What Keeps You Up at Night? A VISUAL GUIDE TO FUNDRAISING CHALLENGES & THEIR SOLUTIONS
STOP PUTTING OUT FIRESIncreased Demand for Services & Heavier Workloads
GROWING DEMAND FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
Maintaining Donor Retention Rates
Increasingly Outdated Technology
Threats to Security Avoiding Financial Fraud & Other Risks
USE PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATIONS
Data Capture & Donor Acknowledgements
Replace Legacy Technology Systems
Maintain Best Practices for Data Security & Fraud Prevention
As the U.S. continues to emerge from the Great Recession and the years of slow recovery that followed, charitable giving has increased significantly. But despite these favorable trends, nonprofit fundraisers are still losing sleep due to several key challenges facing fundraising. A recently updated white paper from CDS Global, “What Keeps You Up at Night? Creating Systems to Solve the Challenges Facing Fundraising,” offers the latest statistics, trends and actionable insights on how nonprofit leaders can overcome these challenges.
This infographic offers a sampling of some of the biggest challenges facing fundraising discussed in the white paper – along with some specific solutions that nonprofits can start implementing today!
CHALLENGES SOLUT IONS
2013
2014
80Nonprofits reported increased demand for programs and services
Nonprofits that feel increased pressure from donors to be more accountable with measurable results
Accountability and transparency are important to younger donorsYoung donors are accustomed to the online crowdfunding model of fundraising:
• Make their decisions based on facts, not emotion • Are more interested in the impact of their donation• Value foundation accountability• Want to be well-informed and analytical about
their decisions
Social media to communicate with
key audiences
Narrative storytelling to emphasize results
Improve clickthrough
rates by
Boost conversion
rate by
More data and statistics in
annual reports
Lack of time to produce quality content
Lack of budget for direct expenses
Lack of clear strategy
Nonprofits were unable to meet demand
SOURCE: Nonprofit Finance Fund
SOURCE: Nonprofit Marketing Guide
SOURCE: The NonProfit Times
SOURCE: Philadelphia Business Journal
SOURCE: Blackbaud
SOURCE: Nonprofit Marketing Guide
SOURCE: CDS Global
SOURCE: Forbes
SOURCE: CTK Blog
SOURCE: CTK Blog
SOURCE: TechSoup
SOURCE: TechSoup
SOURCE: Eisner Amper
SOURCE: Venable LLP
SOURCE: Venable LLP
SOURCE: National Center for Charitable Statistics
TOP NONPROFIT COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGES
TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT, MORE NONPROFITS ARE USING:
IN A SURVEY OF FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONALS,
DONORS HAVE MORE OPTIONS THAN EVER BEFORE
AVERAGE DONOR RETENTION RATES FOR NONPROFITS
RETENTION HAS BECOME A TOP PRIORITY FOR NONPROFIT FUNDRAISERS:
SAID DONORS:
56
42
37
31
Looking to manage growing demands on your organization while avoiding excessive workloads for your staff? Create systems to manage common administrative tasks and prevent operational emergencies.
DEVELOP STANDARDIZED PROCEDURES FOR MAIL PROCESSING AND DONATION DEPOSITING:
• Minimize inefficiencies and risk• Maximize consistency • Control access throughout the entire process
IMPLEMENT BEST PRACTICES FOR DONATIONS PROCESSING:• Create a detailed processing manual to document the
various ways of processing payments and donations• Open up lines of communication between the gift
processing team and other departments• Make security and compliance a priority
• Process in a secure area• Ensure methods are SAS 70 compliant (audits) and
PCI compliant (credit cards), and that accounting practices comply with Sarbanes-Oxley legislation
SET GOALS FOR TIMELINESS: Deposit and capture data from donations within 24 to 48 hours of receipt
AIM TO CAPTURE 100% OF INFORMATION FROM DONATIONS: This includes handwritten information, demographic data and information about the interaction itself (time of donation, donation amount, device used to donate, etc.)
CHALLENGE
CHALLENGE
CHALLENGE
CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
SOLUTION
92
61%
89 66SOURCE: Direct Marketing IQ
SOURCE: HubSpot
60%
14% 10%
59%
of successful direct mail marketing pieces are personalized with variable data
of fundraising organizations use personalization in direct mail
Improving donor retention rates begins with capturing more donor data to better understand and communicate with your donors and ends with a meaningful
Why should donors give to YOUR organization instead of one of the 1.5 million others?
Nonprofits that have rated RETENTION as a top 3 goal
Paper files Spreadsheets QuickBooks
Retention among multi-year donors
Retention of first-year donors
NONPROFITS ARE NOT IMMUNE TO DATA BREACHES & HACKER ATTACKS
IS ALSO A MAJOR CONCERN FOR NONPROFITS:
BIGGEST CAUSES OF DATA BREACHES IN 2014 WERE:
The cause?
