Useful Past Tips: DONORS: Donor Research Growing Your Own Donors Getting Corporate Donations Nonprofit Customer Service It's More Than Just Taking Their Money Trust me baby Sustainers; They're an untapped source of donors Seven donors you need to know Research can be inexpensive Nonprofit employees and customer service Prospect Research - Screening for real giving potential Ask The (Almost) Anything Listen to what they tell you Try to know the donors personal style Maximizing a survey’s information Knowing More About Your Donor Research - Know what to ask in surveys Global trends in fundraising today Maximize loyalty to your organizatio Who reads your newsletter? Tracking where the money comes from They will tell you what to do

1. Donor Research
Conducting donor research through post card inserts, if taken lightly, will not be an effective research tool for your organization.

Having a clue of what you're going after can help formulate the best possible questionnaire. Here are some pointers.

• Not preparing for data entry. When information from a questionnaire is being entered into a database, generally it needs to be in a numeric format. If you have 10 boxes respondents might check, the only way to enter which boxes were selected is to have numeric code on each box on the questionnaire itself.
• Choosing the wrong kind of questions for a situation. People leaving a seminar or the museum often won't stop to fill out a comprehensive survey. Make sure to be realistic in what you're expecting people to do in a questionnaire.
• Missing response options. A no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often questionnaires have a list of categories such as under 2 hours, 4 to 5 hours, 5 to 10 hours, or more, missing the 3 to 4 hour interval.

2. Growing Your Own Donors
A discussion concerning direct response fundraising wouldn't be complete without at least one plant metaphor or use of the word "cultivate." Susan Bachurski, president and creative director of Bachurski Associates, however, did a good job of pruning the overgrowth and getting to the roots of a cultivation program. Speaking at a Direct Marketing Association of Washington conference, she said:

• Fundraising strategies should be matched to the organization's donor types.
• Fundraising campaigns should be scheduled during the best time or season to ask for money and to motivate donors to contribute.
• Organizations need to develop creative messages and packages that serve several purposes, such as providing information, developing the relationship with donors, and asking for donations.

Bachurski said executives need to think more broadly when it comes to developing donor relationships. To her, member communication is cultivation, so it includes:

• Asks
• Telemarketing
• Direct mail
• Email

Organizations must know what appeals to their donor base. That takes research. Develop and implement long-term survey and data collection plans. Make collection an ongoing effort, not simply a meet and greet project.

Know how a donor fits into a giving category. Event givers rarely give to anything else, she said. Know their frequency of giving, too. A giver who indicates he makes a single gift doesn't need to receive a monthly solicitation. Getting to know the donor early can make the relationship grow for years.

3. Getting Corporate Donations
Soliciting corporate donations takes a certain strategy, one in which donors are moved to action, acknowledged by the nonprofit, and can see return on investment (ROI).

Here are a few tips to think about when soliciting corporate donations.

• Personalize each appeal. If you are trying to move someone, it helps to make that person feel special. The more you can make donors feel like they are the only ones who can help, the more they will feel responsible and want to help. Tie your appeal to a need in their location or to a cause related to their business to personalize it.

• Outline recognition up front. Although no one wants to ask for it, doing this in subtle ways makes donors feel good. Let corporations know that their name will go on a plaque, don't make them ask you.

• Identify corporations close to you. Go to firms you use as a consumer.

4. Nonprofit Customer Service
"The customer is always right," is a well-known retail paradigm. For nonprofits, it might be more applicable to say the donor always comes first. In this model, a donor's interests takes precedence over short-term financial goals that lead to temporary associations between donors and nonprofits. Organizations should build relationships and commitment between the donor and organization to satisfy the intentions of both. Nonprofits can take several steps to build a good customer service reputation.

• Identify the donor as a patron, and ask about specific needs in the primary stage for building such a relationship.
• Figure out the reason why the donor is motivated to give. It could range from tax benefits to giving back to the community.
• Nonprofits can use surveys and focus groups to learn demographic information and a donor's level of interest.
• After donor familiarity is established, an organization can decide where a donor's needs are best suited in its programs.
• This process of "donor first" is constantly adapting to specific donor and organizational needs.

