Pareto Fundraising

To love or not to love

justine — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:42:19 +0000

By Fiona Paterson

I love working on appeals, particularly the integrated campaigns we run. These appeals utilise digital and the phone alongside traditional direct mail. It gives me a chance to get absorbed by a great story, to remind myself why the charity we are helping exists. It also helps me connect with beneficiaries and remember that there are hundreds and thousands of wonderful Australians and New Zealanders out there who give their hard earned dollars to help others, even when their own financial situations may not be brilliant.

On the flip side sometimes I don’t love working on appeals. Because fundraisers are held to some pretty unrealistic expectations when it comes to their individual campaign outcomes.

For most the need to grow appeal income year-on-year is standard. But what happens when your audience is being asked to do more than just support your appeals? What happens when there is no acquisition to develop the base? What happens when market forces, like the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), threaten our audience’s capacity to give?

The context of an appeal

Christmas 2009 turned out to be a pretty tough one for lots of charities. At the start of 2010 I was in a ‘not loving appeal objectives’ frame of mind as more and more fundraisers began to ask me how had others Christmas appeals faired and set about trying to get a clear picture of the marketplace.

As a strategy director it’s hard for me to just look at individual appeals in isolation. I always want to know what the context is in which they are executed. Has there been much acquisition in the past year? Has the communications program/donor journey changed this year? Were new activities targeted at the audience preceding the appeal? Is a segmentation model used to target the activity? Has one been newly introduced? Was the messaging part of an ongoing, planned communication with donors? Was it an emergency message? And more…

But living in the real world means, as fundraisers, we mostly have to work to individual campaign targets.

I love, love, love, organisations that have the flexibility to look at their programs as whole – judging performance across the year, looking at combined returns across the gamut of activity being directed at the donor audience, but this is not the common practice.

So what happened with Christmas appeals to warm (previous) donors? I had a good dig around in the results of our clients, and spoke with a range of friends in other Charities.

What I found was that there was no one defining trend. A few organisations saw growth over their 2008 Christmas income; others found it harder and were seeing below or on par returns compared to 2008. On the whole however it appears that more appeals struggled than those that didn’t.

How did we do?

Increasing appeal income is not an unreasonable request. And for 2009 many organisations had this goal. In order to grow your appeal income you need to either increase average gift increase number of responses, increase your conversion of new donors to multi givers, increase your donor pool or a combination of these.

Most organisations maintained or grew their response rates. The contributing factors included:

(Better) targeting;
Focused efforts on high value/top 20 percent of donors;
Channel integration (eg using phone and/or email);
Utilising additional ‘waves’ of communication (follow up or chaser communications).

Many organisations saw average gifts plateau, and in some cases drop. The contributing factors here were:

Depressed high value giving. Just a few high value donors not giving or reducing their giving amounts can have a big impact;
Acquisition (in particular lower value cash recruitment). Recruiting more donors, at a lower value will see more lower value gifts, suppressing overall average gift; and
Anecdotally donors indicating they simply could not give at their previous levels.

For those not making specific asks to donors and/or using their individual, prior giving levels as the basis for your ask, depression of average gifts may have been even larger.

Across the year I have had feedback from major donor fundraisers that their usual suspects were indicating they were not able to give in 2009 or only able to give at a lower levels than in previous years. This has extended through to cash appeals with high value donors tending to maintain response (with a couple of exceptions) but give less.

Those organisations that focused their efforts on this group reaped the rewards. Strong business cases presented justifying higher value giving, follow up communications and person-to-person asking (via face-to-face and phone) and personalised touches helped to encourage this valued group of donors to continue their support.

Context is so important.

Did you change your program in 2009? Maybe you felt the GFC required a change in tack? Did you increase your focus on regular giving conversion? Maybe you had learnings and insights from 2008 that saw you adjust you communications mix or the way you asked your donors?

