FundRaiser Blog
Lessons Learned about Moving Donors Up the Giving Ladder
In part 1 - Raelene Pullen, Development Director at the Figge Art Museum, shares how she is successfully uses FundRaiser Professional to engaged more donors and increasing donations.
FundRaiser Professional is important in evaluating ROI (Return On Investment) of the events organized by Raelene Pullen. “After an event, we are interested to see the relationship between donations received by the Museum and the donor’s attendance at recent events. How do the donations that come in from those prospects compare to the ones that come from people who haven’t attended? This makes visible the impact of the event and that way of cultivating these relationships,"says Raelene.
"We have a unique report that we run to see people who attended those parties. Did the gifts come in at the event, after the event, or at another event? We run that report weekly to analyze those results.” As a result of her work, Raelene has discovered some key truths about giving that have helped her make good development decisions:
- People give when they want to give, and on their own schedule.
- The most important thing about an event is sharing time with donors.
People give when they want to give
“We can ask the donor on our schedule but they will give when they want. They may be inspired to give during the annual fund drive if the timing of that drive is right. But, if they attend an event, even if they don’t give, that attendance has an impact on their understanding and support for our mission,” says Raelene.
“We learned that we can’t have an event and expect it is the right time for a donor to give. That’s not the trend of the donor, that’s our schedule. But when we make a connection that has an impact, we definitely show a correlation between size of gift in previous years before they had the relationship and contact, and the size of the gift after they have that contact and education," says Raelene.
Connection between outreach and size of donations
Although donors may not give at the time of the event, the event does have an important and positive impact on giving. “There is a direct correlation between the understanding a donor has for our programs and service to the community as a result of attending an event, and their support for the Figge. The event educates, informs and helps them to understand the important part they play as supporters, both internally at the museum and externally in the community. You expect people will know this, but they don’t if they don’t hear it from us.
"We don’t have the marketing budget to advertise our programs in the community, so these supporters that we educate are an important link in the communication chain. It’s important to tell people so they can tell others. Without that special time with our donors that sort of network is impossible,” says Raelene.
FundRaiser Professional has allowed the analysis that clarified these key insights for Figge's development work.
To find out how FundRaiser can help your organization understand donor giving patterns
