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Rapidata Services Plc has been supporting charities, not-for-profits and commercial companies with the collection, administration, and processing of Direct Debit payments since it was founded in 1997. Our partnership approach and outsourced solutions have seen Rapidata become the leading Direct Debit specialist in the UK.

But we do more than just Direct Debit processing.

Our years of experience and innovative use of technology enable us to work with our clients to maximise the services they use. By providing cost effective collection services tailored to meet their exact requirements, such as Rapidata’s eDirectDebit for online fundraising, we aim to allow our clients to concentrate on their core activities.

Since 1999 when we became involved with not-for-profits, we have become recognised as a voice in the sector for regular giving. Our relationship with the sector also saw us expand our services geared towards not-for-profits to help them to achieve their fundraising goals through optimising their processes and results. We are very proud of our commitment in this area and are members of the Institute of Fundraising and Fundraising Standards Board.

We are based in Crawley, West Sussex, and have a great team of people working across the UK. If you have any questions about the services we offer or would like to discuss any other issues you may face, we would love to hear from you.

Tel: +44 (0) 1293 524066Fax: +44 (0) 1293 525912Email: [email protected]

rapidataservices.com

Company No. 3311791 Registered in England and WalesVAT No. 683 5007 33

About Rapidata

Welcome to Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report 2011, our most robust annual tracking report to date. Last year we revealed the beginnings of an upturn in Direct Debit donations as cancellation rates started to fall following the dramatic increase seen during the recession.

This year there is much good news to share. We are pleased to report that the positive trend has continued and that cancellation rates across 2010 were back at pre-recession levels. Take a look at chapter 9 of the report where we present the latest figures.

2010’s report expanded hugely on the inaugural report of 2009 with a number of firsts, including our exclusive reveal of the average gift by Direct Debit, and our look at income by cause, something many of you have said has been of great interest. In fact, as a result, last year’s report went global, sparking interest from across Europe and as far afield as Canada, the US, and Australia, from a wide variety of charities, research specialists, business schools and universities.

This year, while we continue to examine these same trends, we also go an important step further and for the first time look at online regular giving,something currently under-utilised by many charities but of great potential benefit. It is a section we intend to develop in future reports as the adoption of online and mobile technology grows, using our unique data to build a detailed picture of donations and sign-ups via these channels. In this report, we reveal the size of the average gift donated online, and the average annual number of sign-ups a charity achieves through its website. We also look at just how well charities are encouraging supporters not only to make a donation online but also to sign up to regular giving via this channel.

In an important finding for all charities practicing regular giving fundraising, we outline how charities are missing a crucial stage in their processing ofunpaid Direct Debits. We drill down deeper into the area of unpaids and examinehow well, or not, charities are tackling this issue. We look at the key factors andrecommendations on how unpaids can be managed to prevent unnecessary lossof income and inaccurate attrition reporting.

Also, this year we bring you the first full not-for-profit sector statistics, beyond our research sample, in terms of overall charity Direct Debit volumes and unpaids. We welcome this contribution from Bacs, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for the Direct Debit scheme in the UK and I’d like to thank them for working so closely with us to provide such an illuminating full sector view.

As ever, I welcome your feedback so please do not hesitate to get in touch if youwould like to discuss any of the issues raised in this report.

Scott Gray, Managing Director of Rapidata Services Plc

[email protected]

Introduction

Contents 1. Executive summary 05

2. Methodology 07

3. Direct Debit volume 08

4. Direct Debit average gift levels 09

5. Total Direct Debit donated income 10

6. Regular giving by cause 11

7. Bacs – an overview of Direct Debits in the UK 15

8. Online regular giving – Paperless Direct Debit 16

9. Direct Debit cancellations 18

10. The Charity Direct Debit Cancellation Cycle 20

11. Unpaid Direct Debits 23

12. Conclusion and recommendations 25

13. Appendix 29

14. Acknowledgements 31

Index of graphs and tablesGraph 1: Increase in Volume of Overall Direct Debit

Donations 2008-2010 08

Graph 2: Average Direct Debit Donation Level 09

Graph 3: Overall Income (£m) Generated by Direct Debit Donations 10

Graph 4: Proportion of Charities by Cause that Increased Direct Debit Average Gift 2009-2010 11

Graph 5: Average Gift by Cause 2008-2010 12

Graph 6: Average Gift Difference 2009-2010 13

Graph 7: Growth in Volume by Cause 2009 vs 2010 13

Graph 8: Average Number of Online Sign-ups 2009-2010 17

Table 1: Monthly Cancellation Rates during 2010 18

Table 2: Average Annual Cancellation Rates 19

Graph 9: Average Annual Cancellation Rates 2003-2010 19

Table 3: Average Cancellation Rates for Each Month from April 2003 to March 2011 20

Graph 10: The Charity Direct Debit Cancellation Cycle 20

Table 4: Monthly Cancellation Rates 21

Graph 11: Monthly Cancellation Cycle for 2008/9, 2009/10, and 2010/11 compared with the Pre-Recession Cycle 21

Table 5: Direct Debit Unpaids 23

Table 6: Unpaid Direct Debits Referred to Payer 23

Table 7: Re-presented Direct Debits that go on to pay 24

Table A – Monthly and Yearly Direct Debit Cancellations Rates from April 2003 to February 2010 29

Table B – Differences from Pre-Recession Monthly Averages 30

05

Last year’s report was full of optimism for the year ahead with Rapidata revealing a return to pre-recession cancellation levels, and an increase in the volume and value of Direct Debits in the charity sector.

This year, Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report confirms that the trends that were starting to take effect in 2009 continued into 2010, and looks forward to a more positive future for Direct Debit giving in the months ahead.

For the first time, along with data on Direct Debit cancellation rates, volume and income for 2010, this report examines the bigger picture through the welcome contribution of Bacs. And, in another first for Rapidata, the report reveals compelling data on average online gift size both with and without Gift Aid.

Perhaps the most exciting revelation of this year’s report is in the staggering results and undeniable proof that re-presenting certain failed Direct Debits prevents unnecessary loss of income, which could amount to thousands of pounds every month for larger charities. Failing to manage unpaids correctly not only loses charities income, but also inflates attrition figures and incurs higher costs in reactivation programmes. This issue is not widely understood, very few charities analyse their unpaid donations past counting them all as cancellations and Rapidata wants to alert charities to how they can very easily plug this income leak.