One of the goals is for the organization to procure the needed funds and build a long-term relationship that will satisfy both as the relationship progresses.

5. It's More Than Just Taking Their Money
The fundraising credo of “relationship building” is being practiced even more now since the terror attacks.

Planned giving officers are operating in a different climate now, but the effective five-step process found in Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing (1999) still works.

Step 1: Get Them to Raise Their Hands -- The permission-driven marketing approach often begins with an interruption in the form of a telephone call.
Step 2: Teach Your Prospect Over Time -- After permission is received to market, the next step is to offer a “curriculum over time.
Step 3: Reinforcing the Incentive -- Although this step isn’t always necessary, sometimes permission marketing requires reinforcing the incentive to make sure you still have permission.
Step 4: Increasing the Level of Permission -- The permission marketer becomes a trusted adviser who is viewed as someone providing a helpful service or product. Information should flow readily.
Step 5: Leveraging Permission Into Profits -- They commit to the solution you are offering.

6. Trust me baby
Trust surely goes along with confidence. Ahh, but wait, not necessarily. These two words “trust and confidence” obviously seem to be linked together.

A relationship of confidence is like a contract. Trust works as a social lubricant, which may allow organizations more flexibility. An Independent Sector study showed the public’s confidence in organizations’ had increased that year, but the percentage of the public that considers nonprofits trustworthy and ethical have decreased.

The findings often echoed John Hopkins’ economic researcher Lester Salamon’s 1999 paper about four emerging crises in the U.S. sector in 1999.

Salamon’s findings were:

• A fiscal crisis, in which government funding cutbacks and increased demand for services will not be met by increases in private funding;
• An economic crisis shown in the rise of service contracts and increased competition from for-profits;
• A crisis of effectiveness as nonprofits are called to be more professional and accountable;
• Crisis of legitimacy as evidenced in the challenges to nonprofits’ tax-exempt status.

7. Sustainers; They’re an untapped source of donors
You might not immediately identify with so-called “sustainer” donors, but this group of loyal contributors could boost your organization’s fundraising.

Christopher Dann, a direct response expert in San Francisco, defines sustainers as those whom pledge to donate money to an organization on an open-ended, regular basis.

Research shows, he said, that between 5 percent and 10 percent of a contributor file would prefer to give monthly rather than annually. Here are some tips for building a “sustainer” base and advantages of such a program:

• A nonprofit can bring sustainers to the organization by sending a mailing that asks members or contributors to increase their commitment by agreeing to sustain programs and to pledge money on a regular basis, according to Dann.
• Sustainer giving represents a donor’s continuing commitment to regular monthly gifts for an indefinite period.
• A portion of an organization’s loyal supporters may only be able to make occasional, modest gifts, but would like to give more. Sustainer programs give them that opportunity, without straining their finances.
• Sustainer programs are also an effective way to boost retention.
• The greatest advantage is that sustainers give more than annual givers. Increases among those who choose monthly sustained giving can range from 50 to 200 percent in annual value.
• But, to maintain a long haul relationship, donors must feel continuously thanked for their monthly gift.

8. Seven donors you need to know
The movie "Seven," starring Brad Pitt, chronicled one murder's attempts to shed light on those deadly sins through a series of killings.

Throughout the movie, the psycho always seemed to be one step ahead of detectives, and they couldn't find him.

Nonprofit fundraisers need not follow the same fate of the detectives when it comes to identifying the seven "faces of philanthropy."

Karen File, Ph.D., is co-author of "The Seven Faces of Philanthropy," an analysis of giving patterns among America's wealthy compiled from "Giving USA" and Independent Sector's "Giving and Volunteering" in the United States. She identified these seven faces of philanthropy.

