The Reverend knows how to thank his donors

It is not often you get beautiful, heartfelt stories from passionate people in our sector.  We all work hard to make stories wonderful and involving but they seem to come naturally to many Clergymen, but Rev Graham Long bashes these out quite regularly apparently.  I was forwarded this from a member of the ‘Inner Circle’.  This is a lovely, involving thank you letter.

See what you think, and read my comments at the bottom.

Dear Inner Circle, Just now there was a woman standing in front of our Op Shop. Although she had a blouse on, her arms were not in the sleeves which caused the blouse to be worn more like a scarf, leaving her upper body entirely exposed. As I moved toward her to see if I could perhaps find her something to wear she bent down as if she was picking up a baby and laid it on the seat out front. By the time I reached her, she was nursing an invisible baby. A homeless fellow said to her, "Luv, if you put your arms in your sleeves you'll be able to do what you're doing without showing the world what you've got." She politely thanked the homeless guy and put her arms in her sleeves and then resumed feeding her invisible baby. I backed off because we had a couple of highly skilled female staff around and they didn't need my help. As I plough through this day however I can just imagine the kind of heartache that this dear lady has brought to us today. I'm so thankful for so many skilful and safe pairs of hands around here. Robyn and I celebrated 41 years of marriage this week and in my romantic style, I worked late on the night in question. Yesterday at lunch, some staff members called us both up to the roof where we found a table set for two, with candles and a menu to rival the best restaurant in town. On the table was a card from our support team who had decided to surprise us in this way. There are some beautiful people in the world. Last weekend was spent with my Mum in a dementia ward. The ward could be called "Hogans Heroes" because escape was on the mind of most of the residents, including my Mum. At one stage Mum introduced me to a lady who just needed to get out to check on her house that was quite near the nursing home. She said that a gentleman who was a resident had a car that was just in the car park so that all I had to do was let them out to get on with their business. The gentleman with the car appeared with his shoes on the wrong feet which didn't give me confidence in this particular plan. My dear Mum is well enough to know that she's locked in but not well enough to live anywhere else. The Southern Cross Oaklands Park Lodge in South Australia provides the most fabulous care for Mum and all of their residents. My sister, Heather, who lives near-by, carries a heavy load of love which she embraces like the five foot nothing giant that she is. Thank you to the many who came to hear the Salem International Choir from Chicago last week. I thought we'd have a success if 200 people showed up. We had 400 seated and 160 people standing plus the choir which was another 80 people. What a once in a lifetime opportunity that we shared together! What an outpouring of joy and love! I wrote to the Pastor this week saying, "I think our faith is not taught but caught and I'm sure you left behind a pretty serious infection." I will treasure that gift for the rest of my days. I was talking to a woman this morning who is living in a bus shelter. She said, "There isn't much privacy but I have great access to public transport." Meeting the odd saint like this helps to keep my petty whinging in check. How glad are we to have you as part of our inner circle? Plenty glad! Graham Rev Graham Long Pastor and CEO The Wayside Chapel Kings Cross http://www.thewaysidechapel.com/

For sure, this will make you feel glad to be part of this inner circle.  I guess the technology (training, database or equipment – not sure which) needs a little help though:  My Inner Circle friend has a name; why is it not personalised?  And then it could have been great to add a variable acknowledging whether she went to the Salem International Choir or not. 

But, is better to get a non-personalised but beautiful personal email like this than a technically clever personalised but dull non-personal email isn’t it?  But imagine getting a fully personalised, beautiful personal email too!  I do hope the good Reverend gives some techy person a holy tap on the shoulder to make this real!

PHOTO: Reverend Graham Long

(Thanks to Wayside Chapel for permission to reproduce the whole letter – if you want to receive lovely emails like this become a member of the ‘inner circle’ here.)

Sean Triner

Even super huge clouds have a silver lining

Superstorm Sandy has wreaked havoc on more people in the USA than live in England.