Overall, the findings in this year’s report reflect a much more positive year in 2010 for most charities. However, there is still work to be done in maximising regular giving, particularly in understanding and responding appropriately to unpaid Direct Debits, and in taking advantage of the benefits of online regular giving.

Key findings include:

Significant increase in the average size of gift2010 saw a 7.62% increase in the size of the average Direct Debit donation as it rose from 2009’s figure of £11.95 by almost £1 to reach £12.86. 61% of charities saw an increase in the size of their average gift, up from 54% in 2009, indicating that a focus during the economic downturn by charities across the board on retaining and upgrading existing donors is paying off.

Increase in volume and value of Direct DebitThe overall amount generated through Direct Debit donations for the 117 charities studied rose last year by £2.5m, to a total of £28.5m. This was the second successive year this group had seen an increase, albeit smaller than the £4m rise recorded in 2009. 70% of charities recorded an increase in their annual income, and volume also increased, rising by a quarter of a million to 3.5m – an increase of 7.8%.

By causeIn seven out of the 12 causes analysed, more than 50% of charities reported an increase in average gift size in 2010. The International category saw the greatest proportion of charities (80%) reporting an increase. While the category Children, Young People & Families attracted the highest average gift amount for the second year running, shooting up to £15.01 from £13.11 the previous year. This cause, along with Healthcare & Medical Research saw the most significant increases in average gift size in 2010.

Overall fall in cancellation ratesCancellation rates across the calendar year of 2010 were significantly lower than those seen in 2009, reaching pre-recession levels. Rates were up and down for the first quarter, before rising for four months in succession, and then dropping significantly each month between September and December, with a year-end finish of 2.87%. Where cancellation rates in 2009 only fell below 4% four times, in 2010, they didn’t reach up to 4% once, leading to an average for the year of 3.32%. This was a significant drop from 2009’s average of 4.05%, and the lowest seen since 2007 and the pre-recessionary period.

Cancellation cycle for 2010/11 regains pre-recession patternThe cancellation cycle for 2010/11 (up to and including March ’11) closely followed the pre-recession pattern of cancellations and was far removed from the sky-high pattern seen at the height of the recession in 2008/09. During the second half of 2009, cancellation rates had already dropped dramatically from their recessionary high, and the figures for 2010/11 show that cancellation rates continued on this downward trend throughout the rest of 2010 and into 2011. The first quarter of 2011, started on trend, shows a slightly higher than expected peak for February but falls again in March to bring us to a positive low rate heading into quarter two.

1. Executive summary

“ Another great report, packed full of genuinely useful information that fundraisers can employ to help them manage retention.

Adrian Sargeant, Professor of Fundraising, Bristol Business School, Center on Philanthropy Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

”

Average online gift revealed The average monthly gift donated online, before Gift Aid, was £8.90 in 2010. With Gift Aid, this amount jumps to £11.39. Gift Aid is well used by donors: average Gift Aid take-up totalled 83% of online sign-ups last year.

Online giving is popular among consumers 64% of charities saw an increase in the number of new donors signing up to a regular gift by Direct Debit online. Year on year growth shows 36% - a strong indication of the growing popularity of online giving among charity supporters.

Charities are losing regular income unnecessarily by failing to manage unpaid Direct Debits – this could amount to £1000s per monthOf all unpaid Direct Debits in 2010, 56.50% were due to insufficient funds in the donor’s account – falling into the Refer to Payer category – while only 33% were actively cancelled by the donor. Last year, a staggering 62.54% of Refer to Payer unpaids that were re-presented for payment again the following month were successful. Most often charities treat all unpaid Direct Debits as generic cancellations whereas Rapidata’s analysis proves there is a valuable case for deeper segmentation and re-presenting policy. This could have significant impact on income, attrition rates and expenditure – see Section 11 for full details.

“ This is really valuable piece of work and a great contribution to understanding this vital area of charity income. Overall, the picture confirms what fundraisers know, that regular giving by direct debit is the most stable and sustainable income source for charities and holds up well even in difficult economic times. Indeed a picture where average gifts rose and cancellation rates fell despite grim external conditions shows just how resilient individual giving is.

Tobin Aldrich, Fundraising Director, WWF-UK

”

06

2. Methodology

As the UK’s leading Direct Debit specialist, processing almost five million charity transactions a year as well as many outside of this sector, Rapidata is in a unique position.

The huge volume of data that is available from these transactions reveals how much money people are donating to charity on a monthly basis by Direct Debit, as well as the number of payments that fail to go through, and why.

Through this data Rapidata can also disclose Direct Debit average gift levels, as well as the overall income value and volume of Direct Debit payments, and income and volume by cause.

In addition this year, while revealing the latest data for each of these, Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report goes even further, examining the issue of unpaid Direct Debit donations, and online regular giving.

In each case, the report examines the trends, discusses the implications, and gives recommendations, particularly how best to avoid unnecessary lost income from unpaid Direct Debit payments in terms of re-presenting, and how to exploit the potential of online giving.

Where last year’s report took in a wider view than had been previously possible and compared the cancellation figures for 2009 with the figures for previous years (from 2003 onwards), the 2011 report is able to build on this both through the addition of Rapidata’s figures for 2010, and for the first time, through the inclusion of Bacs data to provide an even wider sector view.

The 2011 report uses three datasets. For the core sections (3, 4, & 6) the same sample of 117 charities from Rapidata’s database that it used last year when examining average gift amount and income by cause. The charities represent a wide range of causes and sizes of organisation, and are all charities for which Rapidata has now processed Direct Debit payments for at least the last three calendar years, giving solid data for the timeframe in question.

This sample of charities bases the research on 3.5 million transactions worth £28.5 million of Direct Debit income annually. There is one small difference: this original group now stands at 114 charities but to avoid a hole in the data, Rapidata has kept in the missing three charities by treating them as having remained static from last year.

This year too, in order to benchmark this research, Rapidata carried out the same analysis across a dataset comprising the entire Rapidata client base, which includes hundreds of charities. It discovered that the data for the smaller group mirrored that of the larger client base, and it is assuring therefore to see that the results from Rapidata’s 117 charities provide a true representation of the market.

Section 8 (Online regular giving) used a new dataset for the 2011 report. It reviews the 2009 and 2010 online Direct Debits for a selection of 70 organisations that use Rapidata’s eDirectDebit solution, including charities of varying size and cause.

