Try a Thankathon.
We recently did a Phonathon with our board members calling donors to thank them for their recent Christmas donation. The caller merely said “thank you for your donation. We know the past year hasn’t been easy for many people and we just wanted to thank you for your loyalty to ABC Charity.”

Our donors were very impressed and sincerely appreciated the call. They were surprised and relieved that we didn’t ask when they were going to give again.

We moved the conversation on to “So what prompts you to give?” This is a personal validation for them and brings our relationship a little closer than it was before. It will be interesting to see the giving response in future initiatives.

We’re continuing it every month now.

Isn’t it nice when a friend just calls to say hi and asks you how you’re doing?

Let’s work on friendraising and the fundraising will take care of itself.

The phone works better than any other medium to secure regular gifts (in the UK we call them Direct Debits) and the average lifetime value of your regular donors is likely to be 6 times that of your credit card/cheque donors. They get used to giving and realise that they don’t notice the small regular commitment.

I do phone calls to my existing Direct Debit donors to ask them to increase their gifts, on a rough 18-month cycle. On average 40% of them agree to increase their gifts and on average each donor increases their gift by around £48 per year, or more. On Saturday we raised £20,000 in pledges with 16 students calling, thanks to these lovely people. On Sunday another £13,000 with 12 students calling. As I write tonight we have £8,000 pledged halfway through the shift. They are immensely loyal alumni, and giving by Direct Debit gives them a way to express it.

So, you have to fit the giving mechanism to the medium. And..how about anecdotal feedback on your programme and what people think about it? You won’t get many other chances to do research at a profit.