April 23, 2009 | Categories Fundraising Strategies

A Recipe for Fundraising Disaster…

What’s the worst thing a non-profit organization can do to jeopardize it’s long term fundraising success?

Stop fundraising.

Seems simple right? If you stop fundraising, you’ll not only lose money now, but also lose future donors (and their future donation stream) not just once, but forever.

After all, just run a recency report in DonorPerfect fundraising software and you will clearly see that the #1 reason why a donor gives again is directly related to the time since their last gift. That is, the longer the time length between today and their last gift, the less likely they will ever give again.

Canceled Fundraising Campaigns Hurt Donor Retention

Yet I see organization after organization delaying or canceling their fundraising events. Why? Because they feel they need to give their donors a ‘rest’, likely because of the economy, and that the donors will be ‘refreshed’ if they wait.

My friends, that’s not how it works. While it’s true that some donors may respond favorably this way, you can’t ignore statistics because the vast majority will not. Every day that goes by without a donation from your donors is another lost donor(s) that will not renew their giving.

Stick with your plan- keep fundraising. Even if the results are down year-over-year, you are still much better off by retaining donors so that they will give again, and again, and again, and again.