Category Archives: Results
How Angry Are Your Donors With You? Take this Quiz and Find Out.
Have you upset one of your donors recently? Just how mad do you suppose they are at you, on a scale of 1 to 10? Take this quiz and find out. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each … Continue reading
Win Board Approval for Your Fundraising Budget by Calculating Your Long-Term Donor Value
The ten dumbest words ever spoken in the English language are: “We don’t have money in our fundraising budget for that.” The people who say this most often are board members. Uninformed board members. Timid board members. Board members who … Continue reading
Penelope Burk Versus Donor Behaviour: Direct Mail Fundraising is Not in Decline
Fundraising consultant and researcher Penelope Burk of Cygnus Applied Research says direct mail is declining in popularity. She is wrong. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse … Continue reading
Why Average Lifetime Donor Value is the Most Important Metric in Fundraising
Nothing says more about the success of your fundraising program than the lifetime value of your average donor. Average lifetime value, of course, is the gross income you receive from your typical donor during the time the donor is giving … Continue reading
Give Your Donors What They Want so You Get What You Want
Thank your donors promptly and personally every time they mail you a gift. Describe how you are using the donor’s last gift the way the donor intended. The majority of long-term, faithful donors give to make a difference, and many … Continue reading
When to Ignore Your Direct Mail Fundraising Test Results
Direct mail fundraising is a soccer game where the opposing team keeps moving the goal posts. A premium that worked last year doesn’t work today. A package design that worked at your last charity doesn’t work at your new one. … Continue reading
Don’t Measure Fundraising Costs, But Cost-Effectiveness.
The only number in fundraising that matters is net revenue. Net revenue is the money you have left over after you subtract your fundraising expenses from your fundraising income. Net revenue is the only money you can do mission with. … Continue reading
How to Get a Second Gift from a New Direct Mail Donor
If your charity is at all typical, you will lose 65% of the donors you acquire by direct mail in the first year alone. In other words, only 35% of the donors you acquire through direct mail will give you … Continue reading
Four Fundraising Benchmarks You Must Monitor (or Else)
Know how to boil a frog? You don’t just drop him into a pot of boiling water. He’ll jump out. Instead, you place him in a pot of cool water, then warm the pot gradually to a boil. The frog … Continue reading
Boost Direct Mail Fundraising Response Rates Three Ways
What percentage of your donor base sends your organization a gift each year? If you are at all typical, less than half of your donors at any given time are active. So how can you increase the percentage of your … Continue reading
Know Your Six Fundraising Numbers or Die
If you appeared on the reality TV show Dragon’s Den (or Shark Tank), pitching your charity to investors, would they give you any money? Watch a few episodes of either show and you’ll quickly discover the most common mistake wannabe … Continue reading
Should a Donation Thank-You Letter Ever Ask for a Donation?
I got a big surprise the day I closed my direct mail fundraising consultancy and started working for a national charity. I discovered that my new employer used its gift acknowledgement letters as a way to raise funds. With every … Continue reading
FAQs About Trading Mailing Lists with Other Charities in Donor Acquisition
Q1. What is list trading? A. List trading, or swapping, is the practice of exchanging mailing lists with another charity. They mail a fundraising letter to your list and you mail a fundraising letter to their list. —————————————————————- Receive a … Continue reading
Predict Your Direct Mail Fundraising Campaign Success with Doubling Day
How can you predict the success of your direct mail fundraising campaign before it has concluded? You know the challenge. If your charity is at all typical, you receive donations from your fundraising appeals for months, even years, after they … Continue reading
Why Hospital Lotteries and Sweepstakes are Bad for Your Health
Hospital lotteries and sweepstakes raise millions of dollars for good causes but they do more harm than good. Here’s why. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse … Continue reading
Boost Fundraising Letter Response Rates by Making Responding Convenient
I had a client who wanted to drive prospective customers to his online store using a postcard. Great idea, I thought, and cost effective. He had a terrific product, a compelling offer, and a sound business model. He had just … Continue reading
How to Help Your Lettershop Bungle Your Fundraising Campaign
I know from reliable sources that the Mr. Murphy who coined Murphy’s Law (“If something can go wrong, it will”) worked as an account manager at a lettershop. After leaving his position of direct mail fundraising manager at a national … Continue reading
Don’t Watch Fundraising Costs, But Cost-Effectiveness
I received an email from a fundraiser who is about to lose her job. Her board of directors has decided they cannot afford her salary. They see her salary as just a line item in the budget, one found under … Continue reading
Improve Your Direct Mail Fundraising Letters: Donate to Your Competitors
One of the quickest ways to learn the craft of direct mail fundraising is to donate money to your strongest competitors. Pick the Top 10 organizations you admire and mail them a donation of at least $20. Then watch your … Continue reading
Direct Mail Fundraising Tests: Follow these Eight Rules for Success
The best way to improve your direct mail fundraising program is through testing. Don’t follow fads, board whims, or a gut feeling that turns out to be indigestion. Instead, test. And, to save money and time (and further indigestion), follow … Continue reading
Five Vital Signs of a Healthy Direct Mail Fundraising Program
I spent last night visiting two hospitals with my four-year-old son, Spencer. I noticed that the staff at each hospital took the same vital signs (pulse, oxygen saturation, temperature, breathing) to determine Spencer’s health. Nurses and doctors miles apart, working … Continue reading
Boost Your Direct Mail Fundraising Response Rates with Deadlines
Why did the Canadian cross the road? To get to the middle. Your job as a direct mail fundraiser is to give your donors both a reason for donating and an incentive for donating. Your enemy is inertia. Your enemy … Continue reading
Prevent Costly Direct Mail Donor Acquisition Blunders with Test Mailings
I know a non-profit that mailed a direct mail donor acquisition package to thousands of potential donors and generated a response rate of exactly zero. That’s not a typo. Not a single person responded to the mailing. —————————————————————- Receive a … Continue reading
Count Your Donors and Your Dollars in Direct Mail Fundraising.
One of the greatest mistakes I see non-profit organizations making is watching their dollars and not their donors. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s books, … Continue reading
Measure Your Success in Direct Mail Fundraising with Just Four Numbers
A while back I realized that measuring the effectiveness of direct mail fundraising campaigns is a lot easier than I’d thought. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here … Continue reading
In Direct Mail Donor Acquisition, Compare Cost Per Donor with Cost Per Dollar.
The best way to measure your success in direct mail donor acquisition is to examine your cost to raise a donor rather than your cost to raise a dollar. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by … Continue reading
Response Rates to Expect in Direct Mail Fundraising.
What kind of response rates do your direct mail fundraising letters generate? —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips here Browse Alan’s books, handbooks and tools about fundraising. Visit … Continue reading
How Long are your Donors? Improve Donor Tenure and You’ll Boost Fundraising Request Letter Revenue.
How long do most of your donors contribute to your organization before they walk away? One year? Five? Ten? You should know. —————————————————————- Receive a free fundraising tip like this each week by email. Sign up for Raiser Sharpe Tips … Continue reading
Fundraising Letter Response Rates: Boost Them (And Your Revenue) By Watching Nine Vital Statistics.
Direct mail fundraising is a numbers game. A game that changes all the time. Who could have predicted the advent of online giving? Or the popularity of sweepstakes? Or the rise of a generation of young donors whose primary method … Continue reading
Direct Mail Fundraising Arithmetic: Avoid Blunders By Knowing Your Numbers.
Your direct mail fundraising results never lie. But they mislead you if you let them. I worked as Director of Development for a national charity that held a lavish fundraising banquet each year. The staff, from the executive director down … Continue reading
