Are you suffering from mid-level donor envy? More and more organizations are catching on to the importance of this generous and loyal tier of donors.
For those of you looking to inject some mid-level love into your program, here’s a five-week DIY mid-level bootcamp.
Now drop and give us 20.
Opening Advice: First do no harm.
In the inimitable words of Pema Chodron, start where you are. Do you have a neglected ‘in name only’ program? Do you have no program at all? Wherever you are in this process, don’t panic. And don’t flail. I have a history of doing stuff willy-nilly and it always backfires. So do what I say and not what I do and take a deep breath.
Start out by answering some fundamental questions. Write your answers down.
Ask:
- Why are you doing this? How big a priority is this for you?
A program overhaul is going to require time and patience. There’s a good chance the ROI will be worth it, but you need to put in the work. Is this the time to do it?
- What does success look like?
More money? Better retention? Boost in life-time value? More bequests?
- Who and what do you need?
Who do you need help from within the organization to get started? What other resources (e.g. consulting money) do you have that you can use?
Week One: Take Stock
Week 1 is audit week.
The first week, you want to get your head around where things stand, and maybe keep an eye out for some no-brainer improvements you can make fairly quickly (but don’t make them just yet).
Again, you are where you are. Don’t feel guilty or defensive or angry about any of it. Approach your audit week like a car mechanic giving your car a thorough once over. It’s not personal.
- How do you define mid-level at your organization? A typical ceiling for a small to medium nonprofit might be $5,000 or $10,000 per year. For your floor, most organizations consider $500 or $1000 a year to be the minimum. For now, pick a floor and ceiling that feels about right (there’s way more art than science to this than you might think).
- Based on the floor and ceiling, how many mid-level donors do you have?
- How much did they generate in gross income in the past fiscal year?
- What’s the percentage of your overall individual giving file that falls in the mid-level? A typical situation might be that mid-level donors represent less than 5% of your donor base, but generate 15-20% of your income.
- If you have access to it, what are the first-year and multi-year retention rates for these donors?
- Where are these donors coming from? Are they coming online or from events or direct mail? Are they responding to program-specific upgrade invitations or are they just making larger gifts to the same asks everyone else is getting?
- How do you thank donors for mid-level gifts? How quickly? Via what channels?
- What is your current stewardship plan? How and when do you communicate impact?
Week Two: Build Internal Support
Remember how you listed who you need and what you need from them back in Week One? Well this week you’ll enlist those people in your cause.
Set up one on ones with:
- Your boss. Your goal is to get them to buy into this effort. Don’t try to do a program revamp off the corner of your desk. In my experience that tends not to end well.
- The major gifts director. You’re looking for two things at least: some recognition that you are one key to the major gifts folks’ success. Because you are. And because you need their help. The other thing you’re looking for is some agreement about how to handle up and coming donors. It’s not uncommon for new mid-level donors to get pulled out of the mail stream by major gifts, where they will languish at the bottom of a major gifts officer’s portfolio. Work out a deal where you continue to keep mailing to every mid-level donor at least until that donor meets with a major gifts person.
- Anyone else you listed as critical to your success. Buy them pastries or beer.
Week Three: Talk to Your Donors
It’s flabbergasting how much fundraisers will opine about what moves their donors and do it with zero input from the donors themselves. You are not your donor, and your opinion based on how you would theoretically act if you were the donor is a miserable substitute.
So, this week you are going to be a world-class listener, by:
- Reviewing any surveys or interviews that have bene done in the past;
- Asking whoever reads the feedback that comes in online what feedback they are seeing;
- Calling four donors on the phone and asking what they’re thinking about lately; and
- Launching a 3-question survey to mid-level donors with email addresses. Ask them:
- Why they support you;
- How likely are they to continue supporting you; and
- What do they expect in return.
Don’t assume for a second that you already know the answers.
Week Four: Make Some Easy Quick Meaningful Fixes
Few phrases are more polarizing than ‘low-hanging fruit,’ but the darn cliché is sticky precisely because it captures an idea so succinctly. So without resorting to ‘that phrase,’ this is the week to take on some low effort-high return fixes designed to get you started on the road to mid-level nirvana.
