Impact of Latest Fundraising Trends

Despite the unremitting drone of bad news about the economy, during the last twelve months, non-profit organizations and social enterprises that accept donations have just had a banner year. Certainly the numerous catastrophes of global proportion such as the earthquake in Haiti, the BP oil spill in the Gulf and, most recently, floods in Pakistan have stirred compassionate action inspiring people to contribute financially to relief efforts. Moreover, widespread hardships such as the current economic crisis traditionally tend to activate our core values, including philanthropy. Nevertheless, the surge of donations at this particular juncture in history deserves some closer investigation.

According to Steve MacLaughlin, Director, Internet Solutions at Blackbaud, a software and services provider specializing in non-profit organizations, on-line fundraising has shown an 11.7% uptick during the past twelve months. Organizations with annual budgets of $10 million or more had an increase of 14.9% compared to medium sized non-profits with $1-10 million annual budgets and smaller organizations with annual budgets of $1 million or less, which had increases of 9.25% and 8%, respectively. MacLaughlin attributes this significant increase primarily to multi-channel fundraising efforts, a multi-dimensional fundraising strategy which incorporates an integrated on-line, phone solicitation, e-mail, social media and direct mail approach. A multi-channel fundraising approach enables non-profits to receive more frequent and larger dollar amount donations from existing donors, while attracting invaluable new donors. Whereas the average on-line donation is $170 and the average off-line donation is $88, multi-channeling propels that average to $339. A multi-channel fundraising approach also provides the benefit of increasing the acquisition of new donors, plus elevating overall donor retention rates. Traditional on-line and off-line fundraising efforts yield a 7% increase in individual donors, compared with a 16% increase through multi-channel fundraising. In addition to more than doubling donor acquisition rates, multi-channeling dramatically increased donor retention rates to 75%, while only implementing on-line fundraising had a retention rate average of 52% and singularly off-line methods exhibited a 59% retention rate.

MacLaughling describes multi-channel fundraising as "magic." Key to conjuring up some monetary magic is an integrated message across all channels, modifying the format to be appropriate for each particular platform. The values, needs and mission of a particular campaign should be consistently disseminated regardless of the manner in which it is publicized. Although not all fundraising appeals have to incorporate all channels - web, phone, social media, e-mail, ads and direct mail - each campaign should use at least four to five different channels to maximize results. In addition to making a strong appeal that resonates with your donors, always ask them to invite others via e-mail, social media or friends and family cards.

Tomorrow's post will offer some stellar strategies to include in your fall, holiday or end-of-year fundraising efforts - multi-channeling, of course - to ensure your non-profit or social enterprise can harness the crucial funds needed to actualize your mission.

Photo Credit: Frederick Heath-Renn