• Enroll
• Faculty
• Training Highlights
• Offerings
• Benefits
• Who We Are
• Editorial
• Contact Us
• Students & Graduates

The REAL Value of Direct Mail

July 2010

The traditional and frankly easy way to evaluate a direct mail program is to determine net revenue and the number of donors you kept, gained and lost.  A mature and well managed program will invest in acquisition, end the year with more donors and, if you are really good, achieve an overall higher average gift to boot.  Results are evaluated annually or semi annually to inform the next budget cycle.

Copley Raff encourages taking a longer and more detailed and sophisticated view of direct mail value.  While all of the above is obviously important, and are targeted by CRI's Leadership Mail services, we have to acknowledge that the "unexpected" bequest was likely from a longtime $25 direct mail donor.  The reality is that "even billionaires write $100 checks" and it is your job to find those high net worth donors in your donor file and to do something about them.

Stories abound about the gift officer who picked up the phone to thank a donor for his/her large mail gift or loyal giving and ended up with a new friend, a larger donor and sometimes a new major donor.  We ask, should the $2.5 million gift I was instrumental in securing from a $1,000 direct mail donor, five years after their first gift, be "credited" to direct mail?  Should the $1 million gift from a donor who was introduced to me by a $1,000 mail donor I befriended be credited in some way to direct mail?  And what about those bequests?  We would argue... yes!

A properly integrated development office has a staff person or persons whose job it is to make personal contact with targeted mail donors and to plumb the potential to elevate the donor to greater generosity and involvement.  If your mail program is not producing new donors and net revenue, after you factor in the cost of the staff person who is likely not expert at direct mail, you should consider bringing in a direct marketing expert, like Copley Raff to help turn things around.  An important dimension of the CRI engagement also aids in retasking and retraining staff to maximize your mail program through donor engagement.  We enable them to meet with donors and ask for larger gifts.  This is why we call it "development" and not "fundraising".

Please contact me for more information about our Leadership Mail services and see our mail clients .

__________________________________________________________________

Three Degrees of Separation is the Objective

There are lessons to be learned from the “great recession” that should inform strategies for development and fundraising.  It is now clear that the ever-profit-seeking whiz kids of Wall Street, and elsewhere, created this monster called “collateralized debt obligations” (CDO), which essentially repackaged and repackaged and repackaged home mortgages into what we now know are near worthless equities.

One key lesson – When there are too many degrees of separation between the actual transaction (Sally and Bob buying a house) and the reaping of value from that transaction (the CDO), you are in for trouble.  In the “good old days” when banks held their own loans, they forged lifelong relationships with customers like Bob and Sally, from which all parties benefited.   But once their loan has passed from investor to investor, far removed from the neighborhood loan officer who wrote it, Bob and Sally have become a transient transaction to the bank – and the bank has alienated them as future patrons.  That’s because, with 6 or 7 or 10 degrees of separation, the bank is no longer in the “relationship business” with its customers.

For development officers, the lesson is clear: organizations MUST stay in the relationship business with its donors to remain relevant and gain their long-term commitment.  When a donor makes a gift to your institution, be sure that your “thank you” note expresses the mission “value” of their gift along with your gratitude, and that your newsletter puts their investment into the context of your mission by demonstrating the direct value of their gift to those you serve. 

You asked the donor for the gift (1 ^st degree), your organization (the mortgage lender) got the gift (2 ^nd degree), and your organization will use it to benefit those you serve (loans to other Sallys and Bobs) (3 ^rd degree).  If, however, your benefiting constituent is 4 or 5 degrees removed because the gifted funds were designated for a capital campaign or an endowment fund… then you must work very hard to compress and finesse your message so it feels like no more than 3 degrees of separation.

In short, stay close to your donors - figuratively, rhetorically and personally .   If you’re not doing so, another organization is.  And when it is time to launch that campaign, you want to have the comfort of knowing that you and your organization have done all that you can to build collateral with your donors with the hope they will feel a debt of gratitude to your organization and an obligation to continue to support your mission. 

Larry G. Raff, MPH

_____________________________________

Posted: 17 Nov 2009 05:48 AM PST

Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I recently served as one of the faculty for PLAN MGO, an immersion training program for major gifts officers. The second day of our classes featured two New England donors who both have extensive experience as volunteer fundraisers. I captured some of their comments:

Russell and Steve responded to each other and questions from the audience

"As a volunteer I can open any door once. After that it's up to you, the staff to keep things moving forward."

