Individual donors
What would fundraising be without donors? And what would SOFII be without a special area devoted to nurturing and developing donor relationships? Within this special space SOFII has selected and assembled a glittering array of specialist showcases in which we display a treasure trove of examples of the art and science of donor relationship development.
Greenpeace Australia Pacific: the welcome process
by SOFII
Think objectively about the experience a new donor has within the first few months of joining your organisation. Greenpeace Australia Pacific has developed a new and simplified process to ensure that new donors receive clear communications that both thank and further engage them. The result is that they’re reducing the number of donors who leave within the first three months.
Read moreGreenpeace USA newsletter: the origami whale
by Matthew Sherrington
If you want to engage your donors give them something interesting and fun to do. This is an example of transforming the humble newsletter, with new energy and purpose, to deliver a real involving experience to supporters.
Read moreTo ask or not to ask, that is the question when saying thank you to a donor
by Lisa Sargent & Sean Triner
Find out what Sean Triner, co-founder and director, Pareto Fundraising in Australia and Lisa Sargent, principal at Sargent Communications, LLC in the USA have to say about this.
Read moreUnited Way: the impact calculator
by SOFII
The calculator allows donors to put in an amount and it lets them know the impact of their donation. This is a simple tool that any organisation with a website can easily do. It’s a great way for engaging donors.
Read moreGreenpeace UK: their cycle of renewal and reactivation mailings, the ‘countdown’ and ‘please and thank-you’ packs
by SOFII
The two mailings shown here form part of Greenpeace UK’s renewal mailings cycle from the late 1980s. Each pack is short, punchy and based around a simple theme, encapsulated in a single word (each of which involves a powerful call to action and which are presented in a very Greenpeace way).
Read moreThe Dogs Trust: sponsor a dog scheme, television commercials
by SOFII
These television commercials are really part of the Dogs Trust sponsor a dog exhibit but they show such good use of DRTV they are worth an additional airing here. Unusually for nonprofit DRTV in the United Kingdom these ads made a profit from their first showing. Quite exceptionally, the early ads achieved a return on investment of five to one.
Read moreFarm Africa: ‘ask for what you need’
by SOFII
How do you ask a maojor donor for $50,000 when she’s at the other end of a telephone line and you’re in a very noisy tapas bar? Do you make ‘the ask’ in the worst possible surroundings? The lesson from this case study is that as long as ‘the ask’ is right, it doesn’t matter where you are.
Read moreWoman’s Royal Voluntary Service: face-to-face postcard
by SOFII
This is a wonderful example of outstanding stewardship. It shows that developing a strong relationship with the donor at the earliest possible stage can significantly affect loyalty and reduce attrition in a notoriously difficult and challenging type of donor recruitment.
Read moreMédecins sans Frontières: ‘field partners’
by SOFII
Without doubt all fundraisers want regular givers and lots of them. This is a great example of how to convert your existing supporters from random one-off gifts to planned regular giving, and how charities can change the giving behaviour of existing supporters.
Read moreHabitat for Humanity: money back guarantee
by SOFII
Would a money-back guarantee help your direct mail? Habitat for Humanity tried it, and the results were as interesting and instructive as were their reasons for doing it.
Read moreWWF Canada: new donor questionnaire
by SOFII
This questionnaire, though a separate and distinctive part of WWF’s new donor welcome process, is an integral part of it. Great donor development in practice, and easy to emulate.
Read moreWWF Canada: welcome pack for new donors
by SOFII
Learn how to engage and retain your donors from this early example of a donor-centred welcome pack. This is a very good and highly copyable example of the genre. And, most noteworthy perhaps is that this pack has been structured and written around what the donor would want, not what the organisation wants.
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