My thoughts are with those people, strangers and friends from the Carribean through USA and into Canada who have lost loved ones, homes businesses and communities.

As I write this the media and still showing dramatic images, lots of sad stories - but also lots of gorgeous 'human spirit' bits that we always see after natural disasters.

It must be very hard to see any positive outcomes from such natural fury but I am going to try.

Climate Change
There is no way anyone can say that Sandy was a direct consequence of human caused climate change.  But there is plenty of evidence that the frequency and severity of such storms is expected to increase due to climate change.

As New Scientist reported...

Such devastation could increase in the future: climatologists say that slow-moving storms like Sandy will become more common as climate change increases the occurrence of "blocking patterns" that slow down weather systems.

"We expect that hurricanes may move more slowly in the future than they do now," says Kerry Emanuel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Slow-moving hurricanes dump all their rain onto a smaller area, causing severe flooding, with coastal regions taking the brunt. "This shifts rainfall towards the coasts, and increases it at the same time," he says.

Even though there are still people who don't 'believe in climate change', most will begin to hedge their bets.  Really, the whole world needs the US to 'believe in climate change' if we are going to ever take serious global action.

Tragic climate events - even if not directly connected - can bring awareness of the awesome powers, and having them not just on our doorstep, but in our home is a true slap in the face.  

US high school teacher, Greg Craven, got it right with his fabulous website, book What's the worst that could happen? and great video "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See".  He takes a logical approach to the disagreement about climate change.

As you can see from his little sketch below he is advocating action whether you believe in climate change it or not.  He assumes action on climate change (scenario A) costs money.

I think that Sandy will help push more people who are sitting on the fence into deciding that the risk of a longer depression is better than the risk of a global catastrophe.

Here is his logic:

Economy

For all of us, wherever we live, the US economy is important.  Sandy has caused billions of dollars of damage in the USA.  But Americans are resilient, tough and community spirited.  Despite economic woes, donations are flying in from everywhere and the rebuilding cost will huge - but a great stimulus package.  New jobs will be created, business come into being and old businesses rebuilt.  I have no idea if this will be a net positive to the economy.  I am no expert on this kind of Keynesian thinking - I am not even sure it is Keynesian; but there will definitely by a great 'pulling together' spirit as we saw in Australia after our recent floods and fires.

Whatever happens, this storm will hit the insurance companies.  Whilst they will put up premiums, there is only so much of that they can do there.  However, it is the impact of this storm on insurance companies that could have the biggest and most important impact on the future of our planet.

The Insurers and Climate Change

Insurance companies 'believe in climate change' - they see it as a serious threat.  Back in 2007, the boss of the Reinsurance Association of America, Frank Nutter gave evidence at a select committee on energy independence and global warming "The insurance industry's financial interest is inter-dependent with climate and weather."

Andrew Castaldi, head of the catastrophe risk unit for the Swiss Re America Corp, said "We believe unequivocally that climate change presents an increasing risk to the world economy and social welfare."

Let's hope that since common sense and science have not created the action we need on climate change, this tragic catastrophe and the economic imperatives of the insurance companies will help push through some change that would position the United States as world leader on action on climate change. 

Stop Global Warming | Greenhouse | Red Planet

Sometimes a charity (in the case campaigning organisation in Indonesia) comes along with such an amazing TV ad you just have to share it.  This has got to be one of the most bizarre and amazingly abstract ads I have ever seen.

I am sure after watching it you will take immediate action to stop climate change, it just makes so much sense.

Click the link here:  Stop Global Warming | Greenhouse | Red Planet | WE LOVE AD

Sean

Why an ROI of 1.0 in acquisition could be a bad thing

Direct mail is having an amazing resurgence in Australia.  Charities have been used to large volume acquisition mailings pulling maybe 1.0% response rate.  An initial return on investment of 0.70 would be considered really, really good.

