Donor Relationship Stage 1: Catch Me – ft. Joanne Rogers from The Shepherd Centre

Donor Relationship Stage 1: Catch Me – ft. Joanne Rogers from The Shepherd Centre

by | Oct 12, 2020 | Customer Journey, donor-centric, Donor-centricity, Sustainable Fundraising

As you embark on your journey to donor-centricity, it’s important to understand what stage of the donor relationship you are at with your donors.

Each stage presents its own challenges and opportunities so this 8-part blog series is dedicated to the different stages in an effort to equip you with ideas and inspiration to sustainably nurture and grow your donor relationships.

First up, we have donor relationship stage 1: Catch Me.

This is the stage of courtship. You are marketing yourself amongst a sea of competition, trying to attract and woo a donor by appealing to your similar interests and beliefs.

We asked LemonTree member Joanne Rogers, Senior Individual Giving Manager at The Shepherd Centre to share her experiences of acquiring new donors…

The Shepherd Centre is a registered charity providing a family-centred early intervention program to teach children born deaf or hearing impaired to develop spoken language.

Since 1970, The Shepherd Centre has assisted more than 2,500 children via early intervention Listening and Spoken Language therapy, providing families with assistance to develop their child’s spoken language, so they can unlock their complete potential and participate fully in society.

Premium Direct Mail

From 2011-2015 The Shepherd Centre invested heavily in premium direct mail acquisition, the packs included a number of premium items, ranging from tea towels and keyrings to gift cards and address labels.

This program proved to be successful and recruited almost 40,000 new supporters for The Shepherd Centre. At the height of performance, these campaigns saw response rates of 7%.

In 2014 we saw a decline in the performance of this acquisition channel with response rates and ROI declining to an unacceptable level. Response rates dropped to around 2% in 2015 and it was decided that this was no longer a viable acquisition channel for The Shepherd Centre.

Telemarketing

In 2014 a telemarketing program was introduced to acquire cash donors. In 2015 this program was scaled up and recruited over 5000 new supporters. As with the premium direct mail program, the telemarketing program was initially successful at a larger scale but we found that this level could not be sustained. In 2016 the decision was made to take a monthly supply of data from LemonTree to call.

Sustainability the Key to Success

This program has now been running for four years and recruits around 150 new supporters every month. The monthly telemarketing acquisition program is still running today and proving successful in recruiting both cash and regular donors.

The focus for The Shepherd Centre is now on recruiting regular givers via a two-step program of a non-financial interaction followed by a phone request for a regular gift. This is currently in the testing phase as we investigate different lead sources and donor engagement tools.

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If you’d like to learn more from Joanne and your fundraising peers, we invite you to join LemonTree’s Donor-Centricity Collective (DCC). Every quarter we host webinars and events with industry speakers, as well as commercial speakers so you learn how to bring best practice to the NFP industry. Learn from others and share your own insights and experiences – through our private social media groups, events and blogs…all for FREE!

It takes a tribe to raise a family and it takes a collective of passionate, like-minded peers to change an industry and help grow sustainable giving in Australia – join us today.

Thank you to Joanne Rogers for sharing her knowledge on the Catch Me stage in the donor relationship journey.

Next up in this series:

  • Welcome Me
  • Teach Me
  • Grow Me
  • Endear Me
  • Keep Me
  • Renew Me
  • Win Me Back
LemonTree Q&A with Dr. Adrian Sergeant

LemonTree Q&A with Dr. Adrian Sergeant

by | Feb 14, 2019 | Customer Journey, Sustainable Fundraising

Adrian Sargeant is Chief Executive of The Philanthropy Centre. He is passionate about achieving massive growth in philanthropy. All his work is focused on achieving that by developing the value that donors get from their giving. He specialises in the new science of philanthropic psychology, a science that is routinely doubling the income for those charities that apply it… [Source: FIA Conference].

The LemonTree team compiled a handful of burning fundraising questions for renowned Author and Fundraising Professor Dr. Adrian Sargeant, featured speaking at the upcoming FIA Conference in Melbourne, here is what he had to say:

Q – With acquisition of donors via traditional channels becoming more challenging, how should charities adapt practices to grow their donor numbers?

