Government agencies and foundations are withholding their love from Human Services Organizations (HSOs), severely reducing funding to these food banks, homeless shelters, sports organizations and providers of youth, family and legal services. This alienation of affections is particularly troubling to HSOs who often lag behind other nonprofits in private fundraising appeals.
This shortfall has come to light in a recent report and press release released by the Giving USA Foundation, in collaboration with the Growth in Giving Initiative. Giving USA Philanthropy Spotlight: Benchmarking Giving to Human Services analyzes millions of gifts made to more than a thousand human services organizations over the last 10 years.
The good news, according to this report, is that HSOs are now beginning to catch up, as more take advantage of technology to improve their fundraising efforts. This includes technology to help with online donations, monthly giving, donor management and other key areas.
The Giving USA annual giving report for 2015 shows that HSOs constituted the largest percentage of all public charities (35.5 percent) in 2014. In the same year, they received only 11.7 percent of all charitable contributions.
For the first time ever, HSOs can truly understand where they rank against their peers in terms of metrics. This is critical because you can’t improve what you don’t measure. By analyzing data, organization leaders can help improve fundraising and donor management. They can use this information to determine how best to fill the gaps in their budget so that they can fund the critical programs and services they provide.
All of this was initiated by the Growth in Giving Initiative, which was founded by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, The Urban Institute, and DonorPerfect. In fact, Jon Biedermann, Vice President of DonorPerfect, along with Bill Levis, The Urban Institute, invented the database concept and launched the database in 2013.
Since then and with the help and collaboration from Bloomerang, Neon, and Abila- all competitors of DonorPerfect- the database has grown to more than 110 Million transactions of real, yet non-identifiable donation information representing billions of dollars that has been contributed over the last 10 years to more than 10,000 nonprofit organizations across the country.
The report will enable HSOs to benchmark themselves against their peers in several key areas, including:
- Average Gift Amount
- Overall Donor Retention Rate
- Repeat Donor Retention Rate
- Donor Retention Rate by Gift Size
- Donor Retention Rate by Size of Organization
By understanding these key metrics, organization leaders can make better strategic decisions based on data and prepare themselves for the future.
Get a discounted copy of the Human Services Spotlight.
Use this discount code to get 30% off: DPspot16
This post is part of DonorPerfect’s Thought Leadership Series, designed to keep nonprofit organizations informed and empowered by reporting on the latest statistics, strategies, and best practices in the philanthropic community. Vice President of Fundraising Products Jon Biedermann is a contributing author.
Sep 26 16
DonorPerfect’s powerful reporting and analysis features are about to get even better! Our brand new Report Center brings all standard and custom reports together in one place. Reports will be easier to organize, search, and run. You’ll gain valuable insights from your data to make better strategic decisions.
All Reports in ONE Place
Access your reports by navigating to Reports and selecting the Report Center. Standard reports are in the Financial Reports, Listings and Other Reports folders. We’ll convert any Custom Reports you had. These, along with those you create using the new Easy Report Builder are in the Easy Reports folder.
Quickly find a specific report by using the search bar or the arrows above each column to sort. Save time accessing routine reports by clicking the star icon. This adds them to your Favorites tab. To run a standard report click the Open button.
Create Your Own Reports With Ease
If the standard reports don’t give you exactly the information you need, add a new custom report. Select the Add New Easy Report button from any screen in the Report Center. The Easy Report Builder makes it easy for you to create your own reports and get information in the way you want to see it. Simply choose the report type, then drag and drop desired fields to tailor it to your unique needs.
Easy Reports will give you the ability to open, edit, copy, schedule (coming soon!) or delete reports from the Report Actions column.
See the Easy Report Builder in action in this video preview!
When Can I Expect the New Report Center and Easy Report Builder?
Following the next DonorPerfect Release on 9/26, we’ll begin rolling out the new reporting features to clients throughout October. When the new Report Center is activated on your system, we’ll send you an email notifying you of the changes.
The Easy Report Builder is a replacement upgrade for our existing Customer Report Writer. So if you have that module already, you’ll see the new Easy Report Builder when your system gets the new Report Center. If not, contact us to find out how you can create hassle free custom reports.
Attend Our Reporting Pre-Release Webinar
Register for our FREE Pre-release webinar to get a sneak peek at the new Report Center and Easy Report Builder. You’ll also get a preview of the improvements we’ve made to simplify the Import process. The webinar runs on Friday, September 23rd from 1 PM – 2 PM.
Release Notes
The improvements to Reporting are not the only changes in this release. There are also changes to Importing, Refunds & Adjustments and more! Read about all of the enhancements and fixes in the DonorPerfect 2016 Release Notes in the Knowledgebase.