• The Communitarians, who give because it makes good sense to do so. They are the largest segment at 26.3 percent.
• The Devout, who believe doing good is God's will. This group makes up about 20.9 percent of major donors.
• The Investors, believe doing good is good for business. These are affluent individuals who give to nonprofits for a good cause and the positive tax benefits (22.5 percent of major donors).
• The Socialites, who believe doing good is fun, make up 10.8 percent of major donors. These folks are drawn to social events benefiting nonprofits.
• The Altruists, who believe doing good feels right, or in other words is a selfless donors. Giving is a moral imperative for them.
• The Repayers are people who feel loyalty or obligation to a nonprofit, who want to give back.
• The Dynast, is one for whom doing good is a family tradition. This group typically inherits its wealth.

9. Research can be inexpensive
Conducting donor research through post card inserts, if taken lightly, will not be an effective research tool for your organization. Having a clue of what you're going after can help formulate the best possible questionnaire. Here are some pointers.

• Not preparing for data entry. When information from a questionnaire is being entered into a database, generally it needs to be in a numeric format. If you have 10 boxes respondents might check, the only way to enter which boxes were selected is to have numeric code on each box on the questionnaire itself.
• Choosing the wrong kind of questions for a situation. People leaving a seminar or the museum often won't stop to fill out a comprehensive survey. Make sure to be realistic in what you're expecting people to do in a questionnaire.
• Missing response options. A no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often questionnaires have a list of categories such as under 2 hours, 4 to 5 hours, 5 to 10 hours, or more, missing the 3 to 4 hour interval.

• d of questions for a situation. People leaving a seminar or the museum often won't stop to fill out a comprehensive survey. Make sure to be realistic in what you're expecting people to do in a questionnaire.
• Missing response options. A no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often questionnaires have a list of categories such as under 2 hours, 4 to 5 hours, 5 to 10 hours, or more, missing the 3 to 4 hour interval.

2. Growing Your Own Donors
A discussion concerning direct response fundraising wouldn't be complete without at least one plant metaphor or use of the word "cultivate." Susan Bachurski, president and creative director of Bachurski Associates, however, did a good job of pruning the overgrowth and getting to the roots of a cultivation program. Speaking at a Direct Marketing Association of Washington conference, she said:

• Fundraising strategies should be matched to the organization's donor types.
• Fundraising campaigns should be scheduled during the best time or season to ask for money and to motivate donors to contribute.
• Organizations need to develop creative messages and packages that serve several purposes, such as providing information, developing the relationship with donors, and asking for donations.

Bachurski said executives need to think more broadly when it comes to developing donor relationships. To her, member communication is cultivation, so it includes:

• Asks
• Telemarketing
• Direct mail
• Email

Organizations must know what appeals to their donor base. That takes research. Develop and implement long-term survey and data collection plans. Make collection an ongoing effort, not simply a meet and greet project.

Know how a donor fits into a giving category. Event givers rarely give to anything else, she said. Know their frequency of giving, too. A giver who indicates he makes a single gift doesn't need to receive a monthly solicitation. Getting to know the donor early can make the relationship grow for years.

3. Getting Corporate Donations
Soliciting corporate donations takes a certain strategy, one in which donors are moved to action, acknowledged by the nonprofit, and can see return on investment (ROI).

Here are a few tips to think about when soliciting corporate donations.

• Personalize each appeal. If you are trying to move someone, it helps to make that person feel special. The more you can make donors feel like they are the only ones who can help, the more they will feel responsible and want to help. Tie your appeal to a need in their location or to a cause related to their business to personalize it.

• Outline recognition up front. Although no one wants to ask for it, doing this in subtle ways makes donors feel good. Let corporations know that their name will go on a plaque, don't make them ask you.

• Identify corporations close to you. Go to firms you use as a consumer.

4. Nonprofit Customer Service
"The customer is always right," is a well-known retail paradigm. For nonprofits, it might be more applicable to say the donor always comes first. In this model, a donor's interests takes precedence over short-term financial goals that lead to temporary associations between donors and nonprofits. Organizations should build relationships and commitment between the donor and organization to satisfy the intentions of both. Nonprofits can take several steps to build a good customer service reputation.

