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).

Is your donor database working for you? If you put time in up front, the database can make your life easier. Set aside one week for a fundraising database tune up this April. You and your camp will thank you for the rest of the year!

Monday: LYBUNT report

LYBUNT stands for “Last Year But Unfortunately Not This year.” A LYBUNT report is a list of all your donors who made gifts in the previous year but did not give during the current year. If you don’t know how to easily run such a report from your donor database, email Kevin or Joe right now and set up an appointment to learn how to run this and other useful reports. Learning how to quickly run reports to tap the valuable information in your donor database is invaluable.

The exciting part about running a LYBUNT report is that it points to easy money you can raise right now. Research in philanthropy is finding that increasingly donors don’t remember whether or not they have made their annual gifts. Stay positive and assume that your LYBUNT donors love camp but simply forgot to give in 2009, and would be willing to make a gift right now if asked.

Do it today: Run a LYBUNT report, look it over, and design a mini-campaign (maybe a simple mailing to these donors with some follow-up calls?) and set a dollar amount goal for LYBUNT gifts for this spring.

Tuesday: Deduping

Deduping is lingo for removing duplicate entries from the database, as in “de-duplicating.”  If you don’t do this task, you can lose face with your donors: this winter I got three copies of a mailing from an organization with one addressed to me, one to my husband and the third to both of us. It was very wasteful and unprofessional. I recycled the appeals without reading them. Don’t let that happen to you!

If you’ve never tried to dedupe your database before, or it has been a long time, email Kevin or Joe right now and set up an appointment to learn how to do this, and determine how long it might take. While you are working on this task, Kevin can help you to think about other ways to clean up your donor database while you are at it. If you dedupe once or twice a year, this task will not take longer than a day.

Do it today: Review your database, and estimate how much time you’ll need for deduping. Most donor databases have a duplicate removal function. Use this function to find and merge known duplicate records.

Wednesday: Import Camper Records

Ideally, a camp’s donor database would include all Alumni throughout time, current and past parents, current and past grandparents, current and past Board members, current and past staff, all current and past supporters, and camp business contacts. All these people are the camp’s base for support. At some point information in the camp’s registration/enrollment database needs to be moved into the donor database, especially as kids age-out of camp. 

If you haven’t yet set up decision criteria for when campers get transferred over from your camp database into your donor database, you should email Kevin or Joe right now and set up an appointment to discuss what is involved and how to get started. If you’ve set up your system for data imports and do this each year, then this task can get done in a day. Did you know that deduping (see above) is done again after a data import? 

Do it today: Review your process for transferring contacts from the camper registration and enrollment software into your donor database, be sure you understand it, and make a plan to update this Spring. If you have a documented process that is used each year, data import will be relatively easy.

Thursday: Board Giving Update

Every camp should realize 100% participation in charitable donations by their Board members every year. Run a report right now to see if you have reached this goal this year. Do you know how to flag current Board members in your database? Do you know how to create payment reminders to Board members who make pledges but have not yet made their payment? If not, email Kevin or Joe right now and set up an appointment to learn how to flag constituents or create pledge reminders.

Once you have created your Board Giving Report, give your Board President a call (not an email) and share this information. As you share these results, use this time on the phone to create a Board member-to-Board member strategy to create 100% Board participation in the annual fund.

Do it today: Run a Board Gifts report, share it with your Camp Board President, and have a conversation. Provide assistance in setting up individual meetings with Board members who are not in compliance to remind them to give.

Friday: Stewardship Reports

Every major donor, past and present, deserves a thoughtful personal update on the impact of their gifts.  For example, the lead donor to the dinning hall renovations in 2002 should have an opportunity to see pictures of Jewish campers in the dinning hall celebrating Shabbat and to realize that thanks to their gift 12,000 healthy Kosher meals have been served. Does your donor database help you to track contact with your generous donors and does it remind you to send updates on the impact of their gifts? If not, email Kevin or Joe right now and set up an appointment to learn how to set up reminders and keep stewardship notes.

You can use your donor database to track your stewardship of donors over time, stay in contact with your Legacy donors every year, and/or help you with scheduling donor visits to camp over the summer.

