This week's Kim Klein blog shows how some small organizations may falsely assume that "major" donors are their best target demographic when considering time vs return. Statistically, individuals give more than foundations or corporations, and there are many more "small" donors contributing to non-profits than there are "major" donors. Let's look at how FundRaiser's built-in word processing and automation of thank-you letters can whittle down time spent while increasing returns from the vast majority of donors.
First, let's make the assumption that an "average" donor will give about $20.00 per donation. Let's also assume that thanking the donor is not only polite, but necessary for any future donations from that donor.
Next, let's look at how much time is required for us to record the donor information and thank them for their gift. It is good to note that the bulk of the information about any donor is going to be entered with their first donation, which means that any subsequent donations from that donor will require much less time. If it takes 5 minutes to enter the name, address, phone number, and the gift information of date, amount, and any codes you want, then you'll be able to enter 12 of those per hour.
Twelve donations per hour will be a conservative estimate, in my opinion, once you get comfortable with the process, the keyboard shortcuts available, and the ability to set up gift coding defaults to speed up the entry process. And this is for first-time donors.
Thanking donors, whether by mail or email, is automated to such a degree that, once you have your letter templates in place, you'll be able to enter all your gifts for the day, and then tell the program to print (email) all the day's letters. The actual printing may take some time, but doesn't require that you be watching the printer, of course.
Now, for any existing donors, i.e., those for whom you have already entered demographic data, the time spent is just finding their record and entering the gift. If you have a lot of repeat donors, you'll find you can increase the number entered from 12 per hour to 40 or more. If you can enter 40 per hour at $20.00 each on average, that's $800.00 for that hour of labor.
Yes, you have to create thank you letter templates, but a single template can be used for the majority of gifts, although you may want to update it from time to time. Yes, you have to enter people and their personal information, but only once. Yes, you have to thank them if you ever want them to give again. And, yes, that's exactly why you purchased FundRaiser in the first place, isn't it?