“Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable.” - Peter Drucker You may recall that I had the good fortune of being a Peter Drucker fellow. I think of his teachings often, and I have even dedicated my upcoming book to him, “Fundraising Truths to Live By,” which should be out [...]
Think of the last time you went out for groceries, stayed at a hotel, rented a car, or downloaded an app. Chances are you received some kind of customer satisfaction survey. For-profit businesses understand that in order to retain customers and improve their offerings, they need to continuously collect and [...]
There’s no shortage of things the experts say fundraisers should be doing: handwritten notes, donor visits, thank you phone calls, bequest marketing; the list goes on and on. It can be overwhelming when you’re bogged down planning an event that your leadership team insists on, or when you’re simply trying [...]
What is it that drives donor loyalty? What are the determinants of longer term value? These are questions we’re often asked at Bloomerang and we’ve been working to develop measures that all our clients can use to track how well they are doing at bolstering future donor retention. We know [...]
The other day I received a solicitation in the mail from an organization I made a donation to a few years back. I have yet to make a second donation. Let me tell you the story. A few years ago, when I was finishing my MBA, one of my professors [...]
When my twins were toddlers and we played hide and seek they covered their eyes to hide. Or crawled under the living room rug. Not a great hiding place! They thought that if they couldn’t see me I couldn’t see them. As fundraisers, we often play an adult version [...]
Asking your donors why they are passionate about the cause is always a good idea. But how often do you ask them how they feel about your organization? It might be a better idea than you think. Roger Craver of The Agitator and DonorVoice fame has developed a simple donor [...]
As a project sponsor and advisory group member of the Rogare Fundraising Think Tank, I frequently travel to the UK to meet with the board and discuss its on-going research. As you can imagine, this involves interactions with many airlines, hotels, rental car companies, travel agencies, restaurants and other businesses [...]
If you've stayed at a hotel, rented a car or bought groceries sometime in the last year, you've probably received a customer satisfaction survey. For-profit businesses understand that in order to retain customers, they need to continuously collect and act on feedback. Unfortunately, the nonprofit sector's equivalent - donor surveys [...]
According to Dr. Adrian Sargeant, two-way interactions (i.e., the donor talks back to the charity) significantly improve retention. As it turns out, being able to express an opinion is worth a lot. Want to hold onto more donors? Ask them questions! Here are 23 questions to ask donors, prospects and, [...]