January 2015

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New Year – time to cleanse your data

Data-Analytics-and-Dirty-DataAs someone who has mystery shopped hundreds of charities over the past five years, I find it frustrating (and inexcusable) that few charities in Asia Pacific appear to cleanse their data in any meaningful aspect.

In fact, none of the charities in my mystery shopping study appear to have performed national change of address (NCOA) on their data set over the last year since I moved from Sydney to Brisbane in April 2014. If it was not for the mail redirection service from the Australia Post (including a renewal of the service), I would not be receiving any of this charity mail. Instead. Australia Post includes the forwarding of charity mail in the mail redirection service. Nonetheless, charities cannot depend on mail redirection for people like me to receive their mail.

When I have mentioned this situation to many charities (including those in the mystery shopping study), staff ask “why don’t you tell each charity”? My response: It is up to the charity to find me and, especially, those in the study!

It’s the new year and it is time to get your data house in order and to prepare for upcoming appeals. What is stopping your organisation from performing NCOA and other data hygiene services on your data set? Often times I hear the following reasons (and I give the following responses!):

  • No budget/What’s the return on investment
    • Your organisation invests tens of thousands (or more) in donor acquisition. Why would you want to throw that money away by not keeping track of your donors when they move. The cost to acquire a new donor is expensive. Losing contact with that new donor after, or during, the first year is even more expensive than it costs to cleans the data and to acquire a new address for the donor.
  • I’m not sure it will have a big impact on our organisation.
    • Most services, including one FundraisingForce will provide to your organisation, offer a report to educate you about the health of your data file prior to launching into any actual changes. This allows you to learn, first-hand, the healthiness fo the data, learn about changes that should be made, and determine which changes to then engage the firm in the actual changes.
  • I do not understand how this works.
    • Most staff do not understand the process let alone the simplicity of how it works. That’s why you engage an outside professional to take you through the process and someone who has performed the process thousands of times.
  • No one in my organisation is responsible for data hygiene.
    • Why not let the owner be you? You have the opportunity to be a hero in your organisation by taking ownership of the data and helping those responsible for donor retention to increase their percentage.
  • We do not have the time to even take care of the Return to Sender (RTS) mail in-house.
    • Let’s perform data hygiene on your entire file and then the RTS mail will become far less.

It pains me when I see stacks (or bins) of RTS mail in an organisation. To visualise this, replace the stack of mail with stacks of money. Wasted material, postage and staff time = stacks of money. Invest a little of that money into some internal processes when RTS mail arrives and then in data hygiene at least one time per year to see this trend reverse for your next appeal. You will not look back in regret. It’s nearly the end of January. What are you waiting for? Someone else to do it?

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Charities overlap in missions, services, and overhead?

While in the US over the last two weeks, I had an interesting conversation with a man who gives generously to hundreds of charities each year through a family foundation. He raised the issue about the number of charities offering the same missions and services existing in the US and asked whether this is also a “problem” in Australia.

How do all these nonprofit organisation pop up in a community? During the discussion, we talked about organisations established by very passionate people for all the right reasons – a son died of brain cancer, a family member becomes disabled through a life threatening disease, or a group of people want to make a difference and support someone or an issue they care about. Rather than find an existing charity and establish a program within the charity to fill a gap in services in the community, these well-intentioned people create an entirely new charity. A community might see this in the US in health organisations and even amongst cultural organisations, environmental groups, educational institutions and in other verticals in our sector.

hospital-mergerCollaboration and Consolidation? The concern in this type of conversation is not the number of charities, but, rather, the overhead existing amongst each charity. The question is whether charity consolidation amongst charities with overlapping missions and services makes more sense. It was highlighted that in some cities in the US, some centralised charitable foundations have encouraged collaboration, at a minimum, and consolidation at a maximum. The argument is that each charity with overlapping missions and services has boards, senior staffing, office space, office equipment, and other costs. Consolidation of similar organisations strengthens the organisation and saves on such costs.

