Posted on Tue, Aug 24, 2010
By Pete Carter, Senior Vice President
Monthly giving across the pond represents a significant portion of overall charitable contributions. In fact, several charities in the United Kingdom (Oxfam, for example) have several hundred thousand monthly givers. How do they do it? Is it even possible to replicate these results in the United States?
First, it’s important to understand that these monthly givers are not contributing via check. Paper checks are so last century. In Europe, and particularly the UK, monthly givers generally sign up via what they call “direct debit,” or what we call electronic funds transfer (EFT). So when conducting a monthly giving (or sustainer) recruitment campaign, don’t even think about accepting monthly mailed checks.
It is true that unlike in the United States, in Europe, it’s extremely common for consumers to use direct debit or “easy pay” for their personal bills. So if you think EFT will be too hard to sell to your donors, then a credit card option will work pretty well, too. However, it’s important to be aware that a sustainer file built on credit card giving will suffer from greater attrition than one based primarily on EFT.
These are the 5 most common techniques used around the world for recruiting monthly givers:
1. Face-to-face: Street canvass and door-to-door campaigns are very common in Europe. Some groups rely exclusively on this technique for recruiting new monthly givers. Face-to-face campaigns are gaining popularity in the United States. I was recently visited at home by a representative for the ACLU. I let him conduct his initial ask; after which I told him I was only going to make a one-time gift, which he seemed happy enough to take. This technique is expensive, which is why relatively few groups make use of it in the US. But if your organization is well-known, and if you target with careful accuracy, you might be able to build on this technique’s track record of success.
2. Telemarketing: Telemarketing is the bread-and-butter of most American monthly giving programs. Targeting those who just joined with a combo “thank-you” and “here’s another opportunity to help” telemarketing message has proven enormously successful for many organizations.
3. Television: Remember that Sarah McLachlan infomercial you’ve seen with sad puppies and kittens late at night? That’s the ASPCA using direct response television to recruit monthly givers. Television spots come in two varieties: long-form (usually 30 minutes or longer) or short-form (commercial sized, perhaps 30 or 60 seconds). Depending on length and placement, these spots can be very expensive, but we wouldn’t continue to see them if they weren’t working.
4. Direct Mail: Mail is less expensive than the first three options, but generally has a lower positive response. The good news: these monthly givers tend to be the most committed.
5. Online: The least expensive option, and one that allows for the greatest flexibility. Think of the price point options you can test, or the premium offers, or messaging points! If you don’t have initial success engaging donors with an online recruitment campaign, try it again with a different spin.
Are there any techniques that we’ve left out? And which have been the most successful for you?
Posted on Tue, Dec 08, 2009
Things to know if you haven’t yet delved into this tricky
fundraising medium.
By Jim Hussey
The concept of planned giving is nothing new — churches began the process many years ago — but too many nonprofit organizations don’t have sufficiently organized planned-giving programs. If you're one of them, here’s something of a primer.
Planned giving is a generic name for fundraising programs that seek to generate giving from supporters in their later years who will continue to give once they’ve passed away - in the form of estate gifts and other charitable vehicles. It’s the best long-term resource in which a nonprofit organization can invest.
A relatively small amount of money invested now to conduct some basic marketing and education concerning planned giving will result in a windfall for your organization in five to 10 years, All you need is a little bit of skill and a lot of patience.
Different vehicles
The most common forms of planned gifts are bequests, in which a supporter sets aside money for the nonprofit organization in her will or insurance policy. Other bequests can include the donation of land or stocks. You can promote the concept of bequests through mediums as simple as ads in your newsletters and other publications, or as complex as multifaceted marketing campaigns that use direct mail and personal contact. You don’t have to wait for a donor to die before gaming her support through planned giving. As a matter of fact, the cultivation process has to begin well in advance.
Other options include annuities. Annuities involve the donation of a set sum of money by a living donor to an organization, which then pays the donor a specific amount of interest every month during the remainder of her lifetime. When the donor dies, the organization keeps the balance of the money.
Annuities are great because they can help both the organization and the donor.
While the organization benefits from the donation, the donor also benefits by receiving revenue for the remainder of her life. The older the donor, the higher her return rate. So a 90-year-old donor will receive a much higher return rate than a 70-year-old donor.
How to do it
Many organizations work through consultants who specialize in planned giving to develop their campaigns and related materials. The consultants provide readily available knowledge and marketing materials that require little effort on the part of the nonprofit organization.
Other organizations, chiefly larger groups, rely on focus groups to develop their own materials. Focus groups usually aren’t very effective in gauging direct-marketing response. It’s normally cheaper and more effective to test direct-mail packages by simply mailing them to small test cores.
But you don’t have that advantage with planned-giving materials - it could be years, or even decades, before a “test” donor passes away and leaves your organization a gift. Only then would you be able to judge the effectiveness of your marketing materials. That’s why focus groups have proven to be a valuable tool in helping to develop effective planned-giving campaigns.
Correctly targeting potential planned-gift supporters is a tricky business, and you need to work closely with your consultant to develop the right mix of materials targeted to the right mix of recipients. Demographic factors such as age, gender, length of home ownership and the value of the primary residence often are important elements to examine.
Amazingly, the amount of a donor’s previous donations often is not a reliable indication of her ability and inclination to donate through planned giving. I've seen many instances in which donors who have given only $20 or $25 to a nonprofit organization during their lifetime leave hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars to that organization at their death.
Does your organization have planned giving?