major gifts – Page 3

October 27, 2013 by royjones 2 Comments

How 100 Cups of Coffee Could Save Your Charity

Roy C. Jones, CFRE RoyJonesReports.com — Roy C. Jones, CFRE
RoyJonesReports.com

I have had a unique career. I have worked as a vice president of philanthropy, a director of development, and a major gift officer. Today, I advise non-profits and provide training and support for growing their organizations. I love sharing what I’ve learned first hand from the experiences I’ve had with thousands of finanicial partners (a.k.a. donors) and with the marketing programs used identify and communicate with them.

Over the last few weeks I have met with several wonderful charities… all facing tremendous financial challenges. After discussions about their websites, giving pages, number of direct response appeals, ask handles, gift arrays, fundraising banquets and mail formats I ask a question that often brings long, self reflective, periods of silence:

“How many indidvidual, face-to-face, meetings did you do last year?”

After sometime passes, I expain that over the last year I worked with a charity where we made a remarkable difference in income by meeting with financial partners… I have personally met with 117 families over the last 12 months. Of course, I always thank them for their support. Then I listend to why they give and tailor an “ask” based upon their desires, not mine.

Make no mistake about it, it does begin with acquisition. Acquiring donors with both capacity and donative intent only happens by design. Then getting donors to renew their giving and increase their giving requires a plan for moving each and every donor up the “giving pyramid”. I like to call it “climbing the ladder.”

Are your donors climbing the ladder?

As you identify donors who give or have 4-figure and 5-figure capacity your organization must put a plan in place to meet them personally. You must thank them and, as importantly, ask them personally.

So often the thought of carving out time to meet with donors seems like an impossible task for development directors and executive directors. My recommendation is to simply begin where you are… decide how many meetings you can do a week or a month and then DO IT!

I like to give people an easy way to visualize the task… “100 cups of coffee.” The fact is if your charity will meet each year with your top 100 supporters you will increase giving dramatically. Could you do just 2 coffee meetings a week? That’s all it takes…

100 cups a coffee a year will transform your charity. I challenge you to try it!

September 3, 2013 by royjones Leave a Comment

Are You Listening To Your Supporters?

Every Friday I do an analysis of my teams activity to ensure they are reaching their goals for communicating with major donors. Each member of the team details in a one page report the number of conversations they’ve had; the number of actual meetings and the number of proposals they’ve discussed with supporters. I even go to the extreme of counting how many emails were sent and how many times the phone was dialed.

Metrics like this are important if each member of the development team is going to meet their goal of visiting face to face 100 to 150 supporters each calendar year. However, development professionals have to take precautions to ensure that their activitity is not just about the numbers. The real question is whether or not they are listening to the needs of their supporters.

Everyweek, after each visit with the friends of our ministry, I take the time to ask myself a few critical questions:

1. What unique thing did I learn about this friend of our organization?

2. What unique fact or message did this supporter try to tell me during our meeting?

3. What needs does this partner have on a personal level for their family, business or future?

4. What unique thing does this sponsor want to do to help our organization?

If you leave every meeting with the answers to these

four questions rest assured that you are going to see revenue increase for your nonprofit. It will happen because you made the visit about meeting the needs of the donor, instead of just meeting the needs of your organization.

August 26, 2013 by royjones Leave a Comment

Are you preparing your Christmas “check list” in August?

I am surprised at the number of blank stares I get these days from not-for-profit leaders when I use the term “LYBUNT”. If there is one thing a fundraising and development professional should be doing as 4th quarter approaches it should be making a list LYBUNTs “and checking it twice, you have to find out who has been naughty or nice.”

LYBUNT is an acronym that stands for “last year, but unfortunately not this year.” This is a term used frequently in the fundraising world to represent donors who gave your organization money last year but, who have not given you money yet this year. Fundraisers typically target this group of last year’s donors differently than people who haven’t made a gift at all.