But more recent innovations - particularly using 'premium' packs - have lifted response rates considerably.  Many charities are achieving response rates unheard of on large volumes; 3.5% is now met with a little bit of appointment even though it is fantastic.

These packs tend to be large, with lots of elements such as these two examples posted out recently.

Even though they cost more to print and post, they can do very well indeed.

Recently, we have had quite a few actually break even on acquisition - something very rare not long ago.

When the results below came in, Pareto staff and clients were jumping up and down with joy... (the results are NOT one of the packs above, they are different examples).

This means that the $215,000 raised covered the cost of this pack in total.

So why am I saying this is not a good thing!?

Well, as a one off it isn't - but if we keep getting ROIs of 1.0 it really means that we are not taking advantage of a great opportunity.  It means we are not targeting enough people, not going 'deeper' into less responsive lists and donor sources.  It is good news - but only if we interpret it correctly: that it is an opportunity for more acquisition.

Christian Language for non Christians

I have read many a post, article or heard words of wisdom that people who partake in religious activities tend to be slightly more generous than those that don't.  It is hard to get concrete data to back that up in Australia, but a quick look at any big picture giving data from the USA (like Giving USA) certainly backs up this theory.

In Australia, the USA, UK and Canada by far and away the largest majority of donors who worship are Christians.  But those countries have all got substantial non Christian communities as well – atheists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and more.

The odd line of scripture or quote from the Bible is said to increase response rate from Christians, but how do you do that without putting off non-Christians?

One approach is to look at some the Bible lines or sayings (or interpretations of sayings) that have come into everyday use.  Many Christians will relate to the sayings, but non-Christians are unlikely to recognise the saying as a quote from the Bible.  Provided it is a good quote, in context, and helps the appeal it is therefore likely to have a net positive impact.

I have never seen this tested but it all makes sense.

Here are ten such sayings that you should be able to weave into copy without causing problems.  Note, they are not all direct quotes - some are alluded to.

"It is like the blind leading the blind!" (Matthew 15:14).

"Going the extra mile" (Matthew 5:41).

"Wash my hands of it" (Reference to Pontius Pilate at Jesus' trial. Matthew 27:24).

"Salt of the earth" (Jesus' words at Matthew 5:13).

"Written in stone" (Moses and the stone tablets - the 10 commandments at Exodus 31:18).

"Turn the other cheek" (Jesus' words. Matthew 5:39).

"It is better to give than receive" (Jesus' words recorded at Acts 20:35).

"It's like feeding the 5000!" (Reference to the miracle of Jesus at Matthew 14:13-21). 

"Nothing but skin and bones" Job 19:19-20 

"United we stand, divided we fall" Matthew 12:25

For more Bible sayings that could be useful.

http://www.spotlightministries.org.uk/biblesayings.htm

Sean

Regular giving or one off donations: which to go for?

Fundraisers need to grow their databases, but should they invest in regular giving (automatic debits) or one-off donations?

In Australia, until around 2002, the answer was simple because regular giving was a tiny part of the fundraising mix.  Some charities tried acquiring new donors straight on to regular giving, to mixed success.  Some just added an extra line to their direct mail acquisition appeals  offering the opportunity to become a regular giver.

Then face-to-face arrived.  Not only did it acquire hundreds of thousands of new regular givers, it actually created an entire new ‘type’ of donor – a younger demographic.

Brilliant fundraising expert and blogger, Jeff Brooks picked up on this in a recent blog where he noted that: “There are younger donors ... just not in America.”  He goes on to say that, “In Australia, more than a third of the charity collected each year comes from what's called Down Under "regular giving," otherwise known as monthly giving or sustainer giving.”

He is right indeed. About a third of individual income to professional fundraising charities appears to come from regular giving.  World Vision reports $195m of it’s $345m income in 2011 was from regular giving.  The Pareto Benchmarking report, looking at around $330m of other charities’ income, shows that over one third of that came from regular giving.  This report studied 48 different charities’ data.