"Insider tours of a lab, backstage, of the art curation workshop are very effective ways to engage donors and to reward fundraising volunteers like us."

"Use your volunteers to screen names. One organization got us together to review a list of 900 names. We knew about 260. Then they invited the 260 in to see who they knew. It was an effective technique."

"I think you major gift officers should be out of the office seeing donors 80% of the time. I know people tell me this is unrealistic. But, that's your job."

"People like to be asked for more than dollars."

"What's more important in fundraising - need or successful results? If you've done exciting bold things this year, then tell your donors, your investors. Then tell us why you need more support in the future. It's really a balance of both stories. If you have no successes and only needs, why would I give you money? Or, if you have only success but don't need any more money, why should I give you more? You must have future vision to excite donors. I would start with the impact of past investments and then talk about future needs."

"To be an effective fundraising volunteer I need to know the donor's hot buttons."

"We both know people who have had to reduce gifts this year. Respect their situation, respect their gift history. They'll be back if you stay with them in these tough times. Treat people with grace and dignity."

"I trust a good major gifts officer as a colleague with me on behalf of the cause. My job is to transfer my relationship with a prospective donor to the major gift officer."

Thanks to Russell and Steve for giving their time over lunch on a Saturday to speak to this group of major gift officers. PLAN MGO is to be congratulated on a great session.

www.majorgiftsguru.com

_______________________________________

Why Certification

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Charles Murray, the W.H. Brady Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute advocates for professional certification programs because they “would provide all employers with valuable, trustworthy information about job applicants. . . Here's the reality: Everyone in every occupation starts as an apprentice. Those who are good enough become journeymen. The best become master craftsmen.”

Mr. Murray, with his Harvard B.A. and a PhD from M.I.T. wants to level the playing field for all workforce specialists by actually testing their knowledge and competencies to do the work they are seeking.

In fact, certification programs have proliferated across a variety of professions in recent years, with as many as 1,600 catalogued in the Certification and Accreditation Programs Directory. The directory cites explosive population growth as a key factor for this growing demand. Where we once could determine the competence of professionals and purveyors of services through word of mouth, our massive global and technologically focused society now needs new ways of recognizing competence.

We at the Philanthropy Leadership Advancement Nexus (PLAN) know this all too well. As consultants, and in our recruitment practice, we are witness to both a growing need for competent, results-oriented Major Gift professionals and an inadequate pool of identifiable performers whose history and credentials tell a story we can trust. While there are excellent resources for the fundraising generalist, and short courses to acquaint major gift officers with conceptual and factual understandings, we found no evidence of an interactive, hands-on, problem- solving educational forum with a practicum component. Hence, we decided to design our own.

Confessions of a Social Media Phobe

October 23, 2009

__________________________________________

Recently reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

(July 13, 2009) http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/index.php?id=8853

At a recent Council for Advancement and Support of Education conference, experts predicted that the current economy is likely to affect the "gift pyramid". Bruce R. McClintock, chair of consulting group Marts & Lundy, predicted that the expectation for campaigns counting on 70 percent of their dollars coming from the top 1 percent of donors (those who give gifts of $1 million or more) may see that shrink to just 50 percent-- while the middle of the pyramid (donors who give between $100,000 and $999,999) is likely to expand from providing 4 percent of the dollars raised to 25 percent. This means a higher volume of donors will require cultivation and solicitation to achieve campaign goals. The golden age of reliance on a small number of megagifts is over.

Speakers at the conference were optimistic that fundraising offices able to adapt to the changing environment and redeploy their resources accordingly will continue to raise significant amounts of money. The experts agree, this is a time to re-engineer your operation and invest in the middle of the pyramid with more major gift officer skill and resources.

Development Delights

A. Business associates

B. Friends

C. Fund raising professional

D. Religious leader

2)  What percentage of Americans would allow " churches and other houses of worship" to seek federal funds for charitable work:

A. 10%

B. 25%

C. 50%

D. 75%

3)  According to a recent study by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, which group made more gifts exceeding $5 million:

A. Foundations

B. Corporations

C. Individuals

4)  Donation required to name the "grand stairway" in Carnegie Hall in 1987: 

A.  $100,000

B.  $250,000

C.  $500,000

D.  $1,000,000

A. $100,000

B. $250,000

C. $500,000

D. $1,000,000

Development Delights answers:

1-C, 2-D*, 3-C, 4-C*, 5-B*

*Source: Harpers Review