Category Archives: Donor Relationships

10 Keys for Engaging & Empowering Millennials

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Guest Blog Post By: Scot Chisholm, StayClassy

Of the many trends thatthe 2012 Millennial Impact Report was able to unearth, there was one that was particularly compelling. An overwhelming majority of the millennials surveyed for the report (71%) said they had raised money on behalf of a nonprofit organization. Of those that hadn’t raised money for a nonprofit, about half indicated that they simply hadn’t had the opportunity to do so. That brings the total percentage of surveyed millennials who either have raised money for a nonprofit, or would be willing to, all the way up to 84%. And that’s pretty amazing.

It’s also consistent with the trends we’re seeing at StayClassy on a daily basis across thousands of nonprofit organizations using our platform to raise money. Although people of all ages do engage in online fundraising, there is a persistent bias towards the younger generation. For one reason or another (perhaps comfort level with the Internet and technology) millennials are exceptionally active in the online fundraising space. This means they are an incredibly important audience for any nonprofit looking to build a serious online fundraising program (and they will only get more important as time goes by).

We’ve also been fortunate to get a close up view of a handful of organizations that are incredibly effective at engaging millennials (Invisible Children and Pencils of Promise are a couple good examples) and many other organizations that simply aren’t.

And this got us thinking. What makes the Invisible Children’s of the world stand out? How are they able to consistently rally a younger audience to support their cause, and ultimately, raise millions online?

After pouring over these high performing organizations we came up with a list of ten keys for effectively engaging and empowering an audience of millennials (you can check out a summary of the list below).  Although the list was focused on engagement in general rather than fundraising techniques in particular, many of the tenets we came up with directly support the fundraising trends mentioned in the Millennial Impact Report.

One in particular stood out to me: “Let Millennials Define their own ‘Why’.  This means providing a vehicle for millennials to tell their own personal story as part of your larger organizational story (through a personal fundraising page, a video log, or some other medium).  Doing this allows the individual to internalize why they are supporting your organization and makes them feel more comfortable fundraising on your behalf. It also sets up the fundraising as an expressive, social, and interactive experience.

Suppose I create a fundraising page for a breast cancer organization. When I use that page to explain that my mom had breast cancer and what my personal motivation is, I do that because I care about the cause, but I also do it because I want to share my personal story with my friends and family. This activity is expressive (telling my story) and social (sharing with friends and family) and, ultimately, interactive (commenting and communicating with donors). All of these aspects make the experience of supporting the nonprofit more personal and fulfilling.

Millenials have grown up with immediate technological means of giving and receiving information with a wider audience. Interactive experiences are the norm for us (yes, I’m a millennial too). Giving a static donation feels impersonal and irrelevant. Creating a fundraising page or hosting my own charity event and explaining to my friends why this matters to me, that feels relevant.

These observations dovetail nicely with the findings of the Millennial Impact Report. Remember 71% of surveyed millennials had fundraised for a nonprofit and when they did they stayed close to home. 84% asked friends for donations and 80% asked their extended families for donations. The experience they are gravitating to is a personal one where they can express their individual motivations to support a larger cause with the people they care about (friends and family).

Where we see breakout success is when organizations are able to marry this personal story telling with fundraising.  Peer-to-Peer fundraising pages are a great tool to do this, which is one of the reasons why organizations like Invisible Children have gravitated towards this fundraising technique.

If you’re interested in the full list of the10 keys for engaging a millennial audience you can see a condensed version below, or, you can see the expanded list over here:

10 Keys for Engaging & Empowering Millennials

1. Build instant (and we mean instant) credibility

Millenials are accustomed to using aesthetics as a quick proxy for determining value. If your website is uninspiring, we’ll just click off to something else.

2. Tell us why we should we care

If you can’t effectively show us why you care about this cause, then we won’t care. The easiest way to convince us that we should care is by showing us why you care.

3. Give us a “villain

Millennials are an idealistic bunch; we want to save the world. Give us a chance to express this idealism by clearly painting a picture of who or what we’re up against.

4. State the impossible

Millennials love the impossible. Lay out a challenge that everyone else says can’t be accomplished, and millennials will rally to your call.

5. Let us define our own ‘why?’

For millennials to truly commit to your organization, they will need to internalize the cause and decide why it matters to them personally.  That’s why it’s critical to give millennials a vehicle to tell their own story as part of your larger story.

6. Promote a common purpose

Millennials want to see how their action (or inaction) affects the overall success or failure of the community as it collectively tries to achieve its objective. It’s important to clearly display a collective goal and make it easy to see other people who are part of the community.