Coalitions? I have often times wondered why charities do not form coalitions if, for no other reason, than to gain purchasing power. If a coalition of health charities, as an example, was searching for a new customer relationship management (CRM) system, collectively they would gain far more buying power than they would separately. Coalitions of organisations can make change in a far smarter, faster, and efficient way than any part might achieve.

Has your organisation thought about merging with other similar organisations? Are there organisations in the community who may offer a different service where a merger would strengthen your mission and programming? What stops your organisation from merging with others in the community?

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New Year’s resolution – get your CFRE in 2015

CFREJanuary is all about New Year’s resolutions. Some New Year’s resolutions we make right away and others we delay deciding. Some we keep and others we break. Some come to mind easily, while others need to be suggested to us.

One New Year’s resolution FundraisingForce wants to suggest to you, even if only to serve as a reminder, is to become a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) in 2015.

CFRE International certifies experienced fundraising professionals aspiring to the highest standards of ethics, competence and service to the philanthropic sector.

CFRE International has seen a substantial growth of CFREs in 2014 and 2015 is expected to be a boom year as well. Why not include yourself amongst those who obtain their CFRE credential in this year?

Most experienced fundraisers do not take the exam because they do not take the time to complete the application or they fear not passing the exam on the first try. To resolve these issues for its members and prospective members, the Fundraising Institute in NSW spent a considerable amount of time in 2014 educating people about CFRE. FIA NSW created a CFRE study group to meet the needs of those who want to apply for and take the CFRE exam. The study group runs each quarter, in a “book club format”, and has proven to be quite a success with 100% of the participants passing the CFRE exam on the first pass. Participants not only study together once per month in person, but they also do readings in between the meetings. In the end, the participants take the exam together. The CFRE Study Group has taken the mystery out of the CFRE exam process and offered participants the opportunity to experience the exam process together. Study group participants find this group format to be a very supportive and collegial environment.

To learn more about CFRE and how to become involved, please contact FundraisingForce.

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US charities send New Years greetings

Earlier this week, I blogged about the fact I was inundated (in a good way!) by US charities seeking one final gift prior to the close of the calendar (and their fiscal) year. In that blog, I encouraged all organisations to test adding a calendar year-end appeal to your mix of communications this year and to use a similar approach to your own fiscal year-end appeals for 30 June.

On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, I, likewise, received a host of donor care/stewardship messages from charities wishing me a Happy New Year and thanking me for my support of the charity over the past year. Some messages were simpler, while others included a year-in-review video or other communications tools. As a supplier to the non-profit sector, @FundraisingForce sent a greeting out to customers, prospective customers, and others in social media.

This simple and easy donor care method, like the calendar year-end appeal, should be added to your communication mix for 2015. I would also suggest suppliers in the non-profit space should do the same. Here is an example I received from Boston Children’s Hospital, which contained a video message. Happy New Year!

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US charities maximised year-end giving reminders

Just days prior to New Year’s Eve, my in box was populated with a multitude of email from US charities reminding me to make one last charitable gift prior to midnight on 31 December. Most charities offered the chance for my gift to be doubled or even tripled by a generous donor at year-end.

For US charities, this is their calendar year-end (as it is ours) and it is also their tax year-end. Nonetheless, I questioned why I received so few emails from Australian charities during the final week of the calendar year. Even those received did not push me for a calendar year-end gift.

I fully understand a year-end push happens the week including 30 June for Australian organisations due to our tax year. But, why is it that charities here do not also use calendar year end as an additional final push? Why not test both “giving seasons”?

While in the US over the holidays, I had a conversation with a man who is particularly philanthropic. He highlighted how many emails and letters he received from charities with offers for gifts to be doubled or tripled by other generous donors. The two of us are likely on hundreds and hundreds of charity lists – some overlapping and others unique. I suspect we have a good representation of what was out there at calendar year end.

As you start to implement your plan for the New Year, think about what you might adopt from others and test this calendar year. Think about whether a calendar year-end push is worth testing for your organisation.

Here are several examples received from US organisations. Happy New Year!Snip20141231_24Snip20141231_28Snip20141231_22Snip20141231_26

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