Tuesday, May 31, 2016

The Missing Millions in YOUR Charity's Databases

We fundraisers have a problem.  OK, we have many, but a big one is the ‘missing millions.’

Direct marketing expert Roger Craver calls releasing these missing millions ‘miracle’ fundraising.  

But I think that is too generous. 


Image: Where are the missing millions?

Tapping the money is not a miracle.  But not tapping this resource is unforgivable.

Where are these missing millions?

They are in your databases. 

They are the funds people would donate if only you gave them the right opportunity.

The problem is our historical structure.

We have built fundraising around either mass marketing (direct marketing, or DM) 
or 
personal relationships (major donors, or MD).  

And we define the difference between them as an amount of money.

Donors however, don’t buy into that definition.  Many lower ‘value’ donors would be much more valuable if only we worked on building a relationship with them.  And many high ‘value’ donors simply don’t want a personal relationship.

The solution is actually quite easy.

Direct marketeers need to produce the best possible communications for their top donors, and produce cheaper versions for lower value donors.  They need to sacrifice volume (numbers mailed or telephoned) to free budget to allow improvement in the quality of communications.

And major donor fundraisers need to spend more time meeting with donors.  If they did, the cost per visit would be less and they could also then justify spending time with donors giving at lower values.

If you have already booked the latest webinar, great stuff and thank you!


Sean

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