7. Be ultra transparent

Millennials grew up with information at their fingertips; they question everything. The importance of demonstrating how donations will be used cannot be understated. And the importance of demonstrating the impact of your work also cannot be understated.

8. Show us progress (any progress)

Millennials want to see your progress in real-time, the same way they consume most of their information on a daily basis. Demonstrate progress through constant communication, make it digestible for your audience, and celebrate this progress as a “win” in a series of many “wins” that will be necessary to achieve your larger objectives.

9. Inspire us with what’s next

It’s important to clearly articulate your next organizational challenge, and lay the foundation for how I might become involved.  What is your latest goal?  To achieve that goal, what type of support do you need from your base and how can I individually help you?

10. Move us to action

It is absolutely critical to give millennials a strong and unified call-to-action across all of your communication channels.  We suggest moving them to an action that goes above and beyond a simple donation, like creating a fundraising page. These types of “asks” allow millennials to personalize the cause, get their friends and family involved, and most importantly, deepen the emotional connection with your organization

 

Time to Join the Donor Revolution

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Originally posted on Philantopic – a blog of opinion and commentary from PHILANTHROPY news digest.

Every $100 in fundraising revenue gained in 2011 was offset by $100 in losses. Every 100 donors gained in 2011 was offset by the loss of 107 other donors. The donor retention rate for the sector in 2011 was 27 percent.

Why are these statistics from a recent survey conducted by the Association of Fundraising Professionals so, well, disappointing? Before I answer that question, let me tell you about an encounter I had with a chief development officer at a national healthcare organization.

I met Mark two years ago at a conference where I was speaking about trends in fundraising. He sat in on my session and approached me after it was over with a question about whether and how fundraising is evolving in response to generational shifts. We stayed in touch over the years, trading ideas and strategies related to multichannel approaches to raising support.

Several months ago, we had a chance to catch up over breakfast in Washington, D.C. After a brief conversation about fundraising performance and how things were going compared to last year, we started talking about his organization’s efforts to acquire new donors. Eventually, he asked me whether I knew of any “tricks” to increase donor headcount. After what seemed like a fruitful forty-five minutes, I changed the topic to donor stewardship. As I started to talk, Mark slumped back in his chair and his facial expression settled into a blank stare. It was clear he wasn’t interested.

Eventually, I stopped and said, “I take it your thing is acquiring new donors?”

“Our board is all about raising more money,” he replied. “My meetings with board members today will be focused on bringing in more donors and diversifying our base of loyal supporters. I don’t have a choice; I need to focus on acquisition. Sure, I could work harder to get our existing donors to give more, but I know the board cares more about me getting new donors to support the organization.”

My curiosity piqued, I asked him: “Do you prefer working on campaigns to acquire new donors or ones that focus on donor retention? Your personal preference, not what the board wants.”

“Fundraising to me is an uphill challenge,” he said. “It’s a challenge at times to figure out the best strategy, the right message, and the optimal way to present an appeal in order to get a positive reaction from a donor. It’s an incredible feeling, though, to crack the code. I get that feeling when a donor upgrades, but I get more excited when I can find a successful way to get a contact to give.”

There it was: the infatuation with donor acquisition, from boards that want an ever-growing donor base to directors of development that love the challenge of coming up with the one message that gets a donor to break out his or her wallet for the first time. And yes, as a former fundraiser, I can tell you that it is exciting when one cracks “the code.”

Unfortunately, donor acquisition and retention stats don’t lie, and what they tell us is that organizations are losing donors as fast, and sometimes faster, than they acquire them. Given that fact, isn’t it time to rethink how we fundraise? Isn’t it time we build development departments that value repeat donors as much as new donors? Isn’t it time for a donor-focused revolution? If you agree, here’s how your organization can be part of it.

Invest in Talent That Understands Donor Stewardship
When hiring development staff, think about asking job candidates a different set of questions. Instead of asking about the largest ask they’ve ever made, or the approaches they use to solicit potential prospects, ask about the retention rate for donors they’ve acquired, the strategies they’ve implemented to enhance those rates, and what they would change in your shop if hired.

Allocate Resources for Donor Retention Programs
Organizations that are serious about donor retention walk the talk, allocating the same amount of resources for donor retention as they do for donor acquisition. Whether it’s for technology upgrades or a series of donor-engagement activities, organizations need to spend money to ensure that donors continue to support your organization and increase their gifts over time.

Track Different Data to Understand Donor Retention
Your organization’s data on donor retention should focus on engagement. What actions do your donors take when you communicate or seek their input? What causes them to move from communication to action? Conduct focus groups, interviews, and other kinds of surveys to get a better understanding of what works to increase your donors’ loyalty to the organization.