Sep 21 16
DonorPerfect is proud to be a member of The Giving Institute, an organization that has championed thought leadership on philanthropy and fundraising in the nonprofit sector since 1935. The Institute recently released Giving USA 2016: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2015, and reported record giving of $373.25 billion in the USA last year, up 4.1% (4.0 adjusted for inflation) over 2014. Except for 2008-2009, the nonprofit sector has seen growth in giving every year since 1987.
The generosity of the American people continues unabated as all sectors of the nonprofit community are participating!
The source of this giving breaks down as follows:
- 71% from individual donors
- 16% from foundations
- 9% from bequests
- 5% from corporations
Giving from all four of these areas was up in 2015.
Giving went to:
- 32% Religion ($119.30 billion)
- 15% Education ($57.48 billion)
- 12% Human Services ($45.21 billion)
- 11% To Foundations ($42.26 billion)
- 8% Health ($29.81 billion)
- 7% Public-Society Benefit ($26.95 billion)
- 5% Arts, Culture, and Humanities ($17.07 billion)
- 4% International Affairs ($15.75 billion)
- 3% Environment/Animals ($10.68 billion)
- 2% To Individuals ($6.56 billion)
All but giving to foundations and individuals went up in 2015.
I would encourage anyone who works for or with a nonprofit to read the Giving USA report. It provides the best data on the health of the US nonprofit community. To receive your discounted copy of the Giving USA report, please visit http://givingusa.org/2016-products/ and use this discount code: give21
Sep 15 16
Mobile Responsive Forms Are Here!
Next week, a new version of WebLink will be released that makes mobile responsive forms available, changes how confirmation emails are formatted and improves discount codes.
Our new mobile responsive forms will resize to fit any size browser window or device. This makes it easier for donors to make a donation from their smartphones and tablet devices. Here’s how your forms could be affected:
- Any new forms you create after the release will be mobile responsive by default.
- Existing forms will need to be converted by checking the “Make My Form Mobile Responsive” check box in The Basics >Style My Form.
- You can set a form back after you’ve converted it. Simply uncheck the “Make My Form Mobile Responsive” check box. Your original version will be preserved as it was.
- Any custom CSS code that’s been manually added to the form’s style sheet will not be converted. You should re-add it to the mobile form’s style sheet if needed.
- Once you convert a form, you may need to re-upload any header images for the form so they are optimized for mobile. We’ve included information on screen to help you with that process. You can also visit Editing the Header and Footer of a Page to learn how.
For complete instructions, visit Mobile Responsive Forms in the Knowledgebase.
Improved Email Receipts
A donor’s email confirmation receipt may be one of the first interactions you have with them. Making a positive first impression is key. Recent statistics show that 43% of Charity/Nonprofits emails are read on a mobile device. If your email receipt is too small to read, or not properly formatted, you could be discouraging donors from giving again.
This release of WebLink includes enhancements to ensure that your confirmation emails be easily read on a mobile device. In the new release, all of the fields on the form, except for those in the Item Detail section, will be presented in one column in the confirmation email. Using the one column format means confirmation emails will be cleaner and easier to read on a mobile device. It also helps ensure that your form’s labels and fields will align properly and will help stop Item Details from merging together.
100% Discount Available
Discount codes are a powerful tool to boost online donations, new and renewed memberships and event registrations. To make this feature even more effective, we’ve updated Discounts to allow for a 100% discount. This makes it easy to offer items such as a free t-shirt, bumper sticker, or other promotional item as a thank you for donating. Thanks for the great Suggest and Vote idea!
Attend Our Pre-Release Webinar
Want to know more about all of the changes coming in this release? Register for our FREE Pre-release Webinar, this Tuesday, August 30th from 2 PM to 3PM.
Release Notes
Mobile Responsive Forms, email receipt improvements and our new 100% discount code aren’t the only changes in this release. Read about all of the enhancements and fixes in the WebLink 2016 Release Notes.
Aug 26 16
Acquiring new donors is hard work. It doesn’t matter what type of nonprofit you are or what your cause is, getting people to make contributions is expensive and requires a lot of effort. When somebody gives to your organization and indicates that they want to be involved, how do you keep them engaged so that they give again?
You probably start off by thanking them for their donation and sending them either a personal handwritten note or an automated email that expresses your gratitude and gives the donor some insight into how their donation will impact your cause. But after that, what’s next? 
Reactivate Past Donors
You may add them to your newsletter list so that they get periodic updates about what you’re doing, but are you really doing anything to ask donors to re-up their contribution or telling them how the money they gave has impacted the people or ideas that your organization supports?
