Nonprofit Q&A
A service of Jeane Vogel and Fund Raising Innovations
January 31, 2004
 

Here's this week's question:
I'm worried about presenting the results of the year-end letter to the board. We set a goal of $15,000 and only raised about $9,000. It's lower than last year and the goal is higher. Are other groups seeing their year-end letter going down this year?

There are several issues here and a lot of information that you didn't give me, so let’s punt.

First, the tragedy of the tsunami has reduced some organizations' year-end receipts, especially if the letters were sent close to Christmas. Sending money to tsunami relief instead of the local organization was a no-brainer for a lot of donors. There are several organizations who are studying the effect of the tsunami on donor giving. You can check the Charity Channel archives for more information. (www.charitychannel.com)

Lots of outside factors have an impact your letter's results. Some of the major factors affecting giving one way or another this year include the election, the war in Iraq, the fifth year of a bear stock market, and the storms in California and Florida, just to name a handful.

Internally, your results will be affected by the size and quality of your list, when you mail, how often you mail, the value your donors place on your mission, your success at fulfilling your mission, your success at communicating your success, how well your letter is written and how easy it is for donors to give you money, to name just a few.

Before you analyze your results, start with goal. How did you set it? Some groups set their goal conservatively based on last year's results then add a bit; some set their goal on how much their need to raise.

Set your goal based on all the information you can gather. If you are mailing to established donors, you can expect a 10 to 30 percent response rate with an average gift of $50 to $150 or more.

If you are prospecting – mailing to people who have barely heard of you – you can expect a 2 percent response rate with a $25 average gift size. So if you buy or borrow a list of 5000 names, you can expect about 100 checks and $2500 income. Not really worth it, is it? Remind your board members of that the next time they hand you a country club or church directory and tell you to add those names to your data base (and also remind them --gently-- that it’s unethical to do it unless you have permission).

If mailing helter-skelter is obviously a waste of time, you have to build up your donor base with “qualified prospects” to make it a mailing worthwhile. Building you donor base is the topic of a future column.

Here are some ideas to analyze your current mailing and improve future ones:

And remember: a donor is not a person who gives you a check. One check could mean anything, including a message to “go away and don’t bother me again.”

A donor is the person who gives you that second and subsequent check. You need all your wits and mission to get that second, and third and …

© 2005 by Jeane Vogel and Fund Raising Innovations

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