Help Your Board See the Light
Donor retention isn’t a staff issue; it’s an organizational priority that should be driven by the board. It’s up to your executive director and development staff to help board members understand the importance of donor retention and why such programs are necessary for long-term success. Ask for a show of hands at your next board meeting to see how many of your board members chose not to support an organization this year that they had supported in the past. Ask those board members why they stopped supporting the organization in question and what it would take to bring them back into the fold. Turn it into a teachable moment that illustrates to other board members why you need their assistance (in the form of leadership, time, and financial support) to improve your organization’s donor retention rate.

It’s been said before that convincing a donor to give is hard, but convincing a donor to keep giving is twice as hard. Ignoring your existing donors poses a huge threat to the stability of your organization. It’s imperative, therefore, that your organization figures out the right balance between its donor acquisition and retention activities. In the words of my friend Mark, “Donors won’t necessarily remember why they gave to your organization in the first place, but they’ll always remember why they stopped giving to it.”

Join me on Twitter to talk about the #donorrevolution.

 

8 Trends That Will Shape Fundraising

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By Derrick Feldmann (Originally posted on Philantopic – a blog of opinion and commentary from PHILANTHROPY news digest.)

When I was working in development for a nonprofit, I was expected to provide my executive director with annual fundraising goals for my department — goals that were based on donor history, prior-year results, and the likelihood that a certain number of prospects would give for the first time.

In addition to our baseline goal, we always established a stretch goal or modeled a best-case scenario for our efforts. Early in my career we never seemed to hit the stretch goal, in part because I didn’t know our donors that well and because we based our predictions on what the organization needed, rather than on our donors’ willingness to give.

Over time I realized that to make our stretch goal, we had to alter our approach. And so, in addition to market research and data mining, we came up with three questions to help guide our efforts.

  1. What is causing donors to engage with us now?
  2. Which fundraising approaches are still relevant and why?
  3. What forces will influence donor behavior in the future?

In my opinion, these three questions should be the starting point for anyone trying to determine the long-term impact of their fundraising efforts (not to mention the future of fundraising itself). Recently I had a chance to sit down and revisit the questions, and I came up with the following eight trends that I believe will shape the fundraising industry and the relationship between donors and nonprofit organizations in the future.

Technology Trifecta
Increasingly, nonprofits will look at communications and fundraising through the lens of the what I call the “technology trifecta”: Web, mobile, and social media. And as they do, they will test concepts across all three channels to determine the right mix for their own constituencies. Mobile will continue to gain traction as technology and mobile marketing techniques improve. Social media will open the door to better donor communication and stewardship. And the Web will be the go-to place for transparency and donor-interaction tools. Testing and experimentation across all three channels will be key to implementation. Organizations also will need to manage expectations and develop effective donor delivery methods that don’t simply ape other organizations’ tactics. The fundraising “shop” that doesn’t align its marketing efforts with all three channels will have a hard time maintaining its position in the nonprofit marketplace.

Communication Control
Donors will have the ability to control how they receive communications from your organization based on personal preference and interests. Improvements in communications technology also will make it easier for nonprofits to connect with donors who seek specific information about the impact of a gift and/or an organization’s health. In addition, organizations will allocate communication and marketing resources according to donor preference, rather than making assumptions about what donors want based on their content consumption.

Smaller Gifts, More Often
Donors will provide smaller gifts but will give several times over the course of the year. Organizations that provide small, impulsive gifting opportunities will be better positioned to strengthen their relationships with donors. In addition, donors will continue to drive smaller gifts toward projects where tangible results can be demonstrated.

Improved Transaction Times
Organizations will reduce the time between the giving decision and the actual transaction. One-click giving and other impulse-gifting technologies will gain in popularity. Giving will become a quick-and-easy experience that meets individuals’ impulsive need to serve the greater good.

Donors Will Rate Fundraising Appeals
Thanks to the growing popularity of consumer feedback platforms such as TripAdvisor and Yelp, we will see new platforms emerge that allow donors to rate their fund-solicitation experiences and share those ratings and experiences with their friends.

Donor Loyalty Will Reign
Organizations will focus on donor loyalty rather than the size of the gift. Hard to believe, I know, but organizations will spend less time worrying about the transactional donor and will focus more time and energy on the loyal donor who attends activities/events, reads their marketing and communications materials, engages with them on social media platforms, and regularly volunteers. This kind of loyalty also will drive ongoing peer engagement and support from donor networks and force organizations to develop loyalty stewardship programs.

Crowdfunding by Donor Networks
We will see more donor networks comprised of individuals who come together around specific causes, engage in volunteerism, and/or willingly promote the activities of the causes and organizations they support. Increasingly, fundraising staff will have the capability to track these networks as well as other peer groups and use that information to leverage their resources.