An organisation I work with changed their 2009 donor communication program. Through the introduction of new tactics in their Spring appeal they saw a significant increase in income from increased response and average gifts. They also introduced an additional communication before Christmas, the purpose of which was donor care and information gathering but unexpectedly generated significant income (lovely donors). And they have increased their active asking (via phone and mail) of cash donors to convert to regular giving throughout 2009.

When it came to their Christmas appeal, major growth in comparison to their appeal in 2008 the previous year was not generated. On the face of it their 2009 Christmas appeal was deemed unsuccessful. Viewed in isolation this is a reasonable conclusion. However on closer inspection we can see over the course of 2009 many of their donors had:

already given more than their previous annual value through increased average gifts and response rates in other appeals;
converted to regular giving cash gifts but the value and/or frequency of these gift can reduce)

Also to note was the volume and value of high value gifts had not matched those received in 2008.

Just taking a direct comparison between 2008 and 2009, their Christmas appeal doesn’t look impressive. Looking at 2008 versus 2009 as a whole we can see that growth has been impressive (even without expectations that the GFC had the potential to suppress growth).

In fact, just in the last quarter, nearly twice as many people gave as compared to 2008.

To summarise, what we did observe with the Christmas appeals 2009 were:

1. Response rates were maintained or increased;
2. Average gifts decreased or were static;
3. Fewer people gave over $1,000

Emerging Trends

There are some other emerging trends to watch out for; most are reflective of or are driving, changing donor giving behaviours.

More donors who used to only give through the post are now using our websites as a response channel
The increasing use of email to support direct mail appeals is helping to improving response
Below are three approaches showing encouraging returns:
- Integrating email, supporting direct mail approaches & driving online to give
- Using email drivers to reactivate lapsed donors
- Using email drivers to convert tepid* supporters to cash donors
More opportunities/ways to give are being offered to our donors. Many organisations are increasing their approaches for regular giving conversion and upgrades, virtual gift campaigns are on the rise, and advocacy and campaigning approaches are increasing
Charities are asking more often

On this last point I often get asked “How many times should I ask my donors for a donation each year?” To quote Jeff Brooks “this is the wrong question – the question should be; How can we be relevant in the lives of our donors?” There is no magic formula. It critical to understand that for many donors it takes more than one ask to solicit a gift but they do not want to be treated like ATMs.

The importance of relevance.

If your Christmas campaign, or any campaign for that matter, did not at least match your 2008 returns (and you haven’t lost a whole pile of your active donor base in some freak database accident) then I recommend you consider the relevance of the communication you sent to your donors.

And consider the stage in the relationship journey each donor is with you. There are many questions you should be asking yourself including key ones such as:

Is this donor relatively new and do they know little about the topic?
Has this donor heard it all before?
How did they respond?
Would they be expecting you to communicate with them at this time, about this issues with this ask?

To paraphrase Jeff Brooks in his Future Fundraising blog: ‘You can’t just raise funds for anything you want. If you go to your donors with a need, topic or ask they don’t associate you with, they just might ignore you in droves. No matter how great your work is.’

Tips for keeping your appeals on track

Make sure your communications consider your audience and are relevant to them
Ensure you are presenting a clear need and solution
Connect donors to beneficiaries (not you, your brand or organisations)
Tell a story your audience can connect with
Plan your second gift conversion journey
Focus your efforts on the top 20 percent (its where your income is coming form)
Review your online donation real estate (Is it easy to find? Is it easy to fill in? Can it be adapted to reflect your appeal ask?)
Explore channel integration (Email, Phone) – if you have low email or phone number penetration make 2010 your year to actively collect these. (Analysis shows us that even the presence of an email address or phone number on a donor record increases their retention likelihood)
Segment and target – don’t mass mail

______________________________________________________________________________________________

* Tepid Supporter – non-financial supporters such as activists, campaigners, e-news sign ups and non-cash donors such as event participants, lottery players and merchandise buyers

Jeff Brooks writes the best blog in fundraising, and we look forward to seeing him at the F&P Australasian Fundraising conference later this year click here and subscribe to his excellent, short updates

About Fiona Paterson

Fiona is a Fundraising and Direct Marketing professional with over ten years experience helping to find, keep and grow donors through the expert management of strategic fundraising and database marketing programs. Enthusiastic and passionate about data, Fiona has a solid background delivering successful fundraising programs globally for clients including ChildFund Australia, Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia, MSF Hong Kong, Leprosy Mission New Zealand and WWF-Australia.