Do it today: Run a report to find out the latest stewardship activity with each of your largest donors. Don’t have any Stewardship contacts tracked in your database? Start today! Have contacts, but none recently? Enter a future planned new contact with each major donor so that it reminds you to re-establish your relationship with them soon.

Later in the year, you can create custom reports for each donor to document the impact of their gifts. Writing a simple page of text together with color photos that focus on results and outcomes will be very powerful. Mail these reports to your donors with a personal note from the Camp Executive Director or Board President. Keep track of this reporting in your database, and set up a reminder for the next set of reports to be sent and to whom.

When you try all (or some) of the above, let us know how it goes. And contact Kevin or Joe if you need any assistance.

By Kevin Martone, GIJP Technology Program Manager
 
The GIJP Technology Program Team has worked with GIJP Mentor David Sharken to develop recommended changes to an organization’s Donor Management System (DMS) to effectively track and report on Legacy Program prospects, pledges, and gifts. The resulting document includes general recommendations that can be used for any DMS, as well as specific changes for those camps using DonorPerfect Online (DPO). Download the document now…

But there are many more ways organizations can fully leverage their DMS to make their work more efficient and effective. A few are described in this article: Customize, Store, Integrate, and Improve.

Customize it!

Years from now, do you plan to be in close contact with your donors? Will you be able to send a birthday card to each of your Legacy donors…for the rest of their lives? Be sure your stewardship of Legacy and other major gift donors sticks – by making your DMS work for you.

Most DMS allow users to add new fields, create new reports and queries/filters, and modify the values available in existing fields. The changes in the Legacy Program Technology Support document mentioned above are all customizations to the existing functionality. Is there data about your alumni you’d like to be able to report on? Do you want to be able to compare donations given to this year’s annual fund vs. last year’s fund? Are there reports that your Board is requesting that don’t currently exist in your system? If so, you may be able to customize your system to meet your needs. First step? Define your requirements so that any changes you make will help you meet your needs.

Store It!

Have you ever found yourself searching frantically for a major donor or Legacy pledge card? Need quick access to a copy of a personalized thank you note that was sent to an important donor? You may want to consider adding file storage functionality to your DMS.

The base version of many DMS do not have any file storage capabilities. However, some offer user’s the ability to purchase a new add-on that will allow them to store files with each constituent in the database. For example, Herzl Camp recently purchased the file storage add-on to their DPO system. It has been extremely helpful to them, mainly because they first determined specific requirements the add-on could help them meet:

1) Track all major gift pledge cards received (and copies of large gift checks)  in an organized way (their auditors request these cards)

2) Be able to access a copy of these files from any computer (since DPO is a hosted solution)

3) Keep important files in an easy to locate place in case there is staff turnover

Holly Guncheon, the Development Director at Herzl Camp, added that this service (which costs an additional $20/month with DPO) gives her piece of mind that the files are available where and when they need it.

Integrate it!

Do you struggle with managing multiple databases of similar data: camper registration, donor management, bookkeeping, alumni databases, etc.?  Some DMS allow you to integrate with other databases to reduce manual double-entry of data.

For example, DPO has an add-on to allow users to integrate their DPO system with Quickbooks. For an extra monthly fee, donations can be entered in only one place, but still tracked in both DPO and Quickbooks. This ensures fewer data entry errors and accurate financial reports in both systems.

Unfortunately there is no simple integration of data from various camper registration system with DPO at this time. However, check with your DMS provider: other vendors might have developed add-ons to integrate camper registration systems or other databases with your DMS.

Improve it!

Does your DMS frustrate you more often than making your work easier? Do you ever think, “This system MUST be able to do this!” but can’t figure out how to do it? There are other ways to improve your DMS (adding integrated online giving or prospect research functionality, for example), but the most important is training.

Take the time to master your DMS. We recommend regular refresher training to make sure you are taking advantage of the functionality available in your DMS. Consider your needs (how can the technology support your business processes?) and ask your vendor to cater the training to exactly what you want to accomplish. For our DPO users, don’t forget that Joe and Kevin can help you learn the functionality of your system as well.