• Identify the donor as a patron, and ask about specific needs in the primary stage for building such a relationship.
• Figure out the reason why the donor is motivated to give. It could range from tax benefits to giving back to the community.
• Nonprofits can use surveys and focus groups to learn demographic information and a donor's level of interest.
• After donor familiarity is established, an organization can decide where a donor's needs are best suited in its programs.
• This process of "donor first" is constantly adapting to specific donor and organizational needs.

One of the goals is for the organization to procure the needed funds and build a long-term relationship that will satisfy both as the relationship progresses.

5. It's More Than Just Taking Their Money
The fundraising credo of “relationship building” is being practiced even more now since the terror attacks.

Planned giving officers are operating in a different climate now, but the effective five-step process found in Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing (1999) still works.

Step 1: Get Them to Raise Their Hands -- The permission-driven marketing approach often begins with an interruption in the form of a telephone call.
Step 2: Teach Your Prospect Over Time -- After permission is received to market, the next step is to offer a “curriculum over time.
Step 3: Reinforcing the Incentive -- Although this step isn’t always necessary, sometimes permission marketing requires reinforcing the incentive to make sure you still have permission.
Step 4: Increasing the Level of Permission -- The permission marketer becomes a trusted adviser who is viewed as someone providing a helpful service or product. Information should flow readily.
Step 5: Leveraging Permission Into Profits -- They commit to the solution you are offering.

6. Trust me baby
Trust surely goes along with confidence. Ahh, but wait, not necessarily. These two words “trust and confidence” obviously seem to be linked together.

A relationship of confidence is like a contract. Trust works as a social lubricant, which may allow organizations more flexibility. An Independent Sector study showed the public’s confidence in organizations’ had increased that year, but the percentage of the public that considers nonprofits trustworthy and ethical have decreased.

The findings often echoed John Hopkins’ economic researcher Lester Salamon’s 1999 paper about four emerging crises in the U.S. sector in 1999.

Salamon’s findings were:

• A fiscal crisis, in which government funding cutbacks and increased demand for services will not be met by increases in private funding;
• An economic crisis shown in the rise of service contracts and increased competition from for-profits;
• A crisis of effectiveness as nonprofits are called to be more professional and accountable;
• Crisis of legitimacy as evidenced in the challenges to nonprofits’ tax-exempt status.

7. Sustainers; They’re an untapped source of donors
You might not immediately identify with so-called “sustainer” donors, but this group of loyal contributors could boost your organization’s fundraising.

Christopher Dann, a direct response expert in San Francisco, defines sustainers as those whom pledge to donate money to an organization on an open-ended, regular basis.

Research shows, he said, that between 5 percent and 10 percent of a contributor file would prefer to give monthly rather than annually. Here are some tips for building a “sustainer” base and advantages of such a program:

• A nonprofit can bring sustainers to the organization by sending a mailing that asks members or contributors to increase their commitment by agreeing to sustain programs and to pledge money on a regular basis, according to Dann.
• Sustainer giving represents a donor’s continuing commitment to regular monthly gifts for an indefinite period.
• A portion of an organization’s loyal supporters may only be able to make occasional, modest gifts, but would like to give more. Sustainer programs give them that opportunity, without straining their finances.
• Sustainer programs are also an effective way to boost retention.
• The greatest advantage is that sustainers give more than annual givers. Increases among those who choose monthly sustained giving can range from 50 to 200 percent in annual value.
• But, to maintain a long haul relationship, donors must feel continuously thanked for their monthly gift.

8. Seven donors you need to know
The movie "Seven," starring Brad Pitt, chronicled one murder's attempts to shed light on those deadly sins through a series of killings.

Throughout the movie, the psycho always seemed to be one step ahead of detectives, and they couldn't find him.

Nonprofit fundraisers need not follow the same fate of the detectives when it comes to identifying the seven "faces of philanthropy."

