AHP Annual International Conference October 2-5, 2013 HARNESSING THE POTENTIAL OF MID-LEVEL GIVING Mandy Walsh Development Director, Oakville Hospital Foundation Nicole Nakoneshny Vice President, Strategy & Assessments and Editor, Philanthropic Trends Quarterly, KCI (Ketchum Canada Inc.)
Middle Child??
Misconceptions of the Traditional Model
Revenue Gaps Are we leapfrogging from annual to major gifts? Is this creating unrealistic expectations by our Boards? Are we missing financial potential from our middonors?
Reframe the Connectors The Critical Importance of Mid-Donors Annual Donors Critical to your Pipeline Major & Legacy Donors
The ultimate goal Maximize the potential of all donors.
The solution
Importance of Mid-Level Donors Think beyond the transactional activity of our donors Dynamic and diverse group of donors Engaged in our organizations in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons Manageable numbers Build stronger and longer lasting relationships
Who are your mid donors? What do they look like? How do you find them? Once you ve found them, what do you do with them? What is their impact?
Impact of Mid-Donor Focus 1,000 Donors of $75 $75,000 1,000 Donors Grow their annual support to $200 $200,000 1,000 Donors giving $200 Pledge a 5 year commitment $1 million
What Are We Missing? Possibly the strongest segment in your file Concrete focus and investment to create a strategy to upgrade and retain your mid-donor Ability to motivate passion participation in this segment Good pool for mobilizing peer-to-peer fundraising activity Often untapped both in terms of growing their investment and ensuring they don t lapse
Discussion What do they look like? How can I find them? How do I appeal to them? Once I find them, what do I do with them? What impact will they have?
Who are they really? Attracted to your mission. Gift size dependent on your organization. Do not expect recognition. They typically do not respond to recognition items (plaques, trinkets). Mid-donors are sensitive about what they can and cannot give. Income is not unlimited. They do not want to be pressured to give more but will do so when a project or offer inspires them. Loyal pattern of giving: 3-5 years giving in increasing amounts Age range between 40-55 Affinity such as volunteer or event attendance Monthly donors should not be lumped in with mid-donors they are not the same people
How Do We Find Them? Using the DBA Model: o Donation History - look for an increase in the level of donation and/or constant practice of donation (amount, frequency, etc.). o Behaviour or approach is the most important element: at what level and how they communicate with you outside of their donations? By correspondence? By subscribing to your newsletter or attending your events by buying a ticket, or by becoming a member of your organization? o The address is obvious: we need this basic information to join.
Segmenting Our Mid-Donors? Propensity (likelihood to give) Capacity (ability to give defined by giving history, wealth scores, etc.) Success of building this pipeline of support is heavily reliant on extracting the right pool of donors Define a segment (i.e. 4+ years and $100 or more each gift)
Cultivation and solicitation Sweet spot between broad based and one-to-one cultivation/solicitation. Finding ways to automate some of the high touch of major gift fundraising programs. Some automated cultivation but back to basics with this group, including things like live postage, insider info, Development Officer s name and direct phone number). Perceived access to leadership, for instance webinar with a researcher, Chair of the Board. Receive annual giving mailings but personalized, hand written notes from their assigned Development Officer. Great spot to use volunteers or institutional experts i.e. physicians, musicians etc.
Case for Support Current standard is two levels of cases - annual and major gifts Case offerings must also be created and tailored to mid-donors Special Mid Donor Campaigns with Mini-cases to focus their giving around a particular amount (i.e. $200, $500) and project (i.e. a piece of equipment or research grant).
The missing middle.
The missing middle. 13,797 donors give less than $200 per year, which is 90% of donors.
What if we could grow the giving of 1,000 donors from an average $75 per year to$500 per year?
What if
Investing in a Mid-Donor Program Development Officer portfolio of 500-600 prospects Pro-forma for Boards will increase their interest; many volunteers would see themselves among this group Written strategy and business case to invest in this group Performance measurements
Mid-Level Giving Program [1] ASSESSMENT month 1 [2] IDENTIFICATION month 2 [4] ACTIVATION onwards [3] CONSTRUCTION months 2-4
Oakville Hospital Foundation GTA West 310-bed community hospital Population 195,000 Active donor base of 10,000 22,894 gifts last year Average net revenues of $12 million/year
Assessing the Need Three goals: Develop closer relationships Build capacity for future giving Increase funds raised Range $500-$5,000 30% of volunteer giving in this range [1] ASSESSMENT [2] IDENTIFICATION [4] ACTIVATION [3] CONSTRUCTION
Identifying Who & When [2] IDENTIFICATION Prospects in: Direct Response Gala Event Tribute Giving Gen X Major Gift Prospects [1] ASSESSMENT [4] ACTIVATION [3] CONSTRUCTION
Constructing the How & Why [1] IDENTIFICATION [2] ASSESSMENT [4] ACTIVATION [3] CONSTRUCTION Our Plan Tailor mid-level strategy into each program Tactics with minimal cost Partner with volunteers where appropriate What are the benchmarks & marketing tools
Activation [1] ASSESSMENT [2] IDENTIFICATION [4] ACTIVATION [3] CONSTRUCTION
Do s Lessons Learned Stick with the forum they like choose Personalize where ever possible Skip the jargon Get to know as many as possible Don ts Compare apples to oranges Let your program silos get in the way Get bogged down in what if s Spend their gift on getting to know them & thank yous