During today’s Webinar on Annual Gift Campaigns, we received the following question:

We do not require board members any minimum fundraising goals – giving or raising. Should we implement minimum fundraising requirements? What is the norm for nonprofits?

GIJP Mentor Dan Kirsch provides an answer:

There really is no “norm” and our Camps’ policies on board giving vary.  Most camps, however, do not require specific dollar amounts to give and/or “get” for the board.  The trend among nonprofits in the small to medium size range (as opposed to large universities, hospitals, and national or global scale orgs) is to clearly convey the expectation that board members will make the camp one of their top philanthropic priorities during their tenure on the board.  Some say “make an annual gift that is significant for me” or “make a gift that reflects my commitment to camp and my personal means.”

Similarly, when it comes to “getting”, most camps do not set actual dollar amounts expected.  Instead they expressly set the expectation that all board members will participate in fundraising activities for the camp in the ways best suited to their abilities and the camp’s needs.

Does your nonprofit set fundraising minimums for your board members? Please let us know in the comments below!

In the meantime, check out our Annual Giving Campaigns Webinar recording (and other resources).

By GIJP Mentors Dan Kirsch and Julia Riseman

Architecturally speaking, pipelines and pyramids may not be the flashiest of structures compared with, say, the Taj Mahal, the Guggenheim in Bilbao, or your newest camper cabin.

Strong, enduring, utilitarian – the pipeline and the pyramid are just the right images to highlight the importance of building your camp’s annual giving program.  Along with major gifts, capital campaigns, and Legacy programs (a.k.a. planned giving), annual giving is a key component of a comprehensive development program that is built for long-term growth and success.

An effective annual giving campaign is not an afterthought or a “when we have time” proposition.  It’s not about dashing off an appeal letter to capture the end-of-year flurry of charitable giving.  Annual giving programs that last are carefully planned, deliberately implemented, and results-focused. 

“Channeling” a Culture of Philanthropy

Annual giving typically generates large numbers of gifts of all sizes that directly support current needs – precious, flexible operating dollars that empower your camp to respond to immediate needs and emerging opportunities.  Those annual gifts are usually generated through a variety of methods – the popular term is “channels” – including face to face solicitation by volunteers and staff, direct mail appeals, phonathons, e-mail campaigns, and special events.

Annual giving also helps to develop a camp’s culture of philanthropy.  Such a culture honors the role that philanthropy has played in your camp’s success.  It is not built on only the few mega gifts that name your camp’s newest buildings.  Rather it is grown and nurtured over many years through many types of gifts in all amounts.  Annual giving allows camp fans of all financial means to express their appreciation for the way their camp experience has enriched their lives.  That is the pyramid – built on a broad foundation of more modest annual gifts and rising to sustain higher and higher levels of support.

Creating Value for a Lifetime…and Beyond

Beyond the immediate benefits of each year’s total dollars raised, annual giving programs also build long-term value based on the loyalty, consistency, and dependability of your donor base.  Your camp may have calculated the long-term value of each additional camper you enroll.  Have you considered the lifetime value of each camp donor?

Think about this:

If your annual giving program raises $50,000 from your camp’s fans, that annual income is roughly the equivalent of the return on a $1 million endowment.  Your camp may not have such endowed assets (especially for operating funds), but you certainly have a tremendously valuable asset in the thousands of people who love your camp.  Your annual giving program is the vehicle that generates the return on all of that goodwill and gratitude.

And one other thing to keep in mind.  Research has shown that loyal, consistent, annual support throughout a donor’s lifetime (not necessarily at a top gift level) is the single best predictor of a person’s leaving a charitable bequest (Legacy gift).

Mind Your Data

So as you work to inform, engage, solicit, and steward your constituents for their annual support, you are not only generating more precious operating dollars to respond to your camp’s current needs, but you are also grooming your camp’s next generation of major donors, campaign chairs, Legacy participants, board members, etc.  That’s the pipeline that annual giving can build for you.

Building the kind of loyalty that creates a strong donor pipeline requires a commitment to learning from each year’s results and refining future activities accordingly.  That’s why it is so important to have reliable constituent data and protocols for collecting, tracking, and analyzing the data most relevant to annual giving. (Click here to read more about how to track and segment your constituent data for annual giving.).  The more you can learn about the communications preferences of your audience and the appeals that are most compelling to your various constituents the better you will become at personalizing and targeting your annual giving activities to maximize the return on your work.

In the long run, your commitment to planning, executing, tracking and analyzing your annual giving performance will help to create the Taj Mahal of development programs and the enduring and impactful culture of philanthropy that your camp deserves.

So you’ve committed to running a regular annual giving campaign … but you don’t know how to manage it? Not sure how to build a culture of philanthropy among your constituents? As GIJP Mentors Dan Kirsch and Julia Riseman point out in their article:

Building the kind of loyalty that creates a strong donor pipeline requires a commitment to learning from each year’s results and refining future activities accordingly.  That’s why it is so important to have reliable constituent data and protocols for collecting, tracking, and analyzing the data most relevant to annual giving. The more you can learn about the communications preferences of your audience and the appeals that are most compelling to your various constituents the better you will become at personalizing and targeting your annual giving activities to maximize the return on your work.

