Hot on the heels of our post last week on donors giving clubs, we received these questions from readers and clients. See if any of them are things that you have been thinking about. And if you missed our post last week, just click here.
To re-cap, we were exploring best practices for creating giving clubs to both engage donors and upgrade their support. It seems that this age-old fundraising technique is good in theory, but many of them stay dormant. The questions we received highlight the fact that it’s all in the implementation!
How do you decide the right dollar amounts for your giving clubs?
If you are using giving clubs as a bridge between lower dollar gifts and major gifts, it really depends on what is a major donor for your organization and what the spread of gifts is below that level. If a major gift at your organization is $1,000 and the majority of the donors sit at the under $100 level, you might want to consider a couple of giving levels below (maybe $250 and $500) and above $1,000 ($2,500 and $5,000) in order to build a middle donor bridge to the major gift level.
If, however, you want to build giving clubs to upgrade your major gifts file, you should create giving levels significantly above your major gifts level. If $10,000 is a major gift and you have prospects for larger gifts, create clubs at the $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 levels.
It really depends on what the strategy is for your giving club structure. Don’t create them because everyone else does. It’s too much work! Do them as a part of your plan.
Do you have to publish donors’ names for a giving club to be successful?
This is a great question. I recognize that at the opera and the ballet and many other institutions, donor names and their giving levels are published to create a bit of charitable peer pressure. And while I’m sure that works for a segment of donors, I’m not really talking about that. I’m talking about engaging donors by bringing them closer to the work you do, building a stronger and stronger loyalty through interaction with the organization.
In this type of giving club strategy, people aren’t in it to get their names published in the annual report (although some might find that attractive). They are in the giving club to be closer to the organization and get more access to your work. They want to be recognized, but the recognition they seek is from the organization, not from their peers.
So, no. I don’t think you have to publish names to make a giving club work. And certainly don’t publish names without the donors consent. It’s best practice to ask your donors.
What if your organization doesn’t really have the culture of singling out donors for recognition?
That’s great! And there are some organizations where a giving club structure would not work due to the culture. However, I’ll share a lesson from experience. At Greenpeace, 20 years ago now, our staff was sure that a giving circle structure would never work. We really wanted to treat our donors all the same. But, lo and behold, when we tried it, people loved it and even started identifying themselves at the level where they gave. Why? Because they wanted to be more closely associated with the organization and our benefits offered them more access to the work we did.
So, it may or may not work for you, but do go out and ask your donors before you decide. See how they respond. Take up the challenge to create something that DOES work for your organizational culture.
Does someone have to give every year to be in a giving club?
I’ve seen some giving club that either combine all giving to-date or leave people at the giving level of their highest gift, but honestly, I think that defeats the purpose. The best use of this strategy is to build a path for annual donors to give more over time by asking them every year. You do, of course, want to count all giving during the year when assigning levels as people may want to give in installments or through monthly giving programs. But, ask for upgrades annually and re-assign people every year based on their giving for that year.
Your giving clubs will lose momentum if they were established to upgrade annual donors and you don’t ask them to give at the same level or higher every year!
What kind of benefits does a planned giving club have?
Now just to be clear, a planned giving club is made up of individuals who have put your organization in their estate plans. These people are LIVING. (Just wanted to make that clear!)
Honestly, I’ve seen plaques, special newsletters, and pins, but my experience is that people just want to be recognized as having made a gift. That can take the form of bricks on a walkway (a lovely idea done by the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County) to planned giving local events (well executed by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) to just a personal note, call or visit from the Executive Director.
But remember – not all individuals want the world to know about the bequest. Ask before you put their name on anything!
What ideas do you have for great giving clubs? We’d love to hear something innovative and unusual or something that just plain works. Please share!
