Finding and keeping monthly donors
Harvey McKinnon
http://www.harveymckinnon.com/
@harveymckinnon
Another packed session. Harvey has been involved with regular giving for forever, and has written several books on the subject. It was a really interesting session, very interactive and lots of questions. There was one lady down the front who asked far too many questions for Ada and I's liking... I felt like standing up and telling her to shut up and let him get on with it! The guy beside her then decided to chime in with his opinion (not even a question!) every 10mins or so. Hey Mr - you aren't the speaker!!!
Again, stolen from a website :-)
Some random thoughts and takeouts from Harvey's session:
* An Amnesty international survey has found the No. #1 reason people become Regular Givers.... convenience!
* Is there a way we can identify early potential drop offs (donors) and call them to invite them to donate less in order to keep them on longer?
* There was debate about contacting regular givers acquired through F2F and thanking them - could it be dangerous, as they may have forgotten about the money being taken out of their account via direct debit every month
* Using language like 'Please accept our special invitation to join our monthly giving program'
* The UK is currently experiencing higher cancellation rates from regular givers at present due to the GFC.
* In some places around the world, door-to-door fundraising is doing better than F2F. (I later spoke with the owner of fundraising agency in Belgium who agreed).
* Why not do an RG ask at gala dinner events, straight after an emotional story or video
* Some charities are slicing their dollar handles down further than just $/month, to cents/day
* When giving donors montly amount options on a reply mech, give a maximum of 3 choices. Don't give donors too much choice.
* Talk around doing an RG ask from a petition - as long as the people signing the petition are already primed or at least aware there will be a follow through ask.
* Converting e-newsletter subscribers. Can we do this? What about people who write back to enewsletters or provide 'feedback'. They are obviously more connected/engaged than the regular subscriber.
* 3 ways to make even more money from regular givers 1) upgrade 2) ask for single gifts (incorporate into appeals) and 3) bequests
* Test your RG database to see how many appeals we can send them.
* Upgrade RG donors after they have been on board for 10 months.
* There was talk of aiming for around 15% of your database to be regular givers.
Pretty full on! After the session I queued up (as did half the class) and asked him about converting eventers to regular givers. He said that usually they don't convert well, but to test it!
Legacy Fundraising: Lessons from 20 years of research
Adrian Sargeant
www.studyfundraising.info
asargean@iupui.edu
Ok, wow. This guy was amazing! He was actually a recommendation from one of the Australians, and I'm so glad I went along. Again, another packed room, possibly the most packed so far, and I understood why. Adrian is a Professor of Fundraising. A Professor! He has been involved in the study of fundraising for around 20 years, and has been testing fundraising the whole time. Wow!
The first thing for me in this session was to adjust to the word 'legacy'. Seems everyone in Europe uses legacy and not bequest. Legacy sounds old school to me! :-)
Ok, some of my takeouts from this session:
* A US study found 8% of people of people named charities in their will, and 30-40% were willing to. OPPORTUNITY!
* The ambiant message of bequests needs to always be there
* People are always talking about large bequests & how they make a difference, hence people think that their bequest is too small. We need to change that message and starting talking about how ALL bequests make a difference.
* Increasing age = decreasing self esteem. Making a will is like giving away part of yourself, hence it impacts on self esteem. A factor to remember when dealing with people who are making bequests, or to remember as to why people may put off making a bequest.
* Studies show no correlation between income/wealth and the liklihood of leaving a bequest. Chance increases with level of education.
* Great research from Russell James 3rd - I need to look him up when I get back!
* Potential bequesters pay a lot of attention to communications received from a charity. They want quality. They are more concerned about the quality of the communication than the rest of the database. Why? It is a big decision and they are looking for reassurance of their decision. They are educated people who pay particular attention, hence we should stop using words like 'A simple guide to leaving a bequest'. They are smart people!
* Survey - 76% of people feel asking for a bequest is ok, only 3% think it is NOT ok. Only 42% say they would notify the charity and 31% would want recognition.
Less talk, more study Ada Banks! :-)
* There is a trend emerging where charities have stopped continually asking donors to notify them about whether or not they have left a bequest. Why? It's not like they will know when the donor will pass on!
* Talk to potential bequesters through the channel which you are already talking to them (or have acquired them).
* Major trigger for leaving a bequest - because they were asked! They actually received something from the charity.
* Potential bequesters are interested in performance data of the organisation.
* When communicating with donors about their gift, make it tangible - eg. it will keep our doors open, it will look after XX endangered species when you are gone.
* Best practice - Language used should be future focused:
- Abstract (the values of the organisation)
- Superordinate (what will your gift deliver. Outcomes)
- Decontextual (what will the organisation deliver to society)
- Structured (rationale)
* Best practice - talk to donor about what we have done over the donors lifetime (key milestones) and what we will do/need in the future. Don't use dates, use '10 years time', '20 years time'
* Language - emotions discount faster than logic
* Language - negative emotions discount faster than positive outcomes
* Donors identify with an organisation through:
1) Community (the people) eg. City, state, campus, school, specific staff, other vols etc
2) The organisation itself - this is values based, and is the fit between personal values and organisational values.
He then gave his 'Top 10 suggestions'...
Then he gave an 11th....conduct research! Test!
Then, he left us with this slide, which I think is hilarious!
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