Karen File, Ph.D., is co-author of "The Seven Faces of Philanthropy," an analysis of giving patterns among America's wealthy compiled from "Giving USA" and Independent Sector's "Giving and Volunteering" in the United States. She identified these seven faces of philanthropy.

• The Communitarians, who give because it makes good sense to do so. They are the largest segment at 26.3 percent.
• The Devout, who believe doing good is God's will. This group makes up about 20.9 percent of major donors.
• The Investors, believe doing good is good for business. These are affluent individuals who give to nonprofits for a good cause and the positive tax benefits (22.5 percent of major donors).
• The Socialites, who believe doing good is fun, make up 10.8 percent of major donors. These folks are drawn to social events benefiting nonprofits.
• The Altruists, who believe doing good feels right, or in other words is a selfless donors. Giving is a moral imperative for them.
• The Repayers are people who feel loyalty or obligation to a nonprofit, who want to give back.
• The Dynast, is one for whom doing good is a family tradition. This group typically inherits its wealth.

10. Nonprofit employees and customer service
Remember the time you waited almost a half-hour in line at a clothing store only to place your items on the counter and hear the clerk curtly say “I’m closed,” without any warning.

If that grated your nerves, think of what poor customer service could do to your own organization’s potential donors. Here are some tips.

• Employees must be educated to making a commitment to the fundraising experience and the donor.
• The staff, by making the gift giving a pleasurable experience, strengthen ties of a positive relationship that a donor-first program is designed to foster.
• The road to persuasive employees and volunteers begins with training, not inexperience and a written script.
• Initial training should be basic, with a formula for continuous education.
• Role-playing can be an effective way to teach employees to use their own creativity and personality based on an outline. A friendly conversation provides more warmth than a rigid script, making it easier to get a prospective pledge.
• Organizations should track staff based on group and individual goals. This allows organizations to put employees into segments with which they’ve built a good rapport. It also gives the nonprofit a way to identify employees’ strengths and weaknesses.

11. Prospect Research - Screening for real giving potential
Screening services may be a useful tool for nonprofits seeking to improve their prospecting results, but a few simple steps will help any organization get the most out of its service. This advice was offered by Susan Heileman, vice president of Major Gifts Identification/Consulting, Inc (MaGIC) at an international fundraising conference.

First of all, pre-purchase evaluation is essential. This means asking the following questions:

• Why are you considering a screening service?
• What results are you expecting?
• Can you support the results of a screening?
• Can you afford a screening?

In addition, check the firm’s background and ask what the results will look like. Once a screening has been completed:, get the best possible results. Identify the top prospects from the matches based upon:

• Relationship of prospect to your organization
• Data appended during the screening process
• Geographic focus
• Giving history.

Once that has been done, verify the matched individual is your prospect, because computers can make mistakes, and use giving history, relationship and any other internal information to prioritize your matches.

Finally, use the results to contact top prospects. A combination of data from the screening and your internal information will show those individuals who need personal attention. Use the results for planning new trips, supplementing planned trips, inviting people to special events and making the best use of volunteers’ time.

12. Ask The (Almost) Anything
When trying to survey donors, one big question can be whether to conduct research in house or hire an outside vendor. In his book Listening to Your Donors (Jossey-Bass, 2000), Bruce Campbell offers several considerations that may be useful.

The benefits of in-house research:

• The nonprofit has a full-time researcher on staff, and executives are confident of the researcher's objectivity.
• If a volunteer or board member with expertise can do the research either free or at a low charge, the savings may be substantial.
• The nonprofit's budget is so constrained that if the research is not done in house it is not done at all.

• Experience. The staff of a research firm usually will come into a project with lots of experience, and will know whether, how much, and in what form both qualitative and quantitative research will be helpful.
• Proven questions. With a researcher that specializes in nonprofits, there will be a large collection of survey questions that have been developed, tested and refined.
• Comparisons with other nonprofits. It is good to know how the survey results compare to similar organizations.
• Experienced fielding. An experienced firm's interviewers are experienced and trained in proper research techniques, in both general and donor populations.
• Objectivity. It is easy for new survey research to unconsciously word questions in ways that skew answers.
• Credibility. Studies conducted by professional researchers carry more weight with decision makers.
• Efficiency and possibly lower costs. Experience can translate into efficiency, especially if the nonprofit must factor in the amount of staff time lost to survey work.

