Donor Engagement and Relations

The Marshall Foundation

Lynne M. Wester

Status Quo?

• Receipt within 48 hours

• Acknowledgment within…?

• Is that all?

• Don’t send a decal, magnet, pen, etc

• Special Event Fundraising isn’t Best Practice

• Don’t ask again right away

What If?

• You were able to raise your first time donor retention from 48% to 58%?

• What would that means in terms of $s and Donors?

• How does that effect your pipeline?

• Happy Donors tell…

• Unhappy Donors tell…

Too Much Looks Like Everything Else

WHAT WE THINK DONORS WANT

• Gifts

• Plaques

• Certificates

• Donor Honor Roll

• Fancy Events

WHAT DONORS REALLY WANT

Access

Information

Experiences

Why?

• If a donor is stewarded properly he or she is more likely to continue to give

• 93% of individual donors would definitely or probably give again the next time they were asked if a charity thanked them promptly, in a personal way and followed up later with a meaningful report on the program they had funded.

• 64% would give a larger gift• 74% would continue to give indefinitely

» (Source: Penelope Burke – Donor Centered Fundraising)

Further…

• 61% of donors would increase their donations if they had greater access to information about an organization’s performance and use of their funds

» (Source: Adrian Sargeant – Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising, The Center on Philanthropy at the University of Indiana)

WE NEED:

• More imaginative and courageous communications

• All we need to do is to write brilliantly, package it superbly, and to present it in a way that will captivate, thrill and inspire

Tell the right stories

to the right people

at the right time.