Roger's Rule of Retention
Posted on Thu, Jun 17, 2010
What if all our fears came true and there were no new donors?
That's the question Roger Craver poses in his whitepaper, called, aptly, "What if there were no new donors?". Scary thought indeed. But it's a fear we can face when we have the weapons to fight this demon.
That's why DonorTrends is offering not just the whitepaper, but a series of 12 podcasts and blog posts - one for each 'weapon' - right here in the Fundraising Action blog.
Last week we posted the first podcast by Roger, which you can find here. This week, the podcast is on donor retention.
Click on the ipod icon to the left to download and listen to the podcast from your media player.
From Roger: "ask yourself: Just how and why are donors staying with us? Why are they going away? Why and when are they upgrading? Why? Why? Why? This is the time to focus on all the questions that involve keeping donors in the fold and actively participating."
Let's look for a minute on why donors defect. Based on a national survey done by DonorTrends and the Agitator, there are a few common reasons why a donor leaves a nonprofit:
#1 reason: Changes in personal expenses (can no longer afford it).
#2 reason: "The organization did something I disagreed with."
#3 reason: "I found a different organization that I thought would be more effective."
The second two of these three reasons are within organizations' control to change. And I'll argue that both boil down to effective and sufficient communication.
We all know that the the #1 reason is a kind of catch-all that donors use. But don't you want to know if money is indeed the reason? Wouldn't you want to know if that donor is giving to other organizations, and if so, how much? With that intel in hand, you could target those donors who are indeed giving (and giving more!) to other organizations. You could write/phone those donors who really do seem to be tight this year, remind them how important their contribution is, and that you hope you can count on them when their situation turns around. Doing some donor screening could be a valuable part of your retention strategy.
What is your organization doing to stave off attrition?
Ryann