Chances are you’ll spot some easy, quick, meaningful fixes of your own, but here are some common examples from our practice:
- Donors in limbo. See above. Major gifts has taken a midlevel donor out of the communications stream and has then ignored her.
- Solution: Put the donor back in the mail stream.
- Un-personalized email. Donor is a $1000 donor but gets the exact same email as one who gives you $15.
- Solution: Make sure every piece of email going to that donor acknowledges their special status.
- Un-branded program. Some fundraisers suggest it’s not necessary to give the mid-level program a name. We respectfully disagree. But they do have a point, sort of: Your sustainer program does NOT need a name.
- Solution: Give your mid-level program a name. Use the name in all of your donor correspondence, digital and otherwise.
- Donors feel taken for granted. This one is for over-achievers.
- Solution: Launch a thank-a-thon during which staff members call midlevel donors ‘just to say thank you.’ It will address probable deficiencies in your gratitude communications and foster a culture of philanthropy, all in one fell swoop.
Week Five: Make A One-Year Plan
You’re in the fundraising business so I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you how to make a plan. Make a communications plan for your midlevels in which cultivation touches outweigh solicitations, in which saying thank you comes early and often, and which recognizes your donors’ special status 100% of the time.
Parting Word
One final piece of advice: Use a lifeline. Our mid-level fundraising listserv has more than 200 active participants. Email us at [email protected] and we’ll add your name.
“Buy them pastries or beer.” Please also consider coffee.
Perfect timing for us. We are looking at strategies to engage, retain and lift mid-level donors. Thanks for the tips and week by week tasks.
We definitely need to revamp our soliciations to these donors, thank you!
This is interesting!
I’m sharing this with my team
Forwarded this to our mid-level Officer. Great insights
I look forward to trying some of these ideas out! The listserv will be very helpful going forward as we look at our overall stewardship plan in more detail.
Good ideas!
Thanks for the break down. Sharing with my team.
Great article and very helpful ideas.
I’ve always felt our mid-level donors have more of a commitment to the mission of the organization than most major donors who fund everything. That mission commitment is important.
Great quick-fix ideas!
all good ideas – watch out for those in Limbo – don’t let them stay there….
very interesting, we are looking for new ways to outreach to our donors.
I like this idea: “Work out a deal where you continue to keep mailing to every mid-level donor at least until that donor meets with a major gifts person.”
Lots of good content to consider. Thanks!
This is something our organization has discussed, so these tips will be helpful!
Kept nodding my head as I was reading this. I have tried many of these things at various orgs, and all of them have had a positive impact. Great read!
This is great advise. Some really great points and gives great direction.
Oops posted a comment but used my personal email in error.
Interesting, will share with the team!
thanks so much for sharing
Any blog that starts with Pema Chodron, is ahead of the pack already.
And your suggestion to talk with your donors, intelligent in being both obvious and smart.
Thank you for sharing, look forward to hearing from you at BBCON.
I will be sharing my team. Thank you!
I cannot say how much I LOVE this!! I think anyone can do this. Thank you.
Great tips. Thanks!
Love the idea of a quick three question email survey.
“thank-a-thon” Phone calls a good idea around Thanksgiving to kick off giving season
Love the 3 questions. I definitely will be sharing this one.
Great advice to remember!
Love the “unpersonalize email” advice – obviously written by a veteran fundraiser!
Great to read just as we are getting back to focusing on this group. Thanks for the plan!
I like the suggestion of sending a different email to “bigger” donors.
Good ideas for engaging middle donors. A very important but often overlooked group.
loved the suggested data pulls
Nice!
Some great ideas
Great ideas to think through planning year end as well.
Excellent ideas!
Great ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing!
The idea of a survey is very helpful!
Some good food for thought here!
We definitely should be paying more attention to our mid-level donors. There are some great ideas here to get us started on that path. Thanks!
I love the way this is broken out. Easy to digest and so actionable!
Great ideas! I would add enlisting Board support during week 2 or 3. We run a number of ideas past our development committee and would like to empower them to help us implement those ideas.
Good article.
I really like the way this is laid out. Also – “Dont’ try to revamp the program off the corner of your desk.” So useful. Besides, I’m running out of corners.
If you plan to survey your donors, make sure you work with your system or IT team to track responses and participation. Don’t ignore those who engage with your outreach.