| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
Fundraising Letters Should Raise Donors, Not Donations, When Mailed to Strangers
Are you willing to spend $1.25 to raise $1? To lose money to make money? You should be. Most donor acquisition mailings never pay for themselves. They lose money. And rightly so. Acquisition letters (letters designed to acquire new donors) should be a vital part of your development program. Current donors fall away. Some lose interest in your mission. Some lose their jobs. Other leave the country. Some die. You need to be mailing fundraising letters to people who have never supported your cause in order to replace the donors who fall away every year through no fault of yours. But to be successful at acquiring new donors, you need to ignore one set of numbers and fix your eyes on another. The numbers to "ignore" are the costs of getting your first donation. According to James Greenfield, in his excellent book, Fund Raising (second edition), you can expect to pay anywhere from $1.25 to $1.50 to raise $1 with an acquisition mailing. That doesn't sound like a wise use of your resources, does it? But with acquisition fundraising letters, you need to have your eyes fixed on the lifetime value of your donor, not the short-term value of their first gift. You need to remind yourself (along with your board members, key volunteers and inexperienced colleagues) that your goal with acquisition mailings is to acquire friends, not funds. Let me illustrate. Let's say you mail a fundraising letter to a list of 10,000 strangers. These are people who have not supported your organization before but might. Assume that your costs for writing, design, production and postage come to $0.60 a piece. Your mailing costs are thus $6,000. Let's say you receive a 1 percent response rate. That's 100 gifts. Further assume that the average gift is $30 Your income is $30 x 100 donors, namely, $3,000. Your costs are: $6,000 Are you in trouble? No. Here's what you tell your executive director. "We gained 100 new donors. And up to 80 percent of them will give again, provided we follow up properly and solicit their gifts in the right way in the future." Each of these new donors effectively cost you $30 each (your net loss divided by total new donors). Are you willing to spend $30 today to raise a friend who will likely give your organization hundreds of dollars in gifts in years to come? You should be, provided you can remember that your goal with acquisition letters is to raise a donor, not a donation. My thanks go to Stanley Weinstein and his book, The Complete Guide to Fundraising Management (second edition), for his insight into the economics of donor acquisition. About the author © 2005 Sharpe Copy Inc. You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "About the author" message).
MORE RESOURCES:
Marketing - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Freebie Seekers? Turn Them Into Clients and Referrers - or Turn them Far, Far Away Many service business owners these days are "giving away" their business services - and then wonder why people aren't hiring them in droves. In the name of "marketing," business owners are providing way too much information for free. Keeping Marketing Simple / Ten Simple Steps 1. Business CardsIt is very important to market yourself via business cards. Profitable Marketing Programs (Part 1) Deciding whether a particular marketing program is profitable to your business is often more subjective than the accountants would have you believe. You should not only consider the direct revenue and costs associated with a marketing program, but you should also think about the long term impact on your business. Maslows Marketing Filter One of the basics of all marketing and advertising training is a teaching of "Maslow's needs pyramid". This pyramid shows the different motivators and needs in a person's life and how they are built one upon the other. How to Protect Yourself Against the Hidden Cost of Shipping to Trade Shows Trade Shows are lots of work, but they can generate lots of new business for their participants. In addition to the expense of staffing your booth, food, lodging, display, travel, etc. 51 Ways to Say Thank-you in a Fundraising Letter for a Non-for-Profit (Includes Examples & Samples) One of the hardest jobs in fundraising is crafting original thank-you letters. You want to be thankful. Is It Time To Revisit Your Marketing Strategy? Small & Mid Sized Business owners, have you revisited your marketing strategy lately? Your Marketing ROI? Some of you have spent this past year just trying to get by-maintaining the web site, sending out occasional press releases, attending various networking events. Yes, you've endured our slow-to-grow economy, but how far have you deviated from your marketing strategy in order to survive? And to correct your approach, what new marketing programs should you add and what should you do first?Simplify what seems like an overwhelming task by asking the following questions:1. Why Great Companies Survey: Martian Logic! If an alien civilization from Mars was planning a friendly takeover of our planet they would seek to make sure they understood our way of life and our way of thought.The only way they could accomplish their objective would be by asking questions which they could genuinely understand and then plan a strategy accordingly. Renting Your Mailing Lists to Others RESOLVING THE "PROPRIETARY" DILEMMA.. Knowing When To Charge More and To Charge Less More And MoreIt was notable that when I started my business twenty years ago, I came up with a certain "minimum" profit I wanted to make. Within a very short time I didn't feel that profit was enough and I gingerly started to charge more. Niche Marketing: The Affiliate Angle If you're just dipping your toes into the waters of Niche Marketing for the first time then Affiliate marketing is the ultimate low risk choice to get you started.Affiliate programmes cost nothing to join and present an almost infinite choice of products and services from which to build a niche business. Nine Advance Networking Skills for Seasoned Networkers A seasoned networker knows the real meaning of networking -- being organized, efficient, effective, and, of course, work the event to its fullest. Attending networking groups after so many years can tire and drain anyone's excitement. Find the Goldmine Within Your Business Doing a current customer breakdown can help you find the goldmine within your business by determining who you should be targeting in your marketing efforts in the future. There is a goldmine right there and you may or may not see it?it's your customer base! But is it all of them? No - definitely not. Earning the Right To Sell With Stats - 10 Steps to Greatness We could learn a thing or two from pro sports.Baseball players use stats to tell the story of their season and their career. More Scams! Do you Really Believe It? Quit spreading those chain letters, nothing is going to happen to you if you don't mail it to the next person. However, there is a better chance that if you continue mailing, you may have the FTC on you. Fertilizer For Your Grassroots Marketing Looking for a great way to drive traffic to your business? No million dollar ad budget last time you checked? The solution may be to harness the power of grassroots marketing.Grassroots marketing is simply taking the unconventional approach to getting people interested in what you offer. The M-Word (Marketing) Phase 2 Last month we looked at what you need to do before you spend money on marketing brochures, a website, advertising or even go out to network. During Phase 1, it's all about crafting your message. Stay in Touch with Leads and Get More Closes How many leads have come into your business since the beginning of time that never closed? That is a salient question. Who knows how many, but I bet there are a lot. Baby Boomers - Marketing to the Me Generation Unless you've been in a dimly lit cavern for the past several decades, you know that "Baby Boomers" is the collective name given to the 76 million people born in the United States between the end of World War II and 1964. Often described as the largest, most knowledgeable and most fiscally influential demographic group in American history, their motto could very well be: Where does a 750-pound gorilla sit? Anywhere it wants!Getting to Know ThemDubbed the "Me Generation" for their nonstop quest for self-gratification, many "Boomers" pride themselves on their counterculture values, for having led movements for social rights and environmental awareness. What The Heck Is An Eponym, And What Does It Mean For Your Brand? Today I've decided to share with you a new word that recently made a special appearance in my daily life: eponym. It is pronounced (EP-uh-nim) and I have to be frank, but I was somewhat at a loss when I saw it.
|
| Good Credit Loans | home | site map | School Bus Clothing | Florida Pool Heating |
| © 2006 |
