WEBVTT
00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:01.679
Quick question.
00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:17.359
If I told you there's a five or even six-figure sum sitting inside your database right now, not a grant that you haven't applied for yet, not a major donor you haven't met yet, just money attached to people who already said yes to you once.
00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:18.879
Would you get excited?
00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:24.960
Well, if you're like most of us working in the nonprofit space, you would probably be ecstatic.
00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.480
What this isn't is another acquisition tactic.
00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:33.520
It's a strategy that's been sitting in a spreadsheet you already have access to.
00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:35.759
Welcome back to Built for Meaning.
00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:49.200
I'm Stephanie Girache, and today I'm handing you a framework I built because I got tired of watching good organizations die on the hamster wheel of acquisition while money leaked from their existing CRM.
00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:51.119
It's called the gift method.
00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:59.840
My way of calculating in very plain, unglamorous math, exactly how much revenue is hiding in the donors you already have.
00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:02.880
Here's the environment we're raising money in right now.
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:20.480
According to the 2024 year-end fundraising effectiveness project report, say that five times fast, a joint project of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation and Giving Tuesday, built from data across more than 12,000 organizations.
00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:26.480
It says that overall donor retention landed at about 42.9%.
00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:31.280
And first-time donor retention was 19.4%.
00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:45.439
Four out of every five first-time donors do not make it to a second gift, not because they stopped caring, because almost nobody asked them to stay in a way that made staying feel like the obvious next choice.
00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:50.560
At the exact same time, the other side of the balance sheet is getting shakier.
00:01:50.799 --> 00:02:01.920
Federal dollars and multi-year grants, the money a lot of us have learned, leaned on to smooth out the gaps, are drying up or getting less predictable by the year.
00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:10.719
So the instinct kicks in raise more, get more donors, but there's a never-ending hamster wheel, and it's an expensive one to stay on.
00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:16.400
Retaining an existing donor costs a fraction of what it costs to acquire a new one.
00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:27.919
Acquisition is dollar for dollar the most expensive money you will ever raise, which means the fastest, cheapest, most controllable growth lever you have isn't out there.
00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:30.000
It's already in your database.
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.719
That's what gift is built to find.
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:38.240
It's four letters, four moves you can make today to uncover that hidden money.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:44.560
It's get your number, identify the leak, find the six figures, and take three moves today.
00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:47.360
So let's dive into each one of these.
00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:50.240
So G is get your number.
00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:53.039
This is really your second gift retention rate.
00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:01.120
Your second gift retention rate is simple to define and almost nobody has actually calculated for their own file.
00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.840
So of the donors who gave you a first gift last year, what percentage gave you a second gift this year?
00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:09.759
And that's what we're answering.
00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:17.520
That figure, so the one I mentioned earlier, 19.4% sector-wide, is your benchmark, not your fate.
00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.400
And the same report found something worth sitting with.
00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:28.800
Donors who've already given more than once retain at about 69%, nearly three and a half times higher.
00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:38.159
So the entire game is getting a donor across that first to second gift line because once they're across it, they behave like a completely different population.
00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:40.960
I is for identify the leak.
00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.680
This is really attrition and lifetime value here.
00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:51.680
Think of your donor file less like a funnel you keep pouring new names into and more like a bucket with holes in the bottom.
00:03:51.919 --> 00:04:00.080
You can keep adding water at the top, or you can find the holes, and finding the holes is cheaper, and it's the only fix that really lasts.
00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:10.560
This is where lifetime value comes in, the total amount a donor gives you across the whole span of their relationship with your organization, not just this year's gift.
00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:14.960
And the research on this is about as dramatic as fundraising data gets.
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:32.720
Fundraising researchers, Adrian Sargent and Elaine J, in their landmark study on donor loyalty, found that increasing retention by just 10% points can increase the lifetime value of your existing donor database by up to 200%.
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:36.879
Now, that's not 200% more donors.
00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:44.800
That's 200% more value from the same people because you kept more of them in the relationship longer.
00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:46.959
That's your league, quantified.
00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:55.920
Every point of attrition isn't just this year's missing gift, it's every future gift that donor would have made compounding away from you.
00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.720
So F is find the six figures.
