Telephone Fundraising Services
"We Change Conversations into Commitments"
Navigation
Tag Cloud
News Update
Sign up to receive our monthly news update
Juddee's Blog
Blackbaud recently delivered a report on Growing Philanthropy in the U.S. Giving is flat. What can you do about it? As it turns out, a number of things!
- Redefine donor relationships and focus on giving for giving's sake.
- Reorient more toward longer term measures of fundraising, not the short-term ROI, giving totals, etc. Look at long term values.
- Focus on donor retention and building loyalty. A 10% improvement in retention results in a 200% improvement in lifetime value!
- Develop an integrated approach to fundraising with messages that focus on the donors concerns.
How are you fixing flat giving? Have a story? A helpful tip? Email me. I'll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising!
Juddee Milito, CFRE, President
J. Milito & Associates, Inc.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
If your nonprofit closed its doors, would it be missed? If it disappeared what group would be in the best position to pick up and carry out your mission? If you can answer that question, then work to do better than them!
An interesting blog posting on 'What Would Steve Jobs Do at Your Nonprofit?' (The Agitator via Grizzard Agency) gives insight on what the late Steve Jobs would do if he were your CEO:
- Paint a compelling vision for a better world and give donors relevant and concrete ways they can help achieve it.
- Anticipate what your donors want and give it to them, including surprising them in positive ways with all the good that's getting done by your organization.
- At every donor touch point, weave a compelling experience to pull them into the excitement and drama of how your organization is changing the world.
- Make sure that your nonprofit delivers great value for every dollar donors contribute.
Pretty basic but dynamic and exciting, too! Are you 'wowing' your donors?
Have an interesting 'wow' story? A helpful tip? Email me. I'll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising!
Juddee Milito, CFRE, President
J. Milito & Associates, Inc.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Most nonprofits have more multiple target audiences. Yet most groups use just one or two tried-and-true communication styles. But your donors have more savvy than that. They're used to receiving and responding to a variety of contact styles. Bottom line: one size doesn't fit all!
Younger audiences may lean toward email or tweets. Some older adults may like the personal touch of a phone call. Still others might prefer a direct mail piece with a remit envelope they can 'file' with their other planned financial responsibilities.
'Multi-channel fundraising' (per Steve MacLaughlin at Blackbaud) calls for tailoring not only your message but your communication style, as well, to reflect how the donor likes to receive information. It may take a bit more work and coordination on your end. But it can help you build stronger relationships with your various donor bases, show them you understand who they are and what they like, and help you reap more financial rewards.
Worry less about which communication approach gets the better return. Invest more time in learning what your donors like. A blend of styles will take you further down the road to success. Give it a try!
Have an interesting 'multi-channel' story? A helpful tip? Email me. I'll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising!
Juddee Milito, CFRE, President
J. Milito & Associates, Inc.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Donors are familiar with monthly financial expenditures like housing and utilities. Most make it easy by paying on-line or with automatic deductions. Did you know there’s a growing trend toward monthly charitable giving? Called ‘regular giving’ or ‘sustained giving,’ monthly charitable gifts are increasing in popularity over traditional ‘annual giving,’ especially with the younger donors in your database.
Why pursue monthly gifts? Well, for the donor it’s more convenient and eliminates the need for annual ‘renewals.’ For your organization? Reduced costs associated with communications (print pieces, postage, and time on the phone) that are part of the annual giving package, and a developing, predictable source of revenue.
(A ‘tip of the hat’ to blackbaud for general content information.)
Have an interesting ‘monthly giving’ story? A helpful tip? Email me. I’ll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising!
Juddee Milito, CFRE, President
J. Milito & Associates, Inc.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
During a recent visit, a client told me that she had great results emailing tailor-made requests for year-end gifts for each file segment of her data base. She used short success stories in her email blasts asking constituents to remember them with a gift at year-end. She reaped $50,000 in 4-days with little expense to the organization!
Well, your year-end is almost here. And, the way the holidays fall, think about starting your staggered email ‘ask blasts’ around December 19 and finish up on December 30 or even December 31.
Have an interesting ‘email ask blast’ story? A helpful tip? Email me. I’ll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising,
Juddee Milito
Most of us are familiar with the fundraising axiom, “an ask made by the right person at the right time, for the right gift amount and for the right reasons will be successful.” Of course, success only happens after the right amount of cultivation and relationship-building!
That personal visit, face-to-face visit over a cup of coffee in a relaxed setting, is a wonderful way to ask a donor for their gift of support. But sometimes you don’t have that luxury. If your donor is in California and you’re in New York, a personal telephone call can work just as well. Made by the right person, at the right time of day and for the right reason, that chat can be the next best thing to asking in person!
How’s your timing? In person or by phone, be sure to have the right person on your staff calling on donors at the right time, for the right reasons and asking for the right amount.
Have an interesting ‘timing’ story? A helpful tip? Email me. I’ll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising,
Juddee Milito
There are a couple of familiar questions I hear a lot these days from nonprofit organizations: “why don’t our donors respond to our direct mail solicitations?” and “why are so many of our donors lapsing away each year?”
