Recruiting, Upgrading and Tracking Sustainers in Your Databank

Presented by Karen Graham

Advantages to your organization of

a sustaining donor program

� Cash flow is more even and reliable throughout the year

� Sustainers have high renewal rates compared to those who give single gifts

� Sustainers give larger total gifts. It’s easier to come up with $5/month ($60/year) than a $50 single gift.

Pitfalls� Cash flow in first year is disrupted. If you’re used to getting

most of your money in a lump sum, this will delay collecting the full amount (but the total will be larger)

� Accounting issues…e.g. there isn’t agreement among auditors on to what extent you can count a perpetual gift as accounts receivable.

� Culture change: how you set goals and define fundraising success. You won’t collect as much cash by the end of the appeal. Reward fundraisers for sustaining gifts.

� Higher per-transaction costs, if you pay a flat $ amount per transaction, 12 times a year vs. once. (Net is still higher.)

Here’s what my network said

Sample programs

Sample programs: Wisconsin

League of Conservation Voters� Did 6 week staff recruitment drive, goal was to recruit

new sustainers and upgrade current sustainers. Staff could earn points and redeem for prizes.

� Tried mail upgrade, low response.

Sample programs: WDCB Public

Radio� Most popular is $10/month, also $5/month. � They don’t do upgrades (yet). � Do send a thank you gift on the sustainer’s anniversary,

push T-shirts for branding and identity. They knew the annual renewal premiums were important to members, worried people would be reluctant to commit if they had to give up the premiums. About 50% still accept the premiums and the rest either decline or ignore the offer.

� Their development director estimates that people who are giving $5/month ($60/year) would only give $20 on average as a single annual gift.

Sample programs: Washington

League of Conservation Voters� They currently have 32 monthly donors. Working on a

plan to upgrade them.

� Got 1/3 of monthly donors by direct mail, 1/3 at annual events, 1/3 from personal visits with major donors.

� Send hand written thank you’s and year end summary. They don’t mail monthly donors any appeals, but do include them on all emails.

� Kelly’s advice is to set them all to process on the same day, 1st or 15th of the month.

Getting the donors� Make it a priority. Ask at every opportunity: online

donation form, events, mailings, enews. Make it the first option. And/or create a dedicated campaign to get sustainers.

� Premiums sometimes work: VIP tickets, contest, goodies.

� Recruitment – use staff, board, membership to recruit others.

� Personal ask, by phone or face to face, is the most effective.

� Emphasize convenience, small payments.

Stewardship and upgrades� What are you afraid of? The risk of losing people, by

reminding them of their commitment, is outweighed by the opportunity to thank and upgrade them.

� Regular communication is important: year end tax receipt/summary and thank you, newsletter

� Offer perks: invitations and early registration for events; include them in your major donor circle based on annualamount.

� Ask for upgrades at the beginning/end of year or on their anniversary, with a phone call (less likely to cancel, better response rate)

� Special appeals, yes! Use a customized ask.

Managing sustainers in your

Databank, option 1� Pulling a list of sustaineres can be tricky…

� It helps to create a campaign/keycode for sustaining gifts.

� Customize your Contribution Types so Sustaining is one of them.

Managing sustainers in your

Databank, option 2

� Add a checkbox in your Personal table to indicate they are sustainers, maybe year started. You can include other categories too. (But this has to be manually updated, it’s not magic.)

Managing sustainers in your

Databank, option 3

Managing sustainers in your

Databank, option 4� If you need a lot of detail on history of upgrades, you

can have thedatabank create a custom table with whatever fields you want.

More Resources� Article on ACH/electronic fund transfer from Vanco:

http://www.thedatabank.com/files/thedatabank/files/Why_successful_organizations_offer_ACH.pdf

� Article on sustaining gifts from M+R:http://www.guidestar.org/DisplayArticle.do?articleId=1191

� Book by Harvey McKinnon:http://www.whitelionpress.com/TinyCommitGive.html

� Databank Support Center – ask a question or post a tip on the forum!http://support.thedatabank.com/forums