Blog - Nonprofits

While it’s important to keep improving existing programs, true growth will only happen when we’re willing to take bold steps into what may feel like new territory.

While all the changes occurring in the industry may seem overwhelming, you should think about how to differentiate your organization to increase affinity to the cause.

Most marketers measure the effectiveness of each fundraising channel with cost per dollar raised or income per name. Guess What? These metrics are wrong. They are not inaccurate due to lack of trying. In fact, many spend considerable effort ensuring these metrics are extremely precise. Unfortunately, precision is not the same as thing as accuracy.

As more organizations are turning their fundraising focus to digital channels and media, one of the questions I hear frequently is, “How much of our budget should we allocate to digital versus our more traditional offline channels? And what return can we expect from that investment?”

While we use the words “customer” and “consumer” throughout the new edition of the Marketing Imperatives, they are every bit as applicable to the nonprofit world as they are to the commercial world.

We have arrived at the final step in our people-based analysis process. So far, we have predicted the future value of each donor, segmented them, and understood what motivates them to give. Lastly, we need to select which offer is best for them.

Understanding motivation is the third step of our people-based analysis process. To date, we have identified the future value of your donors and segmented them by both their actions and a well-rounded view of the donor as a person. Now we ask the question: Why do donors give to my organization?

If you are following along (and who wouldn’t be), we have reached the second step of my people-based analysis process. We have already determined how much our donor will contribute over the next few years. Now it is time to better understand who they are and how they engage.