123. Back to the Basics: Annual Giving - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE
Listen to this episode
Overview
Here's the thing. We all have something to learn in this space, but sometimes we're too shy/embarrassed/bored to ask for a basic tutorial. We've been there🙋♀️🙋♂️ So Jon + Becky are launching a new Friday series called Back to Basics. We're going to be diving into the fundamentals of donor relations, operations, planned giving, events, campaigns, branding and several other general development topics. Why? Because we see a lot of young professionals joining our sector, as well as those who have left for-profit to chase the social good dream and just other Do Gooders looking to help their passion organizations. We want you trained quickly so you can do your thing on the front lines❤️ We'll talk strategy, structures, examples and our own success and failures. So tune in as we kick off our convo with Basic to Basics: Annual Giving.
“We believe annual giving is much more than trying to get people to give every year. It is a lifelong journey.”
Episode Transcript
Download Full Episode Transcript Here
Episode Overview
Annual giving is much more than trying to get people to give every year (3:30)
Look through the lens of transformation (4:00)
The goals of annual giving: the science and the art (7:50)
Flip the script with annual giving: buy into long term engagement (10:30)
Annual giving pro tips (11:45)
Do this, not that. (20:00)
FREEBIE: 24 Actionable Annual Fund Strategies from DonorSearch (27:00)
Powerful quotes
“Annual Giving is your base of the traditional donor pyramid.” -Jon
“The donor pyramid base is eroding. Retention is going down, so fewer people are involved in our missions.” -Jon
“We believe annual giving is much more than trying to get people to give every year. It is a lifelong journey.” -Jon
“Look through the lens of transformation. How can you enrich the journey over and over again.” -Becky
“How do you play the long game to get smaller gifts over time? Build to repeatability, that is where the power is in annual giving.” -Becky
“In this collision of time when information and content is everywhere, there is so much competition with your donor and their time and attention.” -Jon
“Look at your engagement strategy from a multi-level perspective.” -Becky
“There are people that you are moving that haven’t made a gift, and may never make a gift. What is the narrative you are driving with your storytelling?” -Jon
“Once you align on values, the gifts are going to follow.” -Jon
“We’ve been in this world for almost 20 years. There is a lot of untapped potential within annual giving.” -Becky
The Goals of Annual Giving
Acquisition
Retention
Upgrading Donors
Connect Based on Shared Values
Communicate Impact
Deepen the Relationship By Deploying Diverse Engagement Tools
Move Donors into Their Final Parking Lots
Annual Giving Pro Tips - Elevate your current program
Understand your donors - don’t lump them together!
Don’t lump all of your donors together when you are engaging and communicating with them. All donors are different individuals and they consume their information in different ways
Look at your mid-level donors.
There is a special space between the first gift and being personally managed in major gifts. Give this group a peek behind the curtain. Help them understand your vision and bring them with you where you are going.
Dive into communication segmentation.
Don’t just put together one annual appeal and hit send. It’s about being smarter about how we can leverage who they are and how we communicate to them. Partner with your Ops team to put your donors into different buckets where it makes sense.
Grow your email list. There are so many donors within annual giving, but through the virtual and social world, we can find a lot out about their values. From here you can create a really authentic conversation.
Make giving really simple.
Remove the friction to giving. You are trying to get a lot of people to engage with you and there are fantastic tools out there to help you. Giving should be easy and fun!
Monthly giving is your new best friend.
If you don’t have a robust monthly giving program, you are missing out. Think about monthly giving about repeatability. They’re not thinking about what is coming out of their bank account each month, they’re thinking about their impact. Make them feel like they are in community and show them the mighty movement they are a part of. Play smaller and build up!
Lean into understanding your donor’s journey.
What is typically step 1-20 of how you move through your organization. Oftentimes people skip steps, and you have to be ready for that. Understand the general flow to help you build campaigns for your annual giving pipeline.
👉 Do This, Not That.
DON’T send one fundraising letter a year, DO create a multi channel approach.
DON’T make a restrictive ask, DO talk about impact rather than the projects.
DON’T lump all your donors into one appeal and treat them equally, DO find ways to segment into groups.
DON’T leave the amount space blank on your pledge card, DO make personalized giving amounts.
DON’T just try to distribute something and forget to examine it, DO examine your research. Disrupt, grow, adapt, and repeat.
FREE Workshop! Write less and engage more, today!
Episode Sponsored by
