1. What Donors Want:
Fundraising Trends for 2012 –
Jim Bush, Senior Consultant
Winkler Group
AFP Shenandoah Chapter
April 19, 2012 - 12:30 – 1:15 pm

2. Learning Objectives
 Explore new and developing trends for annual fund, major
gifts and capital campaigns.
 Discuss new giving behavior of major donors.
 Leave with new ideas about how to better engage your
donors and strengthen relationships.

3. Sources used for this presentation
 Association of Fundraising Professionals
 The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
 Nonprofit Research Collaborative
 Chronicle of Philanthropy
 Kay Sprinkel Grace, KQED
 Giving USA Foundation
 GuideStar
 Blackbaud
 Corporation for National and Community Service
 Major donors our firm has interviewed

4. What are “Trends”?
 Wikipedia: “Trends” is a science fiction short story written
by Isaac Asimov, first published in 1939.
 Twitter: Topics determined to be the most popular on
Twitter at the moment.
 Merriam-Webster: A general direction in which something
is developing or changing.

5. Annual Fund Trends

6. Demand for services is growing
• According to the Nonprofit Research Collective and
GuideStar. (2011 vs. 2010)

7. Operating budgets aren’t
growing at same pace
• 37% of nonprofit budgets will stay the same.
• 40% will increase budgets.
• 20% will decrease budgets.
• Cuts planned are administrative, maintenance and
fundraising (thankfully not fundraising staff) = no new
fundraising or support staff (research, gift processing).
• 54% seeking volunteers for administrative work (up 19%).

8. Acquisitions vs. renewals
• Organizations with budgets less than $3 million focusing on
acquisitions. Increase in average gift amount from renewals
is just 25%.
• For orgs $3 million and up, the focus on renewing donors is
paying off, with nearly half seeing increase in average gift
amount from renewals.
• Across both, the average gift size for new donors is flat or
lower.

9. Online Giving
• 2011 is predicted to be the first year that the majority of
Americans made their 2011 donations online rather than
through the mail, in response to telemarketing calls, or
other techniques.
• Online giving is now such a strong habit that donors at every
age level prefer it. More than half of donors 65 and older
said they would give online, the first time a majority in that
age group said they would give via the Internet.
• Three-quarters of people 35 to 64 said they would give
online, while 86% of those under 35 prefer to give that way.

10. Things to consider
• How do we meet higher program/service demand with the
same or less staff?
• How do we prevent flat or reduced budgets from affecting
our ability to time, talent, and treasure relationships?
• Why aren’t we putting the same focus on renewing donors
that we’re putting on acquiring donors? How do we do
both?
• How do we engage donors and constituents who originate,
and perhaps want to remain online?

11. Major Gift and
Capital Campaign trends

12. Over reliance on the same donors
• Major donors are experiencing donor fatigue. “The ink
hasn’t dried on the last check yet.”
• A significant majority of donors cannot be influenced to give
more often by an increase in the number of solicitations
over a 12-month period, but they can be influenced to give
less money or less often or stop giving altogether.
• Donors 65 and older were most likely to stop giving
because they had been asked too many times. While it may
be that fundraising could get away with oversoliciting this
demographic 10 or 20 years ago, the times have changed.

13. Major donors give more
time and talent
 The average number of hours that wealthy individuals
volunteered increased from 241 hours in 2009 to 307 hours
in 2010 (13% increase).
 They expect to be directly involved in program delivery, and
are becoming less interested in party planning.
 High frequency volunteers say they are asked to give less
often as their volunteer hours increase, but would give more
if asked!

14. Capital campaigns rely
on new donors
• In many campaigns new donors have accounted for 50 to
60% of all contributors.
• In some cases as many as 80% of donors have never
previously given to the charity.

15. Multi-year commitments going down
• Fewer donors want to sign multi-year pledges.
• As efforts to attract new donors succeed, fundraisers do not
focus as much on attracting six- or seven-figure gifts —
which many groups have long done. Now campaigns are
winning many more gifts in the $10,000 to $25,000 range.

16. Donors want relationships
 Donors are less and less interested in public recognition,
i.e. naming opportunities. However, they still want a lot of
attention from the charities they support.
 In one campaign for a hospital a wealthy donor declined to
have a cancer ward named for himself or his loved ones.
Instead, he wanted “a lifelong relation with the cancer
ward” and “to be informed of new research and advances in
oncology.”

17. Campaigns are more focused
 As donors are more conscious of their own budgets, they are
looking to nonprofits to be more focused. Campaigns are
becoming more singular, with smaller goals achieved over
shorter periods (three years vs. five years, for example).
 Many campaign goals today are smaller than their
immediate last goal.

18. THANK YOU!
Thank you for being here today. If you would like a copy of today’s
presentation, you can find it on our website, or you can email me
directly at jbush@winklergroup.com.
www.WinklerGroup.com
www.Twitter.com/WinklerGroup
www.WinklerGroupFacebook
Winkler Group | (843) 849-6256

19. Session Breakout Topic One
 What are some effective ways to increase annual fund gift renewals? In
other words, what can we do to ensure that annual fund donors want to
give again?
 People forget to ask, so be clear in your ask.
 Targeted Response- “How was the money used? i.e. “Your gift funded....”
 This year your gift made a difference
-How are things evolving?
 Direct contact from board members: Thank You
 Engage Donors’ time; volunteer opportunities
 Challenge Gift

20. ...continued
 Educate/report results
 Personalized Appeals
-Past Support Acknowledgment
 Newsletter
-Enhance with video
 Show how you’re doing more with less
-Collaboration
 Use top level donors as board members
 Share impact
-impact mailing as a snapshot or postcard

21. Session Breakout Topic Two
 How can we better engage and involve online donors? Consider online
and offline engagement tools.
 Interactive giving games
 Social Media
 Banners on websites; keep website updated and dynamic
 Put annual report, etc. on your website
 Be an accredited, registered organization which can be “searched” easily
 Email Check-Ins
 Handwritten notes at bottom of “thank you” notes
 E-Newsletter

22. ...continued
 Send a tour invite
 Don’t assume why they are giving online, ask them.
 Interactive “wall building”
 Virtual Participation
 Donors recognized in newsletters
 Personal calls to every donor
 Invite donors to come in, get involved.
 Record information from calls in database

23. Session Breakout Topic Three
 Top donors expect to be more connected to your organization. Identify
meaningful ways to provide your donors with opportunities for lifelong
relationships with your organization.
 Annual luncheon
 Learn people as individuals- connecting the dots
 Offer special tours
 Personal touch on letters; letter from Board President
 Advice meetings
 Remember their interests
 Magazine sent to all donors; four times a year
 Bring donors into building to see how mission is being fulfilled

24. ...continued
 Invite donors to sit in on event Advisory Committee or Development Committee
 Events targeted for largest donors
 Invite donors to share ideas on marketing materials
 Meet with major donors regarding annual report
- get feedback on topics, let them ask questions
 Record donor actions accurately and in a timely fashion in database to track
relationship history properly so donor will “always feel loved”
 Pair donors with impacted individuals