If you love your donors, set them free

Introductions

• Sonya Trivedy, Head of Fundraising

• Amanda Beamon, Head of Individual Giving

Today’s session

• Reviewing what you do• Some possible refinements• Customer care• A final thought• Questions and discussion – over to you

REVIEWSection 1

Traditional fundraising

• Typically, fundraising departments are organised into separate teams by discipline

• Working in silos• But does the donor support the THT

community fundraising programme, or do they just support THT?

A fundraising hierarchy

Chart produced by Moving Thinking

A fundraising hierarchy

• Why is it important?- Decisions are based on science, not

negotiation- It makes everything about the ROI –

which is why we are all here- And most importantly, it makes it about the donor, and their needs, as well as ours

On-going analysis• We all know this is important, but do we do

enough of it?• Review everything, every time you do it• Be sure to understand your donor base. The

chances are that it is changing, so we must change too

Surveys

Surveys

• Another way to do it is to constantly ask questions:- In appeals “What did you think of this

appeal? Please give us your feedback”- Include a short survey in your WelcomePack- When they call you- Use them as your case studies

But… listen with caution

Review your offering - is it out of date?

• Now that you know what you know, what needs to go?

• What else should you be doing to keep your donors interested (and giving)?

REFINESection 2

Share• DON’T RINGFENCE YOUR DONORS (within

reason!)• Look for opportunities to cross sell, it doesn’t

always mean putting them into another comms stream entirely

• Example: Supper Club event cross sold to traditional DM donors

• Don’t be afraid to ask – if they’re not interested, they’ll just say no

Feedback

• Tell them what you’re doing with their money, and celebrate your successes

• Walk For Life• Over to you - what examples of asking for

feedback do you have from your own charity?• Or can you think of any instances when you’ve

seen charities feeding back to their donors particularly well?

CUSTOMER CARESection 4

Say thank you, a lot

• Be nice, always. Just because you think of a donor as lapsed, doesn’t mean they do

• Lend a hand• Games Makers• We are currently rolling out customer care training across the whole organisation

Fundraising Standards Board

• Join the FRSB• Shout about your membership, and put the

logo on everything you do

Retention mailings

• Twice yearly mailings torecent donors with no ask• A simple thank you, and an update, and a great opportunity to cross sell• A chance to show thema nice, smiley face

AND FINALLY…Section 5

A little less conversation, a little more action

• If you don’t have the budget or the time to do what you really want, do something else instead

• If you can’t roll out an entire customer care programme right away, just pick up the phone and say thanks every so often

• Example: Customer insight for World AIDS Day

ConclusionsWhat we’ve covered today…• The importance of a hierarchy, and taking a

step back to review what you do• Share your data• Basic and easy ways to improve your customer

care• Some new things to try out

OVER TO YOUSection 7

Over to you

• Do you have any good examples of cross selling, or retention activity? We would love to hear about them

• Any questions for us?• And finally… a huge thank you for listening