Visual Impact Reporting
Organizations will move from annual reports to real-time reporting of their impact in the community. Fundraisers will become more adept at using digital communications technologies and creative design to inform donors about the impact achieved by their dollars. For their part, donors will demand such reporting.

Of course, all these predictions are just that: predictions. And even if some (or all) gain traction over the next few years, they might not affect every organization. Still, I believe that at some point all nonprofit organizations will need to incorporate many of the practices outlined above or face the prospect of falling behind, in both their fundraising and impact. The future of fundraising is about donors wanting easy and accessible opportunities to support, learn, and serve. It’s up to you to get your organization ready for that future.

Sharing Lessons from Elmo, Obama, Cute Puppies and American Red Cross

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By now you know the importance of your organization having a lively social media presence. Ultimately, however we know that social media is most powerful when individuals share messages on behalf of organizations. For Gen X and Y sharing comes natural – after all we grew up with Elmo and Big Bird insisting upon it. Now is the time for nonprofits to start encouraging supporters to become ambassadors for you by creating and sharing messages and images about your cause.

Here are 3 steps to get social media enthusiasts to share:

Step 1. Create a Strategy

Recently, a re-election campaign office in Florida for President Obama posted this visual explaining how their staff and volunteers could use each social media channel (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.) for different purposes.

As more and more new social media channels arise, it’s important to have this level of clarity on the purpose of each and not to just use every channel the same way. While many organizations have given thought to what channels they want have a presence on, Obama’s campaign is a great example of taking it a step farther and strategically thinking through how supporters can have a presence on different channels for you.

2. Ask Supporters To Help

In our Millennial Donor & Engagement Research, we repeatedly hear from young volunteers that they are more than willing to help nonprofits, but often aren’t asked to. It’s time to start asking. Here are two easy ideas.

  • Create a landing page explaining some of the things supporters can share. We love how ASPCA asks supporters to use Facebook to help animals on their Get Involved page.
  • Consider creating volunteer positions such Social Media Ambassador, Blog Contributor, or Pinterest Curator to encourage enthusiastic posters. This opportunity will allow them to take ownership and responsibility of the task giving extra incentive to do it well.

3. Make Great Sharable Content

Continue posting great content on your own Facebook and Twitter pages for your supporters to share. American Red Cross is one of the best at providing a great mix of content. Here are 5 examples:

1. Fun Facts

2. Links to Informative Blog Posts

3. Questions That Encourage Commenting 

4. Volunteer Thank You’s and Shout Outs!

5. Great Images

With visual sites like Pinterest on the rise and photos taking on a larger role on Facebook, creating sharable images will be just as important. Look for a blog post on this topic soon with some great examples and ideas to get you started.

Remember – sharing isn’t just for kids anymore!

1997 – Do You Know What This Year Means To Fundraisers?

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This is a year that most would not remember as the most significant in history.  But it has incredible significance for fundraisers.  In 1997 a new technology emerged that changed how fundraisers communicate with donors and constituents.

In 1989, Microsoft invented the first Microsoft Word software that would become the foundation for what is today’s modern Microsoft Office Suite – the most widely used word processing software.  It wasn’t until 1995 and 1997 that Microsoft began to really increase functionality of its Word product.  Spelling and grammar checks and other features that we take for granted began to debut this year.  But one feature above all, would shape fundraising forever and change the relationship we have with donors when we communicate.  The dramatic shift was due to a new tool called mail merge.

Mail merge allowed us to personalize our communications to our donors and constituents.  For the first time, we could address people by their personal names that we would use in meetings and other in person conversations.  We could change gifting amounts, language in letters, and create personalized printing labels all from our computer.  This simple tool changed the landscape of how we essentially engage our donors.

So why is it, that after 12+ years, we fail to use this powerful tool?  

This year, my colleagues and I at Achieve will help roughly 20 organizations with their end of year campaigns.  Personalization is not an option – it is a given.  However, I have received already more than 5 solicitations in the mail from organizations asking for my support without any personalization.  The dreaded dear friend, supporter, colleague, etc.  You name it – it’s there.  Everything except my name.

Personalization is a form of connectivity.  Technology advances have made it so simple today to do mail merges and create at a minimum this personal communication with our donors.  When we go the extra mile of addressing people according to their personal preferences, we begin to move beyond superficial relationships and to deeper engagement.

There are no excuses today.  Even if you are a small shop, have no resources, and don’t have the newest computers, I am sure your system has mail merge if you have a computer beyond 1995.  So take advantage of this powerful tool invited to help us create better relationships. Don’t slip into the dear friend mode – quite frankly – friends address each other by their first name.