Sections 9-11 of this report (research into Direct Debit cancellations) are based upon Rapidata’s full charity Direct Debit data set of almost five million transactions each year.

07

The starting point for Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report is the number of donations people gave in 2010 overall. Last year Rapidata was pleased to report an increase in the volume of Direct Debit donations across all causes, and it is heartening to see a further rise this year.

In 2009, 3.2m Direct Debit transactions took place – an increase of 14% on the previous year, and Rapidata can now reveal that in 2010 Direct Debit volume rose by a quarter of a million to 3.5m transactions – a smaller increase of 7.8%. Overall, Rapidata has now been monitoring Direct Debit volumes for three successive years and, taken with the data for 2008, the figures indicate an upward trend in terms of Direct Debit volumes with the number of transactions rising steadily each year.

Graph 1: Increase in Volume of Overall Direct Debit Donations 2008-2010

2010 saw a number of events including two big natural disasters that could have affected donation levels. The Haiti earthquake of last January and August’s floods in Pakistan both prompted major fundraising appeals. Last year also saw the UK election bring a new government into power, followed by the announcement of significant budgetary cuts to come.

The full effects of these cuts have yet to be seen, while, looking ahead to next year’s report, 2011 has already seen two natural disasters in the recent New Zealand earthquake, and the Japan earthquake and tsunami. Each of these could affect giving levels for 2011 and we will be monitoring to see what happens over the coming months in terms of charity Direct Debit donations.

The increase in volume of Direct Debit transactions over the course of 2010 could also indicate, as was suggested in last year’s report, that charities were working hard last year on donor stewardship to improve and safeguard long-term donor relationships, and that, as the UK began to crawl out of the recession, people continued to feel more confident about their ability to give to charity in 2010.

08

3. Direct Debit volume

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Volume in millions

‘Direct Debit volume rose by 7.80% in 2010’

09

4. Direct Debit average gift levels

This was a new area of the report last year, in which Rapidata revealed for the first time the amount that people gave per monthly donation in 2009, compared with 2008. Rapidata now has three years’ worth of data on average gift levels and can report a significant increase on 2009’s figures. In fact, in 2010 the average gift level reached £12.86, rising by almost £1, or 7.62%, on the previous year’s amount of £11.95.

This tallies with, and in fact slightly exceeds, the 2010 UK Giving Report from the Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations, which puts the average monthly donation amount in 2009/10 at around £12 per donor.

Graph 2: Average Direct Debit Donation Level

Rapidata’s analysis shows that the majority of charities in the study experienced this increase, with 61% reporting a rise, up from 54% in 2009.

The importance of this increase cannot be downplayed: the fact that so many charities reported an increase in average gift amount at a time when the country was just emerging from the recession indicates that the focus during the economic downturn by charities across the board on retaining and upgrading existing donors has really paid off.

£12.50

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£11.50

£11.00

2008 20102009

‘61% of charities see a rise in average gift value’

10

5. Total Direct Debit donated income

The actual overall amount generated by Direct Debit donations to Rapidata’s 117 charities rose for a second year running in 2010. 70% of the charities in this sample reported an increase in their Direct Debit income, slightly down on 2009.

The total Direct Debit donated income rose by £2.5m last year, reaching £28.5m in total – almost a 10% increase (9.8%). This was a smaller increase than that seen in 2009 when the overall amount rose by £4m (approximately 18%).

Graph 3: Overall Income (£m) Generated by Direct Debit Donations

The lesser increase in income could reflect the general response of charities to the recession, which saw a huge focus on retaining and upgrading existing donors in response to sector-wide opinion and advice, coupled with lower budgets available for acquisition activity to replace the donors that dropped off during this period.

With three years’ worth of data now available for comparison, it is clear the income is still rising, and Rapidata will continue to monitor donation levels over the coming years to gain a clearer picture of the trend developing here.

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202008 2009 2010

Overallincome £mgenerated by DD donations

‘Direct Debit income has risen for the last 3 consecutive years’

11

6. Regular giving by cause

A new section in last year’s report, this year the Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report again looks at average gift size and volume increase per cause as well as the proportion of charities by cause that increased their Direct Debit average gift size or saw a drop in 2010, and by how much.

Charities in the Rapidata dataset are sorted into 12 cause categories:

Children, Young People & Families

Healthcare & Medical Research

International

General Social Welfare

Disability

Art & Culture

Heritage & Environment

Animals

Community

Education

Religious/Faith

Political

With the sample set of data used, as was the case last year, some categories contained too few charities for the resulting data to be considered representative of that sector on a wider scale, hence detailed analysis has again been reserved for the five largest causes: Children, Young People & Families, Healthcare & Medical Research, International, Community, and General Social Welfare.

Graph 4 shows the proportion of charities in all 12 causes that increased their Direct Debit average gift in 2010, compared to 2009. The results are generally positive: it is immediately clear that a proportion of charities in each cause managed to increase the size of their average gift in 2010, and seven out of the 12 saw more than 50% of the charities in that category report an increase.

In the top five causes, all bar Community saw a greater proportion of charities reporting an increase in average gift size than in 2009, and International charities saw the greatest proportion of charities (80%) reporting that their average gift value rose last year.

Graph 4 Proportion of Charities by Cause that Increased Direct Debit Average Gift 2009-2010

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Percentage of Charities by cause seeing an increase in average gift 2009

Percentage of Charities by cause seeing an increase in average gift 2010

*Any starred categories contain less than five charities and should not be considered fully representative.

Graph 5 shows that in 2010, Children, Young People & Families saw the most significant increase in average gift size, shooting up to £15.01 from £13.11 after remaining fairly static the previous year, and retaining its position as the cause with the highest average gift size for a second year running. Healthcare & Medical Research also saw a significant increase in average gift value, rising by more than £1 to reach £12.86 from last year’s £11.62.

While General Social Welfare remained largely static, only experiencing a modest rise of 15 pence from £13.01 in 2009 to £13.16 in 2010, Community and International did less well: both saw average gift size fall, in the case of Community by almost £1.

When it comes to comparing average gift size by cause for 2010 with the two previous years, it is immediately apparent that there are some significant variances. Two causes in particular saw quite dramatic increases in average gift value as Graph 5 reveals.

In last year’s report, the data showed Children, Young People & Families to be the cause attracting the highest average gift amount, with International at the other end of the scale. A year on, and this is still the case.

Graph 5: Average Gift Value by Cause 2008-2010

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Avg gift 08

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It is likely that the two causes that saw the most significant increases in average gift value invested more heavily than other causes in upgrade campaigns last year and that this is the result.

