Giving in the United States is changing. The share of Americans who contribute to charity is dropping. In 2000, 66 percent of households made donations, but by 2014, that figure was just 56 percent. The decreases were across the board, regardless of donors’ age, income, or level of education.
Many nonprofits face a fundraising crossroads as Americans’ support for charity erodes. In this special report, the Chronicle examines the problem and considers what has to change.
That makes for volatile fundraising, says Mark Rovner, a longtime consultant and founding principal of Sea Change Strategies. Nonprofits, he says, have to be adaptable.
“Whatever worked 10 years ago might or might not work today,” Rovner says. “And whatever works today might or might not work in five years.”
How should fundraisers continue to bring in the money their organizations need? Experts shared the following advice:
Experiment — and evaluate.
Nonprofits need to test new fundraising approaches, says Michal Heiplik, an official at WGBH and executive director of the Contributor Development Partnership, a group of public broadcasters who share fundraising information. “Programs that usually do well are those that are doing a little bit of everything and are extremely flexible in the way they budget and fundraise.”
Just as important, he says, groups need to carefully evaluate those tests. It’s not enough to just look at the dollars that come in, Heiplik explains. Organizations must also examine costs. “Net income is the king.”
Fundraisers should also scrutinize longstanding fundraising efforts. “Don’t be afraid to discontinue things,” he says. “Just because we’ve done them for 10 years doesn’t mean we should do it this year. Let the data make the decision.”
Demonstrate impact.
Donors want to know their gifts make a difference.
But it can be tricky to explain how a $25 donation matters, especially at a large institution. Fundraisers at the College of William & Mary talk about the collective power of gifts of $250 or less — almost $3 million last year.
“That’s a different proposition than saying to someone, ‘Your $25 specifically paid for this five-minute segment of this course that’s taught on Mondays,’ " says Matthew Lambert, vice president for university advancement.
Take a long view.
With a smaller share of Americans giving, attracting new donors is expensive. That makes it all the more important for a nonprofit to persuade its supporters to keep contributing.
Yet when nonprofits evaluate sources of new donors — maybe a direct-mail list or advertisements on a social-media network — they often focus exclusively on first-year results, says Chuck Longfield, chief scientist at the fundraising software company Blackbaud.
To make an informed decision, he says, groups need to look at how many supporters gave again in years two and three. “If you got a great response rate in your first year and nobody came back the second year, that list was horrible.”
Track passion.
Determining which supporters love an organization can help fundraisers spend their time and budget on donors most likely to have a long relationship with the charity, Longfield says.
It’s easy for major-gift officers to assess potential donors’ interest through phone calls or in-person visits. With a little creativity, he says, fundraisers can suss out their most enthusiastic direct-marketing supporters as well.
For example, if a group calls new donors to say thank you, many won’t answer or will try to get off the phone quickly. The people who talk at length about the organization’s work are signaling their love of the nonprofit, Longfield says. The same goes for donors who write answers to open-ended questions on surveys or who, when moving, call to give a charity their new address.
Fundraisers can take steps to build stronger ties with those donors, Longfield advises. He says tracking can be as simple as a field in the database where fundraisers can rate a donor’s level of interest on a scale of 1 to 3.
Look beyond wealth.
Fundraisers often spend a lot of time chasing the wealthiest people in their database, says Bret Silver, former chief development officer at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. They ignore the not-quite-so-rich people who say, “I love you, Institution X. Pay some attention to me,” he says. And then they’re surprised when the big gifts fail to materialize.
“Don’t just go for the richest individuals,” Silver says. “Go for the ones who care the most.”
