-print solution.
cultural museum did just
communications. It found This gave customers more this. It asked a third-party
provider to analyze its
that by personalizing choices, faster “cards in donor base to determine
what characteristics to
elements of its donor hand,” and the ability to fully personalize look for in potential
prospects. It then launched a direct mail
newsletter, it achieved their products, while reducing the campaign to reach lapsed and prospective
donors. The museum achieved a 10%
a 30% lift in response rates from active organization’s error rate at the same time. to 15% lift in donation amounts compared
to the previous year.
members and 25% from sustaining The results? Higher revenues and more Are any of these strategies speaking
to you? If so, talk with us about putting
members (regular, automatic gifts). profits! them into action to increase
your donor base and
Personalization was fairly simple (recipient’s revenues from your
fundraising drives.
name, state, the number of charter 4. Look for areas of
members in that state, and prefilled forms), disconnect. CASKEY GROUP ■ 5
but it was highly effective.
Based on a review of the giving history
2. Create a little of previous donors, one donor-funded
competition. educational organization discovered a
disconnect with its donor base. Donors
When it was time for its didn’t understand its
annual donation drive, mission or the benefits it
one university decided to provided. So it launched
create a little competition. a direct mail campaign to
It used personalized reconnect with donors,
direct mail and email to invite alumni to a educate them about the value of its
Facebook party where they could interact services, and get them back on board with
with other graduates and their favorite its mission. As part of this effort, donors
professors. There was a
soft push to give, and the
class with the highest
donation levels won a free
happy hour. The college
FUNDRAISING!