Graph 6 neatly illustrates the changes in average gift values for the five main causes between 2009 and 2010, reinforcing the positive outlook for charities in the Children, Young People & Families, and Healthcare & Medical Research categories.

Graph 7: Growth In Volume By Cause 2009 vs 2010

Graph 6: Average Gift Difference 2009-2010

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While many charities saw an increase in average gift value in 2010, it is clear from graph 7 that volume also increased again last year, although not as dramatically as in 2009. The growth in volume for 2010 is a positive sign, showing that all five main causes saw growth compared to the volumes of the previous year. While this is so, they all reported a lesser percentage growth than in 2009. This perhaps should be expected as fundraising stabilises as post-recession recovery levels off but it is also likely down to the combination of continued budgetary pressures and the common challenges experienced by charities in recruiting new supporters.

‘Children, Young People & Families, and Healthcare & Medical Research saw the greatest increases in average gift size in 2010’

15

7. Bacs – an overview of Direct Debits in the UK

Rapidata is a Bacs approved bureau for the processing of Direct Debit and Direct Credit payments. All Direct Debit transactions in the UK must go through the Bacs clearing system. Rapidata is pleased to invite Bacs to contribute to this report with an overview of Direct Debits in the UK.

Bacs Payments Schemes Limited (Bacs) is the not-for-profit organisation responsible for automated payment services in the UK, including Direct Debit. That role provides Bacs with a unique insight into the payment habits of British businesses and consumers.

Direct Debit usage across the board has reached an all-time high, with the number of transactions rising from 3.135 billion in 2009 to 3.224 billion in 2010, a year on year growth of 2.84%. Almost three out of every four British adults now have at least one Direct Debit commitment, a staggering penetration rate for the payment method.

Bacs processing data for the charities sector reveals that volumes grew to 49,425 million in 2010 compared with 46,486 million the previous year. It also shows that, while the industry average for unpaid Direct Debits remains low at just 2.06%, the third sector is faring even better at only 1.2%.

As well as having access to absolute processing information, the company carries out extensive consumer research through its Bacs Family Finance Tracker, asking 5000 GB adults about their payment habits and attitudes throughout each year. Charitable donations are included within this nationwide rolling survey, covering the way people choose to donate, how frequently, and how much they give.

Of those adults who make a regular payment to charity, 62% do so by Direct Debit – the 55+ age group accounts for almost half of these payments (49%). Empty-nester is the most common lifestage for regular giving (41%) compared with just 6% in the pre-family lifestage. And, of those who choose to make a regular donation, 18% live in the South East, while the North East and Wales are both home to just 3%.

More than half (57%) of adults who commit to paying a charity by Direct Debit are women compared with 43% men – all are more likely to be in the ABC1 socio-economic grouping (69%). Regular donors are also most likely to live in a household of two (43%). When it comes to amounts, the survey respondents giving by Direct Debit said their average annual donation was just under £282, or £25.67 per month.

Overall, the combination of hard processing data and softer research seems to indicate that even in tough economic times – or perhaps because of them – the British public is prepared to give generously to worthy causes.

Over 3 billion Direct Debit payments are processed by Bacs a year

72% of British adults now have at least one Direct Debit commitment

16

8. Online regular giving – Paperless Direct Debit

There is no question that online giving is increasing. Very simply, donating via a charity’s website provides a quick and easy way for donors to give, and a cost-effective way for charities to increase their supporter base and income when integrated into fundraising strategies. As such, online has become such an essential part of the fundraising mix that no charity can afford to ignore it.

In fact, a research project carried out last year by Rapidata in association with UK Fundraising on this subject: the Online Giving Survey 2010, revealed that 91% of charities now offer online giving through their websites, with the large majority facilitating Gift Aid (86%) and one-off credit card donations (83%). However, despite many charities pinpointing regular giving as their most important income source, far fewer – just 63% – enable people to sign up online to give regular donations via Paperless Direct Debit.

In acknowledgement of this fact, Rapidata has launched this new section of the report, using an entirely new dataset, to monitor the growth of online, and in future reports mobile too, and the role they play in the continually developing fundraising mix.

Rapidata provides an online Paperless Direct Debit solution called eDirectDebit that can be incorporated seamlessly into a charity’s website with their full branding and messaging, enabling them to offer an online regular giving facility. For the first time in its Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report, Rapidata is able to reveal vital information on online regular giving, including average gift value, and average number of sign-ups online. To do this, it has reviewed the 2009 and 2010 online Direct Debits for a selection of 70 organisations that use its eDirectDebit solution, varying in size and cause, to see just how their online giving facility performed for them last year.

The results make compelling reading. Out of this data set, a total of 64% saw an increase in the number of new donors signing up to give a regular gift by Direct Debit, with an average of 112 online sign-ups each in 2009, rising to 153 in 2010. This in itself is an increase of 36%, and a strong indication of the growing popularity of online giving amongst charity supporters.

“ The high costs of recruiting Direct Debit donors via face-to-face techniques has meant that, for our small-medium sized charity, the online route is by far the most effective way to attract new committed donors. At Make-A-Wish we find the average gift online is higher as is the gift aid take-up, and the attrition negligible. As online activity increases everywhere, encouraging online Direct Debit donors should be a must for all charity fundraisers. For us, it adds an invaluable mechanism to all our communications and marketing materials, proving to be particularly useful at adding value to our CRM partnerships.

Karen England, Director of Fundraising, Make-a-Wish

”

‘36% growth online this year’

17

Graph 8: Average Number of Online Sign-ups 2009-2010

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Average number of online sign-ups

Online giving is also achieving a significant average gift size. A review of all of the charities that used eDirectDebit in 2010 and had an active Gift Aid declaration shows the average monthly gift, before Gift Aid, to be £8.90. With Gift Aid, this amount jumps to £11.39, with the average Gift Aid take up totaling 83% of online sign-ups last year.

‘83% of online Direct Debits sign up to Gift Aid’

9. Direct Debit cancellations

2010 was a good year in terms of cancellation rates with levels significantly lower than those seen in 2009. It is clear from the cancellation rates for each month of last year (see Table 1) that 2010 levels continued on the downward trend first observed in 2009, with a return to pre-recession levels.