One of the best ways to re-activate past donors is to send them a personal email to follow up a few months later. We suggest sending a personalized, automated email that goes out 90 or 180 days after a donor last gave, updates them on the impact their contribution has made, and asks for another contribution (even referencing the last donation amount they gave).
You can update the content either every 90 or 180 days so it’s consistent with what’s going on at your organization, but the rest of the content can be dynamic based on who the person is, how much they gave and what campaign or program they gave to.
As an example, let’s say that over a 180 day period you have 500 donors who on average give $150. If 80% do not give again within 180 days, that’s potentially $60,000 of potential donations sitting out there. If you were able to capture 15%-20% of those people, that’s an additional $9,000-$12,000 of money you could raise and put to good use.
Setting up and sending a re-activation email should only takes 15-20 minutes and with the integration between DonorPerfect and Klaviyo, you can make that happen quickly and pain free.
To learn more about Klaviyo or to start sending your re-activation email today, feel free to request a demo.
We all know how difficult it is to acquire a new donor. How much relief would you and your organization feel if you could consistently generate recurring donations from more of your new or recent donors?
Daniel Esrig is part of the Growth Strategy team at Klaviyo. He and his team work to make great email accessible to all types of organizations. His desire to help marketers and their teams be smarter and more engaging in the way they communicate is what drives him not only to help Klaviyo grow but also to help marketers of all types to be more successful.
Aug 15 16
Even Microsoft can go too far. 
Trying to balance security with convenience, while not breaking things along the way, is a challenge for any company in the software space. Microsoft and DonorPerfect are no exceptions.
On July 12, Microsoft released an update to Excel that attempted to improve its security by reclassifying what it considered to be a “safe” Excel document. Unfortunately, the change went a little too far, and blocked some perfectly safe Excel files from being opened when downloaded over the web – including those downloaded from DonorPerfect and thousands of other sites. This change impacted Excel 2016, 2013 and 2010, and caused problems for many users, including users of DonorPerfect. We’ve been working with Microsoft trying to find an acceptable solution for several weeks.
Fortunately, today, Microsoft released an update to address this issue. Excel may still warn about a mismatch between the file extension and HTML content, but will open the workbook in Protected View as an additional layer of security. If the download is from DonorPerfect, it’s perfectly safe to open.
If you’ve had trouble recently opening Excel documents downloaded from DonorPerfect or elsewhere, use the links below to get the latest update for Excel.
How do I get the update?
It depends on which version of Microsoft Office you have.
Office 365 subscription (Click-to-Run)—install the latest updates
Windows Installer version (MSI)—you could wait about a week for the next security update for MSI, and it will update automatically.
Or, to get the fix today, use the Download Center to get the KB for your version of Office:
Office 2016: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115438
Office 2013: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115455
Office 2010: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3115476
If you have any questions about installing this or any other Microsoft update, please consult your IT support staff.
Aug 9 16
1. Ask often.
Just like anything in fundraising, ask and you’ll receive! It’s crucial that you start asking for monthly donations as often as you can.
2. Set sail with email.
Email is a great channel to use as you begin asking. It’s affordable, and donors can easily click right through to your recurring donation page.
3. Give your current appeal messaging some tiny tweaks.
The messaging for your monthly giving program appeal is very similar to what you’re already doing for your one time donations.
Here are some modifications you may want to consider:
- Tell the story of one person (or animal) impacted by a monthly donor’s gift.
- Indicate that the best way for the donor to help other people or animals like you just described on an ongoing basis is by making a monthly gift and link to your recurring only page.
- Include a video or a few pictures to draw the donor in and include at least three spots in the letter where you can link to the monthly giving page.
- Use short paragraphs, large fonts, 100-200 words maximum and always include several thank yous.
Tell the donor how their monthly gift will make a difference to support your programs on an ongoing basis.
4. Stick with it!
Growing your monthly donor program takes time. It’s not a one-shot deal. Ask the first time, see what happens. Ask the second time, see what happens. Ask again. Keep expanding your monthly giving program appeals and stay on message. If you’re sending one email a month right now, consider adding one additional email asking for monthly donations that month.
What’s the worst that could happen? You’re making the donor’s life easier and raising money to support your programs, right?
5. Lean on fantastic free resources to steer you in the right direction.
Get all the tips you need in DonorPerfect’s free Monthly Giving Marketing Kit!
This blog post was written by Erica Waasdorp, DonorPerfect Expert and President of A Direct Solution.
