Nandita Mishra, Director of Programs, South Asian Fund Raising Group (SAFRG) Attracting donors is one thing, but getting them to continue give is a whole new challenge. Pan- elists will discuss strategies for developing long-term relationships with donors so they keep on giving year after year.

1. Best Practices
in
Donor Engagement

2. Why is everyone so suspicious
(and maybe also cynical)?
 General uncertainty resulting from speed of change
in all countries
 Publicity given to corruption in many sectors of
society.
 Lack of concrete results from years of investment in
development.
 Bad experiences dealing with NGOs they have
supported?
 Poor servicing of donors by NGOs?
 Low overall expectations of performance by NGOs

3. How do we fight it?
 Thank donors within 48 hours of receiving a
donation.
 Put the donor in the spotlight. Everyone is
interested in “me”.
 Communicate our successes more effectively
 Move from impulse giving to relationship giving
 Give donors more opportunities to take control of
the relationship
 Just forget about the skeptics? We only need 1 of
100 people to succeed

4. Emotion vs. Reason
 People give from emotions, not reason.
 Don’t explain the need for support!
 Show the need for support!
 Donors don’t want to know how; donors want to
know why.
 Numbers do not raise emotions; stories do.
HEART MIND

5. Reasons why donors say they
left
Study conducted by Adrian Sargeant, Indiana University in 2001
Reason % in USA
Cannot afford to continue 54%
Other causes are more deserving 36%
Poor quality of service to donors 18% *
Death or relocation 16%
Did not acknowledge my support 13% *
Don’t remember supporting them 11%
Did not tell me how they used my
support 8% *
No longer need my support 6%
Continuing support in other ways 3%
* Factors we can do something about

6. Assume nothing. The $100 donor
today may be the $1 million donor