Measure affiliation with a Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) score in seconds. In this webinar tutorial, CCS Fundraising Data Analytics Team members Jess and Jacob go through the step-by-step process of using a traditional RFM score to find prospects who have demonstrated a meaningful affinity. Learn how to overlay these scores with an RFM+ approach which beyond the standard philanthropic indicators to measure additional types of engagement and affinity, such as event attendance and membership data. You will discover how to use wealth screening results to identify prospects with a strong capacity that are giving to similar organizations. Senior Director of College Advancement Dr. Ashley Whaley demonstrates the impact that RFM scores and wealth screening had on Hagerstown Community College‘s fundraising campaign.
Explore the transformational potential of artificial intelligence in modern fundraising practices in this video featuring leading experts and practitioners in the field.
Learn about Custom Generative Pre-Trained Transformers (GPTs), their application in fundraising, and how you can harness their capabilities to streamline your fundraising efforts and forge deeper connections with donors.
Building donor acquisition strategies and techniques can be daunting for many higher education institutions. In fact, it is one of the top fundraising challenges experienced by nonprofits year over year. Despite this, organizations are not holding back; more than 60% of organizations shared that they saw an increase in the number of new donors over the previous year. While acquiring new (especially mid to major gift) donors can be time-intensive, donor acquisition is still critical. It provides an opportunity to engage prospective donors more deeply in your mission and establish long-lasting relationships.
As your school looks to grow your mid to major gift donor base, consider the following.
Steps to acquire Meaningful Donors
1. Assess and determine the quality of prospects already in your database.
Many organizations have a large amount of untapped prospect potential within their database. Start by pulling a list of prospects in your database who have not made a gift — prospects in the discovery stage of moves management. Take the time to understand a prospect’s capacity to give and their affinity to like-minded causes. Do your research; if you have wealth-screening tools and a prospect research team, tap into those resources. If your organization is lean, search for giving history shared in annual reports, press releases, etc. on the web.
Is the individual able to make a gift?Consider whether the prospect has (an) affluent address(es), a wealthy lifestyle, is a corporate executive, or is a business owner.
Does this individual have an affinity toward my institution?Consider the prospect’s giving history to your school or a similar cause and/or if they are a member of your Board, an alum, a volunteer at your school, and/or retired staff/faculty member.
Do we have access to this individual? Consider any connection to the prospect via professional networks, local communities, alum organizations, philanthropic activities, interest groups, family, or friends.
Prospects with all three factors — ability, affinity, and access — are the most likely to make a gift to your organization at the leadership level.
2. Connect with those closest to your organization to identify additional donor prospects.
Lean on those closest to your organization to identify what potential prospects your organization should consider engaging. These could be:
Board members
Alum council members
Faculty/staff
and/or volunteers
Acquiring new donors is much easier if an access point exists to a potential conversation. Learn how to engage this potential new donor from those who hold the relationship.
3. Establish a segmented list of prospective new donors and assign it to gift officers.
Once a list has been compiled, consider segmenting the list by prospect capacity. Then, assign a targeted number of prospects to members of your major gift team and/or leadership annual fund team for customized outreach. You will only be able to acquire mid-to-major gift donors if you focus on establishing a personal connection between the prospective donor and your college/university.
4. Activate outreach for prospective new donors and qualify them within a targeted timeframe.
At CCS, we have had success accelerating donor acquisition through discovery outreach of prospects with at least ability and affinity. Gift officers qualify a targeted number of assigned prospects through at least four contact attempts over six weeks. Contact attempts are various customized emails and phone calls. The goal is to schedule an introductory meeting with the prospect to begin opening the door to a potential future gift.
Sample Contact Plan for Prospects
Outreach Attempt
Outreach Type
1
Personalized email outreach
2
Introductory phone call/voicemail
3
Follow up on the initial phone call (no voicemail) and write a personal follow-up email if you don’t connect
4
Final phone call (voicemail) and/or email
5. If the door is open, nurture the donor relationship.
Once contact has been made and the prospect is open to a conversation, remember to ground your discussion in the institution’s mission and their potential affinity or connection. This is just the beginning of many more touchpoints. Make sure to cultivate and steward each relationship.
Thoughtful Donor Acquisition Sets Your Organization Up for Success
Donor acquisition and donor retention go hand-in-hand. The time and energy that your college or university puts into securing a first gift must be followed by a thoughtful stewardship process focused on retaining donors year after year. Donor acquisition can feel like a long process, but it is important to foster the next generation of donors. Committing time and effort to thoughtfully acquire new donors enables your school to sustain itself and grow well into the future.
