How to Create a Mid-Level Donor Program

Mid-level Donor (MLD) Overview Top 5 Program Necessities Group Discussion 30 Day Plan Q&A

“Too many nonprofits are rewarded for how little they spend — not for what they get done.” – Dan Pallotta 2 minutes Dan Pallotta American entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian activist Created multi-day charitable event industry with the long-distance Breast Cancer 3-day walks, AIDS rides bike journeys, among others 182k participants raised over $580m in 9 years Author of Uncharitable - How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential, best selling title of all time at Tufts University Press

2 minutes Lackluster treatment MLD=middle child Neglect leads to reduced retention and inadequate major donor pools

Donors @ $1k - $10k 1% of Donor Population 1/3 of $ Given 5 minutes -Why is this important to you? - money left on table - donors are ready for taking to the next level - competition is tough – spend time on what will have the greatest ROI They’re overlooking a committed and productive audience: middle donors These are donors who give more than low-dollar direct marketing donations, but less than major gift targets Donors at $1k - $10k represent 1% of the donor population but are giving more than 33% of the dollars Overall donor retention is down from 33% in 2005 to 25% in 2014 Many fundraisers and experts agree that mid-level donors are exceptionally valuable Many also agree that orgs haven’t made investments necessary to make the most of this immense opportunity

Mission Focused Loyal Retention Ready Upgrade Potential 5 minutes You know the value of mid-level donors. They give several times what general donors give in the course of a year, but you can’t afford to spend your major gift officers’ time cultivating them. If you handle them right, enough of them will upgrade to become major donors to keep that high-value program growing and healthy.

Meaningful Content Time to Evaluate Staff Bandwidth Leadership Capacity Staff Bandwidth Anti-silo Structure Meaningful Content Time to Evaluate 10 minutes Leadership Adjust strategies and investment priorities to bridge the gap Create teams that can collaborate to: a. Prospect and upgrade donors to a mid-level; b.Care and nurture for donors at this level (mix all types of donor tactics) c.Create a pipeline of future major donors; and, d.Measure success Staff -Assign credit -have metrics -reduce ask frequency Silos MGOs as masters of the personal touch – birthdays, articles, rich/sophisticated communication; but timing is uncertain and scaling is tough Internet as master of broad communication but impersonal -Direct marketing great at analytics, broad communication, high volume; but impersonal and one dimensional Content Substance, consistency, focus on stewardship, branding Time -results take time -must listen to donors and what they want 20 minutes Activity: Grade your organization (scale of A-F) for each category and why; talk about with a partner; talk with whole group

5 minutes -Abundance all around, especially with individuals -MLD must be motivated and taped - $1 billion is given each day -over $373 billion was given philanthropically in 2015, 80% from individuals – that’s not our limit; philanthropy has been stagnant (2% of GDP still) for the last 10+ years Growth last year was a bit slower but returned to pre-recession levels Foundations give 16%; corporations only 4% International charities are thriving (17% growth), education/arts/environment/public benefit are about the same (6-8% growth) Break: 15 minutes

2 minutes How much will this cost? What is the ROI? Will I have to give it time? Is more staff required? etc.

Grade your organization Get buy-in from leaders 2 WEEK TASK 1 Grade your organization Get buy-in from leaders 2 Choose one immediate change Design reporting structure 3 Devise plan for additional changes Create metrics 4 Look at costs and staffing 10 minutes Be patient Report out often Create metrics

% of Effort and Investment Strategy Touch Effort Tier % of Effort and Investment Strategy Cultivation and Solicitation Approach Desired Outcomes High Touch High 1 50% Very Personal Strategic Moves Upgrade to Major Gift Donor Medium 2 30% Upgrade to Tier 1 Donor Low 3 20% Less Personal Tactical Moves Upgrade to Tier 2 Donor 10 minutes Discuss RFM Donor segmentation by tier allowed us to develop a customized work plan for donor cultivation based on recent giving history and wealth capacity. These efforts should be complemented with personal cultivation, donor visits, donor receptions, etc. Understanding the importance of ROI, we more deeply analyzed the file and prioritized the portfolio across all tiers in order to guide the strategy for personal cultivation. The donors were prioritized based on the following criteria:   Priority A – Major Donors (last gift of $2,500+ or lifetime giving of $10,000+) Priority B – Mid-Major Donors (last gift of $1,000-$2,499 or lifetime giving of $5,000-$9,999) Priority C – Middle Donors (last gift of $500-$999 or lifetime giving of $1,000-$4,999)

Spend (considerable) time Use (achievable) metrics Be (VERY) patient Spend (a little) money Spend (considerable) time Use (achievable) metrics Be (VERY) patient 2 minutes

Emma Gilmore Kieran Principal Pilot Peak Consulting, LLC E: emmakieran@pilotpeakconsulting.com C: (703) 772-7472