Why is Annual Giving So Important?

Last week I was fortunate to spend time and engage in conversations with many dedicated annual giving professionals.  I was at an excellent conference that had me thinking again about why annual giving should be important to all non-profit development programs.  I have thought a lot about this lately.

If you are an annual giving professional, or if you have ever been one, you might be thinking I have been pondering the obvious … but over the past three years I have spoken to an organization which discontinued its phonathon, another which closed its annual giving program, and a large university which actually ceased development operations.

Today, I can happily share that the closed development program reopened, that the annual giving office recently hired not one but three development professionals, and while the phonathon isn’t yet calling even 20% of the available prospects, it again calls thousands of individuals annually.

In these challenging times I’d like to give any of you who need to speak out for your annual fund a little supporting information.  When debating the importance of annual giving and its value to our non-profit organizations, we must consider the following:

1) Annual giving donors have a lifetime value that far exceeds any one gift …  so even if we are down because of the economy or identifiable fundraising mistakes and don’t break even in a given year, our organizations will almost certainly be strengthened over time

2) Our annual giving is marketing of our non-profits to broad audiences … in effect our marketing is subsidized by fundraising and this must be considered an addition a return on our investment

3) More than 75% of $10,000+ donors, in one Target Analytics study, gave six or more annual gifts before their first $10,000+ gift … highlighting that indeed annual giving cultivates donors for even greater support in future

4) 88% of those the same $10,000 donors took three or more years from their first annual gift before making their $10,000+ gift … suggesting that for many, annual giving could be a necessary step before some make major gifts

5) Annual giving solicitation vehicles and tools often tell us more about the condition of our databases for all of our organizations activities … indeed mailing and conversations about annual giving often collect more information updates than any other activity of the non-profit

6) Meer and Rosen reported that a college graduate that has given $20 each of the first five years after graduating, will give eight times as much as the graduates to give one $100 in those five years … so it is not enough for us to have a fund for people to give to, we must have a program that actively seeks support and then a repeated renewal of that support

For more on your annual giving efforts, please give me a call or drop me an email.

Brian Lacy

(860) 478-9291

brian@brianlacy.com