Publisher and senior reporter Naomi Schalit outlines the strategy behind her news site's recent end-of-year fundraising campaign. Lightning Round presentation at INN@IRE Day 2014, Investigative Reporters & Editors conference, San Francisco, June 26.
#INNDay14 - Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
1. Planning and running a successful
end-of-year fundraising campaign
Naomi Schalit
Publisher and senior reporter
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting
www.pinetreewatchdog.org
3. MCPIR EOY 2013 CAMPAIGN:
700 letters sent
@ 350 had personal notes
140 gifts = 20% response rate
Total gifts: $55,293
Average gift: $394 (includes one gift of $3K, two
@ $2500, 6 @ $1000
104 gifts had notes on solicitation – 74.3%
Gifts from:
Lapsed donors: 16 (11%)
New donors: 71 (51%)
Renewals: 47 (34%)
Board: 6
List yield, new donors:
ACLU: 14
Constant Contact: 17
MPBN: 8
COSTS:
Development temp staff and consultant $9961
Printing, postage, mail merge $966
_____________________________________
__
Total variable expenses $10,927
Cost per dollar raised: 19.7
cents
National average CTRD 20 centsThe Better Business Bureaus (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance Standards for Accountability
indicate that for all non-profits, fund-raising costs should not exceed 35 percent
(i.e., 35 cents to raise one dollar).
4. Crucial element for our
successful campaign:
A matching grant.
Get one.
We love the folks who gave us ours.
5. Crucial element #2: lists.
This may take a form of guerrilla marketing.
Hmm, I wonder where I
can find that Friends of
King Kong donor list?
7. Crucial elements numbers 3&4:
#3: Get a
respected local
philanthropist --
whom everybody
loves -- to sign and
write notes on lots
of your appeal
letters
#4. Have your board
members write
personal notes on as
many appeal letters as
possible (do this at a
board meeting)
8. Other things to do during
pre-formal campaign stage:
• Address lookup for prospects
• Clean-up of your current lists
• Mailing elements design and
printing (brochure – testimonials –
remit envelopes – custom notepads)
9. Timeline for an EOY campaign
August
• Development committee meets to review
proposed timeline and gift table, brainstorm
components of the campaign’s case statement,
determine prospective campaign chair.
• Begin to identify prospects for leadership
gifts and segment from prospect mailings.
• Begin effort to secure campaign chair.
September
• Secure campaign chair.
• Campaign staff meets with Development
Committee chair to review plans and discuss how to
best make use of Development Committee and
board of directors members
• Prepare first draft of case statement.
Staff/devcomm review.
• Organize major gift solicitations – review names
and determine who solicits which person? Not
only staff/board.
• Develop talking points and solicitation strategies
• Make assignments for major gift prospects for
October Board meeting.
October
• Finalize mailing lists and case statement.
• Generate letters for prospects and lapsed
donors.
• Working board meeting at which board
members sign notes to go along with letters.
• Provide support to Campaign Chair, Board, Staff
members and friends with their solicitation
assignments.
• Draft end-of-year (EOY) letter for renewing donors.
• Send prospect and lapsed donor mailing last
week of October/early November.
• Development committee meeting – updates
10. Timeline for an EOY campaign,
continued
November
• Provide support to campaign chair, board members, staff and friends with their solicitation assignments.
• Send EOY letter to renewing donors; include, where possible, personal notes.
• Review gifts from prospect and lapsed donor mailing and consider follow-up strategies.
• Organize and design e-solicitations.
December
• Report progress to date to Board members (early December).
• Provide support to chair and board members with their solicitation assignments.
• Follow up with prospects, as appropriate.
• Integrate e-solicitations with EOY process.
January
• Analyze results of EOY solicitations.
• Adjust gift table for challenge as needed.
• Develop solicitation plans for remainder of Challenge period (through August 2014).
• Develop spring renewal gift plans.
11. Making the
case Don’t forget:
1. On-line readers appeal
2. Quick acknowledgment
3. Celebrate!
Maddy’s list: 60 mailed; 10 new donors, 2 lapsed donors, two gave $1000; 1 @$250; 8 @$100; 1 @$50
This year much lower variable costs because we’ll be doing in-house
Strategies for getting lists (though you can also buy lists) –
1. go to events where you’ll get a book with donor names in it (annual dinners, etc)
2. have your donor friends give you lists they collect on your behalf
3. Political campaign donors 4. Google