Couple of thoughts on this. First – recruit the right donors. Don’t be tempted to recruit poor quality donors just to push up the figures for the initial ROI. In the US in particular, fundraisers have honed their skills in recruiting low value donors who will never come back and make a second gift. And their Boards applaud. Second thought – get a proper welcome cycle in place to maximize subsequent retention and loyalty

Q – What are the biggest dangers for charities that you consider are over communicating to their donors? Do you see resting donors a viable option?

I’m not sure what ‘over-communication’ looks like. If I like you and I care about you – and I enjoy what I receive – how can you over-communicate? What you’re really saying here is that we are over-communicating with rubbish that doesn’t in any way reflect donor interests, needs or aspirations. If you’re squarely donor centric and concerned with how you make people feel, resting individuals shouldn’t be necessary.

Q – Have you seen personalising communications based on motivational scores make a difference? Or is it a progressive learning program over many years to get right?

Hmm – well I take issue with motivation, its very limiting. The next big thing in fundraising will be identity. So its not ‘why do people give’ – its what are people saying about themselves when they give. And when you orient a fundraising program around adding value for the types of people that donors are – magical things happen. People give more and they feel better about themselves when they do.

Q – What are your top 3 tips to building more sustainable long term fundraising programs?

I’ve touched on this already. Forget behavioural economics and all that 20th century rubbish. Focus on enhancing the wellbeing of supporters and construct communication that genuinely adds to that. AND think through what activities you can have folks engage with that will genuinely add to that sense of wellbeing – even if those activities raise no money. In short – stop thinking about your needs and focus on theirs. If people feel good, the money will follow.

SHOUT OUT TO: David Craig from Precision Fundraising for connecting us with Dr. Adrian Sergeant.

We are now living in a Trust Economy

We are now living in a Trust Economy

by | Jan 24, 2019 | Sustainable Fundraising, Trust Economy

By Joel Nicholson – LemonTree Founder

We are now living in a Trust Economy. Thanks to today’s technology, digital and social media, we can quickly and easily connect with – and do business with – more and more people from all over the world. Forget Bitcoin. Trust has become the currency ‘du jour’.

But how ‘real’ are these connections?

How much do we really know – and trust – our 4.9 star-rated Uber driver?

Or the owners of the Airbnb house we’ve just booked?

Or the latest person to follow us on Instagram?

What do they really know about us?

With the growing number of connections, has come growing statistics on depression, disengagement and authenticity, along with a continuing decline in the World Trust Index, suggesting that we are suffering from a false sense of connection and belonging.

Winning and losing in the Trust Economy

As humans, we are social, communal beings at heart. We want to meaningfully connect with our communities. We want to belong to a tribe. We want more meaning, more fulfillment, more happiness.

In the Not-For-Profit industry specifically – where a common question from donors is: “Where does my money go?” – it is becoming increasingly important to focus on growing lasting, sustainable relationships vs. amassing unsubstantiated connections.

Fundraisers and charities that focus on relationships over transactional connections will be the winners in this new era.

Keeping our donors is more important than ever.

Those that don’t invest in getting to know and understand their donors and provide them with real value, will fall away in this trust economy and lose the chance to make a real difference to their cause.

Donor-Centric Life in the Trust Economy

In the trust economy, every donor is deeply understood and deeply valued.

We move from transactions (RFM) to motivations and preferences.

You are genuinely connected with your donors.

You collaborate with others to further your knowledge and understanding of your donors so you can truly care for and work in their best interests!

Those natural human chemicals of Oxytocin and Sertonin are flowing.

What do we need to thrive in the Trust Economy?

What if you knew your localised motivated donor?

What if you knew the exact time of year your donor prefers to support your cause?

What if you knew which donors shared the plight of YOUR cause and which donors are simply do-gooders?

How would you communicate with them?

How would you engage with them?

How would you attract and retain them?

The reality of the Trust Economy reality is now.

In 2018, 54 LemonTree members, leant in and embraced the Trust Economy.

They are now matching messages to motivation segments; testing multi channels across Direct Mail, eDM, SMS and phone; and tracking LTV vs. immediate response rates.

How are you adapting to the Trust Economy? (Share your comments below)