Hello, December, you lovely, largest fundraising month of the year, surrounding us with holiday decorations and tunes. Please be good to us all.
Many of us have set our 2024 business goals, but maybe we haven’t updated those tasks we need to do each year about this time. Consider this list:
- Edit those thank you letters, especially if you don’t change them weekly or monthly.
- Edit your general autoresponder on your donation form(s) and mark your calendar now of when you’ll change it up next.
- What about planned giving? Do you have a plan? On your website donation forms, are you offering any information on planned giving at the bottom? What about your direct mail remit slips? While you’re working on it, remember those company matching gifts. Up to $7 billion in matching gift revenue goes unclaimed each year.
- Clean up your database:
- Run global changes you’ve put off and correct those names and addresses you have in a stack. That’s right, merge duplicate records, unclutter your codes, catch up on any NCOA changes.
- Check Do Not Mail/Do Not Solicit/Do Not Contact donors and those donors who have flags for Once a Year or Spring Only―you know which ones I’m talking about. If they didn’t give when they claimed they would, it’s time to release the flag and begin asking them to donate again.
- Also―how old are those flags? Has it been 7-10 years you’ve not mailed to that “Do Not Mail” address? They probably don’t live there any longer. Open that address so that acquisition lists can at least use it. Or how about “Spring Only” et al. flags―often these flags become a catch-all for donor complaints about receiving too much mail, and they can grow significantly. Unless something is done to re-evaluate these names, we’ve pigeonholed these donors and relegated them to “Newsletter Only” or “Spring Only” purgatory for eternity. Start now, or mark your calendar for Feb. 1 to check on those donors that only want a year-end appeal or one appeal a year―did they actually give? If not, take off the flag.
- After your data is cleaned up, your accuracy should be spot on, and you’ll be ready for tax-letter acknowledgements.
- Do you have new thank you cards ready so those donors you handwrite a note to next year will see something different? Some of your donors are sentimental and save your notes. How sincere is your card? Does your donor feel like they made a difference by reading the “headline”?
- What does your checklist have listed as “to dos” for your website? Time to optimize and audit.
- Have you thought about updating your voicemail? Could it be more inspiring for those donors who listen and leave a message?
- What does your social media plan look like? How are you engaging your followers and donors?
I’m certain you can add even more to the task list above. By cleaning up your data, you’ll also enhance your thank you letters.
So, it’s time to grab your favorite beverage―hot or cold―and take a small break. As usual, I’ve been collecting a few articles and thoughts and wanted to share them in case you’d like to catch up on your reading.
1. GivingTuesday donations were up slightly in 2023 at $3.1 billion, but in ‘warning sign’ 10% fewer people participated
Donors contributed $3.1 billion to U.S. nonprofits on GivingTuesday, roughly the same amount as last year, which marked a record high for the giving day. This year’s donations were up by less than a percent, just $20 million.
“Donation trends are very volatile right now, and there’s a lot that’s going on that’s very concerning, including a decrease in donor participation,” Asha Curran, CEO of GivingTuesday, told the Chronicle before the total had been tallied.
(Our results at RKD Group were a bit better. We analyzed online giving for 44 RKD clients and found a 4.3% increase in revenue on GivingTuesday and a 10.5% increase for the full GivingTuesday campaign.)
Lower participation could be one reason the day failed to bring in significantly more donations than it did in 2022. Just 34 million people made contributions on GivingTuesday, down 10 percent from last year.
“On the one hand, this is fantastic,” said Woodrow Rosenbaum, GivingTuesday’s chief data officer. “Tens of millions of people in the U.S. came together once again to have a huge impact for causes they care about, including donating an enormous amount of money in a 24-hour period.”
But the number of donors was down about 10% from 2022, which Rosenbaum called a worst-case scenario for the sector: “We’re seeing less dollars from the big donor that we’ve been relying upon and fewer grassroots donors who are so important to our resilience and long-term health of the sector.”
Nonprofit organizations and industry groups have been warning that donations this year are down, which follows a drop in overall charitable giving in 2022 for only the fourth time in 40 years, according to Giving USA.
It’s still too early to know whether end-of-year giving will pull charitable donations back up this year.
2. Top Lessons from GivingTuesday 2023
Seriously, what a great article, sharing many analytics that you can learn from as well as takeaways. Don’t pass on this one―go read it ….
We’ll focus on the practical “in the weeds” analysis that can support you in making data-driven decisions that go well beyond this time of year.
Let’s take a look at the impact of what we call the “Generosity Experience”—the overall trust that a supporter has when interacting with a nonprofit’s marketing, revenue or impact activities.
A common misconception about GivingTuesday is that it’s a day focused only on extracting money out of people. If that’s the case, we’d expect to see a high volume of one-time donations made by donors who never engage with a nonprofit after their initial transaction. But healthy donor retention numbers within Neon CRM users show that donors are more than happy to support organizations they’ve previously been involved with.
Digital-forward campaigns are still powerful new-donor-acquisition opportunities: 57% of new donors who gave to organizations using Neon Fundraise were acquired through digital channels. Small dollar donations continue to be the primary driver of GivingTuesday revenue, both online and off, which is a powerful testament to the day’s significance in reaching new individual donors.
3. Americans Increasingly Support Disaster Relief as Major Share of Charitable Giving
An online survey conducted by The Harris Poll of more than 2,000 U.S. adults on behalf of Vanguard Charitable found that nearly 3 in 5 American donors (59%) gave half or more of their total monetary donations last year to charities providing disaster relief.
This marks a notable increase from the results of a similar survey conducted in April 2022, which found that only 37% of American donors had given half or more of their charitable contributions to disaster relief efforts. But the new survey also suggests that donors encounter challenges when trying to respond charitably to disasters.