In fact, 2010 painted an entirely different picture to 2009. Where cancellation rates were sky high in January 2009 – the highest since Rapidata started collecting this data back in 2003 – a year on and January 2010 saw the far lower rate of 3.49%. Where cancellation rates in 2009 only fell below 4% four times, in 2010, they didn’t reach 4% once.

Looking at the year as a whole, rates were up and down for the first four months, before rising for five months in succession, and then dropping significantly each month between September and December, with a year-end finish of 2.87%.

Three months – April, May, and December – all saw cancellation rates under 3%, while March 2010 saw the highest Direct Debit cancellation rate for 2010, at 3.93%, and September experienced the second highest rate at 3.84% although this was in line with pre-recession cancellation rates.

December’s figure was low, but still a rise of 8.5% on 2009, which could have been a result of pre-Christmas media hype around the VAT rise and expected consumer hardships for 2011.

18

Table 1: Monthly Cancellation Rates During 2010

Month 2010 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Cancellation rate %

3.49 3.10 3.93 2.89 2.8 3.21 3.22 3.49 3.84 3.55 3.41 2.87

Taking the percentages for each month of 2010 as a whole gives an annual average cancellation rate of 3.32%, which is a significant drop from 2009’s rate of 4.05%, and the lowest seen since 2007 and the pre-recessionary period.

When the figure for 2010 of 3.32% is added to the graph, a continued downwards trend reaching pre-recession levels is clearly visible. Direct Debit donations had a severe hit across 2007-2009 of the recession and are now back to pre-recession levels, as Rapidata forecast in last year’s report.

19

Table 2: Average Annual Cancellation Rates

Year Average2

2003 3.52

2004 3.52

2005 3.24

2006 3.10

2007 3.11

2008 4.33

2009 4.05

2010 3.32

2 The cancellation rate is the number of Direct Debits cancelled in a calendar month as a percentage of total live Direct Debits. The average annual cancellation rate is calculated by adding up the monthly cancellation rates and dividing by 12 (except in the case of 2003 where data exists from April, so the rates have been divided by 9).

Graph 9: Average Annual Cancellation Rates 2003-2010

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10. The charity Direct Debit cancellation cycle

The charity Direct Debit cancellation cycle is the pattern cancellations tend to take throughout the year. Table 3 and Graph 8 illustrate this cycle throughout the fiscal year, using newly adjusted average cancellation figures for each month from April 2003 to March 2011. They show the hotspots for cancellations to be during the summer months and directly after Christmas.

In last year’s report, Rapidata revealed that the cancellation pattern for 2009/10 was beginning to come back down to that of the pre-recession period after a much higher than average cycle in 2008/09. Table 4 shows the monthly cancellation rates throughout 2010/11, compared with those of the three previous fiscal years, as well as the pre-recession averages.

Comparing 2010’s Direct Debit cancellation rates with those recorded by Rapidata from 2003 onwards, it is clear that the averages for 2010/11 are, in the main, noticeably lower than those for 2009/10, with the exceptions of December and February. Looking at the pre-recession averages alongside those for the last fiscal year, and it is clear the cancellation rates have returned to pre-recession averages and were in fact even lower than these across much of 2010/11.

Going into 2011, and January saw the lowest recorded January cancellation rate since Rapidata starting tracking in 2003. This could be a reflection of more donors than usual cancelling pre-Christmas. While January was low, February was 0.5 percent up compared to 2009, and a higher than expected figure for the month compared to recent trends. This could potentially be down to more fundraising activity occurring earlier than normal, which may impact the cancellation cycle of recent years.

Table 3: Average Cancellation Rates for each Month from April 2003 to March 2011

Graph 10: The Charity Direct Debit Cancellation Cycle

Month Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

AverageRates %

3.32 3.37 3.4 3.67 3.69 3.78 3.9 3.62 2.8 3.87 3.37 3.57

4

3

3.5

2.5

2Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

The Charity Direct Debit Cancellation Cycle.Average cancellation rates for each month Apr 2003-Mar 2011

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However, as the graph shows, 2010/11 is very close to the pre-recession pattern of cancellations, and far removed from the sky-high pattern seen at the height of the recession in 2008/09. During the last half of 2009, cancellation rates had already dropped dramatically from their recessionary high, and the figures for 2010/11 show that cancellation rates continued on this downward trend throughout the rest of 2010 and into 2011.

Event-wise, 2010 was an interesting year with some more likely than others to have had an impact on donation and cancellation levels. In January came the terrible Haiti earthquake, followed in April by the BP oil spill. May saw the UK general election with a new government coming into power, and this was followed by the Pakistan floods in August, and at the tail end of the year, the Chilean miners broke free after their cave-in, and the government announced a huge swathe of cuts along with the loss of 490,000 jobs.

Table 4: Monthly Cancellation Rates

Graph 11: Monthly Cancellation Cycle for 2008/09, 2009/10, and 2010/11 compared with the Pre-Recession Cycle

Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

2003-07(pre-recession)

3.04 3.13 3.18 3.33 3.61 3.39 3.74 3.34 2.32 3.65 3.06 3.14

2007/08 2.25 2.47 2.30 3.04 3.54 3.61 3.51 3.90 3.71 4.01 3.53 3.95

2008/09 3.6 4 4.02 5.16 4.4 5.16 5.52 4.77 3.89 5.63 4.43 4.33

2009/10 4.16 4.25 4.09 4.3 3.57 4.11 3.65 3.49 2.63 3.49 3.1 3.93

2010/11 2.89 2.80 3.21 3.22 3.49 3.84 3.55 3.41 2.87 3.26 3.67 3.77

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

AprMay Ju

l

Sept

Aug OctNov Dec Ja

n

Feb

MarJun

2008/09

2009/10

2010/11

2003/07 pre-recession

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“The natural disasters and the oil spill may well have had an effect on donation and cancellation levels by increasing one-off donations as people gave to these and other related causes. Conversely however, they could also have had a negative impact on regular giving with those who had already donated to an emergency appeal then disinclined to commit to a regular donation to the same cause.

One might expect the government’s announced cuts and the job losses that resulted late last year to have had a negative impact on the number of people giving money to charity, coupled with a corresponding rise in cancellation levels. However, while cancellation rates did rise after Christmas 2010, the levels were much lower than seen in the recessionary period and closely followed pre-recession levels. With many of the proposed budgetary cuts yet to take effect, Rapidata will closely monitor levels throughout the remainder of 2011 to see what, if any, impact they have on cancellation levels.

