Thursday Thoughts: Tricks vs. Treats for Year-End Fundraising
Welcome to another installment of Thursday Thoughts, a dedicated space for our friends in nonprofit sector leadership to reflect on reports, statistics, and other trends—because when our community shares knowledge, we can all do more good. Check out last month’s post here!
Halloween is coming up, which means by now most nonprofits are prepping for year-end fundraising. Now is a great time to try different fundraising tactics — but which ones are tricks and which ones are treats? We asked our partners to let us know which fundraising strategies they think could spook potential donors and which ones are sweet.
Data-Driven Content with Raise HECK
Whenever I see a nonprofit fundraising email that’s a “forward” from the Development Director to the Executive Director, as if they just decided to pass along that specific email to me, I roll my eyes. How many donors actually believe that this organization is actually just $18,347 short of making their budget, and that without my donation, they won’t be able to keep the doors open?
Well, quite a few people, actually. The reason nonprofits keep using this tactic is that it likely works for their organization. And I’m reminded again and again that we should let data be our guide. Has this tactic worked for your organization in the past? Did it produce great results? If so, keep doing it—but keep trying new things too. When it comes to year-end fundraising, data is the real treat that will help you avoid all the tricks.
Want to hear more from Raise HECK about data-powered fundraising? Get in touch or download our co-produced Nonprofit CRM Buyer’s Guide to selecting the right platform for your organization.
Better Segmentation through Predictive Analytics with SGR Consulting
Happy Halloween, fundraising friends! As we count down to the end of the year, most of us could use these three treats. No tricks here — use these tactics to sweeten your year-end fundraising outreach and increase donations in an efficient way!
Your first Halloween treat is this: rediscovering donors already accessible in your database. For example, you can identify the supporters that haven’t donated to your organization in the past three to five years. Then, by running predictive analytics on this segment, you can pinpoint the specific lapsed donors who would most likely return to the donor family.
Your second treat: using that predictive analytics strategy on your current donors to identify which people are ready to be upgraded! Once identified, you can apply an upgrade dollar string formula to your outreach strategy. You’ll be spooked, in a good way, at the impact on your fundraising goals.
That brings us to fundraising treat number three: always make sure you use dynamic data strings in your asks, whether they’re online, on the phone, or through direct mail. Start your donor off with either their highest previous contribution or their most recent contribution amount, and then build the string from there. For example, if somebody gave you a $50 donation as their previous gift, then you want to start that dollar string off at $50.
These very simple tricks are actually treats, and you can use them right away. Your donor data in combination with predictive analytics can help you to easily identify and engage these donor audiences, with the right messages, at the right time.
Contact SGR Consulting to learn more about how to build authentic long-term connections with your different supporter audiences.
Our Take
Tried-and-true tactics like data-driven content and predictive analytics can help you sweeten your fundraising strategies at Halloween and all year-end long — after all, we know the key to avoid scaring away donors is to send the right messages, to the right audiences, at the right time.
Check out how Habitat for Humanity of Omaha and SOME (So Others Might Eat) gave their email fundraising a boost with predictive analytics; and to learn more about how communicating with more supporters, using more programs, across more channels doesn’t need to send a chill down your spine, talk to us.
