What Keeps You Up at Night? A VISUAL GUIDE TO FUNDRAISING CHALLENGES & THEIR SOLUTIONS

STOP PUTTING OUT FIRESIncreased Demand for Services & Heavier Workloads

GROWING DEMAND FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Maintaining Donor Retention Rates

Increasingly Outdated Technology

Threats to Security Avoiding Financial Fraud & Other Risks

USE PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATIONS

Data Capture & Donor Acknowledgements

Replace Legacy Technology Systems

Maintain Best Practices for Data Security & Fraud Prevention

As the U.S. continues to emerge from the Great Recession and the years of slow recovery that followed, charitable giving has increased significantly. But despite these favorable trends, nonprofit fundraisers are still losing sleep due to several key challenges facing fundraising. A recently updated white paper from CDS Global, “What Keeps You Up at Night? Creating Systems to Solve the Challenges Facing Fundraising,” offers the latest statistics, trends and actionable insights on how nonprofit leaders can overcome these challenges.

This infographic offers a sampling of some of the biggest challenges facing fundraising discussed in the white paper – along with some specific solutions that nonprofits can start implementing today!

CHALLENGES SOLUT IONS

2013

2014

80Nonprofits reported increased demand for programs and services

Nonprofits that feel increased pressure from donors to be more accountable with measurable results

Accountability and transparency are important to younger donorsYoung donors are accustomed to the online crowdfunding model of fundraising:

• Make their decisions based on facts, not emotion • Are more interested in the impact of their donation• Value foundation accountability• Want to be well-informed and analytical about

their decisions

Social media to communicate with

key audiences

Narrative storytelling to emphasize results

Improve clickthrough

rates by

Boost conversion

rate by

More data and statistics in

annual reports

Lack of time to produce quality content

Lack of budget for direct expenses

Lack of clear strategy

Nonprofits were unable to meet demand

SOURCE: Nonprofit Finance Fund

SOURCE: Nonprofit Marketing Guide

SOURCE: The NonProfit Times

SOURCE: Philadelphia Business Journal

SOURCE: Blackbaud

SOURCE: Nonprofit Marketing Guide

SOURCE: CDS Global

SOURCE: Forbes

SOURCE: CTK Blog

SOURCE: CTK Blog

SOURCE: TechSoup

SOURCE: TechSoup

SOURCE: Eisner Amper

SOURCE: Venable LLP

SOURCE: Venable LLP

SOURCE: National Center for Charitable Statistics

TOP NONPROFIT COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGES

TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT, MORE NONPROFITS ARE USING:

IN A SURVEY OF FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONALS,

DONORS HAVE MORE OPTIONS THAN EVER BEFORE

AVERAGE DONOR RETENTION RATES FOR NONPROFITS

RETENTION HAS BECOME A TOP PRIORITY FOR NONPROFIT FUNDRAISERS:

SAID DONORS:

56

42

37

31

Looking to manage growing demands on your organization while avoiding excessive workloads for your staff? Create systems to manage common administrative tasks and prevent operational emergencies.

DEVELOP STANDARDIZED PROCEDURES FOR MAIL PROCESSING AND DONATION DEPOSITING:

• Minimize inefficiencies and risk• Maximize consistency • Control access throughout the entire process

IMPLEMENT BEST PRACTICES FOR DONATIONS PROCESSING:• Create a detailed processing manual to document the

various ways of processing payments and donations• Open up lines of communication between the gift

processing team and other departments• Make security and compliance a priority

• Process in a secure area• Ensure methods are SAS 70 compliant (audits) and

PCI compliant (credit cards), and that accounting practices comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation

SET GOALS FOR TIMELINESS: Deposit and capture data from donations within 24 to 48 hours of receipt

AIM TO CAPTURE 100% OF INFORMATION FROM DONATIONS: This includes handwritten information, demographic data and information about the interaction itself (time of donation, donation amount, device used to donate, etc.)

CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE

CHALLENGE

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

SOLUTION

92

61%

89 66SOURCE: Direct Marketing IQ

SOURCE: HubSpot

60%

14% 10%

59%

of successful direct mail marketing pieces are personalized with variable data

of fundraising organizations use personalization in direct mail

Improving donor retention rates begins with capturing more donor data to better understand and communicate with your donors and ends with a meaningful

Why should donors give to YOUR organization instead of one of the 1.5 million others?

Nonprofits that have rated RETENTION as a top 3 goal

Paper files Spreadsheets QuickBooks

Retention among multi-year donors

Retention of first-year donors

NONPROFITS ARE NOT IMMUNE TO DATA BREACHES & HACKER ATTACKS

IS ALSO A MAJOR CONCERN FOR NONPROFITS:

BIGGEST CAUSES OF DATA BREACHES IN 2014 WERE:

The cause?

