This document discusses attrition management and stewardship strategies for face-to-face fundraising campaigns. It outlines four pillars for minimizing donor attrition: inspiring donors, taking care of donor money through data management, monitoring donor performance, and treating donors differently. Specific recommendations are provided under each pillar, such as increasing communication frequency and customization, reconciling payment data monthly, and benchmarking attrition against industry averages. The importance of testing and evaluation is emphasized. The document notes that attrition rates can vary significantly between charities and that investing in attrition management could result in 50% higher income over 5 years for a campaign of 1,000 donors compared to not managing attrition.

1. Attrition Management &
Stewardship
Face-to-face Fundraising 2012
Institute of Fundraising Conference
4th December 2012

2. The Problem…

3. Charity
? Donor
Donor
Fundraiser

4. The Solution…?
OR

5. Our Four Pillars ‘Sweetening’
Your Acquisition Campaign …
• Inspiring & motivating donors
• Retention plan
• Taking care of your donor’s money
• Data management
• Donor performance
• Management reporting
• Treating the donor differently
• Testing & evaluating

6. No Acquisition Without…
a Retention Plan

7. DARS Evidence –
Minimising Attrition
Do…
• Increased freq. & customisation of comms
• Evidencing ongoing need (appeals)
• Capture & build upon donor motivations
• Upgrade around 7-11 months for best longer-
term performance, even if donor does not
upgrade

8. DARS Evidence –
Driving Down Retention
Don’t…
• Allow donor to choose frequency & channel
of communications
– Send them all everything anyway!
• Leave donors un-contacted in case reminds
them to cancel
• Send all comms using single channel

9. No Acquisition Without…
Backroom Data Management

10. Donor Payment Health Check
1% Not yet started
Actively paying (no issues)
29%
Reactivated (no issues)
Reactivated (not started)
Active - have paid, but more than
2 payments out
Active - reported as unpaid
58%
Active - missing any payment
1%
history
1% Reactivated - payment issues
2%
1% 2% 5% Cancelled
Reactivated - CANX

11. Data: Minimising Attrition
Do…
• Regular meetings with data team
• Sense-check data imports every month/quarter
• Reconciling payment files every month
• ‘Missed’ payments identified & cancelled quickly
– reactivation calling maximised
• Income projections based on income banked!

12. Data: Driving Down Retention
Don’t…
• Fail to work with the data team & reconcile all
donors
• Projecting future income on un-reconciled
cancellations reported by database
• Blaming when banked income falls far short of
levels projected

13. No Acquisition Without…
Management Reporting

14. Reporting : Minimising Attrition
Do…
• Early KPIs from campaign will play a key part in attrition
– Av gift, av. Age, DD start date lapse, full comms capture (email…)
• Treating your agency as a partner – regular meetings
• Monthly reporting of attrition based on month of 1st
payment
• End of year planning looking at mix of F2F/D2D/PS
• Look at ROI of Yr 1 and lifetime value of prev. yrs on
ongoing basis

15. Benchmarking Against DARS Average
Campaign averages by year: street
90%
Street
80% 2006
70% Street
2007
60%
Attrition rate
Street
50%
2008
Street
40%
2009
30% Street
2010
20%
Street
10% 2011
0%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59
Months

16. Benchmarking Against DARS Average
Campaign averages by year: door
90%
80% Door 2006
70%
Door 2007
60%
Attrition rate
Door 2008
50%
40% Door 2009
30%
Door 2010
20%
Door 2011
10%
0%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59
Months

17. Benchmarking Against DARS Average
Campaign averages by year: private sites
90%
80%
Private sites 2008
70%
60%
Attrition rate
Private sites 2009
50%
40%
Private sites 2010
30%
20%
Private sites 2011
10%
0%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59
Months

19. Reporting: Driving Down
Retention
Don’t…
• Driving agency to deliver to phasing at all costs
• View agency as supplier: minimum contact
• Reporting on attrition based only on cancellations
• Review theoretical ROI at yr end & move on to
next year’s acquisition campaign
• Choice of channel based on personal preferences
• Not factoring in economic climate/changes in perf.

20. No Acquisition Without…
Testing & Evaluating

21. Testing & Evaluating:
Minimising Attrition
Do…
• Find out what’s worked: ask fundraising teams
• Payment-based communication with donors
• Enhancing donor communications based on
attrition trends: Bespoke
– (…Mencap video)
• Spit test key variables on quarterly basis

22. Testing & Evaluation: Driving
Down Retention
Don’t…
• Only review material at end of each campaign
• Communicate with donors on time-basis only
– Easter Appeal at Easter; Christmas Appeal at …
• Not pick up on data trends

23. What’s the Point in Doing All This?
Is it Cheaper to Just Acquire More
Donors??

24. What’s the Point?
2
Attrition rates by charity: door 2010 3
80% 4
6
70%
9
14
15
60% 20
29
35
50% 35(2)
Attrition rate
35(3)
40% 40
41
45
30% 47
51
20%
53
54
58
10% 59
60
61
0% 62
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 63
64

25. What’s the Point in Investing Time &
Resource Into Attrition Management
& Stewardship?
Difference in Income of Actual 1,000 Donor
Campaign Over 5 Years Between Best &
Worst Attrition?
£135,000 (50%)!

26. Our Donor’s Experience With Us
How do we go
from this…
…to this, in practical terms?

27. Finance
Comms
Database
Digital
Donor
Donor Donor
Donor
Donor Donor
Fundraiser Charity

28. Don’t Assume Anything!
Sign up & Test for Yourself -
Are you Happy with the
Experience?

29. DARS: Get Involved!
• DARS 2012 Report Out in 2 Weeks
• User Panel presentation Thurs 13th Dec
– Presentation of report
– Feedback from Users to build DARS 2013
• Jan/Feb DARS 2013 launched
• Feb/Mar DARS 2013; submit your data
• Presentation @ PFRA AGM June 2013 (& IoF)

30. Thank You & Questions
Morag Fleming:
morag@decaidconsulting.co.uk
moragf@futurefundraising.co.uk
Rupert Tappin:
rupert@decaidconsulting.co.uk
rupertt@futurefundraising.co.uk