13. Listen to what they tell you
Although communication is an important part of fundraising, communication begins with listening to donors. That is the message from Bruce Campbell in his book “Listening To Your Donors” (the Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Management Series).

Campbell said that feedback is a primary part of communication and that nonprofits can obtain meaningful, accurate and representative feedback from constituents.

The chief form is verbal feedback, which Campbell breaks into constituent-initiated feedback, organization-initiated quantitative feedback and organization-initiated qualitative feedback.

Constituent-initiated feedback occurs whenever constituents take it upon themselves to communicate something to the organization.

The most common form of organization-initiated quantitative feedback is the survey, and it may contain such questions as:

• How many of our constituents think our organization is doing an outstanding job?
• Is our organization's job rating significantly better among major donors than among other donors?
• Has our organization's job rating changed significantly since last year?

Organization-initiated qualitative feedback can be helpful when an organization wants to know what donors think the issues are. It can address such questions as:

• How do our constituents decide which organizations to support?
• How would our constituents describe our organization if it were a person; that is, what is our image or personality in their eyes?
• How do our constituents sort through their mail?

In addition, there is nonverbal feedback, which includes areas such as whether constituents give, how much, how often and to what, as well as seeing how these factors come into play over time.

14. Try to know the donor's personal style

Effective fundraising requires knowledge of the type of personality that is being addressed in the communication. Tom Ahern, president of Ahern Communications, Ink., outlined four basic personality types at an international conference on fundraising.

The four types are as follows:

• The expressive: This person loves the new things and is easily bored. Expressives want to learn about the new, exciting things you're up to at the organization. They burn hot and cold, so keep it lively. They like bold statements, new directions, initiatives, bright ideas.
  
• The analytical; This person craves facts and more facts and has trouble deciding. Analyticals welcome all that documentation, lengthy testimonial, and statistical evidence that proves your point. Explain until you're blue in the face, and still they'll ask for more.
  
• The bottom-liner. This person values brevity and makes quick decisions. Bottom-liners want you to tell them -- short and sweet -- what you do and what you want them to do. They like summaries and capsulizations, and they want to be told their task.
  
• The amiable: This potential donor values relationships above all and wants your organization to be a friend. Amiables respond to heavy use of the word "you"and the promise of an ongoing relationship ("Stay in touch, hear?"). They like warmhearted pictures. They want to be part of your family.

Ahern recommended having something for every type in the first few seconds of a message's encounter with a potential donor.

15. Maximizing a survey’s information

The greater the response rate in a survey, the more likely the results are to be valid. In his book Listening to Your Donors, Bruce Campbell suggests several important principles to keep in mind when designing a survey to maximize response rate.

• Get off to a good start. The questionnaire introduction is a good place to motivate respondents, so be sure to identify the organization, state what the survey is about, explain why the respondent should complete the questionnaire, encourage the respondent by explaining that his or her opinions are important and be concise.
   
• Consider encouraging respondents with an incentive. Such incentives may be conditional, offered only to those who respond, or unconditional, available to everyone. Incentives may not be effective in all cases.
   
• Be sensitive to the respondent’s feelings. Put yourself in the respondent’s shoes, and remember that respondents may become discouraged before finishing the survey. The first few questions should be easy to answer.
   
• Use logical sequencing. Consciously or unconsciously, respondents are encouraged to remain in the process when they sense some logic to the order of questions.
   
• Pay attention to questionnaire length. A survey that takes too long will not be finished or returned.
   
• Use skipping as needed. If one question asks if the respondent has ever been married, following with a question asking if the respondent has ever been divorced can be somewhat aggravating to someone who has checked “No” in the previous question.

