Why do donors give? - Agitator | DonorVoice...$6.63 Compelling reasons to give in fundraising...
Transcript of Why do donors give? - Agitator | DonorVoice...$6.63 Compelling reasons to give in fundraising...
Why do donors give?
Answers from science
Nonprofits sent an average of 139 emails per year in 2016. Total emails sent are up 12% year over year.
And open rates are down across the board.
Source: 2016 Luminate Online Benchmark Report
Nonprofit standard mail volume has dropped from 13.3 billion in 2010 to 12.6 billion in 2015 (7%).
However, over that same period, the number of donors has decreased over 14 percent.
Source: http://www.nonprofitmailers.org/nonprofits-and-mail/Aggregation of Fundraising Effectiveness Survey at http://afpfep.org/reports/.
The mindset is often volume-based
Which one causes the other?
-.33
Revenue
The business model is broken
An Alternative Business Model
Commitmen
t(what causes loyalty to your
specific organization)
Identity(their innate reason for giving)
+ +Experience(their judgement on whether
an interaction with you is good, bad or in-between)
We had another female in your community who gave X dollars. How much would you like to give today?”
ControlIdentity 1 Identity 2
Identity effects in charitable giving
Which touchpoints matter?And does this differ by identity?
Commitment to
Organization
Functional
Connection
Personal
Connection
Behavior
Constituent Experiences• Brand (i.e. Key Messages)• Marketing• Donor Service• Fundraising• Operations
Personal• I feel like I have a relationship with ORG• I have an emotional correction to ORG• ORG is very responsive to donor needs
Commitment• I am a committed ORG donor• I feel a sense of loyalty to ORG• ORG is my favorite charitable organization
Functional• I feel like I know what to expect from ORG• I get good value for the donations I make to ORG• My donations are put to good use at ORG
Why donor experience matters
12% conversion
32% conversion
12% conversion
32% conversion
Catholic Relief Services
Our retention rates were average
2013 Donors 2014 Retention Rate 2014 Donors
CRS: New 103,073 22% 22,730
Median 41,143 23% 12,336
CRS: Reactivated 95,496 35% 33,349Median 23,005 39% 7,924
CRS: 2+ Year 164,835 71% 116,335Median 86,282 71% 58,306
Our commitment study
Now, just the important bits
We are Catholics doing good… …despite some donor services…
…and how frequently you mail us.
$28.03 Helping the poor overseas$27.13 Working through Catholic
churches/partners overseas$25.78 Serve as official Catholic int’l
humanitarian agency$25.05 Live Catholic faith in solidarity with
poor overseas$21.39 Helping you live your Catholic faith
Catholic Faith – $127.38 Donor Services – $69.24
$15.09 Providing helpful service and support$13.68 Make easy find contact info for donor service$12.89 Asking your feedback on how CRS is doing$14.03 Appropriately thanking you for your support$13.55 Acknowledging donations in a timely manner
Fundraising – $31.49
$6.63 Compelling reasons to give in fundraising requests$6.58 Making case for recurring, monthly donation $6.40 Case for continued giving after emergency donate$6.18 Asking for an appropriate donation amount$5.70 Asking appropriate number of times for donations
So we focused on the four Fs
• Feedback
• Faith
• Frequency
• There is no fourth F
Feedback
• Commitment study
• Feedback
• Faith
• Frequency
Announce changes with survey
• Commitment study
• Feedback
• Faith
• Frequency
Results: No-ask feedback mailing
• Over 6% response rate
• Net positive revenue despite no ask
Results: Thousands of specifics
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Catholic Church commentsLike Dr Woo
Personal connection to CRSPersonal information wrong
Do not shareMonthly donor
Want donation to go to HaitiTimely response
CRS is one of my favoritesReduce mail frequency
Want more informationFirst time donating
MonologueStop mail
Like PaypalLow overhead good
Like directed donationOther
Good informationI trust CRS
Also donate to othersNo comment
Difficulty donating onlineEasy donating online
Keep up the good work
Results: Actionable recommendations
• Make it easier to direct donations to specific areas
• Acknowledge directed donations as directed
• Stop requiring title on donation form
• Remove requirement for address on memorial donations
• Make it easier for repeat donors to log in and store information
Faith and frequency
The test
• Pilot test and control group
• Test group
– Seven fewer mailings and two replaced by feedback
mailings
– Over 10 fewer email asks
– Focus on why people give – living out their faith
Some pieces did well in focus
But the C in CRS stands for something
Results
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
April 5 March22
March10
Feb 6 Nov 28 Nov 14 Nov 1 Oct 21 Sept 30 Sept 15 Aug 15 July 29 June 24 June 9
Improvement in revenues
Results
• We are rolling out with the test in FY18
• We are working on other donor-focused experiments– Telemarketing
– List sharing
– Further reducing asks
– Moving to recurring giving as a solution
• Estimate we will cut about $500K in costs with minimal net revenue impact