The Annual Giving Exchange

One of the biggest challenges in fundraising is acquiring new donors.  To do so, we develop creative direct mail packages and flashy e-mails, make countless phone calls, build predictive models, and design complex segmentation schemes.  We spend hours planning and often invest more money than we expect to get in return, at least initially.

But what happens when we’re successful at converting a prospect into donor?  We send them a thank you letter, maybe a thank you e-mail, too.  Perhaps we add them to our magazine or newsletter mailing list.  Then, next year, we code them as a LYBUNT (last year but unfortunately not this year) so that we don’t forget to solicit them again.

The days and weeks following a donor’s first gift are critically important to their relationship with your organization.  Promptly acknowledging gifts is always important, but when someone makes their first gift, it’s often their way of making a statement.  It could be their way of asking for your attention or their way of testing how well you’ll steward future gifts.  More than likely, though, it’s their way of joining a community, of becoming part of something larger than themselves.

So seize the moment and celebrate new donors.  Make sure your annual fund program has a special way (or ways) to welcome new donors into your community.  Start by customizing your thank you letters and e-mails to acknowledge first-time gifts.  Consider sending them a welcome package with small, inexpensive tokens of your appreciation such as a calendar, bookmark, or magnet.  Or ask your volunteers to reach out to them with a phone call.  Better yet, ask your new donors if they’d like to volunteer.

Then, next year, don’t look at them as a LYBUNT.  Instead look at them as an FTD – a first time donor.