Fundraisers should pay particular attention to the patterns of attrition highlighted in this report and use these to benchmark the performance of their own organisation. Where attrition in a given month is markedly higher than the norm some further investigation would be warranted to identify why this might be the case. It may be that there is an inappropriate gap in communication, or that the communications that are being received are weak, triggering an excessive level of lapsing behaviour.


”

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11. Unpaid Direct Debits

The overall percentage of Direct Debit paymentsthat came back as unpaid in 2010 was 1.35%.Bacs data shows a similar figure for the not-for-profit sector of 1.2% (see section 7 ).

The first steps in reducing attrition and preventingunnecessary lost income are to identify the reasonwhy a Direct Debit has not been paid and to ensurethat the supporter record is updated. If you can clearly identify the reason for the cancellation, you can then re-present the appropriate payment failures the following month.

In 2010, out of all unpaid Direct Debits, 56.50%were due to insufficient funds in the donor’s bank account – falling into the Refer to Payer category – while a much smaller proportion, 33%, had been actively cancelled.

It is important that charities differentiate between these two categories of unpaids. Rapidata’s analysis shows that in most cases of Refer to Payer, if the charity re-presents the Direct Debit the following month, there will be sufficient funds in the bank account to allow the payment to be taken. By not re-presenting charities are losing out on vital income.

Table 5 compares the figures for unpaid DirectDebits for the past five years. It is clear from thesepercentages that true cancellations have remainedlargely static for the past three years, while casesof Refer to Payer saw a significant drop last year,compared to 2009, falling back to a very similarlevel to that seen in 2008. 2009 was certainly stilla tough year for many, which may explain the highRefer to Payer rate although the UK was by thenemerging from recession.

Rapidata drilled down further into the Refer to Payer figure for 2010 to see what proportion of these Direct Debits were to be re-presented the following month, and what proportion were not, either because the charity did not request it, or because it had already been re-presented once and was then to be cancelled. The percentage of Direct Debits that charities go on to re-present appears to be relatively low – approximately a quarter in both 2009 and 2010.

However, new Rapidata figures on the proportionof those that do go on to pay once re-presentedreveals that this approach is successful with themajority of Direct Debits as Table 7 shows.

Table 5: Direct Debit Unpaids

Table 6: Unpaid Direct Debits Referred to Payer

Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Refer to Payer (insufficient funds)

47.18% 41.05% 57.62% 60.52% 56.50%

Instruction cancelled

49.10% 46.44% 35.15% 33.00% 33.00%

Refer to Payer 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

DD to be re-presented

11.97% 14.29% 21.50% 26.89% 25.21%

DD not to be re-presented

35.21% 26.76% 36.12% 33.63% 31.29%

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While the figures remained fairly static in 2008and 2009, last year saw a jump of around 4%reaching 62.54% from 2009’s figure of 58.38%,and this could indicate that charities were workinghard to improve communications with supportersto reduce cancellations and is a clear indicator thatre-presenting is worth doing.

The fact is that unless a policy of re-presenting isin place, all failed payments are treated as cancellations, yet as Table 6 shows, this is often not the case. It is also clear that, by not having a policy of re-presenting in place for Refer to Payers, charities are likely to be losing income unnecessarily as well as generating inaccurate attrition figures.

Table 7: Re-presented Direct Debits that go on to pay

Year 2008 2009 2010

Successful Re-presented DD

58.42% 58.38% 62.54%

“ Fundraisers need to think through their definition of lapsed and draw a firmer distinction between cancellations and debits declined as ‘refer to payer.’ The statistics in this report clearly demonstrate the folly of treating both groups alike. Many of these donors may continue to support the organisation if the debit is simply represented the following month.


”

“ “There are valuable insights here which should enable better management of unpaid Direct Debits and cancellations. An important statistic is that nearly two thirds of Direct Debits that failed because of insufficient funds were paid when subsequently re-presented. Often charities simply cancel these mandates leading to significant lost income. Fundraisers should consider whether their charity has the right procedures in place to ensure that this vital income stream is managed as effectively as possible.”

Tobin Aldrich, Fundraising Director, WWF-UK

”

‘62.54% of unpaid Refer to Payer Direct Debits went on to pay when re-presented the following month’

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12. Conclusion & recommendations

There is plenty of positive news to be had in this year’s tracking report. The return to the pre-recession cancellation cycle seen in 2010, and its corresponding decrease in cancellation rates is cause for much celebration, as are the year on year increases in Direct Debit volumes and income and the significant increase in average gift size.

The report findings paint an optimistic picture for the future but there is still work to be done to ensure that charities are getting the most they possibly can from their supporters through their Direct Debit donations.

Improvements have already been made. The recession saw many charities increase their focus on retaining and upgrading existing donors, and this section of last year’s report provided many recommendations for how best to achieve this (some of the top tips are included in this year’s Appendix). This strategy has clearly paid off as the significantly lower cancellation rates seen in 2010 show.

However, there is a key point to be made here regarding the overall annual income figure for 2010. The £2.5m increase was much lower than that seen in 2009 and could be reflective of the general response of charities to the recession that saw them focus strongly on existing donors. While this has clearly paid off with average gift size seeing a dramatic increase this year, the smaller increase in overall income suggests that those that focused on existing donors didn’t also have the budget for the intense acquisition activity needed in such a tough economic climate.

Stewardship is vitally important but it should be done in addition to recruitment activity to ensure charities are able to fill the gaps left by natural attrition. This is of course difficult in a recession when budgets are slashed and it does appear from Rapidata’s figures that acquisition activity was missing during credit crunch and recession, and that this has had the knock-on effect of a smaller increase in annual income.

Perhaps the most exciting and vital revelation of this year’s report is the undeniable proof that re-presenting failed Direct Debits tagged as Refer to Payer prevents unnecessary loss of income, that could amount to thousands of pounds every month for larger charities. Too few charities have a policy of re-presenting unpaid Direct Debits with the standard course of action being to treat all unpaids as generic cancellations.

In terms of unpaids, Rapidata’s analysis highlights two main reasons for payment failure: a lack of sufficient funds in the donor’s bank account, known as Refer to Payer, or an active cancellation by the donor where notification did not reach the payment processor before the payment submission was made. The figures show that in 2010, out of all unpaid Direct Debits, Refer to Payer is more common, with 56.50% falling into this category, than active cancellations at just 33%. A staggering 62.5% of these Refer to Payer unpaids went on to pay the following month.