00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:01.439
Now, this also might be five figures.
00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:07.439
We do the math that makes this real, and this is one of the most important and often overlooked parts.
00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:14.560
Let's say your organization had 500 donors lapsed last year, meaning they gave the year before and didn't give again.
00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:17.519
Your average gift is about$150.
00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:22.720
So rough math, 500 times 150 is$75,000.
00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:24.399
Okay, that's not hypothetical.
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.480
That's real money that walked out your door quietly.
00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:30.000
Now flip it.
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:46.079
If a modest retention improvement recovers even 15% of those lapsed donors, so let's say 75 people, at that same average gift, you've just recovered about$11,000 this year alone.
00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:54.720
And because retained donors tend to increase their giving over time rather than hold flat, that number compounds in year two and year three.
00:05:54.959 --> 00:06:04.240
This is where a five or six-figure recovery over a few years stops sounding like a stretch and starts sounding like actual math.
00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:13.279
This is exactly the calculation the gift framework is built to run, not on my hypothetical numbers, but on your actual numbers.
00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:23.439
Your actual lapsed count, your actual average gifts, your actual attrition rate turned into an actual dollar figure and a clear picture of what's recoverable.
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.399
T is take three moves today.
00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:30.639
Frameworks are only useful if they end in something you can do now.
00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:38.560
Once you have your number, here are just a few things you can do to turn that first gift into a second and a third and maybe even a lifelong relationship.
00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:44.879
So here are my kind of top three ideas of what you could do right away.
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:49.920
The first is share your numbers with your team so everyone can get on board with the plan.
00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:58.560
You can't expect these numbers to be moving in the right direction unless everyone knows that this is the plan to move ahead.
00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:02.959
The second is to segment your lapsed list by recency.
00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:07.680
So donors who lapsed 12 to 18 months ago are your easiest recovery.
00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.800
They're still warm and they still remember why they gave.
00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:15.439
I want you to start there and not with your five-year lapsed list.
00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:26.959
And finally, send one reactivation touch point this week that is not an ask and not a, you know, you probably haven't heard from us in a while email.
00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:37.920
Think of it as more of a reinvitation, a specific update on what their first gift made possible, and a direct warm ask to come back in and get involved.
00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:44.639
Treat it like you're inviting a friend back to the table because that really, in essence, is what it is.
00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:55.120
Everything I just walked you through the retention math, the lifetime value math, the lost versus recovered revenue math, I built into a free workshop and workbook.
00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:57.680
So you're not doing this on the back of a napkin.
00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:02.079
It's called double your donations without doubling your acquisition efforts.
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.360
And it comes with the calculator I use myself.
00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:16.560
You plug in your real numbers and it hands you your actual second gift retention rate, your actual attrition rate, and the actual dollar amount currently hidden in your database.
00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.439
The link for all of that is in the show notes.
00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.399
Because here's what this is really about.
00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:25.199
It's not just a bigger number on a spreadsheet.
00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:35.519
It's the ability to stop treating every$25 donor like a rounding error and every$25,000 donor like your only strategy.
00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.960
And treat them both like they matter because they do.
00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:48.000
It's building a retention engine that runs in the background instead of a team that burns out chasing acquisition every single quarter.
00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:55.360
And it's finally being able to say that growth doesn't have to mean chasing new names to replace the grant dollars that used to carry you.
00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.639
So, gift G-I-F-T.
00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:03.759
Get your number, identify the leak, find the figures, and take three moves today.
00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.679
Second gifts aren't a nice-to-have metric buried in your CRM.
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:12.240
They're your next growth strategy, and you already have everything you need to run it.
00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:13.919
This has been Built for Meaning.
00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:15.120
I'm Stephanie Jiroche.
00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:22.320
Until next time, keep building movements that last and keep asking in a way that's worthy of the people who already said yes.
00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.639
Hey fellow meaning maker, thanks for listening today.
00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:34.720
If you like what you heard, click subscribe and join me each week as I tackle topics related to donor retention, meaning making, and giving psychology.
00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:40.799
And don't forget to check the show notes to connect with me on social media, subscribe to the newsletter, and more.
00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:42.080
Until next time.
00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:01.679
Quick question.