My response? “Pick up the phone, call and ask them!” It sounds simple, and it is. A phone call is the second best way to reach out to your constituents, find out if they’re up-to-date on your organization and its ministry and discover what’s keeping them from responding. More importantly, a phone call gives you the opportunity to ask them if they’d be willing to support your nonprofit again.
Ask your lapsed donors: What is keeping you from supporting our organization right now? What made you support our organization in the first place? What can we do to make you care about our mission and ministry again so that you’ll support us? When can we expect you to rejoin our family?
All nonprofit organizations have lapsed donors. Have an interesting ‘got my donors back’ story? A helpful tip? Email me. I’ll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising,
Juddee Milito
At the conclusion of a recent road trip to visit a client and discuss her completed phone-a-thon, we ‘dug up’ something interesting.
We had a broad discussion on the usual stats:
- Percent of pledges to completed records (pledge rate)
- Percent of soft pledges (‘maybe’ promises)
- Percent of refusals to completed records and most frequently heard reasons for refusals
- Percent of bad numbers in the file and a discussion of daily list-hygiene practices
When we finished we discovered there was an unusually high number of $1,000, $2,500 and $5,000 pledges that were received from her file of lapsed and deeply lapsed donors.
If telephone calls were able to unearth larger-than-usual gift amounts, imagine what a face-to-face cultivation and solicitation visit would reap!
What happened here? Well, it’s all about using the right ‘shovel:’
- Some donors are direct mail sensitive
- Some donors are phone call sensitive
- Some donors are somewhere in between.
There are ‘gold donors’ in your files, too. Go after them. Call them. Visit them. Cultivate them.
Have an interesting ‘digging for gold’ story? A helpful tip? Email me. I’ll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising,
Juddee Milito“…because you asked them.” That’s the #1 reason people give to charities! “Because you asked them.” This shouldn’t really be a great surprise, but sometimes we forget the basics. I was reminded of this important facet of our industry in a recent article to chapter members by Anna Goddard, President of the West Michigan Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Thanks Anna!!!
There are also other reasons why people donate:
- They have compassion for those in need
- They have a personal belief in the cause
- They have a personal involvement in the cause
- They have a desire to give back to their community
And, here’s another powerful fact: most donors would give more if they were asked to give more!!!
That’s pretty important to remember when writing your next telephone fundraising script, fall or year-end direct mail appeals or web site appeal asking string.
Have an interesting donor story? A helpful tip? Email me. I’ll be glad to share them.
Happy fundraising,
Juddee Milito
Let’s face it: you can never thank donors enough!
Written by Juddee MilitoSometimes it’s easy to get so caught up with ‘bringing in the money’ that extending an extra ‘thank you’ to donors is forgotten.
Telephone fundraising offers a great opportunity for organizations like yours to personally connect with donors at a time during the year when asking for a donation isn’t the main focus.
Need proof of the value of an extra ‘thank you’? It’s proven in the nonprofit world that you must thank a donor a minimum of six times to make them truly feel appreciated and valued!
Still doubting? One of my private school clients recently shared his sentiments about the twice/year ‘thank you’ calls we do on his school’s behalf:
“We feel our donors need to know how much we appreciate them and their support. We do not want to be viewed as an organization that only makes a phone call when it is time to ASK for more money. We also appreciate the feedback we receive from your callers and it helps us to build a ‘personality file’ for each of our donors, helping us to get to know each of them in a special way. In addition, we have heard many of our donors say, “No one has ever called me just to say ‘thank you’ and I am only a $25.00 a year donor.” And now, most of the time, when we contact that donor again, their gift is an increase from their prior donation.”
So, when was the last time you made a special effort to thank your donors? If you have success stories to share about your ‘thank you’ calls I hope you’ll share them here on my blog.
But, if you don’t have the in-house staff to pull off this valuable contact…call J. Milito & Associates! at (616) 453-8711
I’m new to the world of blogging and could use your help determining helpful, interesting content.
My name is Juddee Milito and I own J. Milito & Associates, Inc., a company that does outbound telephone fundraising and follow-up. Our company markets and serves the mid-west from our call center in Grand Rapids MI. All of our clients are nonprofit organizations in the academic, health & human services, religious and arts fields.
Do you have a topic of interest or a particular fundraising experience you’d like to share? Is there an area of fundraising or telephone fundraising, in particular, you’d like to learn more about? Let me know and I promise to be succinct and ever the educator and will try not to put my sales hat on when I blog.
Could you, or someone you know, use the wisdom I’ve gleaned from more than 15 years in the telephone fundraising business and more than 40 years working in the nonprofit industry? If so, my blog will be the place for you to learn, discover and grow in your fundraising efforts. If you’re already an ‘old pro’ like me, my blog can be your avenue for sharing your expertise and ideas!
Hey, thanks for reading and let me know what you want to know!
Juddee Milito, CFRE, President
J. Milito & Associates, Inc.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Find Us on Facebook,
or Follow Us on YouTube
or Subscribe to our Blog!
Copyright © 2011 J. Milito & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserverd
Home Office - 1133 Maplegrove Drive, NW - Grand Rapids, MI 49504
(616) 453-8711 - FAX: (616) 453-0933 - Email Juddee
Call Center - 2000 Leonard St NW (Lower Level) - Grand Rapids, MI 49504
(616) 988-8384 - FAX: (616) 855-0365 - Contact Call Center