More on Fundraising in Tough Times

Let's face it.  How to ensure adequate funding in the current economic climate is the topic on everyone's mind.  I recently read an excellent white paper written by Mal Warwick and Dan Doyle, entitled Fundraising in Tough Times:  A No-Nonsense Guide to Surviving in a Challenging Economy.

In this paper, Warwick and Doyle take an interesting and useful approach to weathering the economic storm we are facing by presenting 3 scenarios for economic recovery:
- Long-running downturn for multiple years
- A one-to-two year downturn followed by a steady recovery
- A recovery taking hold by mid-2009

And then presenting 3 potential fundraising strategies:
- A defensive stategy of reducing fundraising activities to save money
- A selective approach of focusing on key donors and activities relating to their cultivation
- An aggressive approach:  pulling out all the stops on increasing all fundraising activities   

Then they create a grid to show the intersection of the economic scenarios and the fundraising strategies.  You can try this on your own and perhaps predict the results they find.  The only fundraising strategy that won't hurt your organization in all 3 economic scenarios is the selective approach.  It is in fact, according Warwick and Doyle, the only one that "maximizes a nonprofit's chance of surviving, even flourishing, regardless of the direction the overall economy takes."

So, the question for your organization is how to implement this "selective approach" by focusing on key donor groups who are most likely to help your organization.  Of course, from a GiftWorks perspective, we note that most of the suggestions to implement this approach can be facilitated by using GiftWorks fundraising software.  Here are just a few of the suggestions Warwick and Doyle provide:

- "Segment your donor file using the most sophisticated tools within your reach."  Instead of sending a generic appeal to all of your prospective and current donors, segment the top percentage of these and send a very personal appeal which takes into account information you know about the donor.

- "Learn more about your donors."  Conduct a survey to find out more data about your donors and then capture it in your database.  Use this data for segmentation and to craft a highly personal appeals.  If your organization is a humane league and you know that your donor has adopted 4 shelties, you can use this to communicate in a far more personal way.

- " Step up your online fundraising and communications efforts."  Use email and your website to work for you and make it easy for your donors to give to your organization.  Use your online strategy to convert regular donors to monthly donors.

- "Cut costs the smart way."  Make sure the lists you are mailing to are of high value; save postage by learning more about and using nonprofit postal discounts; share printing costs with other, non-competing nonprofits.

I encourage you to read the complete report, found at the Mal Warwick Associates site here.