How do I convert single time donors in to annual givers?

Brian Mucha:

I remember a bit of discussion about this in Noel's seminar at the last summit.

 

Some had concerns about 'stealing the participants donors' by soliciting them yourselves. That might actually be a concern during the actual fundraising for the event, as many will solicite a second donation to help reach their goals. You can add the donors from active fundraisers to your do not email group to mitigate this.

 

Otherwise I will say that our Teamraiser events are by FAR the biggest source of names in our house file. Ove effective way to take advantage of that is to address the past donors while recruiting for the next year's event. Givers are much more likely to be future participants and join their friends.

Another thing that comes to mind was a point they made about making sure your organization connects with your event from the donors perspective.

They told a story about a person that complained about being emailed and referred to as a 'long time supporter' or something along those lines, when she had never heard of them or given to them in her life.

A quick check showed her as a frequent donor to their Teamraiser, but she never connected that event in her mind with the org it was actually benefiting!

So if you want to convert them to supporters of their friend to your supporters, I guess they probably need to make that connection.

Bo Bell:

After the TeamRaiser is over, consider entering them into a special email welcome series - to let them know more about your organization and gently push them toward becoming supporters.

Is anyone finding very low rates of donors agreeing to communications from the charity though? We have low rates, which I'm told is normal for people giving to participant based events as they are sponring their friend/family member and not necessarily tied to the cause.....

Laura Nicol:

Is anyone finding very low rates of donors agreeing to communications from the charity though? We have low rates, which I'm told is normal for people giving to participant based events as they are sponring their friend/family member and not necessarily tied to the cause.....

"Is anyone finding very low rates of donors agreeing to communications from the charity though?"

Yes. You can adjust your opt-in verbiage to help this though.

[x] Yes, I'd like to continue receiving messages about this event such as a year end tax receipt for my donation, and other messages from Lurie Children's.



[  ] Yes, I'd like to recieve messages from your organization.

One thing we do is include a short list of things their donation pays for in the thank you autoresponder (which I believe they get even if they opt-out.)

Your 50.00 gift can provide...

...a needy patient's family with free parking during an extended stay for cancer treatment at Lurie Children's.

...an entire segment of Skyline TV, the hospital TV channel for patients and families.

...etc.

We then often follow up with a post-event coaching email to the donors, that is both a thank you, a post event wind-up, and also a how to stay involved pitch.

You might also have a phase where you encourage your fundraisers to ask for sustaining donations (and credit them for the full amount) with the coaching emails.

We actually are going to be covering this topic in depth at BBCon this year.  TeamTR is working with the FAF staff to bring in some major gift officiers to talk to our event fundraisers about how to cultivate year round relationships with your event fundraisers.