Allison Porter, Avalon Consulting
Laura Connors, National Parks Conservation Association
Amelia Koch, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Removing the Barriers to
Growth: How to Influence Your
Organization’s Leadership
Through Data

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The Challenge: Growth is needed
• Whether to strengthen donor engagement and retention,
or to expand new donor acquisition with added
investment – the potential for growth is huge, but the
required, upfront capital investment and/or buy‐in from
leadership is not there. (Does this sound familiar?)
• In this presentation, we will discuss areas that require
attention to overcome barriers to growth, and solutions
to influence your organization’s leadership through data.

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Laura Connors – Acting Vice President, Membership, National Parks Conservation Association
• NPCA’s mission is to protect our national parks for future generations.
• NPCA has more than 1 million members and supporters.
Amelia Koch – Director of Membership, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
• CBF is the largest independent conservation organization dedicated solely to saving the Bay.
• Serving as a watchdog, we fight for effective, science‐based solutions to the pollution degrading the Chesapeake Bay
and its rivers and streams.
• CBF has more than 200,000 members.
Allison Porter – President, Avalon Consulting Group
• Avalon is a full‐service direct marketing fundraising agency.
• Since 1997, Avalon has helped our clients raise millions of dollars to achieve their visions for a better world—while
building relationships with people who share their passion and support their important causes.
Here with you today…
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Top barriers to growth…
Executive
Education
“Short‐
termism”
Changing
donor
landscape
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#1: Executive Education
• The need to inform and persuade the
leadership of organizations—from CEOs
and CFOs, to board chairs and board
committees—is significant.
• Be clear, concise, and direct in stating
your case.
• Tackle the irrational “ick” factor –
underlying bias against direct
marketing and fundraising.
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#2: Combat Short‐Termism
• Move away from short‐term goals toward a more
strategic horizon.
• Enable leaders to evaluate and understand the
long‐term value of today’s fundraising investments,
and how they pay off for decades to come.
• Present and embrace new options for
understanding the value of risk and opportunity.
• Use the right tools to educate about the decisions
we make today and the impact in the future.
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#3: Recognize the changing donor landscape
• Donors are changing – and so are their expectations.
• We must connect with them emotionally, and
quantify impact.
• Leverage the tried‐and‐true in direct marketing
fundraising and caution against chasing the shiny
new toy—all the while employing testing and
analytics to identify new and more effective ways to
engage donors in this new environment.
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Solutions to remove barriers to
growth…and influence your organization’s
leadership through data.
Clear goals and
objectives
Know your
metrics
Consider your
audience
Be clear about
the story you
are telling
Visualize your
data
Benchmark
your data
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Clear goals and objectives:
• Define clear goals (ie, net revenue, members) and
educate about the reality of meeting goals.
• Report transparently and regularly on progress.
• Use tools like long‐range forecasting, file
trajectory projections, etc.
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Example: Use data
to identify primary
goal and create
understanding.
Gross revenue, net
revenue, and
member growth
may be in
competition.
Goal: Net Revenue
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Example: Use long‐
range forecasting
to clearly show
options to meet
goals and the
impact of current
decisions on the
future.
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2010:
Forecasting
year

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Example: Clearly
show the long‐
term impact of
decisions. In this
case, added
investment has
increased
revenue.
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Example: Show file
trajectory and
changes needed to
reach stability (or
growth).
Current file trajectory
New joins needed to stabilize
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Know your metrics:
• Easily understood performance metrics will bring
leadership along in the process.
• What are the key performance metrics that will
provide evidence of success?
Retention
Income per
member
Return on
Investment
Donor
Value
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Example: Key
performance metrics
should be readily
accessible and
frequently updated.
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Consider your audience:
• Critical to a successful presentation.
• Think carefully about who is in the room.
• Brainstorm key questions that will arise and be
prepared to proactively answer them.
Board
member?
CFO? President?
Senior
Staff?
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Make sure
everyone is on
the same page
about goals.
Define and
articulate as a
group.
Clearly state
at the start of
each meeting,
and recap
process.
Use a
consistent
form of
reporting back
for each
meeting.
Respond to
feedback to
improve
clarity for
future
meetings.
Be clear about the story you are telling:
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Visualize your data:
• Use visualized data to identify deeper underlying
trends in your member file—not readily apparent
from campaign‐level reports—to get your
stakeholders on board and keep them there.
• Communicate the impact of your program using
effective graphics and dashboard designs.
• Simpler is often better to make key points!
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Example: Educate about common
misconceptions and the need for
tried and true strategies.
It’s still a
direct mail
world!
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Example: Show the breakeven point for
acquisition visually.
$0.00
$5.00
$10.00
$15.00
$20.00
$25.00
$30.00
$35.00
$40.00
$45.00
Yr 1 Yr 2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 5
cumulative donor
value
cumulative CTA
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Example: Show the true value of a direct marketing
program by demonstrating the pipeline to major
giving.
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rolling year revenue total cost net
members
gifts average gift gifts per
member
revenue per
member
2012 $5,100,987 $0 $5,100,987 80,091 107,469 $47.46 1.34 $63.69
2013 $4,926,912 $2,135,401 $2,791,511 68,294 94,683 $52.04 1.39 $72.14
2014 $4,718,760 $2,246,923 $2,471,837 59,205 86,173 $54.76 1.46 $79.70
2015 $4,646,657 $1,143,593 $3,503,064 54,462 82,521 $56.31 1.52 $85.32
Example: Use clear
visuals to highlight
key metrics.
Instead of this:
Use this: A more visual
presentation to increase
understanding and
decrease noise:
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Example: Use
clear visuals to
highlight key
metrics.
rolling year overall member
retention
member retention
w/reinstates
first year
retention
multi yr
retention
2012 45.30% 60.30% 21.30% 60.90%
2013 48.00% 66.40% 17.70% 63.50%
2014 55.00% 71.50% 24.40% 63.90%
2015 59.00% 75.30% 31.70% 66.00%
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Example: Make the case
for direct marketing
with graphics.
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Benchmark your data:
• Educate leadership on the context of your
performance in light of the industry.
• Benchmarking is often a top question from
leadership, and can add perspective and defuse
critical discussions about performance.
• Use available reports and network with colleagues
to benchmark your data. How do you compare to
others in your industry/sector?
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Comparison of Key Metrics to Target Analytics’ Index of National Fundraising
Performance
Example: Compare
key performance
metrics against
publically available
benchmarking data.
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Education will
take time and
multiple
conversations.
Accountability
is ongoing.
Report back
frequently and
consistently.
Repetition is
your friend!
Refresh and Repeat!
The barriers to growth are significant, but
surmountable with the right
communication.
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Questions?
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Allison Porter
President
Avalon Consulting Group
allisonp@avalonconsulting.net
Laura Connors
Acting Vice President, Membership
National Parks Conservation
Association
lconnors@npca.org
Amelia Koch
Director of Membership
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
AKoch@cbf.org
Thank You!
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