Donor Retention and Stewardship in a classic 60's tune
Posted on Fri, Jun 11, 2010
Anyone remember that Stephen Stills song (sung frequently by Crosby Still Nash and Young) called "Love the One You're With"?
DonorTrends' founder, Roger, has just released a whitepaper entitled 'What if there were no new donors?'. I think Roger would agree that the song title is a good symbol for this central whitepaper theme: what if there was no more donor acquisition? The answer? Love the ones you're with...a.k.a. love the donors you have.
We'll be releasing a podcast for each of the sections of the whitepaper. Each podcast, narrated by Roger, is short, sweet, and actionable, focusing on one thing you can start doing today. Below are two options to listen to the first podcast:
Listen! Click here to stream Roger's introductory podcast.
Or click on the ipod icon to the left to download and listen to the podcast from your media player. To download the entire whitepaper, click here.
The following is a short excerpt from Roger's whitepaper:
"For many fundraisers the elephant in the room is the increasing difficulty of acquiring new donors at an affordable price. So, let's just take the issue head on, suspend a bit of disbelief, and focus on managing our fundraising program as though there will be no more new donors.
So now that acquisition rates are depressingly down, each of us should be asking: How should we change what we do day in and day out? How should we spend our investment budget? What do we measure? And why?
Over the last five years - and having little to do with the economy - we have seen acquisition rates decline along with the corollary increase in cost per new donor. We have seen retention rates decline, thus eroding donor bases. And in the last 24 months, we've seen actual income for organizations decline because no longer can they make up for the diminishing donor base by raising the amount of net income substantially from each donor who remains in the donor base.
...My advice is clear and simple: Stop looking for the silver bullet and start cherishing and loving your donors."
Stephen Stills sang "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with." Or in our case, if the 'the one you love' is the acquisition of new donors, and there are none, start thinking about how to love the donors you do have.
Stay tuned as we'll be discussing parts of the whitepaper in a 12 part series right here. When we're finished we're going to release one entire podcast by Roger. But in the meantime, here's the whitepaper 'What if There Were No New Donors?'.
Check it out now, before the hypothetical becomes reality!
Ryann
DonorTrends