Five Strategic Rules for Long-term Fundraising Success…
Jessica Harrington, Vice President
January 2010

To create an effective fundraising program for your organization, take a holistic approach to building and engaging your constituents by following these five important strategies.

Treat your donors as partners. Acquiring new donors is becoming increasingly more difficult as prospective donor lists contract, the economy remains unstable and competition from other nonprofits increases. Therefore, the number one priority for any organization should be to retain current donors by treating them as partners and advocates for your cause.

This means providing superior customer service and connecting donors with program staff, curators, volunteers and even board members, not just development or membership staff.

Does the extra effort pay off? At year end 2009, one Schultz & Williams client received a $5,000 donation in response to an e-mail campaign. The donor called the organization to speak to the person who signed the e-mail solicitation, and after speaking with the program director, the donor made two $25,000 donations to the institution.

Above all else, a true partnership means engaging in a relationship that is transparent and honest – sharing the good news and the bad. One successful organization that uses this tactic is the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The Museum has a dashboard on its website where donors, and the public, can see real time data including the size of its endowment, the number of current members and how much energy the organization consumes each month.

Engage your donors beyond check writing. Engage your constituents by asking them to “get involved” in your organization. There are the obvious things they can do—volunteer, watch a video, sign a petition, etc. But why not ask them for their opinion! Even Seth Godin, internationally known writer, speaker and “marketing guru," recently asked his blog readers to review his latest book, Linchpin, and post or tweet their comments. Not everyone will take you up on the offer, but they will feel privileged for being asked.

One Schultz & Williams’ client used its direct mail appeal to ask current members for feedback about the organization’s program priorities. The results were amazing—the appeal received double the number of gifts and 40% more income than the previous year’s campaign. What’s more, by sending the survey results to the members and moving the discussion to Facebook, more people commented and became involved.

Encourage peer-to-peer fundraising and marketing. Invite your constituents (members, donors, advocates, etc.) to help you spread the good word about your organization and raise money through their networks on your behalf.

Ask your Facebook fans to change their profile picture to your logo on a certain day and run a campaign to increase the number of people in your network. You can even make a set of tools available for people to express their commitment to your organization!

Check out “charity: water” and how they use peer-to-peer marketing and fundraising. They give people Twitter backgrounds and banners to customize their own pages. They are currently helping people create teams to raise money for water wells, which has so far raised $1.3 million from over 19,000 donations.

Apply TRUE (Timely, Relevant, Urgent and Emotional) fundraising strategies. Three current and disturbing trends include donor downgrading; donors not renewing support every year, but possibly every other year; and donors waiting until the end of the year to give. Make sure all of your communications are TRUE and give your constituents fewer reasons to say “not right now”.

We’re also adding another “E” to the mix—Efficiency. Donors want to know that you are being efficient and effective with their funds—whether it’s a $100,000 major gift or a first-time $25 donation. Endorsements from groups like the Better Business Bureau and Charity Navigator mean something. Use them if you can.

Use action oriented marketing. In a cluttered marketplace, building brand awareness is still critical to an organization’s success. These days, we are working with organizations to create marketing campaigns that ask the consumer to do something—spread the word, send a petition, donate.

Who’s doing it right? Look at Action Against Hunger’s Ask Al Gore campaign aimed at convincing Al Gore to produce a movie about world hunger. The campaign has acquired nearly 80,000 signatures!

Whether you’re talking to donors by phone, through mail, e-mail, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter or a host of other applications, you must be attentive to their interests and, at the same time, true to your organization’s mission and goals!

Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia; providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.