An interesting new report from Sage Journals analyzed data spanning more than three decades from over 4,000 charities with missions of all types. The survey found that charities following widely accepted norms for nonprofit financial management generally performed worse than those embracing fresh approaches. According to the report, “Conventional wisdom holds that fundraising costs should be as low as possible to avoid creating an impression that donor money is being wasted. However, the reluctance to spend on fundraising may result in less money being available to spend in the future.”
While Masterpiece Marketing firmly believes in good stewardship and investing your fundraising marketing dollars wisely, embracing a strategic and trackable campaign that costs extra may engage donors more effectively to bring in more donations overall. You may see an opportunity to include a token of thanks or a creative and unexpected visual theme. Considerations for an added fundraising investment may be a variable data imprint that shows donors their giving history, an inserted piece that is customized for a subset of your donor audience, or even a year-end mailing that isn’t a traditional appeal—ask us for ideas!