“ As charity fundraisers seek to both increase and diversify their income, Direct Debit recruitment should be a major consideration as it will provide a reliable and regular cash flow and a new supply of donors with whom to develop a strong stewardship programme.

Karen England, Director of Fundraising, Make-A-Wish

”

“ Charities need to be made aware of this issue. It could save thousands in lost income. Even if you’re small charity and you’re losing just one donation of £10 a month, month after month it adds up and no charity can afford that. If the donation is there but you’re just not collecting it you’re simply losing money down the drain.


”

‘Undeniable proof that re-presenting certain failed Direct Debits prevents unnecessary loss of income that could amount to £1000s per month’

It shows that charities are missing a trick, at best, by failing to put proper tracking in place that can tell them why a Direct Debit was unpaid. This is also essential for avoiding the over-inflation of attrition figures and enabling the charity to record accurately, which is critical in the planning of forward-looking strategies. Treating all unpaids as cancellations without filtering could also see all unpaids entered into, and accruing higher costs for, reactivation programmes.

The issue of unpaids is not widely understood and many charities will be completely unaware that they are potentially losing money. Rapidata recommends the correct course of action is to set up a simple logging and re-presenting policy that should mean only some minor tweaks in the payment administration process.

Once you can filter the unpaid items you can act accordingly. If a Direct Debit has been actively cancelled, it is important to acknowledge that cancellation immediately, and the donor should be entered into the cancellation cycle and sent trigger communications to try and reactivate them, or at the very least thank them for their support and maybe keep them warm on your donor-base.

In the case of a Refer to Payer, however, Rapidata advises charities to re-present one more time before writing off that regular donor as a cancellation. Although one month’s donation may have been lost because the donor had insufficient funds in their bank account, the statistics show that the majority of donations will go on to be paid the following month. Of the Refer to Payer unpaid Direct Debits re-presented in 2010, 62.54% were successful – a significant figure that means valuable income was saved rather than simply accepted as cancelled. Obviously, those regular donors were also saved with the potential of continued payments and relationships in subsequent months. This highlights the massive benefit to be had in tracking your unpaids and setting up a re-presenting policy where appropriate.

Another interesting nugget from Rapidata’s Charity Direct Debit Tracking Report 2011 is the fact that while charities widely accept the necessity to operate a website, many charities fail to offer an eDirectDebit facility online to enable people to sign up to regular donations.

This year’s report sees a new section on online regular giving and Paperless Direct Debit (PDD). People are now very comfortable with carrying out transactions online so offering a secure sign-up page on your website where people can commit to regular donations, rather than one-off gifts by credit card (and many don’t do that even), is a valuable way of pulling in more donors and extra income.

However, many charities have yet to offer this, despite the benefits of increased income and reaching new audiences that it affords. Of those that do offer online regular giving, too few are adequately promoting it. While it is relatively cheap and easy to implement, once this facility is on a charity’s site, promotion is vital to inform people it is there and encourage them to use it. To this end, integration with the other channels a charity uses is also key, and all campaign material, regardless of the channel, should have some sort of driver to the charity’s website both for information and on where and how to donate online.

People tend to give a good amount online, with an average gift value of £8.90 before Gift Aid. With Gift Aid, this amount leaps to £11.39, and on average 83% of donations are eligible. While £8.90 is a significant amount, it is lower than the general average gift value, which this year jumped to £12.86 – a 7.62% increase on 2009’s figure. Rapidata’s research shows that if charities tested increasing their default gift amount, or the range of suggested gift amounts at online sign-up, they could increase the average online gift value. Another factor important to the donor is the date on which the Direct Debit payment is made.

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TIPS FOR DEALING WITh UNPAID DIRECT DEBITS

• Ensure you have a strategy in place for tracking and correctly logging unpaids with the exact reason why it is unpaid.

• If a donor has cancelled, trigger communications for reactivation or at least to thank them for their support.

• With Refer to Payer, set up a policy to track and re-present once more the following month to avoid unnecessary loss of income.

27

Online regular giving and PDD is still a relatively new and growing area for fundraising, and one that we can expect to see grow further over the next few years. To aid this, fundraising teams need to ensure the online regular donation element is included in all literature, but also tracked. This may cause concerns in regard to how to track, however if you have a default page for a specific campaign, apply tracking questions to make it possible to trace the donation back to the method of fundraising.

Given the opportunity, people are happy to sign-up online, and 64% of charities reported an increase in the number of sign-ups they received online in 2010. However, this could still be higher, and could be down to the format of the giving page or the donation journey not being reviewed on a regular basis.

“ Rapiata’s report echoes our own findings that charities appear to be weathering the economic climate quite well, but there are easy steps they can take to further improve on levels of support – for example, in our experience of working with the third sector as well as with other organisations, we’ve found that simply offering options on payment dates encourages sign-up and helps cut down on unpaid Direct Debits.

Dawneth Perry, market sector manager, Bacs Payment Schemes Limited

”TIPS FOR ONLINE REGULAR GIVING

• Make sure your donor can sign-up to a regular gift by Paperless Direct Debit (PDD) within 2 clicks.

• Ensure you have a donate button on your home page & that this does not just link to your one-off gift (by credit card) page.

• Position sign-up to a regular gift higher than the one-off gift button/wording on your donation web page.

• Ensure the bank details are validated on sign-up.

• Acknowledge by email the sign-up immediately.

• Ensure your online PDD page is signed-off by your sponsoring Bank.

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Overall, 2010 was a good year. Where the effects of the recession were all too apparent at the beginning of 2009 in high cancellation rates, it finished in a far better place with cancellation rates falling dramatically at the end of the year. Going into 2010, and rates returning to their pre-recession levels, a real return to the normal cancellation cycle began as a result of the UK finally emerging from the downturn. Big events like the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods are also likely to have influenced not only cancellation figures but also giving figures as charities delivered emergency appeals and more people felt moved to donate towards these causes in particular.

The figures point towards another positive year in 2011. The cancellation cycle is now almost mirroring the pre-recession cycle following the initial drop in cancellation rates in 2009 that brought it back down from the highs of the recession, and a continuation of the trends that have seen overall volume and income rise for three successive years and average gift value jump by almost 8% in just one year.

In 2011, already the world has seen two natural disasters in the shape of the New Zealand earthquake, and the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and these could continue to push the giving and cancellation rates trends we are seeing. However, will Government’s broad swathe of cuts push Direct Debit levels the other way? Rapidata will continue to monitor direct giving throughout the coming year.