Thank You!
1.5 MILLION
tax-exempt organizations in the U.S.
2014 2015
30% 53%
58%27%
49%
2 HOURS
BILLION
PER WORKDAY
Nonprofit software buyers currently use manual recordkeeping:
Average time a typical service provider spends on keeping records
with paper systems
NONPROFITS ARE PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE TO FRAUD AND EMPLOYEE EMBEZZLEMENT BECAUSE:• Management and board members are often
too trusting• They tend to have less stringent financial controls• Administrators often rely too heavily on independent
audits to catch fraud
Source: Software Advice
Source: TechImpact
Nonprofits that use at least one cloud-based service
Mid-sized nonprofits planning to adopt more cloud technologies within the next 1-3 years
64%
53%6%
20%
21%
2014
customer cards were compromised
Goodwill Industries July 2014
Malware in a third-party vendor’s system
Nonprofits lose approximately
to fraud each year
Hackers Insider threats
Theft or loss of computers or
hard drives
Accidental leakage
4
FRAUD
FRAUD
ANTI-FRAUD BEST PRACTICES: • Don’t give too much control over spending to any one
employee, executive or board member • Double signatures and authorizations: Require multiple
layers of approval• Require prior written approval for purchases above a
certain amount• Backup documentation: Only pay original invoices• Segregate duties: No single person should be responsible
for an entire transaction• Create transparency and accountability: Set up multiple
steps with multiple people to: } Approve donations } Authorize payments } Reconcile bank statements
Our white paper will give you actionable insights on how to put systems in place that create more consistent processes and improve operational efficiency. Download “What Keeps You Up at Night? Creating Systems to Solve the Challenges Facing Fundraising” to get the latest thinking from nonprofit sector experts on how to attain cost-effective solutions for whatever challenges your nonprofit might be facing.
Want to learn more about how
nonprofits can overcome the challenges
facing fundraising?
It is important for donors to know that they personally matter to the success of your organization
ONLINE FUNDRAISING is ideal for personalization because
fundraisers can:
• Target specific audiences
• Test different messages
• Easily collect donor data
PERSONALIZED EMAILS:
Funds earmarked for specific purposes
Immediate, visible results
DATA CAPTURE4 Steps to Effectively Use Donor Data:
Collect
Aggregate
Analyze
Use to improve donor communications
Every point of contact with donors is an opportunity to gather donor data:
Integrate online and offline donor data CASE STUDY: Operation Smile Canada combined offline donor information from phone calls with online donor information in their CRM system to achieve:
• Faster gift acknowledgements• Better communication with donors• Higher efficiency • Lower costs
DONOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSSuccessful Acknowledgements Should: Be governed by standard internal processes that determine when and how they are sent
Open up a larger conversation: give donors a chance to respond with ideas, input and feedback
Tell stories that speak to the recipient’s values
Elicit emotion
Express genuine gratitude
NONPROFITS ARE FACING SEVERAL TECHNOLOGY-RELATED CHALLENGES:
Disparate databases that don’t sync
Outdated program models no longer supported by service providers
Increasing reliance on volunteers for data management
One important aspect of accountability is showing donors how their money will be used. By personalizing your communications, your organization can address donors’ unique interests and concerns, and show their funds are being used in a way that matters to them.
VARIABLE DATA PRINTING (VDP) TECHNOLOGY makes it
easier to create and send personal messages to donors:
Nonprofits should evaluate their software and IT systems to determine if they are ready for an upgrade. Effective use of scalable systems can help nonprofits save money and work more efficiently in the long run.
THE BEST NONPROFIT TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS:• Eliminate manual data entry errors• Prevent decision-making errors• Maximize staff and volunteers’ time• Provide for a consistent fundraising strategy
Data security and fraud prevention might sound overwhelming and scary, but there are many simple things your organization can do today to make your data (and dollars) safer!
BEST PRACTICES FOR NONPROFIT DATA SECURITY: • Update software regularly – especially operating systems
and productivity software (like Microsoft Office) } Regular updates help defend against malware!
• Avoid storing sensitive data on mobile devices and drives } These devices are easier to lose and steal
• Control access to sensitive data } Not all employees need to access all information
• Remove access to data for former employees } Change passwords after former employees exit the organization
Fundraising/donor management is the most requested application by nonprofit software buyers
Nonprofit software buyers that are seeking to improve efficiency with their software upgrades
CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE ENABLES NONPROFITS TO:• Store their data online• Host IT systems online • Save money by using third-party subscription services • Reduce costs of owning IT assets
51%
Social media
Membership meetingsPhone calls
Events
Surveys Emails