Have you seen this terrific infographic from my friends at Bloomerang.co? It’s about the findings from their $5 donor communications experiment and the findings are eye-opening.
This is a great activity, and something you should try. I often recommend organizations do some mystery shopping of their OWN organization. By making a contribution to your own organization you can find out what it feels like to be noticed, or not.
One of the findings in the Bloomerang experiment that really saddened me was seeing the stats about the number of thank you calls received for the gifts made. 0 calls for the 50 gifts.
In my trainings I often quote Penelope Burk’s research and this statistic is key if you want to retain your donors:
When a board member makes a thank you call to a first-time donor, the second gift from the donor is 39% higher AND they are still giving up to two years later.
With donor retention at its lowest in seven years, a simple phone call can make a huge difference.
I’m was even more saddened to find that two of the organizations sent no acknowledgment of any kind for a financial contribution.
As you head into the busiest fundraising time of the year, please, please take time to put into place an effective and authentic acknowledgement process. I promise you, the time you spend on the front-end to create a solid thank you system WILL cause people to stick around longer and even want to give you more next time.
