CURRENT DONORS MUST BE RE-WON EACH YEAR

How many of your current donors renew each year? How many lapsed donors are re-activated? How many first-time donors come on board? You may want to consider your institution’s numbers in light of results from Campbell Rinker’s most recent AlumniPoll.

Among current donors, fewer than half say they are “very likely“ to give again in the next 12 months. Three out of 10 say they are “not too likely” or “not at all likely” to give. The implication is that even supportive alumni need to be re-won, especially given the recent economic climate.

Lapsed alumni donors are, as their status suggests, on the fence when it comes to future giving. Half say they are “very” or “somewhat” likely to give; half say “not too” or “not at all” likely. These alumni may need to see that their gift will fulfill a specific, compelling need.

Among alumni who have never given, fewer than two percent say they are “very likely” to give in the next 12 months. But one in eight say they are at least “somewhat likely” to give. Appeals to this group are likely to be inefficient – but some are better than others, as the next item reveals.

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IT TAKES MORE THAN A LETTER TO GET A FIRST-TIME GIFT

Mail appeals are easy to plan, inexpensive, and results are easily measured. They are also effective – particularly with current givers, a fifth of whom say they are “very likely” to give in response to a letter (no other appeal method even comes close). In fact, for both current and lapsed donors, the top three appeal types (in order) are:
- appeal letter
- personal ask from someone you know
- appeal at a special event

But for those who have never given, the story is just the opposite. Their top three appeal types (in order):
- appeal at a special event
- personal ask from someone you know
- appeal letter

While only one in eight never-givens say they are “somewhat” or “very” likely to give at an event, that is almost twice as many as those who say they would give in response to a letter.

Figuring out how to attract never-givens to an event is a different story altogether. But an event invitation is likely to yield better results with this group than another mail appeal.

If you are responsible for special events in your alumni office, be sure to think about how to make events welcoming and attractive for those who have never given. Or perhaps consider designing or marketing some events primarily to never-givens.

It is also wise to consider measuring special events not just in terms of attendance or net income, but in terms of how many first-time donors are won or how many never-givens show up.

METHODOLOGY NOTES

Active alumni donors are defined as those who have made a gift to their institution in the past 12 months.

The data referenced are from AlumniPoll(TM) 2002, Campbell Rinker’s syndicated online survey of more than 3,000 alumni from colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada. Data here in were weighted to match national proportions for public/private enrollment, as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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AlumniReportT is a free publication of Campbell Rinker, a market research firm dedicated to helping organizations obtain accurate feedback from their constituents through surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, donor file analysis and advanced statistical modeling.