Does size matter

justine — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:07:14 +0000

The purpose and value of long letters

All fundraising communications should be approached with your objectives as the first consideration. From here, identifying the target audience and understanding their needs and being respectful to them as individuals shape the form of the communication. Pareto Fundraising’s recommended approach to all donor communications is that they are developed as part of a long-term supporter relationship management plan aiming to develop the one-to-one relationships you have with your donors. For test results and case study example click here

Your organisations target audience

For direct mail appeals and acquisition you should have a clear audience for your organisation. For example you may know that your donors are (using information gathered from a warm donor survey):

65+, retired, home owners who like reading and gardening, playing bowls and golf. They support your organisation because they are passionate about the work that you do.
The publications they read include Good Weekend, Australian Geographic, Better Homes and Gardens.
They listen to 3AW and watch ABC and 60 minutes. All of which present long format information and stories.

Your supporters have told you:

“I do not use the computer … I prefer snail mail, I handle all donations”
“I think that the work you do is outstanding, I cannot fault your communication”

In summary your donors are older - they like the mail, they sit down and read it, they like a good story. They need at least 12 point font. They need a clear message and for giving to be made as easy as possible (less thinking/decision making).

And while there will be different kinds of readers in your audience - long letters are OK for all of them:

Those that throw unopened envelope away - the length of letter is irrelevant;
Those that read only beginning and ending - the length of letter is irrelevant;
Skimmers can pick up more points from a longer letter; and
Passionate readers love long letters.

Short letters don’t work for the last two groups. Along letter must contain some key elements to make it work well. These key elements are detailed below – letter length is the consequence of the personalised communication approach Pareto Fundraising has developed, tested and found success with for over 65 charities worldwide.

The letter should be as long as it needs to be to tell a story and make it compelling:

Real story with a beginning, middle and end;
Case study, real life;
Short sentences; and
Short paragraphs

The letter should include:

A clear message:
o Problem, solution, what I am asking you to do today; and
o Linked to the story (interwoven)
Clear and repeated ask
Personalisation
o Make the recipient feel like an individual not a number
o More than just name and address
Deadline & Target (where relevant and real)

There is no formula for the actual length – four page, five page, six page. What we know from writing over 200 appeal packs in the past seven years in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and North America (with staff having written packs in the UK and Europe in their careers) is that you need to tell a compelling, human story, presenting a clear message and ask. This generally not possible in a two page letter – testing and trialling have proven this time and again.

In fact, in communicating a key appeal for one Victorian client, Sean Triner (co-founder of Pareto Fundraising) once wrote a letter for an organisation he volunteered with (and not a Pareto Fundraising client) that was over a dozen pages long. The letter achieved nearly 50 percent response and the highest average donation the organisation had ever received.

A personal fundraiser

justine — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:56:06 +0000

By Sean Triner, Co Founder of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone

For my 40th birthday I decided to forego presents, and reduce stress on my friends wondering what to get me. So I decided to fundraise for Women’s health charity – my birthday is on International Women’s Day.

Since I am a fundraiser for a living, I wanted to do this right and also work with a charity who would ring-fence the money raised for fundraising purposes, and follow up the donations with good donor care.

