The beginning of the school year for me is always a fresh start. Although I have not attended school in many, many years I still have the urge to purchase office supplies, buy a new outfit and jazz up my hair style. This refresh also applies to my work as a Director of Development for Ottawa-Carleton Lifeskills. As I get ready for my new start, here are the top five strategies I will be using to energize my fundraising plan.
1) Monthly donors deserve lots of love!
When is the last time you called a monthly donor and said ‘thank you’? Very often, monthly donations are routinely processed and a consolidated receipt is issued in January. It is very transactional and lacking the love these committed donors deserve. Reaching out to monthly donors and sharing the impact of their gift can be very rewarding.
Keeping monthly donors engaged provides sustainable funding and saves you money at the same time as increasing your prospects for planned giving opportunities. It is a win - win - win!
Updating an expiring credit card for a monthly donor is another opportunity to show some donor love! Whether a donor is calling you with their new expiry date or you are being proactive and calling them, please make sure they are thanked in a meaningful way. Too often donors begin to feel like a bank machine and not as people giving to people. This is also a great time to share a quick story about the impact of their donation.
2) Segment your data – your donors will thank you!
Are you sending the same appeal to all of your donors? Are you sending the same appeal to a new donor as a donor who has been on the journey with you for ten years? Are you telling lapsed donors that you miss them? This is the perfect time to segment your donor database and get to know your donors better through the data.
Looking for a thoughtful quick and impactful way to thank your donors? Segment donors by their first gift and then call them. You can call someone to say thank you on their 1st or 5th or 10th anniversary of their initial gift. Donors are always pleasantly surprised by your initiative and it is a great way to stay connected.
3) Go to lunch! Yes that is right - go to lunch AND take your program staff with you.
This is an ideal time to take a few hours to reinvigorate your relationship with the staff or volunteers that deliver the programming for your organization. Ask them questions and ask them to tell you stories about the work that is being done. Even better, participate yourself.
One of the best ways I spent a couple of hours every week was on the frontline at a homeless shelter. I working as a major gifts officer for the shelter and I needed stories to share with donors. I put aside 15 minutes or more a day to work in the cafeteria handing out soup or handing out towels or socks or simply listening to both the people we were helping and the staff providing the care.
This dedicated time also gave the staff an opportunity to get to know my role and the importance of the stories in raising funds. I was thrilled when after a few months shelter staff would stop me in the hall and share a story of success with me. They told me about men that reconnected to their families or became sober after years of drug abuse or they had found a job and no longer needed to live in a homeless shelter. Getting close to the program staff is time well spent!
Whether you reach out to monthly donors, segment your data or reconnect with program staff this is a perfect time to refresh your program.
Samantha Tapley
Director, Development and Communications
Ottawa-Carleton Lifeskills
Marketing Director, Gryphon Fundraising
Samantha@gryphonfundraising.com
613-875-1971