Aug 3 16
Record numbers attended our webcast on July 26, 2016. Darian Heyman Rodriguez, a prominent nonprofit expert, author and CEO, shared valuable tips for improving the rate of grant awards. In his webcast titled How to Secure Private & Federal Grants, Mr. Heyman provided tips that can result in a 50% acceptance rate of grant applications!
Mr. Heyman began with an explanation of various types of foundations. Understanding the type of foundation that provides the grants will allow you to identify if they are potential grantors for your programs. Research into the historical awards made and types of programs funded is one of the first steps. Next, elevator pitches should be developed for your organization including the programs you have already implemented and one for the new initiatives that will be undertaken if the grant awards are made. Follow-up after a pitch is made is key in getting the application approved.
As you cast your web amongst a larger, more suitable target of grantors, follow all the advice from Darian and your grant awards will have a higher rate of success.
To hear all of Darian’s tips, watch the video below with the accompanying slides. Enjoy!
Aug 1 16
A new version of DonorPerfect will be released this weekend that paves the way for some exciting future changes coming to DonorPerfect’s Reports. For this release we’ve updated the SideBar and made some quick improvements to our SmartGive feature. While the changes may seem relatively small at first, they set the stage for greater enhancements down the line.
SideBar Gets a Facelift
Coming soon, maybe even as early as Fall 2016, DonorPerfect’s Reporting features will receive an overhaul. This will include a brand new Report Center, easy to use Report Builder and the ability to schedule reports to run and be emailed to you, your key employees, board members, and any other stakeholder- you just need their email address! This release prepares for that by updating the Sidebar to support features like report scheduling and saving. We’ve also given the Sidebar a much needed facelift to match the styling in the upcoming Report Center and Easy Report Builder.
(Want a sneak peak and even some training on all of the new reporting functionality? Come join hundreds of other nonprofits at this year’s DonorPerfect Community Network Conference.)
SideBar Updates
Aside from the new modern look and feel (no more boring gray!), a few other items have been updated:
- You can now edit a Selection Filter right from the Sidebar. Simply click the Edit icon to be taken to the Selection Filter’s Criteria.
- Since most of you view the report on screen first, Run Report (formerly the “Screen” button) is now the default, replacing the Output Options divider found in the previous SideBar. Clicking the down arrow to the right of Run Report allows you to save and print the report as an Excel, MS Word or PDF file.
To see all the changes and learn more about using the Sidebar in your reports, visit Sidebar Reporting in DonorPerfect.
SmartGive Your Way to More Donations
SmartGive is a tool that allows your emails or printed letters to include a link to a WebLink online form for each donor. When the donor accesses the form link, it is pre-filled with their name, address, email, and phone number. SmartGive links streamline the donation process, making it more likely that the donor will complete the donation form. For this release, we’ve improved how to generate your SmartGive links, simplifying the process and making it easier to understand. You can learn more in this quick two minute video:
Release Notes
SideBar and SmartGive updates aren’t the only changes in this release. Read about all of the enhancements and fixes in the DonorPerfect 2016 Release Notes in the Knowledgebase.
Jul 22 16
Just a few years ago, setting up a monthly donor program was difficult. You had to do lots of workarounds, hire professionals to set it up. or outsource the process and then spend money on direct mail or telemarketing to start asking donors to join your monthly donor program. It was expensive and labor intensive. Email campaigns were for the ‘big few’. Everything took a lot of time.
That was then. This is now.
Today, with WebLink, you can literally set up a recurring giving page in 5 minutes. And with the Monthly Giving Starter and Marketing Kits, you can think through the whole process and create everything you need in a week or less. If you’re really motivated, you can do it in an afternoon.
Seriously! Even if you have very limited resources; even if you’re a small shop, all you need to do now is organize your monthly giving page and get your donor email list ready. Then, you have to make your program easy for the donor to discover and you have to start asking.
Getting started with monthly giving is as easy as following these 10 steps:
- Create a special recurring only page in WebLink . Keep the donation choices to 4 or 5 amounts max., so you can keep them on one line. Start with the minimum: $10.
- Link to it from your website’s homepage.
- Link directly to it from your emails and start sharing on social media.
- Test everything so you know it all works, including your donation page, auto-responder, and confirmation email.
- Join your own program.
- Ask your board, staff, volunteers to join.
- Ask your donors.
- Ask your donors again and again, as many times as you can fit into your communication schedule.
- Think long-term.
- Present annualized results.
The more you ask, the more monthly donors you’ll bring in. The more committed you are to your program, the more committed your monthly donors will be to you. So let’s get asking!
This blog post was written by Erica Waasdorp, DonorPerfect Expert and President of A Direct Solution.
Jul 8 16