South Florida is experiencing great philanthropic growth, and the momentum looks likely to continue well into the future. In this article, we help you understand the most important trends and components of the philanthropic landscape that will help you maximize fundraising opportunities in South Florida.
Seeking ideas for donor cultivation ahead of “the Great Wealth Transfer”? Learn how to establish and maintain an associate board to engage the next generation of donors.
Year-end giving presents organizations with a unique opportunity to hit fundraising goals in the last days of the year, as an estimated one-third of annual giving occurs in December, with 10% given over the last three days. People tend to be more generous around holiday times, and for Americans, this month is the last chance to make tax-deductible gifts for the fiscal year.
Does your nonprofit organization have a solid strategy to capitalize on these noteworthy trends?
Here are five steps to maximize the success of your year-end fundraising appeal.
1. Create an activity timeline and benchmarks.
A well-planned end-of-year timeline focuses on follow-up activities throughout December. As fundraisers, we thrive on goals—use this to your advantage and set metrics to follow. Start with your target in mind and work backward to determine what actions are required to get you there, including the number of face-to-face gift requests, touchpoints, and formal gift requests needed.
2. Develop a unique case for support.
Your case for support tells who you are as an organization, why you need support, and how that support will make an impact.
Your case statement should include the following information.
Past. Where have you been, and how has it shaped your organization?
Present. Where are you now? What is your mission? Show your impact through testimonials, statistics, and pictures.
Future. Where are you going? What is your vision? How can donors make that vision a reality? Focus on the return on their investment.
As you craft your case for support, be mindful that the end of the year is busy. Your case for support should be clear and make it easy for potential donors to quickly discover who you are, your mission, and your vision for what their contribution will accomplish.
3. Analyse and segment your donor base.
Segmenting and prioritizing your prospects through identification, research, and rating make it possible to customize your ask to the donor.
Identify major gift prospects that you can personally contact.
Then, identify donors from prior years who have not contributed during the current year.
Next, research the prospects you have identified to determine the right amount to request and how they like to give by looking at prior year response methods.
Finally, determine the best outreach strategy and prioritize your prospects. Decide who should get a personal phone call, a custom message, or a mass communication.
For the best prospect identification, utilize data analytics services to uncover donors with the most giving potential.
4. Know your engagement strategy.
Once you have segmented your donors as best you can, use a combination of different outreach methods and tailor your approach based on prospect priority. Regardless of your chosen delivery method, request a specific gift that aligns with your appeal goals.
5. Follow up!
The biggest mistake that organizations make is that they fail to follow up. Rather than sending your appeal materials and simply hoping for the best, use a multi-step, multi-channel approach to follow up and secure decisions.
Communication Is Key for a Successful Year-End Campaign
In the final week of the year, send multiple reminder emails, including one on 31 December. Communicate individually with your best prospects via phone calls, personal emails, social media messages, and text messages. Deadlines are a fundraiser’s best friend – use the year-end deadline to generate excitement, momentum, and results. Then communicate your success and start planning for next year!
In this article, we discuss how the tax incentives that are set to expire at the end of 2021 could encourage charitable donations. Read more about the steps you can take now to make sure your organization benefits by proactively engaging those who are most likely to donate.
The fundamental pillars of all successful fundraising efforts include a compelling case, strong governance, a comprehensive plan, and a robust donor pipeline. But what happens when you have worked your way through your pipeline and still need new ways to uncover new donor prospects? The easiest connections to make are existing ones, and leveraging these relationships to reinvigorate your prospect pipeline can be a game changer.
Finding New Donors for Your Nonprofit
A prospect list review session, sometimes called relationship mapping, is common among nonprofits as an effective and efficient method of enhancing your pipeline. Pretend that each of your board members is one of many wheel spokes, branching out from the middle and serving as connectors between the center and the outer rim. Who are they connecting to the center of the wheel?
With some strategic planning and forethought, you can leverage your board’s contacts and networks and develop paths to individuals who can make a difference for your organization.
how one nonprofit leveraged its board
A New York City performing arts organization struggled to uncover new donor prospects, and their prominent, well-connected board members constantly offered to introduce their networks. To capitalize on these introduction offers, CCS Fundraising assisted the organization in developing a strategic plan to engage individual board members, leverage their networks, and uncover new prospects, which included the following:
1. Peer Board Prospect Research
Six weeks before the next board meeting, the organization’s development team compiled a list of every peer nonprofit board where a member of their own board also held a seat. They compiled a streamlined list from this group of more than 30 organizations, noting the name and title of every other board member of the peer organizations. They identified more than 500 names, compiled the lists into booklets, and distributed them at the upcoming board meeting.
