CharityMatters-NZ Donor Communication, Donor Support, Donors, Fundraising, Regular Giving

Men give more to charity ‘if asked by an attractive woman’ – study

Another interesting read, I wonder if it’s the case in New Zealand.

From NZHerald

When men donate to charity it’s not so much the giving that counts but the desire to compete with other men for the attentions of attractive women, according to a study of charitable donations.

Men will give significantly more money to charity if they see that other men have already given large amounts and when the person asking for the money is an attractive woman, researchers have discovered.

Women, on the other hand, appear to be unaffected by the looks of the male fundraisers, which has led scientists to believe that there is a biological difference between the sexes when it comes to the motivation behind donations.

The findings of the study have put a new slant on online fundraising through charitable websites such as JustGiving, which has produced its own complex etiquette surrounding how much to donate, and whether to do it anonymously.

Read full article here

CharityMatters-NZ Business Giving, Collaboration, Donor Support, Sponsorship

Business Partnerships

When looking at business support, sponsorship or any other form of “partnership” – remember it’s that, a partnership.

This article from Rob Wu on the The CauseVox Blog makes for interesting reading, and has some great pointers.
Working with Partners & Brands

There’s power in partnerships.

When you work together, you can create something bigger and more successful than if you just worked alone.

Let’s find out the two major types of partnerships that you should be leveraging.

Two types of partners

Resource partners

Resource partners are those who can provide the resources necessary for your fundraising campaign. Typically resource partners are companies, foundations, and major donors.

Common examples of resource partners can include…

Promotion partners

Promotion partners are those who can help you raise awareness. This helps you reach new networks of potential supporters and donors.  Typically promotion partners are companies and brands.

Common examples of promotion partners can include…

  • Point of sale donation
  • Website advertising
  • Google Adwords for nonprofits

Read full post here

CharityMatters-NZ Business Giving, Collaboration, Fundraising, Philanthropy

Executive Success: Company oils wheels of charity

When the charity her business was supporting kept emailing to ask who she was, Sarah Townsend knew it was time to make some changes.

Townsend loved the ethos behind the environmental charity 1% for the Planet, which seemed to be a natural fit for The Aromatherapy Company, the home fragrance brand she co-founded 25 years ago.

But to the well-resourced New York organisation, The Aromatherapy Company was just a very small dot in a very big world, says Townsend.

“I think they do a fantastic job but they didn’t even know who we were or what we were doing so I just sort of felt that really we could manage the 1 per cent better within our own community.” She looked around for a local equivalent, but struggled to find a strong organisation with good infrastructure that wasn’t already well supported.

Read full article on NZHerald

CharityMatters-NZ Communication, Donor Communication, Donor Support, Donors, Fundraising, Supporter Acquisition, Supporter Retention

Stop the Emails

I’ve said before that an email doesn’t always cut it, and I stand by this, what some don’t understand is that an email at the wrong time, with the wrong message can have a truly negative response.

Not only could the acceptance, click through rate be low, but it could also result in lower giving by those who take “action”.

It is important to truly understand how your donors want to be communicated with.

For some, a personal phone call may be what works, for others an email may suffice, however, it’s important that you understand what works for who.

If you communicate with the one group in the wrong manner you could do more harm than good, you could alienate donors.

Ask donors how they like to be communicated with, acknowledge and respect; it could mean a make or break with a campaign.

See also

Email v Direct Mail

An email Doesn’t Always Cut It

Email, Direct or Social Media

Communication – Email Management

CharityMatters-NZ Business Giving, Communication, Donor Communication, Donor Support, Fundraising, Planning, Regular Giving, Research, Supporter Acquisition

Do You Know the Numbers

All fundraising is a numbers game, whether it’s tele-fundraising, email, direct mail, face-to-face; it’s all a matter of numbers.

When we look at tele-fundraising, it could be that one in fifty called may give; face-to-face maybe higher, and direct approaches through other means may differ again.

What is important is an understanding of how many, and what type, of approaches is working for you.

To know what your pipeline is, you need to have some knowledge of:

  • How much you’re needing to raise – a finite figure is better than “what ever we can get”
  • What your current “hit rate” is … approaches v donations = hit rate
  • How many approaches to reach hit rate

If you have no idea of what this is, how can you successfully plan a fundraising campaign?

In the business world if you ask most salespeople about the quality of contacts others make for them; you’d likely probably that they are only suspects, probables.

It’s no different when it comes to fundraising:

  • Suspect – anyone on your database
  • Prospect – people know to support
  • Lead – someone ready to consider giving
  • Opportunity – someone wanting give – here and now

It’s important to understand each “category” and to also understand and monitor what it is taking you to reach a favourable outcome, a commitment.

Success shouldn’t be measured solely on the level of funding received, measure it on all outcomes; how many approaches against level of support received.

Watch and observe that the more refined your approaches let lower the number of approaches needed.

This doesn’t mean you need to reduce the number of contacts you have, it’s all about the right approach to the right people at the right time.

How well can you define your contact list – if you don’t have the ability to segment to capture the right people at the right time; you could be missing out.

CharityMatters-NZ Communication, Management, Sponsorship, Supporter Acquisition

How to Get Your Board Engaged in Fundraising

I’ve previously talked about how the Board of any organisation needs to be not only attending meetings, signing papers they need to sign; and that they need to also be doing their share of engaging with the community.

Marc A. Pitman’s piece “21 Ways For Board Members to Engage with their Nonprofit’s Fundraising” is a great read and is likely to give you some ideas on how you can ignite the flame in your board members to do that “little bit” more.

What are your expectations of your board members?

Is your Board engaged, how did they become engaged?

See also

Your board and trustees should be working

Are you supported by your board and staff?

