Stay the Course - Fundraising Lessons from 9/11!
In June of each year the DMA NonProfit Federation holds a fantastic and insightful Leadership Summit. Sadly this year I was not able to make it … but thanks to a great friend and colleague, Heather Maylander of Lake Group Media, Inc. … I am able to share some of the insights of the conference from some of the top nonprofit practitioners in the business!
In tough economic times, the advice is simple: stay the course.
There’s no better way to ensure that your organization will emerge healthy and poised for renewed growth when the tough economic times are over. A sentiment that Mal Warwick has expounded on really resonated with the attendees. Many are reporting to the board not to change plans based on sluggish response (less donors) because it will have a horrible impact on planned giving programs. So mailers are looking for cheaper packages, new target audiences, experimenting with new mediums, still testing but conservatively and more emphasis on monthly giving programs. Most mailers said they either had or were working on crisis plans and you need to pull out your play book from 9/11 and/or the last recession and prepare accordingly.
“Fundraising in a recession is like a roller coaster ride – the only ones that get off early, get hurt!”
Concerns:
- New donors are being bombarded so they may choose to give to 2 versus a few or stay with the ones they have been consistently giving to already
- Response is continuing to decline. At Lake Group Media we are recommending that clients reduce response projections by 5-8% and average gift projections reduce 3-5% for Fall campaigns due to the economy and election mail glut.
- Youth don’t give
Opportunities:
- Alternative Media – Newspaper inserts and on page ads are showing success for fundraisers
- DRTV – prices are dropping as clients pull out so more remnant space available
- Review processing fees and convert credit card use by donors to EFT so you are paying pennies instead of 3-5% to the credit card companies
- Youth – they are looking on sites to see what fundraisers are visible – so if you start building relationships now then they will be your donors in the future – Branding is key and speaking to them in their medium (social networks, texting)
- Integration among channels for maximum impact is more important now then ever
Fundraising Success Magazine’s Melissa Busch, shares more Conference Roundup information from “Learning from the Corporate World” to “Getting Buy-In from the Top”. I am certain you will find the concepts and ideas as thought provoking as I did.
Regards,
Sue