00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:17.359
If I told you there's a five or even six-figure sum sitting inside your database right now, not a grant that you haven't applied for yet, not a major donor you haven't met yet, just money attached to people who already said yes to you once.
00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:18.879
Would you get excited?
00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:24.960
Well, if you're like most of us working in the nonprofit space, you would probably be ecstatic.
00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:28.480
What this isn't is another acquisition tactic.
00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:33.520
It's a strategy that's been sitting in a spreadsheet you already have access to.
00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:35.759
Welcome back to Built for Meaning.
00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:49.200
I'm Stephanie Girache, and today I'm handing you a framework I built because I got tired of watching good organizations die on the hamster wheel of acquisition while money leaked from their existing CRM.
00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:51.119
It's called the gift method.
00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:59.840
My way of calculating in very plain, unglamorous math, exactly how much revenue is hiding in the donors you already have.
00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:02.880
Here's the environment we're raising money in right now.
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:20.480
According to the 2024 year-end fundraising effectiveness project report, say that five times fast, a joint project of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Foundation and Giving Tuesday, built from data across more than 12,000 organizations.
00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:26.480
It says that overall donor retention landed at about 42.9%.
00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:31.280
And first-time donor retention was 19.4%.
00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:45.439
Four out of every five first-time donors do not make it to a second gift, not because they stopped caring, because almost nobody asked them to stay in a way that made staying feel like the obvious next choice.
00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:50.560
At the exact same time, the other side of the balance sheet is getting shakier.
00:01:50.799 --> 00:02:01.920
Federal dollars and multi-year grants, the money a lot of us have learned, leaned on to smooth out the gaps, are drying up or getting less predictable by the year.
00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:10.719
So the instinct kicks in raise more, get more donors, but there's a never-ending hamster wheel, and it's an expensive one to stay on.
00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:16.400
Retaining an existing donor costs a fraction of what it costs to acquire a new one.
00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:27.919
Acquisition is dollar for dollar the most expensive money you will ever raise, which means the fastest, cheapest, most controllable growth lever you have isn't out there.
00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:30.000
It's already in your database.
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.719
That's what gift is built to find.
00:02:32.800 --> 00:02:38.240
It's four letters, four moves you can make today to uncover that hidden money.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:44.560
It's get your number, identify the leak, find the six figures, and take three moves today.
00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:47.360
So let's dive into each one of these.
00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:50.240
So G is get your number.
00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:53.039
This is really your second gift retention rate.
00:02:53.199 --> 00:03:01.120
Your second gift retention rate is simple to define and almost nobody has actually calculated for their own file.
00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:07.840
So of the donors who gave you a first gift last year, what percentage gave you a second gift this year?
00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:09.759
And that's what we're answering.
00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:17.520
That figure, so the one I mentioned earlier, 19.4% sector-wide, is your benchmark, not your fate.
00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.400
And the same report found something worth sitting with.
00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:28.800
Donors who've already given more than once retain at about 69%, nearly three and a half times higher.
00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:38.159
So the entire game is getting a donor across that first to second gift line because once they're across it, they behave like a completely different population.
00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:40.960
I is for identify the leak.
00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:43.680
This is really attrition and lifetime value here.
00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:51.680
Think of your donor file less like a funnel you keep pouring new names into and more like a bucket with holes in the bottom.
00:03:51.919 --> 00:04:00.080
You can keep adding water at the top, or you can find the holes, and finding the holes is cheaper, and it's the only fix that really lasts.
00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:10.560
This is where lifetime value comes in, the total amount a donor gives you across the whole span of their relationship with your organization, not just this year's gift.
00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:14.960
And the research on this is about as dramatic as fundraising data gets.
00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:32.720
Fundraising researchers, Adrian Sargent and Elaine J, in their landmark study on donor loyalty, found that increasing retention by just 10% points can increase the lifetime value of your existing donor database by up to 200%.
00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:36.879
Now, that's not 200% more donors.
00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:44.800
That's 200% more value from the same people because you kept more of them in the relationship longer.
00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:46.959
That's your league, quantified.
00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:55.920
Every point of attrition isn't just this year's missing gift, it's every future gift that donor would have made compounding away from you.
00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:58.720
So F is find the six figures.
