More than 31% of giving happens in December, according to the Network for Good Digital Giving Index – a great sign for nonprofits.
Yet understanding how to leverage that generosity and continue the momentum can be a challenge. Before closing out your GivingTuesday campaign, we here at Altrata recommend that our clients and prospects devise a plan of action for the New Year to better understand the types of donors captured, who to target, and how best to reach them.
With the broad spectrum of services offered by Altrata, utilizing offerings like WealthEngine, Wealth-X and RelSci can help your organization analyze your donor database and provide market insights that will lead to success.
Altrata’s industry experts in the nonprofit space Katerina Lauer, Senior Director and Head of SMB Advocacy & Education, David Garcia, Director of Account Management for Advocacy, and Tiffany Zayas, Client Success Executive, share what you need to know to bridge the gap between GivingTuesday and your initiatives for the New Year.
To get the most value out of the New Year, reference these best practices to prepare for a strong start:
Identify
Now that GivingTuesday has ended and you have successfully connected with your donors, it is crucial to focus and identify the potential of your next steps. Questions to discuss internally that will help set your direction:
- What is your organization trying to accomplish with your fundraising goals?
- Are you looking at those who made a first-time gift to identify their potential to give again?
- Is this a reoccurring gift where you are looking to increase the gift amount for the next ask?
- Was this a major gift and you are looking to provide an appropriate “Thank You” to continue encouragement of your next gift?
Screening both new and existing donors who contributed to this year’s GivingTuesday campaign will identify potential for future growth in all areas. Using sophisticated ratings, scores, and segmenting capabilities from your screening tool can also assist in determining who you should prioritize.
“Reengaging prospects who have previously donated to past campaigns and have an established relationship with your organization can be an easy win because they’re already familiar with the work that’s being done,” says Tiffany Zayas.
Assessing those existing donors and where they are located can help shorten your fundraising cycles and put your organization in the best place to cultivate them.
Prioritize
Where are the hidden gems? Prioritizing who has given a donation during the campaign compared to their giving capacity; as well as which donors have given a small gift but have the capacity to give something larger can help determine where and how your time should be spent.
Using screening and insight tools like WealthEngine and Wealth-X to segment your GivingTuesday donor results by net worth, degree of philanthropy, or amount they spend on philanthropy per year is a good place to start, says David Garcia. “Within minutes you will discover who is a match and their amount of wealth.”
Once you have analyzed your screening results of those who have given, you will have a greater picture of who is out there.
Strategize
Getting warm introductions from current donors to those with potential to achieve your goals is paramount to success. Start by creating prospect lists that maximize relationships to get ahead using tools like RelSci’s social mapping that identifies top prospects and connections. Taking it a step further and uploading your existing contacts to discover who can make the introduction can uncover untapped wealth potential.
The next step is capitalizing on your internal connections to grow in the new year.
“Finding 5 people that have given a small amount who have the potential to give larger donations, forming a genuine relationship, and discovering who they are connected to can help your organization get past any gatekeeper,” says Garcia. “Have an introduction from a friend and then get the chance to tell your story.”
Plan
Maintaining the momentum at the top of the year without getting bogged down by data is more important than ever, especially to get out of the post-Covid slump, so don’t let the amount of data you have impede your progress. Altrata’s industry experts recommend taking things one step at a time, to not get overwhelmed.
“Rather than screening your entire database all at once during this busy time, segment your screenings into the fundraising goals you’re focused on for the year; major gift screening, an annual fund screening, a mid-level gift screening, or event screenings. Once prioritized, you will gain more ground as you kick off your new year goals.
Or, if you’re need is to build up your database, have a prospecting tool to identify a new list of constituents to screen, based on their like-minded attributes and interests in your cause. Once you have this information, a tool like RelSci can show you a direct path to connect to those individuals.” says Katerina Lauer.
Having a suite of tools like Altrata offers can dramatically cut down the time it takes to achieve your goals by giving you actionable insights – not just data to drown in.
Organizations who use Altrata see a tremendous impact. Talk to a member of our team today and discover how to shorten your fundraising cycles and transform your donor acquisition strategy.