My Plan:

1) Choose a charity
2) Create an EveryDay Hero page
3) Use my blog, Facebook and Twitter to market it
4) Market direct to my personal contacts
5) Thank donations
6) Charity to follow up

Choosing a charity

A while back I had done some work with the Marie Stopes Foundation. A great charity, working in women’s health – especially sexual and reproductive health. I love the work they do and visited a project in Fiji. I also knew my $4,000 target would have a big impact and that it can be a difficult area for fundraising.

Creating an EveryDay Hero page

An easy process. It took about 20 minutes including uploading a couple of photos and it is all self explanatory. There are other fundraising websites like this such as Just Giving in the UK and Artez in North American and Australia.

Not that keen on the fact that there is no space to summarise the appeal, nor the fact that they don’t take AMEX (AMEX holders tend to be more generous – they are good customers and they like to use their AMEX cards. Many people don’t accept them because of higher charges – this is bad donor care. I didn’t realise until too late or I would have used another provider).

Check out the page here. Fundraisers need to remember that EveryDay Hero is the mechanism for donating. It will raise $0 if it is not marketed properly.

Posting on social media

I put up a simple blog, then a better one when I got a case-study. Also Twittered about it and put on Facebook.

The simple blog got in $220 within a couple of days, then nothing.

The more advanced blog has just gone up.

Direct Marketing

Over 95% of the income was generated through email and phone calls. I remembered my old events fundraising days, and that with sponsor forms it is really important to get the top contributors first.

So I went approached the people that I thought would donate a higher level ie over $100. These were people close to me, and earners. Nine have given so far averaging $152 each.

After that I sent emails to about twenty other friends and fundraising gurus.

When a decent average, and high ‘spread’ of donations were on the form to act as prompts, I then emailed all Pareto staff (60 emails – mail merged and emailed separately with slightly different version for senior managers).It is worth learning how to mail-merge to email rather than putting everyone in the To: box, or emailing yourself and putting them in the BCC: box.

Thanking

An automated thank you goes from EveryDay Hero, but in addition I recommend that you drop people a personal note as well, when the notification comes in.

Charity to follow up

Donors can choose whether the charity is notified of their details. If they supplied them, they would have wondered about what happens next. What should happen next is the charity also thank.

Donors should be thanked by the charity as their donations come in.

Also, just before the end of the campaign they should thank again – updating the donor on where we are up to with the campaign, telling them another story and asking if they would encourage friends to donate. In my case, around 1 March would be ideal.

Immediately after the campaign – in my case around the 9 March – another email should go to donors thanking them, telling them the result of the campaign, asking donors to sign up to a regular gift. You should ask for between 20% and 30% per month of whatever they donated. So a $250 donor should be asked for between $50 and $75 per month.

Next

Don’t forget the donors and the fundraiser. Ask the fundraiser themselves to become a regular monthly donor and make sure you stay in touch with the donors.

Finally

Visit this site, have a look around and please make a donation.

Introducing our newest recruits: Account Directors Sarah Bedenoch and Stefanie Kessler

justine — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:00:06 +0000

Media Release 13 January 2010

Pareto Fundraising is pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah Badenoch and Stefanie Kessler, two new Account Directors to be based in our Sydney Office.

COO Jim Hungerford says “Sarah and Stefanie will be a great asset for Pareto Fundraising. They bring with them a wealth of experience and are passionate about increasing the fundraising capacity of our clients, something that is central to the beliefs and values within our organisation.”

Sarah is a senior marketing executive with broad commercial and agency experience. Most recently she has been Head of Marketing for Aon Consulting; with previous roles in customer retention, customer relationship management and marketing communications; along with seven years’ of agency experience including time at Rapp Collins/DDB Australia.

She has had significant experience during this time working for not-for-profit organisations, however it was her recent experience on an advisory board for the National Breast Cancer Foundation that convinced her to make the leap to Pareto Fundraising.

Stefanie joins Pareto Fundraising as of 1st February. Stefanie has fantastic fundraising and management experience having worked with Greenpeace Australia, Wateraid UK and the Sydney 2002 Gay Games.