00:04:58.959 --> 00:05:01.439
Now, this also might be five figures.
00:05:01.839 --> 00:05:07.439
We do the math that makes this real, and this is one of the most important and often overlooked parts.
00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:14.560
Let's say your organization had 500 donors lapsed last year, meaning they gave the year before and didn't give again.
00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:17.519
Your average gift is about$150.
00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:22.720
So rough math, 500 times 150 is$75,000.
00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:24.399
Okay, that's not hypothetical.
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.480
That's real money that walked out your door quietly.
00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:30.000
Now flip it.
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:46.079
If a modest retention improvement recovers even 15% of those lapsed donors, so let's say 75 people, at that same average gift, you've just recovered about$11,000 this year alone.
00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:54.720
And because retained donors tend to increase their giving over time rather than hold flat, that number compounds in year two and year three.
00:05:54.959 --> 00:06:04.240
This is where a five or six-figure recovery over a few years stops sounding like a stretch and starts sounding like actual math.
00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:13.279
This is exactly the calculation the gift framework is built to run, not on my hypothetical numbers, but on your actual numbers.
00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:23.439
Your actual lapsed count, your actual average gifts, your actual attrition rate turned into an actual dollar figure and a clear picture of what's recoverable.
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.399
T is take three moves today.
00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:30.639
Frameworks are only useful if they end in something you can do now.
00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:38.560
Once you have your number, here are just a few things you can do to turn that first gift into a second and a third and maybe even a lifelong relationship.
00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:44.879
So here are my kind of top three ideas of what you could do right away.
00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:49.920
The first is share your numbers with your team so everyone can get on board with the plan.
00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:58.560
You can't expect these numbers to be moving in the right direction unless everyone knows that this is the plan to move ahead.
00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:02.959
The second is to segment your lapsed list by recency.
00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:07.680
So donors who lapsed 12 to 18 months ago are your easiest recovery.
00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:10.800
They're still warm and they still remember why they gave.
00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:15.439
I want you to start there and not with your five-year lapsed list.
00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:26.959
And finally, send one reactivation touch point this week that is not an ask and not a, you know, you probably haven't heard from us in a while email.
00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:37.920
Think of it as more of a reinvitation, a specific update on what their first gift made possible, and a direct warm ask to come back in and get involved.
00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:44.639
Treat it like you're inviting a friend back to the table because that really, in essence, is what it is.
00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:55.120
Everything I just walked you through the retention math, the lifetime value math, the lost versus recovered revenue math, I built into a free workshop and workbook.
00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:57.680
So you're not doing this on the back of a napkin.
00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:02.079
It's called double your donations without doubling your acquisition efforts.
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.360
And it comes with the calculator I use myself.
00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:16.560
You plug in your real numbers and it hands you your actual second gift retention rate, your actual attrition rate, and the actual dollar amount currently hidden in your database.
00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.439
The link for all of that is in the show notes.
00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.399
Because here's what this is really about.
00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:25.199
It's not just a bigger number on a spreadsheet.
00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:35.519
It's the ability to stop treating every$25 donor like a rounding error and every$25,000 donor like your only strategy.
00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.960
And treat them both like they matter because they do.
00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:48.000
It's building a retention engine that runs in the background instead of a team that burns out chasing acquisition every single quarter.
00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:55.360
And it's finally being able to say that growth doesn't have to mean chasing new names to replace the grant dollars that used to carry you.
00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.639
So, gift G-I-F-T.
00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:03.759
Get your number, identify the leak, find the figures, and take three moves today.
00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.679
Second gifts aren't a nice-to-have metric buried in your CRM.
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:12.240
They're your next growth strategy, and you already have everything you need to run it.
00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:13.919
This has been Built for Meaning.
00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:15.120
I'm Stephanie Jiroche.
00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:22.320
Until next time, keep building movements that last and keep asking in a way that's worthy of the people who already said yes.
00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:26.639
Hey fellow meaning maker, thanks for listening today.
00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:34.720
If you like what you heard, click subscribe and join me each week as I tackle topics related to donor retention, meaning making, and giving psychology.
00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:40.799
And don't forget to check the show notes to connect with me on social media, subscribe to the newsletter, and more.
00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:42.080
Until next time.
