Unlike any other year, 2020 will hopefully go down in fundraising history as the year that finally broke our addiction to big volume (regular giving) acquisition. The year that forced us to go back to thinking about the ‘value’ each supporter can bring to our organisation rather than the ‘volume’ they offer.
The year that a pandemic forced face-to-face fundraising off the streets.
In good news, many organisations had already been developing and implementing multi-channel acquisition strategies to balance and mitigate risks that a single, high-volume acquisition channel like face-to-face fundraising brings.
They’d been blending telefundraising, direct mail and digital campaigns alongside their face-to-face programs and going deeper into their existing supporter base to convert or reactivate supporters into their regular giving programs. They’d been focused on the lifetime value of their supporters, not just the number of regular giving supporters they have.
To help manage the shortfalls (and risk!) created by a focus on volume–driven regular giving channels; it is helpful to get the following programs in place as a priority:
- Conversion programs – do a deep dive into your database for direct mail donors, event participants or raffle buyers who will convert to regular giving;
- Reactivations programs – identify lapsed supporters and lapsed monthly givers who will come back on board to support your organisation;
- Digital Lead Acquisition – switch on a digital lead conversion program which can deliver a cost per acquisition that rivals face–to–face and delivers a higher first year return on investment.
Any, or all of these programs will contribute to the overall value of your regular giving program while at the same time bringing in strong volumes of new regular givers. There’s no better way to start 2021 than with a value rather than volume-based strategy for your regular giving program.
Need some help with transitioning from volume-driven to value-driven regular giving? The team at Raisers Hub can help, book in a free 15-minute discovery call to find out more.