A donor in this group is also sometimes referred to as a “low hanging fruit” or a “warm” donor since that individual could be expected to give a gift again. If you are an Executive Director, President, Board member or Director of Development there is not a better use of your time at this time of year than calling and meeting with your top donors from last year, but who have not yet given this year.

Focus on the top 15 – 30 donors who haven’t made a gift yet this year. Integration is the key to getting your calls returned: use in combination emails, voice mails, hand written notes and drop by visits to remind your LYBUNTs not to forget your charity this year. Don’t just make the purpose for the call or visit all about getting the money, use it instead, to build a real friendship with each person. Begin every call, contact or meeting with the words: “We’ve missed you this year.” Find out what’s going on in their lives, and what’s still important to them about the work you’re doing. Then ask them to make a year-end commitment to ensure that important work can continue.

Remember, in most cases the LYBUNT donor thinks that they have made a gift, most certainly within the last year. It is truly an oversight on their part so have a spirit of forgiveness and be as welcoming as possible. For those LYBUNT donors who did not forget to send you a gift, you should never presume that they lapsed because of something your organization did or didn’t do. Many donors stop giving for many reasons we might never know, like big purchases, lifestyle and work changes, and new priorities in their giving plans.


Roy C. Jones, CFRE

As 4th quarter approaches, one thing is for sure… if your donor knows that “you a making a list and checking it twice and that you’ll find out soon who’s naughty or nice” they are going to make sure that there is a gift under the tree at your charitable organization. Merry Christmas!

August 5, 2013 by royjones Leave a Comment

Your Fundraising Program Should Begin AT THE END

Every fundraising program should begin with where it ends… that’s right, where does the relationship end with your donors and supporters.

The first question every development professional must ask is how many donors who gave last year have not given this year? In other words, how many supporters have lapsed?

If you want to grow as a charity you have to know how many new donors you have to acquire in order to replace those that have lapsed. Remember, replacing the “lapsed” is only staying the same size as you were last year. Once you have replaced the lapsed by either renewing the lapsed donors or acquiring enough new donors to replace the one’s you’ve lost, now you can begin to think about how to grow as an organization.

I am always surprised by the number of charities who say they want to grow, but they cannot answer the following questions:

1) how many lapsed donors do you have this year;

2) how many lapsed donors have you reacquired this year;

3) how many new donors have your acquired this year.

Then and only then can you look at the real metrics of growth which begins with your CTAD (Net Cost to Acquire a Donor). As the name implies CATD is the net cost you paid (lost) to acquire a new donor. In order to get to this number you first have to subtract your total acquisition cost from your total acquisition gross income. This is your net income. Next you must divide your net income by the number of new donors you have acquired. This is your CTAD.

The CTAD is used by good fund development managers to make budget projections, determine organization growth rates and, most importantly, project future income for their charitable cause.

Why don’t we look at an example to make sure we can calculate CTAD:

Let’s say our total gross income for our acquisition direct mail appeal is $91,000 and that our total acquisition costs are $141,500 including postage, list rental, creative, production and mailing. So now we subtract our gross income from our total costs to get the net cost to acquire all of your new donors, ($50,500).

Now, let’s take the gross number of acquisition respondents, in our example we acquired 7,250 new donors, and divide it by the net cost to acquire new donors ($50,500).

($50,000) divided by 7,250 = $6.80 CTAD

By the way, an $6.80 CTAD would be an excellent cost per donor! Many organizations will spend up to $30 or $40 to acquire a new donor. Depending on an organizations average gift size and long term donor value (giving over 5 years) I have seen some charities spend more than $100 to acquire a new donor.

The real question for determining how much a not-for-profit should be spending to acquire a new donor really depends on what the average long term donor value is for each donor. This LTDV will always vary from one organization to the next.

However, let’s say our average donor makes 2.75 gifts a year and the average gift is $20. Each donor therefore gives $55 a year. Every new donor you acquire for ($6.80) is going to give you somewhere in the neighborhood of $270 over the next five years.

