15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked, Part I

Cultivating Major Donors? Just Add Data

The Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, despite a small fundraising team, joined the big leagues last year. Eager to make strategic use of a rapidly expanding base of supporters, the charity’s three-person development staff began using predictive-analytics software, harnessing the power of data in much the same way that large hospitals and colleges do.

So far, the move seems to have paid off: Retention of big donors increased by 5 percent in 2016, thanks in part to the software, officials say.

Previously, the organization lacked a system to identify and cultivate big donors who had previously given. “We didn’t have much of a formulated plan of attack,” says Connor Swan, a development associate who works with the group’s two fundraisers.

15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked

The Chronicle staff reports on colleges, hospitals, social-service organizations, and other nonprofits that took a risk and got results.

• 15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked, Part II
• 15 New Fundraising Ideas That Worked, Part III

Now, technology provides a weekly battle plan. Each Sunday, Mr. Swan receives an email from fundraising-technology firm Gravyty with a list of big donors likely to give again soon. An algorithm selects the names based on many factors, including their wealth and when they last gave. The fundraisers then make a point to try and call or email those donors that week.

Mr. Swan says the system saves fundraisers time, because the algorithm does research that was formerly done in-house and in a less systematic way. “It’s serving up the donors that would be the best use of our time.”

— Timothy Sandoval

For more, see the tool kit “How to Use Data to Advance Fundraising” in our Resources & Tools section, with advice from experts and case studies featuring PBS stations, colleges, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

When the Ticket Price Is Right

The Boston Ballet is taking a page from the airlines’ playbook. No, it’s not overselling performances and dragging patrons from their seats. But it is using sophisticated dynamic pricing to set ticket rates based on demand.

The same seat to a ballet will probably cost less on Wednesday or Thursday than it does on Saturday, affording people with open weeknights the chance to save some money — and the organization an opportunity to fill a seat that might otherwise go empty.

“It smooths demand over all of your available tickets,” says Meredith (Max) Hodges, executive director of the ballet. “So instead of turning people away at the doors, you’re satisfying every audience member.”

Dynamic pricing has helped increase both attendance and revenue. During the 2015-16 season, the ballet had its highest attendance in more than a decade, selling 75 percent of seats. It also recorded its best box-office year ever, netting $13.8 million. The 2016-17 season came in a close second.

Prices aren’t spit out by an algorithm. Instead, staff members carefully study reams of data, paying particular attention to the speed of ticket sales and the percentage of seats sold for each performance.

“If you get it exactly right, the performances will fill at exactly the same rate,” Ms. Hodges says.

— Nicole Wallace

News editor Megan O’Neil reports on how the Museum of Photographic Arts scrapped admission fees and saw revenue climb.

Fundraising Meets Virtual Reality

Henry Timms is frank in his assessment of the 92nd Street Y’s beloved 87-year-old building in Manhattan: The exterior is beautiful, but generations of use have left the inside tattered around the edges. As the organization started a conversation with donors about its future and a building update, Mr. Timms knew it would be difficult for them to see beyond that.

The Y’s solution: virtual reality, immersive technology that could show viewers the building’s potential. “It’s helped people take a leap,” he says. “You start off in the room that you know and love, and then 10 seconds later it’s transformed into what the future might look like.”

Donors are excited by what they see — for many, it’s their first experience with virtual reality, Mr. Timms says. He won’t talk about whether the presentation has boosted fundraising, saying only that “we’re seeing some promising signs.” But he is adamant that the technology is sending a positive message about the 143-year-old organization.

“There aren’t a lot of century-old institutions who are seen as cutting-edge,” he says. “All of us here are doing a lot of work at the Y around innovation and really reimagining the model of our work. It’s important that the tools that we use reflect the innovation in our programming.”

— Nicole Wallace

Senior writer Nicole Wallace explores how Charity: Water, Amnesty International UK, the Sierra Club, and others are using virtual reality in fundraising. See her article “The Next Best Thing to Being There.”

How a Match for Planned Gifts Paid Off

When the union of Concerned Scientists got serious about planned giving, an analysis of its estate gifts turned up this worrisome finding: The environmental group had known about relatively few of those gifts ahead of time.

Korn Design

That’s a big problem, says Laurie Marden, the organization’s chief development officer. If a group doesn’t know about intended bequests, it can’t thank donors, recognize their generosity, or update them about the group’s work — and it risks losing those gifts. “If you don’t know about the gift, it doesn’t really exist for you yet,” she says.

To bring more estate gifts into the light, the organization turned to a strategy more often associated with online giving: a matching campaign.

Ms. Marden and her colleagues persuaded a donor to issue a $1 million challenge that would raise awareness of planned giving. The donor agreed to give a $5,000 contribution for each new — or newly disclosed — planned gift made in 2016. The goal was ambitious. To meet the challenge would require 200 planned gifts. In the past, the organization received roughly 40 a year.

The Union of Concerned Scientists blew past its goal, reeling in 228 new and existing planned gifts — and the anonymous donor kicked in an additional $140,000.

— Nicole Wallace

In our Resources & Tools section, staff writer Timothy Sandoval offers a how-to guide for creating a planned-giving council.

Win Big With Smaller Fundraiser Portfolios

In 2010, the University of Washington launched a campaign to raise billions of dollars by 2020. But its fundraisers were asked to think small. After years of managing portfolios often stuffed with 250 or more donor prospects, they were told to focus on fewer people. Look at the quality of donors, officials said, not the quantity.

The university believes smaller portfolios have helped it raise more than half of the campaign’s $5 billion goal so far. Fundraisers can manage their time better and focus on donors who can make a big campaign gift, officials say. Here’s how the university did it:

• Supervisors worked with major-gift fundraisers to reduce their portfolios to no more than the 125 people whom they would solicit over five to 10 years. Other frontline fundraisers made similar reductions.
• Decisions on which donors to cut are guided by “scores” that factor in wealth, giving history, and participation in college activities, among other things.
• Today, fundraisers work quarterly with prospect researchers to update portfolios and clear out potential donors who didn’t work out. Prospects who’ve been dropped remain in the university’s database and can be returned to portfolios at any time.

Susan Hayes-McQueen, senior director of prospect management, research, and analytics, cautions that the university has had to fight the “hunger mentality.” Many fundraisers get anxious when they don’t solicit every potential supporter, but that’s a trap, she says.

Trust that spending time building relationships with fewer donors will pay off in the long run, she says: “The resources [of fundraisers] are limited; the skill sets are best used strategically.”

— Timothy Sandoval

A recent study suggests college major-gift officers don’t spend enough time talking to donors, thanks to portfolios crammed with too many prospective donors. Assistant managing editor Heather Joslyn reports.