October 2017

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It’s not too late for non-profits to conduct data hygiene

DataEarlier this week, I wrote a blog post about the first Christmas Appeal received this year. It’s the only one received so far, which suggests others may still be navigating the many tasks they need to complete in order to drop their Christmas Appeal. As part of those tasks, it’s not too late for non-profits to conduct data hygiene!

Assuming some charitable organisations are behind with their Christmas appeal, perhaps the reason is data hygiene. One of the single most important steps prior to the Christmas appeal drop is the need to complete hygiene.

Some non-profit organisations take the important step to cleanse their data, while others do not. Those non-profit organisations who perform data hygiene, perform this task at least one time per year.

Data cleansing includes, but is not limited to, high level activities such as:

  • National Change of Address (NCOA).
  • De-duplication of constituent records.
  • Data enrichment, including:
    • Deceasing of records
    • Do not mail flag.
    • Do not call flag.
  • Other important mass data management practices.

As suggested in prior FundraisingForce blog posts, dirty data gets you nowhere…except broke. Proper data cleaning prior to dropping the all-important tax and Christmas appeals is not optional. Do you put this in the “too hard” basket? Hire an expert like FundraisingForce who will guide you through the process, management of suppliers, and develop a process for you to follow for years to come.

Don’t assume someone else will do this task – whether you are assuming the mail house does it or someone else on your internal team. Develop a process to get this task done and to ensure the cleansed data makes it was back to your organisations CRM. To merely cleanse the file for the appeal and to not load the clean data back to the CRM (a common mistake made by charitable organisations) is like cleaning your child and putting them back on the playground.

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The first charity Christmas appeal received from….

It’s something I report on each year via the FundraisingForce blog. The first charity Christmas appeal was received from…The Salvation Army.

The Salvation Army has been the first for the past several years.

I’ve talked about the need for a charitable organisation to stand out in the letterbox in several past FundraisingForce blog posts. It’s really the key to successful direct mail. Your piece has to stand out amongst all the postal mail one receives. If the letter does not get opened, it is not going to get a response.

Salvation Army stood out in my letterbox because it arrived in early October and it was the first charitable organisation to send me their Christmas appeal! The organisation also stood out amongst my other mail because of the the art on the package.

As in the past, the appeal is a Christmas Wish catalogue, which is full of items I can purchase to change the lives of those Salvation Army supports. Once purchased, I will receive a gift card and envelope to give to a person on my list to share the joy of giving. A simple concept and something that stood out in my letterbox the beginning of October.

Many charitable organisations likely do not have their segmented direct marketing lists prepared and sent to their mailing house. Some may still be working on the letter copy, package content, and various approvals that go with the task. Where is your non-profit organisation in the process? Is the data pull and the segmentation all a little too hard in your CRM? It does not have to be. Hire experts like FundraisingForce to properly segment your data and to create that segmentation inside your CRM. Once set up, this segmentation may be tweaked and pulled for appeals in the future.

Don’t delay setting up your segmentation for your Christmas appeal because it is too difficult, too time consuming, or something you do not have knowledge to do. Let’s get the data ready so you can get the appeal in the mail and then you’ll be able to focus your time on other tasks – like assisting in the processing of the donations and the receipts!

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Lots of discussion about excessive premiums in charity direct mail

PremiumThere have been lots of discussions about “excessive” premiums in charity direct mail lately. The conversation was raised in various circles, including at the Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) conference, as well as during the development of the new FIA Code. Card packs, pens, shopping bags, and other items are sent to various prospective donors to entice them to give a first time gift to a charitable organisation.

The fact is premiums work for some charitable organisations and premiums have proven to be a strong method to get people to give. On a recent visit to my parent’s in the United States, I found dozens of packs of address labels and other items sent to them from various veteran, healthcare, and other types of non-profit organisations. They have enough address labels to wallpaper a small bedroom.

The “debate” and discussion around premiums raises several questions:

  • Who decides what is excessive?
  • Should the cost of the premium item for a direct mail donation be deducted from the value of the donation for tax purposes?
    • The US follows a similar rule.
  • How do charity lotteries fit into this discussion – i.e. the luxury automobiles, $1 million+ homes, boats, and lavish holidays that are given away by hospitals, medical research, and other types of non-profits?
  • Does the ratio of those luxury prizes to the cost of the ticket mean they are excessive?

In interest of full disclosure, I am a big fan of charities using premium packages for their direct mail and they cause me, as a private donor, to respond. I have seen some fairly create premium packs used by some key direct mail suppliers in the Australian marketplace. That said, the debate is worth having and this discussion is worth the calories. I purchase many lottery tickets from the likes of the Mater Foundation, MS Queensland, RSPCA NSW, and others. Also, in interest of accuracy, FIA chose to remove clauses related to excessive premiums from their Code.