Use focus groups to move forward

CharityMatters-NZ Communication, Donor Communication, Donor Support, Donors, Fundraising, Research, Supporter Acquisition, Supporter Retention

A Disengaged Public

Having recently read “Charities Struggle with Disengaged Public” – it stood out that maybe we’re not understanding our donors … take for example “Do charity campaigns inspire people to act and are men better at ‘giving’? Well apparently not, according to two new research reports from the UK.”

Sure, this is the UK, but what’s the situation here?

I know from experience that engaging with men is different to engaging with women, more often than not organisations use the same words no matter if it’s a male or female audience they’re trying to engage with.

If we know who donors are, male or female, we can adapt our language to ensure that each is receiving our communication in the “language” they understand and will react to.

Have you segmented your database and do you communicate with each segment in a way that they will understand and, that will cause them to take action?

CharityMatters-NZ Donor Communication, Donor Support, Donors, Fundraising, Supporter Retention

Reigniting the Flame in Delinquent Donors

Before you start planning how to get delinquent donors back on board, have you made the phone call to ask why people have stopped supporting you?

Without some level of research any plan to reignite the flame in donors who have stopped giving for some reason, you have no idea the why, what and how of putting something in place to win them back.

Reigniting the flame in a delinquent donor in many cases is quicker and more cost effective than gainer a new donor.

The donor who has stopped supporting you did so for a reason, was the amount they were giving too high, they had a change in personal circumstances, or something else has caused them to stop giving.

Once you understand why people have stopped supporting you can set about working to win them back, they know your organisation, they know the good you are doing – now you just have to win them back.

The reason someone has stopped supporting could be as simple as they have misplaced your “ask” – that letter you sent out went astray or perhaps you email was blocked.

Some people stop giving if they feel they are being taken for granted, or that your acknowledgement of their giving is timely.

Others stop because they said they wanted to give less frequently, but were still be solicited monthly, this would turn anyone off.

People don’t like be ‘lumped’ in with everyone else, have you been addressing your donors in the way they expect “Dear Friend” instead of “Dear Mary”?

Put yourself in your donors shoes, how would you feel if any of the above happened to you?

How do you go about getting them back on board?

If you’re able your database should be able to give you a list of donors who have stopped giving, if possible break this down even further to – 12, 24, 36 month groups.

From each group, identify those who have made at least three donations each year.

Now you have several workable lists to work with to regain dormant donors.

Start with those who haven’t helped in the last 12 months, this group is easier to manage, and most likely will have a bit success rate.

People who have more recently given are more likely to start giving again, but only if asked, and only if the reason/s they gave to stop giving have been addressed.

The longer you leave it to get in touch with delinquent donors, the harder it will be to reignite their passion to help.

Have a regular plan to contact people who stop giving, even a quick call might be sufficient to get them back on board.

Don’t start a conversation with a delinquent donor they way you would with any other, you need to do these approaches in a personal way; don’t treat them as a number, treat them as the person they are – talk about them, their support and what it means to you; leave the fluff about the how great you are for another conversation.

See also:

Donor Loyalty

Donor Retention: Time for a Change

Who’s Centre of Attention – You or Your Donor

CharityMatters-NZ Donor Support, Donors, Fundraising, Supporter Acquisition

Chuggers, Call to Rein Them In

Again, chuggers are in the headlines, with a call from Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett making comment that they “profit from a form of mild harassment.”

Chuggers, charity muggers, can be seen as aggressive in the way they approach people – the hands out to almost block your path, the hand out to shake yours … actions that could be seen as intimidating to some.

I’ve discussed chuggers before, Chuggers Charity Muggers, We’ll keep the lot – thank you, Charity Muggers – Skills Shortage.

What’s your view of “chuggers” – are they too aggressive, too pushy?

See also Chuggers: The truth behind the clipboard people.

CharityMatters-NZ Business Giving, Donor Support, Endorsements, Sponsorship

Is your Sponsor the Right Fit?

When seeking sponsors from the business community, do you simply target all and sundry, or do you ensure those you’re considering are the right fit and appropriate to your cause?

Appropriate, as in alcohol and youth – isn’t a right fit, or fast food, aka KFC and health may not be an appropriate fit.

Sure, not all companies that offer to sponsor and organisation will want, or expect, their name up in lights; but the majority will want some form of recognition for the support they have given.

It’s this group that we should look at to ensure that they are the right fit; that they aren’t going to detract from the good work of the organisation; or leave a bad taste in the mouths of other supporters and, potentially the people the charity is aiming to assist.

There is a potential risk that one sponsor could cause the loss of other sponsors who may not wish to be seen to beside the other.

This is where a sponsorship plan and “rule book” is needed, and it should outline the types of business (and individuals) that an organisation will approach for support; what the sponsor may receive in return for their contribution and other facets of how sponsorship with be governed.

We see almost every school term children and their parents with boxes of chocolates trying to raise funds for school or extra-curricular activities. There has been discussion around this for some time; there’s pros and cons to this type of fundraising. And, yes the money these types of activities bring are greatly needed. But surely there’s a healthier way.

For example; recently Valerie Adams and Malcolm Rands of the ecostore featured in articles with a soap alternative to chocolate being used as school fundraisers; it seems a great way for fundraising without any health risks etc.

Yes, it is accepted that there will be occasions when an organisation will have no other alternative but to accept support from a company that perhaps could be seen as “inappropriate” – e.g. petrol companies, seen as being environmentally “bad”; but necessary for an organisation to reduce costs  by receiving free or cheap fuel.

But, where possible it’s important that there are no real or perceived negative connotations when accepting sponsorships. It’s important for your brand and, the sponsors brand that everything fits properly with any sponsorship type relationship.

See also:

Business partnering is a two way affair

What Drives Business Sponsorship?

Sponsorship – Answering the questions

Business Giving