2. Prospect Name Review
Each board member received their booklet during the board meeting’s list review section. CCS and the Head of Development led the board through reviewing the names on each page. Board members indicated the people with whom they were willing to facilitate an introduction by checking a box next to each name. Development staff also attended to help capture information, ensuring the notation of all connections, with the booklets collected at the meeting’s end.
3. Developing Donor Relationship Strategies
Following the meeting, development staff collated the lists and created individual profiles for each identified connection, noting corporate information, philanthropic interests, and history. Staff scheduled one-on-one meetings with board members to develop strategies to engage and cultivate new prospects. For example, one board member noted their interest in connecting to eight new prospects. Staff developed cultivation plans for these eight prospects, which included an invitation to an upcoming musical performance and a private tour of the facilities where a meet-and-greet would occur backstage. For other prospects, cultivation plans included an introductory breakfast for the prospect to meet the senior leadership and opportunities to learn more about educational events at the organization.
Leveraging Your Board’s Network uncovers new donor prospects and Deepens Existing Relationships
Though this process required extensive time and effort from the development team and the board’s commitment and support, it resulted in more than 80 newly identified connections. Of these connections, staff invited more than half to a general cultivation event, and the remainder received tailored engagement plans. Board members felt they had provided an invaluable resource, which helped deepen the working relationship between the board and the development team.
YOUR BOARD CAN BE AN ONGOING PROSPECT RESOURCE
Your organization should build regular prospecting and list review sessions into its daily culture. Early and often, engage board members in deliberate conversations about potential prospects within their networks and circles. Ask your board to facilitate introductions, an effective way to mitigate potential hesitancy around not wanting to “ask friends for money.” Finally, create a regular calendar of list review sessions for each board meeting. Provide board members with relevant and targeted prospect lists that include peer nonprofit boards, for-profit and corporate boards, foundation boards, university alums, and aspirational donors.
Your board members are already passionate about your cause, and leveraging their personal networks to uncover new donor prospects will deepen their engagement—and further your mission in the process.
Learn how to perform an RFM analysis, the simplest tool to start narrowing your prospect list to your most impactful donors. This article contains background information and a video to lead you step-by-step into meaningful engagement.
GivingTuesday allows nonprofits to unlock donations from the millions of individuals who participate in this global giving movement each year—but it also puts pressure on them to plan and run a successful campaign to reach their lofty fundraising goals.
Viewing Giving Tuesday not as a burden but as a donor engagement opportunity makes it easier to follow a strategic approach that alleviates some of the stress of planning a successful event for your nonprofit. Giving Tuesday can become a tool that helps you strengthen your culture of philanthropy, engage your board members, retain new donors, and further develop your online presence.
STEPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL Giving Tuesday campaign
Creating a successful Giving Tuesday campaign requires effective planning, extensive communication, and enhanced donor motivation strategies. The following steps ensure that you have a comprehensive approach to the day.
1. Look to the Giving Data
First, set specific, measurable, realistic goals for your Giving Tuesday campaign after examining your staff capacity and year-end fundraising needs; after setting the goal, look at the data to drive your plan. CCS’s 2023 Philanthropic Landscape revealed that:
Online giving remains the preferred method of giving.
Individuals continue to be the most significant philanthropy drivers.
Individuals remain the largest share of donors, representing 64% ($319.04 billion) of all US giving ($499.33 billion).
These statistics show how powerful Giving Tuesday can be, as it solicits donations from individuals through digital giving. In 2022, a record 35 million adults participated in Giving Tuesday in the US alone—roughly 13% of the country’s adult population.
2. Focus on the Donors
Giving Tuesday is an exciting opportunity to maximize your donor cultivation efforts considering donor retention is one of the top fundraising challenges for nonprofits. Your Giving Tuesday campaign should include all donor types through a broadly appealing theme and encourage unrestricted support of your organization.
When crafting your Giving Tuesday campaign, make sure to tailor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies by generation. For example, the 2023 Philanthropic Landscape highlights that younger generations are driven by being part of something bigger than themselves. Consider stewarding your board members to raise a pool of matching funds as a donor retention tool. It will empower your board and provide a compelling call to action for other donors to belong to a larger initiative.
3. Gain Campaign Advocates
Engage in frequent, transparent, and impact-driven multi-channel communication with younger constituents and leverage Generation Z and Millennials as strong advocates for your nonprofit’s mission and philanthropy efforts. As seen over the last two years, calls to action or disaster relief requests are more likely to motivate Generation Z and Millennials to donate compared to Generation X and Boomers. Generation Z and Millennials are also three times more likely to advocate for an organization than older generations.