Technology can help. Here are some quick tips for using technology to support successful, long-term annual giving campaigns:

• Make sure you have clean data
• Segment your data
• Promote using various channels

1)      Make sure you have clean data

Is your data up-to-date? If you sent a mailing to your entire donor database, what percentage would be returned as undeliverable? If that happened, do you have a process for updating your database as a result?

Your donor database is only as helpful as you make it. Use free or inexpensive processes and tools to keep it up-to-date:

• Always update your records when you learn of changes to contact information. If you receive a message from a new email address, add it to your donor database. If a mailing is returned as undeliverable, mark it in the database; if you have an email on record for that person, contact them to ask for an updated mailing address.
• Set up a free/inexpensive form to gather both long-lost constituents’ contact information and updates from those who move. A simple Google (free) or Wufoo (free and inexpensive options) form can be set up in just a few minutes to gather this info. The GIJP Technology Program team can also create a form on your Facebook Page to gather this information.
• Dedupe your data regularly. As new records are added, some will be duplicates. If you stay on top of this with a regular process, it will be simple to maintain. You can also use tools like the US Postal Service National Change of Address (NCOA) service to get updated addresses from people who have moved in the past couple of years. In fact, if you mail with the nonprofit bulk rate, you are required to scan your data with NCOA periodically.

TIP: Be proactive in reaching out to and reconnecting with your alumni and other constituents. Every alumni is a potential donor – reconnecting with and effectively tracking your alumni will help your annual campaigns grow stronger year by year. Engage with unofficial camp Groups on Facebook and other social networks. Use your human, off-line social networks to find long-lost alumni. And offer an easy-to-find way for your constituents to get their updated contact information to you; this process should be easy to find on your website and other online presences (blog, Facebook Page, etc.).

2)      Segment your data

To truly customize your communications – including cultivation and solicitation communications – you need to segment the data in your database. Three types of segmentation are highlighted here: biographical, giving, and e-communications.

TIP: Segment your data consistently. There should be processes in place to ensure that every new constituent and gift/pledge in the database is coded as listed below. Otherwise, there will be no way to effectively track and report on these segments in the future.

Biographical segmentation

You should categorize each constituent in your donor database by their “connection” to your organization. For camps, this can include alumni, board members, parents, grandparents, etc. Consider: What categories might I use in the future to help personalize a message to my constituents? These are categories you’ll want to use. Furthermore, implement a “hierarchy” of categorizations - you don’t want to inundate your constituents with extra communications. For example, if someone is an alum, a parent, and a board member, decide which communication will be most powerful for them and their connection to camp. Don’t send them three separate messages!

In DonorPerfect Online (DPO), the Flags field is the best way to segment your constituents biographically. Other donor databases use tags or simple drop-downs to meet this need.

Giving segmentation

You should also segment all of the gifts and pledges you receive. It is crucial to track who is giving to which funds; who responds to which campaigns; and to what specific type of solicitation did they respond? For each gift, this information should be tracked. Your donor database should allow you to track these using dropdown codes so that you can also report at a macro level of which funds, campaigns, and solicitations are effective.

In DPO, You can use the GL Code, Campaign, Solicitation, and Sub-solicitation dropdown fields on both the Gift and Pledge screens to track this information. Be sure to set up your codes in advance.

TIP: You can also use standard reports to segment your donors by their giving history. For example, we mentioned LYBUNT (Last Year But Unfortunately Not This Year) reports in a recent article. This report will show you all donors who gave to your organization last year, but haven’t given yet this year. This (and similar) reports help you segment constituents who may be especially likely to donate again.

E-Communications segmentation

Finally, it is helpful to understand who is opening your eNewsletters and which (if any) links they are following. eNewsletter tools like Constant Contact and Vertical Response give you detailed statistics on who opens your emails and what links they click on for more information. (Please see our reviews of these eNewsletter tools if you aren’t already using one.)

There is no simple way currently to integrate these stats with DPO. However, they have announced integration between Constant Contact and DPO that will be released soon – let us know if you are interested in learning more about this functionality when it is available. Note that there will be no additional charges from DPO or Constant Contact to make this integration work. Other donor databases may have similar integration – contact your database support team to find out more.

Whether or not this data is not integrated directly with your donor database, you can always use these details stats to ensure your communications are of interest to your constituents. You can even determine if certain stories are more pertinent for specific subsets of your constituent base.

TIP: Use an eNewsletter service to send out your mass e-communications. And use short intros to each section with a link for more information on your website or blog – this will help in two ways: 1) Readers scan emails so they’ll see all of your stories and 2) You will be able to collect stats about who read each type of story.

3)      Promote using various channels

What good is an annual campaign … if nobody knows about it? The internet offers easy, free ways to promote your annual campaign and keep it top of mind. Make it easy to find information about your annual campaign on your website, blog, Facebook Page, eNewsletter, etc. Research shows that multi-channel communications with donors result in more regular, larger donations.

TIP: Try to find subtle ways to remind your constituents of your annual campaign. Although there should be some direct communications, you want to engage your constituents online in a conversation – if you have too many direct requests, people will tune you out. The key is balance. For example, always keep a link to the online donation page on your Facebook Page, your eNewsletters, and your blog. It is also helpful to use personal stories in your communications. A story about someone impacted by your organization with a link to the online giving page can be very effective.

Do you have any questions about using technology to support your Annual Campaign? Let us know in the comments below (or email Kevin directly).