16. Knowing More About Your Donor

Surveys can be helpful to any nonprofit seeking to fulfill its mission, by identifying a variety of factors. In his book Listening To Your Donors, Bruce Campbell stresses that preparation is vital in surveys, and he suggests that an organization have a Primary Objective put in writing before even formulating a survey.

According to Campbell, the primary objective is easily obtained by identifying the thread that ties together the organization’s information needs. He offers a few examples:

• Comprehensive donor or constituent survey. The primary objective here is to learn who the donors or constituents are, including demographics, perceptions, attitudes and motivations to improve the nonprofit’s communications, service delivery and donor bonding.
   
• Prospect survey. The primary objective is to learn who prospective donors, members or constituents are and to identify which of their perceptions, attitudes and motivations might increase the organization’s ability to cost-effectively acquire them.
   
• Major donor survey. The primary objective is to gather more specific information about each individual in the nonprofit’s database, especially the person’s general ability to give, the inclination to give to the organization specifically and what might most likely motivate a gift.
   
• Readership survey. The primary objective is to learn which people read the nonprofit’s publication, how they read it and what content and format they prefer.
     
• Program effectiveness survey. The primary objective is to learn who the recipients of the nonprofit’s services are, as well as their perceptions of, attitudes toward and experiences with these services.

17. Research - Know what to ask in surveys

Conducting donor research through post card inserts, if taken lightly, will not be an effective research tool for your organization. Having a clue of what you're going after can help formulate the best possible questionnaire. Here are some pointers.

• Not preparing for data entry. When information from a questionnaire is being entered into a database, generally it needs to be in a numeric format. If you have 10 boxes respondents might check, the only way to enter which boxes were selected is to have numeric code on each box on the questionnaire itself.

• Choosing the wrong kind of questions for a situation. People leaving a seminar or the museum often won't stop to fill out a comprehensive survey. Make sure to be realistic in what you're expecting people to do in a questionnaire.

• Missing response options. A no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how often questionnaires have a list of categories such as less than two hours, four to five hours, five to 10 hours, or more, missing the 3 to 4 hour interval.

18. Global trends in fundraising today

The Internet is having its affect on just about everything, including fundraising. Like it or not, nonprofits are going to have to think globally, probably even more over time.

Dennis McCarthy, vice president and general manager in Epsilon's fundraising division, suggests that there are seven trends that will have a significant impact on fundraising.

• Multi-channel integration. An increasing number of nonprofits are integrating Internet/email, direct mail, door-to-door and telephone fundraising into a unified contact strategy. It allows organizations to increase conversion rates, and it allows supporters to have the kind of relationship they want.

• Trust and transparency. Full disclosure can proactively answer questions, and transparency is big with donors under 60.

• Transfer of wealth. Charities that are well branded, trusted and transparent will be well positioned to receive the lion's share of the nearly $50 trillion that will be available.

• Demographic shifts. Nonprofits that have gone past aiming at Caucasian, two-parent families are reaping the benefits.

• Privacy. This issue is potentially the most volatile. It bears watching.

• Online giving. People who give you their email addresses are three times more valuable in long-term value when cross-marketed.

• Nontraditional acquisition. The days of recency, frequency and monetary value are over. Think beyond direct mail and think integration and analytics.

19. Maximize loyalty to your organization

Just as finding new donors is an elemental part of nonprofit fundraising, so is preventing donors from leaving; or, to put it positively, maximizing donor loyalty.

In their book Building Donor Loyalty, Adrian Sargeant and Elaine Jay offer practical steps that fundraisers can take in designing a fundraising relationship program that keeps donors.

• Match fundraising programs to donor needs. Fundraisers should be able to group donor preferences together so as to make it profitable to meet them, while ensuring that all donors feel that individual needs have been met.

• Constantly reinforce the value to the donor. Donors are loyal because the organization offers them the best value for their money.

• Develop new-donor communication and ask for feedback. The welcome for first-time donors should include more than a simple thank-you note.

• Explain to donors the new range of services. The number of engagements a donor has with a nonprofit is one driver of loyalty.