A particular claim to fame of hers is the dramatic results she has achieved in Greenpeace’s donor retention, where she reduced the attrition among their first-year donors from an already-respectable 25 percent to a stunning 16 percent.

Ends

For further information please contact Justine Mathieson at justine.mathieson@paretofundraising.com or 02 8823 5800.

2009 festive photo competition winners announced

justine — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:00:25 +0000

Media Release 4 January 2010

The winner of Pareto Fundraising’s 2009 Festive Photo Competition, in which entrants uploaded a festive photo that inspired their friends and colleagues to vote for the entrant’s favourite charity have been announced. The first prize donation of AU$2000 was awarded to Hamlin Fistula International, an organisation dedicated to restoring the dignity of thousands of young women.

In a very close second place, CreArte received a donation of AU$500. The wonderful work that CreArte does with the beautiful children of Chile is inspiring. Third place the Kolisko Waldorf School, of the Philippines, received tremendous support as well, and a donation of $AU200 to support the school in its wonderful work.

COO Jim Hungerford comments “It was wonderful to see such passionate support of such wonderful causes expressed through everyone’s photos, votes & comments! Thank you to everyone who has made this such a success and congratulations to all the charities that were supported.”

“With 125 photos and thousands of votes cast, the competition was a great success. In the coming month, a case study will be published focusing on promotional tactics and how entrants encouraged people to engage and vote for their image.”

The competition was set up using social networking tool facebook and was built and administrated by an independent supplier company, Cheddar.

For more information about the digital solutions Pareto Fundraising can offer to help your organisation achieve your fundraising goals visit www.paretofundraising.com

Ends
For further information please contact Justine Mathieson at justine.mathieson@paretofundraising.com or 02 8823 5800.

Finding the emotional triggers to increase net income

justine — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:35:09 +0000

By Jonathan Grapsas
This article was first published in Canadian Fundraiser Magazine and is the final part of a four part series

Let’s face it, the best relationships you have usually are those with the people you know most about, right? Knowing that your friend really likes a certain football team or particular style of music opens up conversations and dialogue much easier than not knowing this.

There are two main types of personal data, the first is transactional.

Transactional data is the information pertaining to how individuals have actually behaved in the past. How much they have given, how often, what they have responded to. And as mentioned previously, the biggest driver of how someone will behave in the future is what they have done in the past.

So, how do I use this information?

Let’s take a direct mail appeal as an example. How recently and how frequently someone has donated dictates how likely they are to respond. The value of a donor’s previous gift indicates how much they will give in the future.

Really simple but important stuff. Knowing this allows you to then determine not only who you should target for a specific ask, but how much you should ask them for.

If executed correctly, the targeting and ask is the biggest driver for a direct response activity. Yes, telling brilliant and compelling stories is crucial, but ask the wrong people for the right thing or the right people for the wrong thing and your campaign falls over. This is a science, not an art.

The second type of personal data is finding out the real nuggets of information about why people support you. The reason they first supported you, what they think about your work, even if they have had a personal affliction with your cause.

To illustrate the power of getting really personal, contrast these two pieces of copy. Then think about which one you’d prefer to send to your donors and which one you’d prefer to receive for that matter.

“… As someone who has been touched personally by cancer, Jonathon, I’m sure you will agree that we desperately need to find a cure in our lifetime. In fact I know you are particularly interested in the work we are doing looking into the causes of lung cancer which is why I am reaching out to you today with an appeal for $50. I know this is more than you given in the past, but a gift of this size will help provide an hour of world class research which could help find a cure into one of Canada’s biggest killers…”

Versus

“… We really need to look further into the causes of lung cancer to help us find a cure, so please would you consider a gift at this time…”

I know which one I’d prefer.

The first talks to me as an individual, as someone who has been touched by cancer. I’ve been listened to and the information, whilst personal and sensitive, has been played back to me to show they (the organization I support) care. I’ve also been asked to support at a specific level, which has then been tangibly shown to have the potential to make a real difference.