Is this a good investment? You bet. All organizations will have their own level or aversion to risk. Some will just draw a line in the sand and say we MUST break even in the acquisition effort. In other words our cost to acquire a donor must be “zero”. Organizations with this high aversion to risk grow at very slow rates and always struggle to acquire enough donors to offset their attrition rate. (Attrition is usually defined as the number of donors who have lapsed to 24 months… That’s right, you have a certain number of donors who decide, for whatever reason, and they cannot give to you any more)

There are other organizations that are willing to spend up to their average gift to acquire a new donor to the organization. So this means after a donor has made their second gift, the organization begins netting money. Still others will arbitrarily pick a dollar amount they are willing to spend. It is usually a fraction or percent of the organizations Long Term Donor Value.

LTDV is determined by subtracting your total income per donor for a five year period from your total cultivation and Acquisition costs per donor for the same period.

Well, now that I have totally confused you discussing Long Term Donor Value…. Just remember this: CTAD = the net cost to acquire a new donor.

July 14, 2013 by royjones Leave a Comment

Are your board members currently involved in major gift fundraising?

Board members need to get more involved in major donor efforts through sharing, identifying donors, meeting with prospects, introducing their friends to the organization and ensuring the development director has what she needs to be successful.

Your board of directors can be your biggest asset. Unfortunately, I’ve met with hundreds of presidents and executive directors whose first concern is: “My board is driving me crazy… what can I do?”

My answer is always the same: PUT THEM TO WORK!

Are your board members currently involved in major gift fundraising? If you are like most charities, your board members are committed in spirit and theory to major gift fundraising but maybe just aren’t comfortable or even willing to actually participate in the process. They may make recommendations for saving money: changing suppliers, firing employees, cutting expenses, terminating programs. These are the types of moves people make when they do not understand the art of fundraising. This is the trap a board falls into when they want to demonstrate their value to the organization, but don’t know how to increase revenues. So often, the solution is to just move the pieces around the board, without knowing how to raise any more money.

Chief development officers must empower their board with the knowledge to raise funds (even if they think they already know it all). They must establish an environment that is focused on creating new revenue, instead of simply cutting the old spending. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not saying that you should never make cuts. We’re saying that your focus has to be on creating new revenue and increasing overall giving.

Putting your board to work raising money is easier said than done. According to a recent BoardSource.com survey, 68 percent of nonprofit organizations have a policy requiring board members to make a personal contribution on an annual basis. The survey goes on to say that boards average 74 percent participation in giving; however, on average only 46 percent of boards had a 100-percent participation rate. In the arts and cultural organizations it is more common to find required annual contributions.

The bottom line is, you need every board member to make a financial commitment to the organization on an annual basis. This is something board members and candidates should be made aware of early on in the courting process, and it should be incorporated into your list of board expectations and responsibilities. Don’t expect every board member to give the same dollar amount, though. Some board candidates might find the amount too high; therefore a policy requiring a specific uniform gift amount would eliminate valuable prospects from joining the board. Others may have otherwise considered contributing more, if not for a lower suggested amount that could change their minds.

As import as personal giving is, it is even more importnat for each board member to commit to “thank you meetings” with major donors each and every month. Some board members may only be able to do 3 or 4 meetings a month. However I have seen board superstars do 3 or more meetings a week. As relationships develop between board members and their peers that are also major donors, rest assured that a board member will become an advocate for for the major donors they have met with and when that happens that is when BIG ASKS begin to happen naturally. Some board members may only be able to do 3 or 4 meetings a month. However, I have seen some board superstars do 3 or more meetings a week!

Want to find out more about board fundraising? Check out my book “Rainmaking: The Fundraisers Guide to Landing Big Gifts”. Boards are covered on page 97… [Save 10% by ordering here: http://t.co/ZESuoSHy92 ]

How 100 Cups of Coffee Could Save Your Charity

Are You Listening To Your Supporters?

Are you preparing your Christmas “check list” in August?

Your Fundraising Program Should Begin AT THE END

Are your board members currently involved in major gift fundraising?

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