Even though face-to-face has been the engine behind this growth, there still many regular givers acquired in other ways.  One significant way is by asking current donors to become regular givers, usually through a combination of phone and mail.

This ‘regular giving conversion’ process is so effective that some charities think of their ‘normal’ database as simply the means to generate leads for regular giving conversion.
Charities often make a choice as to whether they should focus on regular giving or not, but the latest data from Pareto’s benchmarking shows that this is the wrong approach. You don’t need to choose between one or the other.

One reason is that most regular givers come from face-to-face. These donors are younger and hardly ever do anything except upgrade when they are phoned. In addition, they are also poor major donor prospects, with very rare exceptions. Furthermore, they are not good bequest prospects, because they are too young and not yet interested in supporting charities in this way.

The chart below shows the percentage of donors in various categories who have informed the charity they have mentioned the charity in their will.

In general, face-to-face donors are clearly not interested in putting charities in their will.
The other reason you don’t need to make a choice for or against regular giving is that nearly all non-regular donors will not become regular givers, no matter what you do.

The chart below shows second gift rate by charity within 12 months of acquisition.  It shows the proportion of those second gifts that were the beginning of an automatic payment method (blue), or another one off donation (organe).  Each column is a different charity.  The black lines match the right hand axis – this is the number of new donors acquired by each charity, the orange block is the percentage that had made a second gift within twelve months, and the blue shows the percentage whose second gift was the first of their automatic debits.

Put simply, most new non-automatic debit donors don’t become regular givers within 12 months – even for those charities trying hard to get them to do so.

On the other hand, what of people who came straight in as regular givers?  The chart below shows the total contributions of all donors acquired straight onto regular giving by the channel that was used to acquire them.  Face-to-face accounts for well over two thirds of these donors, and only a few per cent are from online.
The little crosses go with the right hand axis and show the ‘ratio’ of giving compared to first gift after four years.  The left is the average total given by donors acquired through that channel straight onto regular giving.

For example on average, face-to-face donors will have given around 25 times their first debit – about $650 - after four years whereas a donor acquired straight to regular giving from a direct mail piece will have given around 45 times their first gift - about $900.

The blue is income from regular giving, and the orange is additional income from other donations.  The face-to-face donors across these charities gave insignificant amounts on top of their regular donations and the direct mail donors gave about $50.

So, we see that most of the value from regular donors is from those regular gifts and little from additional donations.

It is hard to get regular givers to give additional gifts and it is hard to get non-regular donors to become regular donors.  But you as a fundraiser really need both types of donor.

Don’t choose between regular giving and one off – do both.

A world beyond fundraising for charities

Last week I was at the Nonprofit Strategy Forum in Brisbane which looked at some of the challenges facing nonprofits (I still prefer the term 'charity') but mostly not from a fundraising point of view.  I was on a panel with two others challenging the current paradigm; one encouraging charities to not be scared to borrow money and another looking at how charities should not just look at income but also social capital - having impact beyond monetary things.


The idea was that we were meant to debate and be controversial but we kind of struggled to disagree with each other.


The borrowing money is a fascinating concept.  Particularly for fundraising.  From a commercial lenders point of view, in the scheme of things to invest in, professional fundraising is generally a pretty safe bet; failures are rare and returns are very good compared to other business ventures.


Many of the big international charities here got their foot into the fundraising market in Australia via a loan from their Paris or Geneva based 'parents', but other than that there are few others willing to borrow.


There are also people from the Myer Family Company, Vision Australia's board chair, the ACNC task force (new charity regulators) and someone from Opportunity International talking about microfinance options.


A great mini conference for CEOs, finance people and board members.  Tickets still available, Sydney 12 June and Melbourne 15 June.


Oh - and if you are a subscriber to this blog, quote STPF12 to get a discount.  Eg from $330 to $275 (+GST) on a single, small charity ticket.  Call 02 9555 4203 and tell them you would like a discount.


More information here.


Sean