Innovation in Fundraising: Overhead, Risk, and Pancakes

Booster clubs I speak with tell me that they have to raise more money than ever before. More than ever, school districts depend on booster clubs to fill the ever-growing gap between after-school budgets and actual student need. How can booster clubs radically increase revenues? Does reducing overhead mean more money for programs? When does fundraising clash with a club’s mission? Experts address these questions in very different ways. In this post I borrow points from Dan Pallotta’s TED talk … [Read more...]

Donor Retention: How active commitment leads to long-term loyalty

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s important to work to inspire active commitment in your supporters. Donors who are actively committed care beyond just a sense of obligation — these are not the people who give once a year to out of a sense of guilt. Actively committed supporters care about the club’s future, and very clearly see their own part in it. Fundraising expert Adrian Sargeant breaks the drivers of active commitment down into three parts: trust, concept of risk, and … [Read more...]

Donor Retention: Identification as a driver of loyalty

Booster clubs often focus on the basic ties between their supporters and the club — having a child at the school, being a former member of a team or club. Studies continually show a strong connection between donor loyalty and identification with an organization. However, some studies have found that a basic connection — being a parent of a student, for example — isn’t enough to inspire loyalty (or donations). Rather, communities of participation, based on a supporters’ active participation, … [Read more...]

Donor Retention: Are your supporters really satisfied?

One hundred and fifty fundraisers attended a 2012 talk on donor loyalty where they were asked to raise their hands if they'd ever conducted a donor satisfaction survey. Not a single hand went up. Though it's often overlooked in the rush to attract new supporters, donor satisfaction is key for nonprofits in inspiring loyalty, and it’s more complicated than you may have thought. In customer service, a buyer’s satisfaction can be measured in the comparison of the expected service to that which was … [Read more...]

Donor Retention: Your booster club’s priority in 2014

The numbers have come in, and they don’t look great for booster clubs and other nonprofits. Recent surveys on charitable giving have found that engaging new donors will become more and more difficult: Of the four generations surveyed, a majority in each group said they expected to give the same amount of money to charity in the coming year and to support the same number of charities. Seventy-five percent of boomers said they would support the same number of charities in 2013 that … [Read more...]