The second makes me feel, well, it doesn’t make me feel anything, other than part of a big group of people who have received this piece.

I want to feel like an individual.

And I can tell you, talking to donors as individuals, be it through using transactional history to ask for an appropriate gift or by replaying back information you have captured on donor’s works.

The transactional history helps boost response, gift levels and income in the short term.

The ‘softer’ data, the ‘emotional triggers’ like why people support you, help in the long run. They help improve retention. Better retention means more active donors to talk to, cultivate and ask. And that means more net income.

Ultimately that means being able to help more of your beneficiaries.

About the writer

Jonathon Grapsas is the Regional Director for Pareto Fundraising in North America. This is the fourth in a series of articles where Jonathon will look in detail at how you can use different sources of data to help grow your fundraising program and raise shed loads more money for your cause

If you would like more information on this please contact Jonathon at jonathon.grapsas@paretofundraising.com or on +1 416 915 4114.

Pareto Fundraising announces four fundraisers who are on their way to AFP’s Toronto Congress

justine — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:20:48 +0000

Media Release 16 November 2009

At Pareto Fundraising we are passionate about ensuring that fundraisers have access to great training, enabling them to be the best fundraisers possible. This year we are delighted to be sending four brilliant fundraisers to AFP Toronto’s Fundraising Congress, individuals who would otherwise not have been able to attend this year’s event.

We received a large number of applications, and are delighted to award the four full passes (which cover the registration fee for the full three days of Congress) to:

Pam Bastedo, Meal Exchange
Aileen Doyle, JHR (Journalists for Human Rights)
Elaine Scrivener, Mark Preece Family House
Mary Warner, Toronto Renewable Energy Cooperative

Each of these individuals shared with us what they were most excited about learning at Congress and how they would be able to use the knowledge and experience gained to further their organizations fundraising and make the world a better place.

Thank you to all who those who took the time to submit an application. And congratulations again to Pam, Aileen, Elaine and Mary.

We’re really looking forward to a great Congress. See you there.

Ends

Managing in a Downturn

justine — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:44:06 +0000

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Fundraising Institute Australia and the Centre for Social Impact encourage you to participate in this survey on Australian charities’ response to the financial crisis. Following the ‘Managing in a Downturn’ report released in July 2009 (click here to download the report), PwC, FIA and CSI are conducting further research regarding the ongoing effects of the economic downturn in the Australian nonprofit sector.

This second ‘Managing in a Downturn’ survey will consider the effects of the downturn in the second half of 2009, and measure whether the actual impact on nonprofit income streams and activities was similar to the anticipated impacts.

The previous ‘Managing in a Downturn’ report revealed that charities have already experienced a drop in their donations, and were expecting this decline to continue. With your help, this survey will assess the current state of charities in Australia, and give an indication of what the sector expects in the future.

To participate in the survey, click here on or after Monday 16th November. Each participant will receive a copy of the report, which is due for release in February 2010. The survey closes on Monday 4 December 2009. For more information, please contact policy@fia.org.au.

Digital Integration: Are charities getting it right

justine — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:45:01 +0000

By Sean Triner
This article was first published in Fundraising and Philanthropy Agenda E-bulletin October edition

This winter, Starlight the Children’s Charity mailed an urgent appeal to its donors telling them about how the financial crisis had hurt their bottom line. The appeal did really well, raising more than double last year’s income.

The appeal was put together as an emergency appeal, taking a couple of weeks from start to finish. Yet despite this time frame, staff still managed to make sure that the mail message was integrated with their website - in particular, their home page.