When it comes to charitable giving in general, the survey found that Americans remain committed. Nearly 3 in 4 Americans (73%) reported having given a monetary donation to charity in the past 12 months, on par with the 74% who reported doing so the year before.
4. Survey: Skittish Donors and Fundraisers Searching for a New Normal
Fundraisers are in uncharted waters.
During the maelstrom of the pandemic years, individuals, foundations and corporations dug deep to meet the needs of the public-health emergency, but fundraisers are unsure how much of that support they can still count on. With an uncertain economic outlook, they worry more donors may stop giving.
As fundraisers scan the horizon, there are both rays of light and dark clouds. Unemployment is low and gross domestic product is up—clear signs of economic health. But inflation and interest-rate hikes are holding back consumer spending, and many Americans feel the economy is in poor shape.
Put it all together, and fundraisers don’t know what to expect.
Three-quarters of fundraisers say their organizations have raised as much or more than they did the previous year. That breaks down to 34 percent raising more money, 42 percent holding steady, and 23 percent raising less.
5. The Case for Direct Mail in the Digital Age
Everything old is new again.
Today, print marketing remains the most trusted advertising format for the majority of people. And it turns out, being able to hold and look at something physical and tangible coming from their mailbox does make it more personal for about two-thirds of people than the same communication being conveyed through digital channels.
Reading through direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort than email, and importantly, it’s far less ephemeral. If you think about how long an email lasts in your inbox, you’re either deleting it or letting it sit in your inbox beneath an ever-growing pile of messages that can run thousands of messages deep. Mail’s shelf-life in your home is 17 days, giving it a far better opportunity to land with consumers and donors alike.
The way direct mail performs with younger generations is by driving awareness ahead of conversion—44% of people visit websites after receiving postcards, and another 34% search online. What direct mail is doing is proving trustworthiness, while websites, with easy forms of payment and additional useful content, prove validity.
It’s certainly not flashy or at the vanguard of the newest technology, but as mailboxes have thinned out, trust in mail hasn’t waned. It’s provided an opportunity to shine for direct mail, and direct mail has proven it’s still very effective in 2023.
6. Consumers Grew More Confident. They're Not Exactly Optimistic Yet
While consumers' future outlook improved, it remained below 80 (at 77.8) for the third month in a row. According to The Conference Board, levels below 80 signal a recession within the next year.
"Consumers remain preoccupied with rising prices in general, followed by war/conflicts and higher interest rates," said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board.
Americans are grumpy about the economy, despite the best job market in decades. The chief reason is a severe bout of inflation that has raised prices 18% in the past three years and eroded the standard of living.
About two-thirds of consumers say a recession is “somewhat” or “very likely” in the next 12 months, the survey found.
7. GDP in the Third Quarter Raised to 5.2%—but Surge in Growth is Fading
The U.S. economy grew at a zippy 5.2% annual pace in the third quarter—faster than previously reported—but the surprisingly strong gain appears to have been a one-off.
Gross domestic product, the official scorecard for the economy, was revised up from an initially reported 4.9% rate of growth. It was the biggest increase in a decade if the pandemic years of 2020-21 are excluded.
The economy seemed to have cooled off in the waning months of the year, however. Businesses are hiring fewer people, and consumer spending has softened, among other things. Households boosted spending at a 3.6% pace, down from an original 4%.
8. Consumers Pulled Back on Spending in October
Americans slowed their spending in October, and inflation continued cooling as the economy downshifted from a fast-paced third quarter. That marked the slowest increase since May.
The combination of ebbing income growth, high interest rates and prices, dwindling pandemic savings and the resumption of student loan payments are eroding Americans’ ability to keep boosting their spending as briskly as they did through the summer, economists say.
Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy items, were up 3.5% from a year ago. They rose 2.5% at a six-month annualized rate, down from 4.5% in the six months through April, a dramatic improvement.
Job and wage growth slowed in October, and home sales dropped to a new 13-year low. Retail sales declined, and major chains such as Home Depot and Target reported that their customers had pulled back. Personal income—which includes income from investments and other sources as well as wages—rose 0.2% in October, down from September’s 0.4% gain.
Several factors could constrain Americans’ budgets in the months to come. Households have exhausted most of the excess savings racked up during the pandemic. Credit is more expensive. Student loan payments have resumed after a long moratorium.
Nonetheless, consumers spent $38 billion during the five days from Thanksgiving through Monday, up 7.8% from the same period last year, according to Adobe Analytics.
10. Check out more great posts, podcasts and webinars
Blog updates:
- 6 clues in your donor file that could spell trouble ahead
- Microsoft launches big new feature, plus Meta and TikTok eye ad-free options
- Digital media attribution for nonprofits: More than meets the eye
- 4 lessons we learned from GivingTuesday 2023
GroupThinkers Monthly Update:
- Someone stole my mail and put me in a direct response stranglehold
- Trick or treat? What to make of the economy with year-end season upon us
Podcast updates:
- Tying everything together: The Group Thinkers podcast season wrap-up
- Erik Tomalis thinks about the role of new tech in fundraising
- Your Website Performance: Guest Charles Lehosit on the Tony Martignetti #NonprofitRadio podcast
Webinar recordings:
- Nonprofits: Get more out of GA4 with Jenn Thompson & Kord Hickson
- AI tools you can use to boost your fundraising with Charles Lehosit
- Rebuild trust and reach new audiences at the same time w/Nicole Daily
- Transform your newsletters to be donor-centric with Lisa Rossi
- Craft captivating videos that engage your donors with Chris Weiland
- How to build stories around your content with Billy Vaudry
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