Re-blog from Nonprofit Times
Fundraising consultant Jennie Thompson, Joe Manes of A.B. Data and Bryan Terpstra of LW Robbins offered 30 ideas during a 60-minute session during the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Fund Raising Day in New York 2011.
• “A customer who buys a quarter-inch drill really wants a quarter-inch hole.”
• Let them know you love them.
• Audit and improve acknowledgments.
• The “Why” is more important than the “What.”
• Be prepared for an emergency.
• Show donors the “before” and the “after” in fundraising letters.
• Telling a story in your fundraising communications.
• Don’t be “Pillar Appeal” dependent.
• Step up recruitment efforts to keep your monthly sustainer program growing.
• Show ’em that you know ’em.
• Brainstorm ideas for donor-involvement opportunities.
• Capture more customer-service information.
• Nothing is more powerful than the urge to change another person’s copy.
• Start planning now for November and December.
• Test new universes to spike prospecting response rates.
• Find a reliable “tone checker” to read communications before they go out.
• Updated copy or Frankenstein copy?
• Test a high-impact “budget shortfall” mailing to loyal donors.
• Check headlines/subheads to be sure you use the most powerful words possible.
• Test teaser vs. non-teaser.
• Try a package-rotation strategy in acquisition.
• Read, shop, buy like supporters do.
• It’s only $5.
• Test lower gift arrays to keep donors giving.
• Address letter/email/communications to one person.
• Mine your lapsed donor file.
• Mail your best appeals to monthly sustainers.
• Emphasize benefits, not features.
• Audit data orders.
• Hygiene matters