How to Get Your Current Donors to Give You 40% More

What would it look like if you raised 40% more from your current donors?

Let’s run the numbers:

What if you are raising right now – say, $100k a year –  and it comes from a group of about 700 donors.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could raise $140k from those same 700 donors?

Or what if are you raising right now $1,000,000 – and it comes from 2000 donors each year.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could bring in $1,400,00 without a whole lot of extra work?

I like that math, don’t you?

So let’s make that happen for you!

Your current donors are where the real money is.

We all know that it is far easier to raise MORE from your current donors than it is to bust your butt to bring in new donors.

In fact, research studies show that it takes-7-12% more effort, time and money to bring in a new donor than it does to raise more from a current donor.

So this is a no-brainer, right?

(Tell your board members to stop focusing on finding new donors, ok? Point them in this direction instead!)

Master fundraising guru Roger Craver gave an amazing presentation this week – and he detailed this data and bowled us over.

He said:

You have less than 2% chance of a gift from a brand new donor who doesn’t know you.

You’ve got a 20-40% chance of a gift from a lapsed donor, and a 60-70% chance of a gift from an active donor.

So now we know why we are focusing here, right?

How to Get Your Current Donors to Give You 40% More?

Here’s how:

Call your donors to say thank you within 48 hours of the gift.

We are finding that the SPEED of your thank you matters far more than you think.

The best possible thing you can do is pick up the phone immediately when you get a gift.  And call the donor.

Sure, it’s nice if board members will do this job of phone calling donors.

But unless they will do it QUICKLY, I say go ahead and do it yourself.

Roger says:

The mere act of phone calling – even if you leave a message – hugely impacts your donor’s future gifts!

Remember, I am big on phone calls to donors – even if you might call it old-fashioned technology.

Why? Because phone calling is highly personal, a great tool for connecting and engaging.

AND you can get important unfiltered feedback immediately from your donor.

So what does it take to pull this off?

It is not so simple as picking up the phone!

I think it takes something deeper – an organization-wide commitment to devote time and energy to current donors.

You need a serious commitment to Donor Services. You need to designate someone to be in charge of this urgently important area.

If you do this you’ll have greater donor retention and less attrition.

That also means you’ll have greater Donor Loyalty – which is what my INSIDERS are learning in our webinar series right now.

You’ll have more money flowing in the door, and you’ll have to work MUCH LESS HARD to bring it in.

It’s really up to you and your organization – whether you get the most out of your fundraising program.

Roger says:

YOU and your org directly determine whether donors stay or leave you!

You’re much more in control of how much money your donors give you . . . than you think!

BOTTOM LINE:

How are phone calls working for you?

Who is doing them? What kind of results are you seeing?

What’s your experience like?

Leave us a comment and let us know!