Thank You!

1.5 MILLION

tax-exempt organizations in the U.S.

2014 2015

30% 53%

58%27%

49%

2 HOURS

BILLION

PER WORKDAY

Nonprofit software buyers currently use manual recordkeeping:

Average time a typical service provider spends on keeping records

with paper systems

NONPROFITS ARE PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO FRAUD AND EMPLOYEE EMBEZZLEMENT BECAUSE:• Management and board members are often

too trusting• They tend to have less stringent financial controls• Administrators often rely too heavily on independent

audits to catch fraud

Source: Software Advice

Source: TechImpact

Nonprofits that use at least one cloud-based service

Mid-sized nonprofits planning to adopt more cloud technologies within the next 1-3 years

64%

53%6%

20%

21%

2014

customer cards were compromised

Goodwill Industries July 2014

Malware in a third-party vendor’s system

Nonprofits lose approximately

to fraud each year

Hackers Insider threats

Theft or loss of computers or

hard drives

Accidental leakage

4

FRAUD

FRAUD

ANTI-FRAUD BEST PRACTICES: • Don’t give too much control over spending to any one

employee, executive or board member • Double signatures and authorizations: Require multiple

layers of approval• Require prior written approval for purchases above a

certain amount• Backup documentation: Only pay original invoices• Segregate duties: No single person should be responsible

for an entire transaction• Create transparency and accountability: Set up multiple

steps with multiple people to: } Approve donations } Authorize payments } Reconcile bank statements

Our white paper will give you actionable insights on how to put systems in place that create more consistent processes and improve operational efficiency. Download “What Keeps You Up at Night? Creating Systems to Solve the Challenges Facing Fundraising” to get the latest thinking from nonprofit sector experts on how to attain cost-effective solutions for whatever challenges your nonprofit might be facing.

Want to learn more about how

nonprofits can overcome the challenges

facing fundraising?

It is important for donors to know that they personally matter to the success of your organization

ONLINE FUNDRAISING is ideal for personalization because

fundraisers can:

• Target specific audiences

• Test different messages

• Easily collect donor data

PERSONALIZED EMAILS:

Funds earmarked for specific purposes

Immediate, visible results

DATA CAPTURE4 Steps to Effectively Use Donor Data:

Collect

Aggregate

Analyze

Use to improve donor communications

Every point of contact with donors is an opportunity to gather donor data:

Integrate online and offline donor data CASE STUDY: Operation Smile Canada combined offline donor information from phone calls with online donor information in their CRM system to achieve:

• Faster gift acknowledgements• Better communication with donors• Higher efficiency • Lower costs

DONOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSSuccessful Acknowledgements Should: Be governed by standard internal processes that determine when and how they are sent

Open up a larger conversation: give donors a chance to respond with ideas, input and feedback

Tell stories that speak to the recipient’s values

Elicit emotion

Express genuine gratitude

NONPROFITS ARE FACING SEVERAL TECHNOLOGY-RELATED CHALLENGES:

Disparate databases that don’t sync

Outdated program models no longer supported by service providers

Increasing reliance on volunteers for data management

One important aspect of accountability is showing donors how their money will be used. By personalizing your communications, your organization can address donors’ unique interests and concerns, and show their funds are being used in a way that matters to them.

VARIABLE DATA PRINTING (VDP) TECHNOLOGY makes it

easier to create and send personal messages to donors:

Nonprofits should evaluate their software and IT systems to determine if they are ready for an upgrade. Effective use of scalable systems can help nonprofits save money and work more efficiently in the long run.

THE BEST NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS:• Eliminate manual data entry errors• Prevent decision-making errors• Maximize staff and volunteers’ time• Provide for a consistent fundraising strategy

Data security and fraud prevention might sound overwhelming and scary, but there are many simple things your organization can do today to make your data (and dollars) safer!

BEST PRACTICES FOR NONPROFIT DATA SECURITY: • Update software regularly – especially operating systems

and productivity software (like Microsoft Office) } Regular updates help defend against malware!

• Avoid storing sensitive data on mobile devices and drives } These devices are easier to lose and steal

• Control access to sensitive data } Not all employees need to access all information

• Remove access to data for former employees } Change passwords after former employees exit the organization

Fundraising/donor management is the most requested application by nonprofit software buyers

Nonprofit software buyers that are seeking to improve efficiency with their software upgrades

CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE ENABLES NONPROFITS TO:• Store their data online• Host IT systems online • Save money by using third-party subscription services • Reduce costs of owning IT assets

51%

Social media

Membership meetingsPhone calls

Events

Surveys Emails