April 4, 2010 | Read Time: 6 minutes
Before each performance at Michigan’s Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Rebecca Steketee reviews the names of ticket buyers to see if any of the theater’s regular donors plan to show up.
Then Ms. Steketee, the theater’s development director, writes notes that she places on the patrons’ seats, with a card thanking them for their loyal support.
Ms. Steketee started adding that special touch when the recession began making it tougher to raise money, and it is one reason that even in one of the states hardest hit by the economy, the theater’s donations from individuals and corporations have risen by more than 3 percent in the past year.
Across the country, many other fund raisers are intensifying their efforts to make solicitations more personal and taking other steps to focus on appeals that yield the best results.
Such a back-to-basics approach will help many charities navigate through a time when money is tight and economic returns are uncertain, says Michael Nilsen, a spokesman for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, which represents more than 30,000 fund raisers. “That means ensuring that donors who are the most loyal continue to give because this generates the most revenue with the least cost.”
For the Grand Rapids theater, increasing the personal touch has not just reaped bigger donations but has also helped reduce fund-raising expenses. The charity saved $5,000 by cutting its contract with a mail house that used to send mass appeals. Now a staff member handles each appeal, giving staff members the chance to add personal notes to all development-related correspondence. While that means extra work for Ms. Steketee and her colleagues, she says, it’s well worth the effort.
Following are some of the other approaches charities are taking as they focus on the most cost-effective ways to land donations.
Giving up time-consuming and expensive events. While galas, auctions, and other special events often attract new people to a charity, some fund-raising experts question whether people who buy a ticket to an event are likely to become longtime supporters.
Butler Hospital, a Providence, R.I., psychiatric hospital that also conducts research to improve brain health, last year abandoned its costly annual luncheon featuring local and national celebrities. The event, which cost $30,000 to $60,000 to produce, had been losing corporate supporters, and when it was last held in 2008, it collected only $10,000 after expenses.
Last year, to replace the luncheon, the hospital asked board members to hold a series of small, more intimate gatherings at their homes and invite their friends and relatives.
Instead of seeking money for the hospital’s general fund, as it did at the celebrity lunch, the hospital made no solicitations at the house parties. Hospital officials announced the creation of a new research endowment at each party, and they showed a 10-minute video about the hospital’s research on new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and depression.
After the event, board members and fund raisers met with each person who attended and asked him or her to support the new research fund.
Michele Berard, the hospital’s development director, says that the new endowment and small gatherings worked well because of the investment the group’s board made in the effort, and that strategy helped the hospital raise more money than it had before the recession: In 2007 the hospital raised $958,000, and contributions fell to $616,000 the following year, when the financial crisis reached its low point. Last year, however, as a result of the new endowment, it raised $1.5-million. She says the in-person approach, plus the focus on the hospital’s research efforts, appealed more to donors than the gala luncheon pitch for help paying general expenses.
Ms. Steketee, at the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, also gave up a large fund-raising event because of the recession, saving $12,000 in expenses and a lot of the staff’s time.
The theater has instead started inviting staff members and performers for coffee and appetizers 30 minutes before the curtain rises. Because of donations of food and beverages from local businesses, each pre-performance event costs the organization less than $100.
At least 10 donors who attended the pre-performance events doubled their annual giving, she says, and many others increased their giving.
Tailoring special appeals to the most-loyal donors. Lisa Steindler, executive artistic director at Z Space, a San Francisco theater group, last year reviewed donors’ giving records for the past seven years and identified the 500 most-generous supporters before she created a year-end appeal.
She then sent personal appeals to each donor, noting the types of shows her or she supported and saying thanks. That approach raised $43,000, more than double the $20,000 a mass mailing typically produces. To further cement her relationship with theatergoers, Ms. Steindler now spends at least one lunch hour per week with a donor or potential supporter.
Seeking goods and services, not just cash. For many social-service groups, keeping donors, let alone increasing their contributions, is particularly challenging because many supporters have been hit especially hard by the recession.
Jennifer Hoffman, development director at Prince George’s Child Resource Center, in Largo, Md., says her organization has tried to demonstrate that donated goods can often be just as valuable as cash to the organization.
“We thank people who give in-kind donations just like we would someone who gives a cash donation, and we invite them to come and be a part of what we are doing. That has turned into cash donations,” she says.
The group has successfully started an appeal to attract donated goods around the holidays. That effort has brought new supporters to the group and attracted money from the local United Way, says Ms. Hoffman.
Diversifying sources of support. The New World Foundation, the Open Society Institute, and the Stoneman Foundation joined together this year to provide a total of $510,000 to help advocacy organizations raise more money from the people they serve and to reduce their reliance on foundations.
“With the unpredictability of endowments, it is unhealthy to rely on us as much as they do,” says Bill Vandenberg, who oversees grants to strengthen democracy at the Open Society Institute. “I want to make us be the icing and not the cake itself.”
One recipient of the fund-raising grants is the Colorado Community Organizing Collaborative, in Denver, a group of eight organizations. Its $120,000 grant will allow the collaborative to hire two fund-raising consultants who will assist all eight groups.
Jason McKain, co-executive director of the Colorado Progressive Coalition, one of the advocacy groups, says that the fund-raising aid is sorely needed. The eight groups, he estimates, have collectively lost $2-million in foundation grants and laid off a third of their employees over the past two years.
Approaching people who benefit from advocacy work for modest donations and getting them more vested in the cause, he says, could do more than just help the bottom line, it could also help advocacy groups draw greater participation. “For several decades, social justice was funded by poor people,” says Mr. McKain. “We need to get back to our constituents.”
