As fundraisers, we spend a lot of time thinking about reasons why a supporter would donate to our cause. Hundreds of hours of love, care and attention are poured into passionately expressing your charities vision, creating powerful adverts and compelling campaign appeals. Focusing on the core messages of your charity and how they relate to your target donors is the best way of securing new support. However, in order to secure that crucial second donation, or to convert ad hoc supporters into regular donors, we need to understand the reasons why donors stop giving.
At the beginning of 2016 there were 3.3 million registered limited companies in the UK. A good proportion of these companies, from the large national brand names to local micro-businesses, have charitable interests and budget to spend on fundraising partnerships – but currently only 2% of the charity sector’s fundraising income comes from businesses. Clearly there is room for growth, and a report from Good Values in 2015 indicated that 95% of fundraisers are optimistic about the potential from the corporate market. However, competition is fierce, relationships take time to nurture and securing a partnership can be hard work.
Although your charity, like so many others may receive large gifts from major donors, you likely also receive a large amount of your donations from those who are donating smaller amounts. And these smaller amounts are just as important as larger contributions. After all, a donor is a donor, regardless of the size of their gift. And, as they say, ‘it all adds up’.
The purchase, installation and implementation of a CRM system is only the beginning. Once your system is up and running, you are able to gather multiple types of data from a number of sources, but what do you do with it all? The results you receive from your fundraising CRM are directly dependent on fine-tuning your handling and processing of the data you’ve entered, as well as ensuring your staff are trained to work with the system.
In addition to helping charities manage donor contacts, CRM software for charities can also be used as a full membership solution, allowing for the management of crucial tasks like donor subscription management. Indeed, virtually all aspects of subscription management can be effectively handled within the CRM.
Today more than ever, it is vital for charities to get as much value as possible from their existing resources. Allocating the most appropriate fundraiser or consultant to the project is an important task that every charity faces.
It used to be that a singular, 'one-size-fits-all' approach was all that was required to get and keep donor attention. But today, donor management has become much more complex. These days, a donor can be reached just about anywhere.
Many charitable organisations are now using CRM software, or customer relationship management software to manage their fundraising efforts. In fact, using this kind of software has become ubiquitous in the fundraising realm over the past few years.
How well do you know your donors in terms of their age group? The age group of your donors is significant for a few reasons. Firstly, each age group donates a different amount of money to charities annually. Secondly, each group has their own collective ‘personality’. And thirdly, you will need to interact with each group differently in order to get the donations you need for your charitable organisation.
There are many ways that modern technology has revolutionised the fundraising industry. Today’s software allows charities to have a single central location for charitable events, teams, volunteers, security and fundraising. But whilst some may think that using this technology eliminates all of the guesswork from successful fundraising, the truth is that if you are looking to raise money for an organisation, you will still have to research and explore a number of strategies, one of which is using social media.