In this issue:

Editor's Note
Register Now! Exclusive Seminar Scheduled

Special Report
Contributions To Higher Education Up 3.4 Percent

Fundraising Tips
1. Online - Easy ways to improve email response
2. Capital Campaigns - Be careful with the annual gift
3. Multi-Channel - Integrating all of your fundraising

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Editor's Note

Register Now! Exclusive Seminar Scheduled

The NonProfit Times and The DMA NonProfit Federation will present a half-day seminar by direct response copy writing legend Herschell Gordon Lewis that he's calling "Words As Weapons: Motivating Or Losing Donors."

The session will be June 10 at the Nonprofit Federation's offices in Washington, D.C. Here's the kicker -- Seating is limited to the first 45 paid registrants. It's a personalized session.

Herschell's syllabus includes:

1. Commonly used no-octane words
2. Why donors disappear
3. Why "We need help" is obsolete
4. The pros and cons of "freemiums"
5. How to maximize the power of donor-recognition
6. How to get email appeals to work
7. Quick hands-on practice
8. Questions and arguments

The costs is $299 for Nonprofit Federation members and $350 for non-members. (You'd have to pay him thousands of dollars if he wrote the copy for you!)

To sign-up, call (973) 394-1800 or email to me at ednchief@nptimes.com

Paul Clolery
Vice President/Editorial Director

Contributions To Higher Education Up 3.4 Percent

Contributions to colleges and universities in the United States increased by 3.4 percent during 2004, buoyed by a spike in gifts made by individuals, according to an annual survey by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE) at the RAND Corporation.

Nearly half of the $24.4 billion raised in 2004 was from individuals, a 9.7 percent increase compared to 2003. Though alumni giving is the traditional base of higher education giving, representing between a quarter to almost a third of all voluntary support, alumni giving only grew by 2 percent in 2004. Individuals other than alumni drove personal giving up.

(Click here for full report)

Fundraising Tips

1. Online - Easy ways to improve email response

In the direct mail business, sometimes as many as 90 percent of prospective donors didn't even open the envelopes. Yet, very little time and effort was put into testing outer envelopes. The same is true with email.

According to Rick Christ, president of npadvisors.com in Warrenton, Va., and a contributing editor of The NonProfit Times, many of your emails aren't being opened. With email there are four possible reasons:

1. It isn't being delivered: It's vital that you make every possible attempt to keep email addresses accurate and current. When emails from past donors bounce, you need to reach out to them via postal mail and ask them for an updated address. Gift receipts are a great, low-risk way to ask for email addresses.

2. It's ending up in their spam folder : Don't be too cute with your content or subject line. Your donors are using ever-more-devious ways to cull spam from their inbox. Test your letters with a group of insiders to make sure each issue is being delivered before you send it to the whole list.

3. Your subject line is vague, too-cute, or suspicious: Again, don't be too clever. The key word or words of your issues (animal safety, kidney research, etc.) should probably be in the subject line of every email.

4. Your "from" address is suspicious or unknown: Christ explained that he used to get emails from the "Legislative Information" office of a nonprofit. Unfortunately the "from" address was just "LegInfo" and it looked like junk. Why not use a short form of your organization's name, like "Kidney Assoc." as the from address? Better yet, test two different "from" addresses and see which one produces the better results.

You can contact Rick Christ at rick@npadvisors.com

2. Capital Campaigns - Be careful with the annual gift

If your organization is in the midst of a capital campaign, encouraging donors to move their annual gifts to the building initiative can be tempting. But assess the move carefully before encouraging it, according to Matthew Beem, CFRE, president of Hartsook Essential in Independence, Mo.

Consider the following, Beem said:

A donor has given $2,500 a year to your organization for more than a decade, so it's no surprise she's stirred by the vision of even greater community impact shared at your campaign-awareness meeting. She calls and tells you she will pledge the $12,500 necessary to name a room in your new building after a loved one. But there's a catch: The only way she can make the gift is to convert her $2,500 annual gift into a capital-campaign pledge payment for each of the next five years.

On the surface, such a move is tempting. The gift is easy to secure and boosts your campaign total.

Beneath that attraction, however, lie at least two risks, Beem said. Most obvious is the danger of being unable to replace her annual support with other philanthropic dollars. Beyond the immediate need to replace annual support is the risk of losing the donor after the capital pledge is fulfilled.

Encouraging donors to completely stop their annual support in favor of a multi-year capital campaign pledge sends a dangerous message: Building support, which has a finite priority, is more important that annual support, which is infinitely critical. Sending such signals could lead donors to conclude your need for their support ends with the fulfillment of their capital campaign pledge.

There are ways to avoid the risk of donors trading annual fund gifts for capital campaign commitments, Beem said:

• Conduct an integrated campaign by including operating dollars in your campaign total.
  
  
• Solicit an integrated gift, such as one that includes a multi-year annual-fund pledge and a capital-campaign pledge, or an outright capital-campaign gift and a deferred gift commitment. The key is to meet the donor where they currently give and seek to expand the size and scope of their philanthropy.
  
  
• Encourage the donor to consider a longer pledge payment period, keeping the total annual contribution constant and retaining a portion of it for annual support.
  
  
• Demonstrate the organization's current and increased future need for operating dollars.
  
  
• Introduce a cumulative giving recognition society that honors donors for their total support of your organization and encourages them to stretch their giving beyond the capital campaign.
  
  
• Communicate frequently and in every medium how important annual support is to your organization's present and future.

You can contact Matthew Beem, CFRE, president, Hartsook Essential at matt@hartsookcompanies.com

3. Multi-Channel - Integrating all of your fundraising

Each message your nonprofit sends to potential donors needs to explain the good work your organization is doing, why the donor should help sponsor your work, and how the donor should take the next step to volunteer or send a contribution.

According to Joel Zimmerman, Ph.D., director of Consulting Services

Creative Direct Response, Crofton, Md., if you use more than one medium to communicate, the messages will either reinforce each other and increase the success of your campaign, or they will fail to reinforce each other and thereby diminish the effects of all.

Think of the many ways your potential donors hear about your organization: signs on walls, advertisements, printed brochures, mailed appeals, telephone calls, newsletter articles, word of mouth from Board and staff. "Integrated fundraising" means your nonprofit weaves together its various fundraising strategies, messages, and campaigns so they all reinforce each other.

According to Zimmerman, repetition is a powerful marketing tool that motivates a hesitant donor to make a contribution; but when successive messages confuse a potential donor, or present him with additional choices to ponder, then multiple asks may actually decrease the chances of getting him to donate.

Integrated fundraising is particularly difficult when multiple people on your staff release messages. You might represent different activities within the nonprofit but you are all on the same team, so make sure your messages work together effectively. Even if they are for different programs, messages can reinforce each other by using the same logo, the same byline, and a consistent theme for all of your organization's appeals.

To avoid clashes, keep your staff working harmoniously and keep communications active.

Use cross-team reviews not only to improve messages, but to keep people up-to-date on what your nonprofit is sending out to the public. Circulate samples of all your fundraising materials to your staff, volunteers, and Board members so they know, and stay consistent with, the key ideas and themes you are promoting, according to Zimmerman.

Many nonprofits are competing these days for charitable dollars. By integrating your various fundraising efforts you can at least be sure you are not competing with yourself.