• Develop donor-recognition programs. This is becoming commonplace.

• Measure satisfaction and retention. Ongoing research is necessary to track donor satisfaction.

• Analyze complaint data. Such complaints should be reviewed to determine patterns.

• Identify relationship issues and failures. Many are difficult or impossible to resolve, but very often they provide guidance to where the relationship is failing.

• Measure profitability. Nonprofits developing an approach based on relationships need to ensure they are profitable and that the return on investment exceeds that which would be achieved through a transaction approach.

20. Who reads your newsletter?

What type of person should a donor newsletter have in mind? Although nonprofit organizations may look at their donors as being cut from one mold, there are different personality types, any of whom can be a donor.

At a recent conference, tips were offered on making a donor newsletter appeal to various people. These are the four basic personality types, and their characteristics that may be of help to nonprofit newsletter writers:

• The Amiable. This type of person wants the organization to be a friend. They respond to heavy use of the word "you" and the promise of an ongoing relationship. Stay in touch. They like warmhearted pictures. They want to be part of your family.
  
  
• The Expressive. This type loves new stuff and is easily bored. They want to learn about new, exciting things. They burn hot and cold, so keep it lively. They like bold statements, new directions, initiatives, bright ideas.
  
  
• The Analytical. This type craves facts and more facts and has trouble making decisions. They welcome documentation, lengthy testimonial and statistical evidence that proves your point. Explain until you are blue in the face, and they'll ask for more.
  
  
• The Bottom-liner. This type of person values brevity and makes quick decisions. They want you to tell them short and sweet what you do and what you want them to do. They like summaries and they want to be told their task.

21. Tracking where the money comes from

To maximize fundraising efforts, it is necessary to track giving, and this is especially important for major gifts. At a recent international fundraising conference, the importance of tracking and of various considerations related to tracking were emphasized.

With the exception of the smallest nonprofit organizations, most donor tracking is done by computer, and there are many systems that vary in size and sophistication. The size, scope and mission of the organization will therefore go a long way in helping determine just what kind of donor tracking system is needed.

Among the important considerations for donor tracking:

• Know what generated the gift.
  
  
• Determine the baselines and watch for trends, including the cost per dollar raised, the response rate and the average gift size.
  
  
• Be aware of how many names are on the organization's mailing list vs. how many current donors the organization has.
  
  
• Find a donor tracking system that is right for the organization. Among the considerations: knowing what are the essential tasks, system costs, both current and ongoing, and tech support for breakdowns (which are unpredictable) and upgrades and maintenance (which have more predictability).
  
  
• Deciding whether to buy, borrow or rent a system.
  
  
• Selecting the correct donor database for the organization.

22. They will tell you what to do

Although communication is an important part of fundraising, communication begins with listening to donors. That is the message from Bruce Campbell in his book Listening To Your Donors (the Jossey-Bass Nonprofit and Management Series).

Campbell said that feedback is a primary part of communication and that nonprofits can obtain meaningful, accurate and representative feedback from constituents.

The chief form is verbal feedback, which Campbell breaks into constituent-initiated feedback, organization-initiated quantitative feedback and organization-initiated qualitative feedback.

Constituent-initiated feedback occurs whenever constituents take it upon themselves to communicate something to the organization.

The most common form of organization-initiated quantitative feedback is the survey, and it may contain such questions as:

• How many of our constituents think our organization is doing an outstanding job?
  
  
• Is our organization's job rating significantly better among major donors than among other donors?
  
  
• Has our organization's job rating changed significantly since last year?

Organization-initiated qualitative feedback can be helpful when an organization wants to know what donors think the issues are. It can address such questions as:

• How do our constituents decide which organizations to support?
  
  
• How would our constituents describe our organization if it were a person; that is, what is our image or personality in their eyes?
  
  
• How do our constituents sort through their mail?

In addition, there is nonverbal feedback, which includes areas such as whether constituents give, how much, how often and to what, as well as seeing how these factors come into play over time.

© 2006 The NonProfit Times Privacy Policy