 

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5 ways to connect fundraisers with the cause

Guest blog by Ikhlaq Hussain MSc MInstF

My blog post last month on ‘How “passionate belief” can help you raise more money’ caught a lot of attention, including the attention of experts in the sector. One of the experts, a fundraiser, asked me this question in particular, “Hi Ikhlaq, I have read your latest blog. Is there any advice regarding how we can help our fundraising teams to connect with the cause?”  Today I share some points used in my replies in a blog post called 5 ways to connect fundraisers with the cause.

1. Take serious interest in your work: don’t wait to be inspired

Many people say you are either passionate or not and you can’t help fundraisers to develop the connection with the cause and inspire them to believe in the work they do. I would respectfully disagree with that notion and say that it’s not entirely true, as the more we get involved and take interest in our work, the more we will be connected with our cause.

We cannot just wake up one day with a passionate belief in our cause. Passionate belief does takes time, work and requires serious interest from the individual and we must encourage that within our fundraising teams.

Unfortunately, we can’t buy ‘passion and inspiration’ and sprinkle it over the fundraisers.

2. Meet the Trustees or founders

Regular meetings with your founders or trustees will help you to lighten your inspiration. Why not send an email to one of your trustees and ask them if they would like to grab a cup of coffee at some point? Tell them that you want to learn more about why they got involved with the organisation. What was the inspiration behind starting the organisation in the first place?

It is always energising to go back to the history of your organisation and find out directly from the founders or the current trustees, not from the website.

One of the founding trustees of Orphans In Need once said to me: “We aspire to provide the best support to the orphans who are in our care. We need to treat these orphans like our children because they rely on us and they have no one in the world to go to. We must not only provide them food on the table, however, the best food on the best table. Not just education, however, but the best available education in their communities.”

That level of care and thought for the orphan children really inspired me and got me closer to the vision and mission of the organisation.

3. Coffee meetings with your Programme Teams

Make friends with your ‘Programme Team’: take them for coffee. Meet regularly with your programme teams, as this really helps to connect with the cause. They can tell you lots of stories of how your organisation is making an impact and how they feel when they meet beneficiaries.

I am privileged that my desk is next to the programmes team and thus always ask them about their stories, especially when they return from monitoring and evaluation trips in different countries. It is always satisfying and fulfilling to know that our efforts are changing the lives of orphan children and how much more we need to do to achieve more.

4. Seeing is believing

As a fundraiser, we are always busy with endless lists of things to do. We are often caught up in what we do every day that we never have time actually to visit the great work our organisation is delivering on the ground.

When we meet the beneficiaries we can see firsthand how our efforts as a fundraiser are changing lives. Field visits always help to collect your own stories and get inspired.

5. Ask your donors why the cause matters to them

According to a recent report by IOF, nearly three in five people (59%) said the main reason they had given money was it was a cause they believed in. Most of the donors have a personal connection to the cause. Sometime our donors have more inspiring reasons behind their ‘giving’ decision.

From my experience, donors are always willing and happy to share what your cause means to them. For example, a donor told me a moving story about her mother who was an orphan when she was young and how much of a tough life she had which inspired him to support a children’s charity.

Asking donors why the cause matters to them have a two-fold benefit. First, your donors feel you are genuinely interested in them and not only in their pockets, which helps to develop a meaningful relationship. Secondly, their attachment to the cause helps us as a fundraiser to get inspired and connect with our cause.

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Ikhlaq Hussain is a philanthropy and high-end events specialist, currently head of major gifts at Orphans In Need, a trustee at Mind in Harrow, Board member at IOF (South East & London), mentor at IOF and Mosaic Enterprise Challenge, and a regular blogger on the topic of fundraising.

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MS Queensland offers a chance to win a prize for survey participants

SurveyIt’s survey season amongst charities in Australia. MS Queensland offers a chance to win a prize for survey participants. The prize is an iPhone 8.

Prize offering for survey participation is not a common thing in Australia. It makes sense for MS Queensland to offer such a prize as an incentive to participate in the survey. The survey is about their car lottery and, thus, recipients of the survey are used to taking a bit of a gamble each and every month.

SurveyThe ~20 question survey asks specific questions about the brands and value of prizes and also whether you’d be interested in donating to MS Queensland beyond the prize lottery. There a few a few demographic questions near the end the survey. The survey is conducted on the Survey Monkey platform.

The only disappointed I had about this creative survey from MS Queensland is the organisation did not ask me to confirm, edit, and enhance my contact details. I am asked at the end for my name, email address, and mobile phone number; however these details are requested only fro the prize draw. I wish MS Queensland had taken the opportunity to ask me to CEE my contact record in the constituent relationship management (CRM) system. MS Queensland has conducted surveys in the past specifically focused on importance to CEE every record.

Overall, a fantastic experience end a great way for MS Queensland to seek the opinion of its lottery purchasers.