Guest Author: Liza Turcotte, Senior Consultant at Target Analytics, a division of Blackbaud, Inc. (APRA-Carolinas Sponsor)

Liza.Turcotte@blackbaud.com 

For all the annual giving folks out there…

Annual giving is one of my favorite fundraising things to talk about.  I “cut my teeth” running an annual giving program, so the topic has a special place in my heart when I work with Blackbaud’s clients.

It has a special place in nonprofit offices everywhere too.  It’s how you acquire donors, educate them about your essential mission, and hopefully grow their passion into a long, loyal relationship.  Some of your annual giving donors will even grow into major and planned giving, and that’s beyond exciting, isn’t it?

With that in mind, how can the data you have on hand (yours, ours, or otherwise) help your annual fund get more done for your organization?  Two of my recent clients are trying new tactics, and I thought I’d pass them along in case they’re helpful to you too!

• Are you mentioning planned giving as part of your annual fund mailings and communications?  If not, how can you work it in?  I am working with a client who asked us to take a custom look at their database to determine which prospects are likely to give through certain vehicles, like annual, major, and planned gifts.  We discovered a lot of prospects sharing high annual and planned giving affinity, and it turns out they have noticed planned giving communications inspire a lot of annual gifts.  They haven’t tried it “the other way” though, so they plan to use an upcoming mail solicitation to highlight a donor who is both an annual and planned gift donor to share the idea with a good audience for a blended message.

• When do you introduce your annual fund donors to higher touch cultivation?  Another client is thinking about this differently to address a gap between the experience of annual fund donors and major gift donors.  The pipeline hasn’t been as healthy as they would like—but their staff is small and the bandwidth is limited.  To get started they identified a small group of “up and coming” prospects who will make up a portfolio for the annual fund manager.  She will ensure these prospects get some personal outreach and start a higher-touch experience.  The idea is that when they are ready for a more significant relationship, the cultivation process will feel familiar and seamless.

And if you’re a little lost in the process or it’s time to revisit a long-standing approach, give us a call.  There are lots of ways Target Analytics can help you understand your donor base and potential (you can explore here).