“

”

“While the data in this report paints a largely optimistic picture of the regular giving landscape in the UK, it remains clear that charities are still losing an unacceptably high proportion of their regular giving file each year. There is therefore no place for complacency. As a sector we need to continue to focus on donor loyalty, identifying ways in which we might add value for donors in their support of the organisation and optimising communication so that donors receive information and feedback in a timeframe that is meaningful for them personally.

We also need to get smarter at recruiting the right donors into our organisations in the first place, taking investment decisions in respect of acquisition that are guided by the return on lifetime value that would accrue and avoiding short-term and potentially misleading measures such as immediate ROI.


”

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More about Direct DebitA Direct Debit is an instruction from a customer to their bank or building society authorising an organisation to collect varying amounts from their account. This can be used to ensure regular, safe and efficient payments of anything from household bills to charitable donations. Over three billion Direct Debit payments are processed by Bacs a year and 72 per cent of adults now have at least one Direct Debit commitment.

About BacsFounded in 1968, Bacs, the not-for-profit, membership-based industry body is owned by 15 of the leading banks and building societies in the UK and Europe. Responsible for the schemes behind the clearing and settlement of automated payments in the UK including Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit, Bacs has been maintaining the integrity of payment related services for over 40 years.

The Government acknowledges that the Bacs payment system is of critical importance to the UK financial system and has confirmed that it meets the recognition criteria set out in the Banking Act 2009.

Since its inception, over 84.9 billion transactions have been debited or credited to British bank accounts via Bacs. And in 2010 almost 5.7 billion UK payments were made this way with a total value of £4.06 trillion.

www.bacs.co.uk

13. Appendix

Table A – Monthly and Yearly Direct Debit Cancellations Rates from April 2003 to February 2010

Year Events Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Avge1

2003-04 Tsunami appeals

3.90 3.50 3.48 3.84 3.31 3.81 3.62 3.42 2.79 4.13 3.25 3.56 3.54

2004-05 Tsunami appeals

3.01 3.36 3.42 3.46 3.88 2.92 4.92 4.04 2.34 3.78 3.19 3.13 3.45

2005-06 3.06 2.96 3.39 3.15 3.93 3.71 3.39 3.13 2.03 3.33 2.92 3.12 3.18

2006-07 2.98 3.64 3.33 3.18 3.39 3.10 3.04 2.78 2.11 3.35 2.90 2.75 3.05

2007-08 Northern Rock (Sept)

2.25 2.47 2.30 3.04 3.54 3.61 3.51 3.90 3.71 4.01 3.53 3.95 3.32

2008-09 Credit CrunchRecession

3.60 4.00 4.02 5.16 4.40 5.16 5.52 4.77 3.89 5.63 4.43 4.33 4.57

2009-10 Credit CrunchRecession

4.16 4.25 4.09 4.30 3.57 4.11 3.65 3.49 2.63 3.49 3.10 3.93 3.71

2010/11 Post-RecessionHaiti & Pakistan appeals

2.89 2.8 3.21 3.22 3.49 3.84 3.55 3.41 2.87 3.26 3.67 3.77 3.33

Avge 3.23 3.37 3.40 3.67 3.69 3.78 3.90 3.62 2.80 3.87 3.37 3.57

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Table B – Differences from Pre-Recession Monthly Averages

Year Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

Pre-rec’n Avge 3.04 3.13 3.18 3.33 3.61 3.39 3.74 3.34 2.32 3.65 3.06 3.14

2007-08 3.61 3.51 3.90 3.71 4.01 3.53 3.95

Percentage difference _ _ _ _ _ 6.49 -6.15 16.77 59.91 9.86 15.36 25.80

2008-09 3.60 4.00 4.02 5.16 4.40 5.16 5.52 4.77 3.89 5.63 4.43 4.33

Percentage difference 18.42 27.80 26.42 54.95 21.88 52.2 47.59 42.81 67.67 54.25 44.77 37.90

2009-10 4.16 4.25 4.09 4.30 3.57 4.11 3.65 3.49 2.63 3.49 3.10 3.93

Percentage difference 36.84 35.78 28.62 29.13 -1.11 21.24 -2.41 4.49 13.36 -4.38 1.31 25.16

2010/11 2.89 2.8 3.21 3.22 3.49 3.84 3.55 3.41 2.87 3.26 3.67 3.77

Percentage difference -4.93 -10.54 0.94 -3.30 -3.32 13.27 -5.08 2.10 23.71 -10.68 19.93 20.06

BEATING ThE ChARITY DIRECT DEBIT CANCELLATION CYCLE

• Review your Direct Debit cycle: Does it match up to the annual typical pattern? Are the peaks and troughs in the same place? Is your cancellation rate higher or lower than the average?

• Schedule donor communications so that you contact regular givers before a typically high cancellation month for your charity.

• Invest in donor stewardship, particularly during a global recession.

• Acknowledge any cancellation quickly, in writing, thanking the donor for their support.

• Offer alternatives to cancellations, such as giving at a lower level, or taking a payment holiday.

• Monitor any such programmes introduced and review the impact in terms of cancellation levels.

For more information and advice about managing cancellations and beating the Charity Direct Debit Cancellation Cycle, see

www.rapidataservices.com/news/ddcm

TIPS FOR REACTIVATING DONORS

• Make sure donors can reactivate easily and securely through the charity’s website.

• Attempt reactivation sooner rather than later: certainly within 12 months of a cancellation.

• Regularly test reactivation campaigns, adjusting the timing and communication channel (telephone, letter, email etc) as appropriate.

Useful tips from the 2010 report

14. Acknowledgements

Rapidata would like to extend our thanks to the contributors within this report. We are grateful to them for giving their time and expertise in sharing their views and specific direct debit fundraising experiences for 2010, helping us make this a valuable research resource for fundraisers.

Adrian Sargeant, PhDMBA, DipM, PGDip IM, Cert Ed, F Inst F, FCIM, FIDM. Chartered Marketer.Professor of Fundraising for Bristol Business School. Professor of Fundraising for the Center on Philanthropy, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Dawneth Perry, Market sector manager, Bacs Payment Schemes Limited

Tobin Aldrich,Fundraising Director, WWF-UK

Karen England, Director of Fundraising, Make-a-Wish

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about rapidata · donors: average gift aid take-up totalled 83% of online sign-ups last year....

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