Question of the Month
For what do the initials "DMA" stand? Be one of the first ten people to answer this question correctly by clicking here, and be entered in a drawing for this month’s prize, the Lake Champlain Chocolate Sampler!
Numerous nonprofits, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and other mailers have called upon Congress to pass postal reform in recent years. In this term, Congress has passed bills in the House and Senate that would relieve the Postal Service of some of its unnecessary fiscal obligations and place limits on the amount of rate increases. There are differences in the two bills, however, and the conference committee will not undertake a serious effort to develop a clean bill until after the November elections. Watch this space for more information on this important fundraising issue.
In the last decade, fundraising has become increasingly web-based. While there are efficiencies to be found in this approach, the human touch—what draws people to care about a charity in the first place—can be lost. Keeping things personal is important to keep people emotionally invested in the cause. Some New Media Guidelines for Fundraising include…
- Update your website. Does your site look like it’s ready to “party like it’s 1999”? Sites need to be updated regularly to give repeat visitors a reason to keep coming back, or they will lose interest in the site—and maybe in your organization.
- Embrace the blogosphere. Giving your constituents a place to share their stories with each other and the world can make the cause more personal than any letter.
- Go retro. It may sound crazy in this e-mail era, but a paper newsletter has almost become a novelty, and is worth trying occasionally to lift interest and responses.
Direct mail as a stand-alone effort is no longer the direct marketing force that it once was, in either the commercial or nonprofit sectors. However, it still has a role in brand-building. In the new media era, nonprofit fundraising has to take an integrated approach, like successful commercial marketers do. Sales—and fundraising—campaigns have to use all of the media available to them to be successful. That means using the mail selectively, not broad-based; using the phone to bring home a personal touch, and providing efficient on-demand giving portals on-line. Using these tools in an integrated campaign can produce the best results. Heritage has experience in all of these areas, and can help your organization design just the right campaign to reach your donors as effectively as possible.
Changes in the regulations on Investment Retirement Account (IRA) withdrawals are expected to prompt up to $400 million in charitable donations over the next two years. Individuals may now give up to $100,000 a year to charity through a direct payment from their IRA, if the donor is at least 70.5 years old. The negative side of some contribution rules is that noncash gifts are now going to require stricter scrutiny in terms of their value in deductibility terms. Also, individuals who claim deductions for even small cash gifts must retain canceled checks or receipts to prove their gifts.
Approximately 12,400 children will be diagnosed with cancer this year. To promote increased awareness the National Children’s Cancer Society (N.C.C.S.) held the fifth annual Walk for the Children, at Cricket Field in Forest Park in St. Louis last month. This signature event brings together childhood cancer patient and their families from across the country. This was a fun-filled, family-oriented walk to benefit thousands of children and their families who are in need. This year’s walk was great! The weather wasn’t the best but almost 350 people attended this year! [Get the full story...]
More and more on our residential campaigns, we are hearing donor complaints of, “You call me too many times,” or “You’ve called me X number of times in the past week,”…sometimes these statements are prefaced with, “Put me on your do-not-call list.”
Our research indicates that some donors may be looking at their Caller ID and using only the number of times the campaign name or number appears in their count. Our phone records are indicating that while a number of attempts have been made, not all were contacts. The attempts were resulted as a ‘not-in’, ‘no answer’ or an ‘answering machine’.
The Heritage Company goes to great lengths to minimize the number of calls made to a donor by maximizing efforts to find the proper time frames and call windows to reach donors at a convenient time to speak with them on behalf of our nonprofit partners.
Challenges are opportunities…The Heritage Company is committed to seizing the opportunity to improve communication in the least-invasive way with donors so as to retain them long-term. We continue to present the donor with the option of being called once a year rather than lose them to the do-not-call list. We are testing using different names and numbers that appear on Caller ID, as well as testing the use of taped messages in conjunction with a live caller.
Tests of new ideas and fresh approaches to the challenges of Caller ID are ongoing and can only serve as opportunities to continue to find ways that enhance the relationship between the donor and the organization.
The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) was honored at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC). MSAA was recognized for its poster, “A Needs Assessment Survey of MS Patients and Care Partners” which received the Berlex Award for the Best Poster in Patient and Family Education in Multiple Sclerosis. [Get the full story...]
Did you know…
- 77% of charitable contributions in the US come from individuals (Giving USA).
- Veterans Day was originally known as “Armistice Day” in honor of the day that the fighting ended in World War One, and it was not legally moved to the current date of November 11 until 1978.
- The average percentage of disposable income that families give to charity in the US is 2.2% (Giving USA).
- The Red Cross received $2.07 billion for relief efforts for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and has spent 85% of those funds on relief.
- Half of American adults now say it is easier to give money than time to a charity (Giving USA).
Nonprofits spend a significant portion of their resources—time and money—on reporting requirements. How much? According to a recent Rand study, compliance reporting required the commitment of 11 percent of a typical nonprofit’s annual budget. One nonprofit studied devoted half of its staff time to collecting data for the organizations who funded them. Among Rand’s recommendations were training all staff on compliance issues and having a system that files data consistently for easier access and reporting. What could your organization accomplish if you had 11 percent more time for your staff?
Think of your next special event and a 1-800 number tie in or a mail/phone drive to encourage participation. In one national organization, the phone is the primary tool to push their major signature event and drive participation to the site. Once at the site, the follow-up mailings and work is done by the office personnel. With just a 50 percent participation or show-up rate, the results are spectacular. Interested? Contact your account executive or contact ME for more information.