It still amazes me that a charity can run an appeal or campaign through the mail and / or phone which would usually have a message along the lines of:

Here is a problem, a really, important problem (let’s call it problem x)
Here is how problem x affected subject y (the case study)
Here is what we are wanting to do to fix the problem
We really, really need your help to do this
This is really, really important
Please give now to help solve/alleviate problem x

The recipient of the mailing is motivated, excited, maybe even shocked, but really cares. But what if they misplace the mailing? Chances are they go to the website homepage to find out more . And more often than not there is nothing there about the appeal! No mention of subject y, and problem x is loads of clicks away and doesn’t feature in the search engine…

Not a good look. Now, to be fair, in the real world few donors actually give online - so it hasn’t really mattered that much. But things are changing. Our benchmarking report (comparing data from 23 charities) has shown online solicited donations doubled between 2007 and 2008, and this will probably happen again (at last!) in the next 12 months.

But we also noted a marked increase in offline-solicited online donations. In the Starlight example, over $650,000 was donated in response to the appeal - and about 10% of that came in over the web. In other words, those donors received the appeal and instead of sending a cheque through the post, logged in and donated.

There is still an argument to say that including a web-donation option on a response coupon can decrease the total amount raised (because you send people away from an immediate response option), but this theory needs further testing.

Regardless of this argument, most fundraisers I know haven’t tested this, they just automatically include a web donation link.

Now, if you are writing a letter telling people this is the most important thing in the world they can donate to, and then send them to a web link to donate, there is even more of an imperative that the link and your home page reinforce the urgency of the message.

It should be easy to amend the homepage a bit, have a separate online donation form, and those with a Facebook and Twitter presence need to reflect the campaign too. For now, it won’t cost much, and keeps the website relevant, helps search engine optimisation and should raise a bit. But in the future, with more and more people giving online it is going to be absolutely essential.

Released 5 November 2009

Pareto Fundraising has released the results of their 2009 mid-year benchmarking study looking at trends in the Canadian charitable sector.

The latest analysis looks at data through to the end of June 2009 from the participating 10 Canadian charities including: BC Cancer Foundation, Canadian Red Cross (Western Canada), CARE Canada, The Children’s Wish Foundation Canada, cbm Canada, Canadian Feed The Children, Médecins Sans Frontières Canada, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, SickKids Foundation and WWF Canada.

Despite the global financial decline, the organizations included in the project are holding up well, and one of the key messages delivered overall was that those who have invested heavily in monthly giving in the past are the ones most likely to enter 2010 in the best shape.

Specifically, the latest analysis found that:

Overall income from the group was down in 2008 (just $1m), however individual income was up significantly on 2008
Monthly giving remains resilient, in fact continues to grow on all measures including total income generated. In 2008 the ten members generated over $35m from monthly donors
Cash recruitment overall has slowed the 1st half of 2009 after a strong 2008
Major gifts (gifts over $1k) have rebounded, in fact grown the first half of 2009 after a poor 2nd half of 2008

According to Moses Gabriel, Direct Response Manager at the BC Cancer Foundation, the insights uncovered from the latest round of analysis give his team greater confidence during difficult times, particularly about the acquisition landscape.

Gabriel says “One of the key findings in the latest benchmarking analysis is that new donor acquisition in 2009 has slowed down somewhat in comparison to 2007 and 2008. Whether this is caused by the recent economic downturn, or other factors, it is tough to say for sure; however, it does highlight the ever growing need to build stronger relationships with donors. Our goal now is to find ways to recruit donors that are more likely to make a second or third gift or switch to monthly giving, by testing new acquisition materials and techniques.

In previous years, the decision to change our approach would be based on a mix of internal data and really some ‘gut feeling’ based on past experiences of our staff. Today, however, we are able to pursue these strategies with a greater level of confidence knowing that it isn’t just our experience, but something that affects a large portion of the charitable sector.”

The next round of 2009 reporting will take place in early 2010.

Ends

For information on how you can be involved in Pareto Fundraisings Benchmarking Study please contact Jonathon Grapsas at 647-347-0157 or by email at jonathon.grapsas@paretofundraising.com.