What Donors Want: Fundraising Trends for 2012 –

Jim Bush, Senior Consultant

Winkler Group

AFP Shenandoah Chapter April 19, 2012 - 12:30 – 1:15 pm

Learning Objectives

Explore new and developing trends for annual fund, major gifts and capital campaigns.

Discuss new giving behavior of major donors.

Leave with new ideas about how to better engage your donors and strengthen relationships.

Sources used for this presentation Association of Fundraising Professionals

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University

Nonprofit Research Collaborative

Chronicle of Philanthropy

Kay Sprinkel Grace, KQED

Giving USA Foundation

GuideStar

Blackbaud

Corporation for National and Community Service

Major donors our firm has interviewed

What are “Trends”?

Wikipedia: “Trends” is a science fiction short story written by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1939.

Twitter: Topics determined to be the most popular on Twitter at the moment.

Merriam-Webster: A general direction in which something is developing or changing.

Annual Fund Trends

Demand for services is growing

• According to the Nonprofit Research Collective and GuideStar. (2011 vs. 2010)

Operating budgets aren’t growing at same pace

• 37% of nonprofit budgets will stay the same.

• 40% will increase budgets.

• 20% will decrease budgets.

• Cuts planned are administrative, maintenance and fundraising (thankfully not fundraising staff) = no new fundraising or support staff (research, gift processing).

• 54% seeking volunteers for administrative work (up 19%).

Acquisitions vs. renewals

• Organizations with budgets less than $3 million focusing on acquisitions. Increase in average gift amount from renewals is just 25%.

• For orgs $3 million and up, the focus on renewing donors is paying off, with nearly half seeing increase in average gift amount from renewals.

• Across both, the average gift size for new donors is flat or lower.

Online Giving

• 2011 is predicted to be the first year that the majority of Americans made their 2011 donations online rather than through the mail, in response to telemarketing calls, or other techniques.

• Online giving is now such a strong habit that donors at every age level prefer it. More than half of donors 65 and older said they would give online, the first time a majority in that age group said they would give via the Internet.

• Three-quarters of people 35 to 64 said they would give online, while 86% of those under 35 prefer to give that way.

Things to consider

• How do we meet higher program/service demand with the same or less staff?

• How do we prevent flat or reduced budgets from affecting our ability to time, talent, and treasure relationships?

• Why aren’t we putting the same focus on renewing donors that we’re putting on acquiring donors? How do we do both?

• How do we engage donors and constituents who originate, and perhaps want to remain online?

Major Gift and

Capital Campaign trends

Over reliance on the same donors

• Major donors are experiencing donor fatigue. “The ink hasn’t dried on the last check yet.”

• A significant majority of donors cannot be influenced to give more often by an increase in the number of solicitations over a 12-month period, but they can be influenced to give less money or less often or stop giving altogether.

• Donors 65 and older were most likely to stop giving because they had been asked too many times. While it may be that fundraising could get away with oversoliciting this demographic 10 or 20 years ago, the times have changed.

Major donors give more time and talent

The average number of hours that wealthy individuals volunteered increased from 241 hours in 2009 to 307 hours in 2010 (13% increase).

They expect to be directly involved in program delivery, and are becoming less interested in party planning.

High frequency volunteers say they are asked to give less often as their volunteer hours increase, but would give more if asked!

Capital campaigns rely on new donors

• In many campaigns new donors have accounted for 50 to 60% of all contributors.

• In some cases as many as 80% of donors have never previously given to the charity.

Multi-year commitments going down

• Fewer donors want to sign multi-year pledges.

• As efforts to attract new donors succeed, fundraisers do not focus as much on attracting six- or seven-figure gifts — which many groups have long done. Now campaigns are winning many more gifts in the $10,000 to $25,000 range.

Donors want relationships

Donors are less and less interested in public recognition, i.e. naming opportunities. However, they still want a lot of attention from the charities they support.

In one campaign for a hospital a wealthy donor declined to have a cancer ward named for himself or his loved ones. Instead, he wanted “a lifelong relation with the cancer ward” and “to be informed of new research and advances in oncology.”

Campaigns are more focused

As donors are more conscious of their own budgets, they are looking to nonprofits to be more focused. Campaigns are becoming more singular, with smaller goals achieved over shorter periods (three years vs. five years, for example).

Many campaign goals today are smaller than their immediate last goal.

Thank you for being here today. If you would like a copy of today’s

presentation, you can find it on our website, or you can email me directly at jbush@winklergroup.com.

www.WinklerGroup.com www.Twitter.com/WinklerGroup

www.WinklerGroupFacebook

Winkler Group | (843) 849-6256

THANK YOU!

Session Breakout Topic One

What are some effective ways to increase annual fund gift renewals? In other words, what can we do to ensure that annual fund donors want to give again?

People forget to ask, so be clear in your ask.

Targeted Response- “How was the money used? i.e. “Your gift funded....”

This year your gift made a difference

-How are things evolving?

Direct contact from board members: Thank You

Engage Donors’ time; volunteer opportunities

Challenge Gift

...continued

Educate/report results

Personalized Appeals

-Past Support Acknowledgment

Newsletter

-Enhance with video

Show how you’re doing more with less

-Collaboration

Use top level donors as board members

Share impact

-impact mailing as a snapshot or postcard

How can we better engage and involve online donors? Consider online and offline engagement tools.

Interactive giving games

Social Media

Banners on websites; keep website updated and dynamic

Put annual report, etc. on your website

Be an accredited, registered organization which can be “searched” easily

Email Check-Ins

Handwritten notes at bottom of “thank you” notes

E-Newsletter

Session Breakout Topic Two

...continued

Send a tour invite

Don’t assume why they are giving online, ask them.

Interactive “wall building”

Virtual Participation

Donors recognized in newsletters

Personal calls to every donor

Invite donors to come in, get involved.

Record information from calls in database

Top donors expect to be more connected to your organization. Identify meaningful ways to provide your donors with opportunities for lifelong relationships with your organization.

Annual luncheon

Learn people as individuals- connecting the dots

Offer special tours

Personal touch on letters; letter from Board President

Advice meetings

Remember their interests

Magazine sent to all donors; four times a year

Bring donors into building to see how mission is being fulfilled

Session Breakout Topic Three

...continued

Invite donors to sit in on event Advisory Committee or Development Committee

Events targeted for largest donors

Invite donors to share ideas on marketing materials

Meet with major donors regarding annual report

- get feedback on topics, let them ask questions

Record donor actions accurately and in a timely fashion in database to track

relationship history properly so donor will “always feel loved”

Pair donors with impacted individuals