Storytelling is a powerful anchor for campaign messaging. Sharing stories of impact increases relatability and encourages others to share their stories of impact or involvement. Gaining additional voices to amplify your mission is often an overlooked benefit of Giving Tuesday. Although raising funds is the main qualifier of a successful Giving Tuesday, the advocates you gain, donors you retain, and new audiences you are exposed to will have a much longer-lasting impact.
4. Leverage Multi-Channel Marketing in Your Giving Tuesday Campaign
Many nonprofits retain new donors through online programming or social media (53%) and targeted mailings/emails (79%), so disseminate your Giving Tuesday promotions through various communications channels, including email, social media, your website, and even printed marketing collateral to broaden your audience. Then, create a content calendar outlining when you plan to post on each platform to ensure you are providing holistic messaging and maximizing your audience engagement. Interact with your audience on each platform as much as possible.
Your communications should highlight the time-limited nature of Giving Tuesday by encouraging donors to act quickly through countdown clocks or limited-time offers such as gift-matching opportunities.
5. Simplify the Donation Process
Provide donors with the ability to quickly give in a straightforward and mobile-friendly way. Thank them for their support soon after they have made their gift, and share campaign updates to indicate the impact of their donation(s).
6. Plan, Plan, Plan
Planning well will help your Giving Tuesday succeed. Treat the day like an event by creating a run of show and scheduling outposts, emails, and individual outreach. You can also use the day as a network extending opportunity, giving your donors other ways to contribute, such as encouraging them to forward or re-post your messaging or asking them to introduce your organization to a new contact. Once Giving Tuesday is over, analyze the results to see what worked for your organization and what did not so you can improve future campaigns.
creating a successful Giving Tuesday campaign Can Be Easier Than You Think
Beyond simply raising funds, Giving Tuesday can be a simple cultivation tool for you to engage and steward donors. Focus on a big-picture goal, let the data drive your activity, and plan ahead, remembering that success can look different for everyone—dollars raised, number of shares, open rates, new donors retained, and increased gifts, for example.
With the proper planning and realistic goals, this Giving Tuesday (November 28, 2023) can be the best yet!
Learn how to go from vision to strategy at your arts and culture institution with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, focusing on diversity, digital engagement, and unprecedented philanthropy.
Seeking ideas for donor cultivation ahead of “the Great Wealth Transfer”? Learn how to establish and maintain an associate board to engage the next generation of donors.
Access to groundbreaking AI services is likely to transform nonprofit efficacy in unimaginable ways. Although practitioners have used “traditional AI,” including machine learning and applied statistics, for decades, “modern AI” with Generative AI has brought AI into everyday conversations. Appropriate use of this exciting new technology has the potential to amplify workforces, eliminate time-consuming tasks, and refocus employee efforts toward mission-driven endeavors. As access to AI-driven software increases, these benefits will likely be available to nonprofits of all sizes.
While AI has enormous potential to help advance your organization’s mission, AI also means many things to different people. You may be wondering what the best way to use AI —particularly modern AI — at your nonprofit is. As you think about those use cases, whether public-facing endeavors or internal operations, ask yourself the following guiding questions.
How is your organization already using aI?
Programs such as Gmail, Salesforce, Canva, Grammarly, Photoshop, and Microsoft 365 all use AI to some degree, sometimes discreetly and sometimes as a customer-facing feature. Taking inventory of these programs may help your organization appreciate just how prolific and useful AI has become in the modern workplace. You may find it hard to learn about software that does not use AI to some capacity. The point of this exercise is not to dissuade your organization from using any specific software or tout AI’s superiority but rather to clarify the most methods of implementation. People often think of AI as a siloed program to engage with or not, but it is often a feature used to strengthen the systems we already use.
How Could implementing AI Affect Your Organization’s Workloads?
While AI tools can be a force multiplier and drastically increase worker output, they are not likely capable of replacing individual workers. Consider how you might address a reduced workload for certain workers.
Could you give employees with more time new responsibilities that advance your organization’s mission?
Will you need to change your organizational chart to accommodate shifting workloads and obligations?
If your organization is considering heavy use of AI to bolster its workforce, you should also consider more frequent means of reviewing employee output. Prioritize setting reasonable benchmarks and have recurring conversations with employees about realistic pivots in their workload toward mission-driven endeavors.
Would AI-Generated Materials Disappoint Your Donors?
Consider mass communications, such as event invitations, social media posts, and direct, personalized correspondence. Currently, there is no fool-proof way to tell if AI has generated written text, so properly proofread materials may go completely undetected by stakeholders and require less time from staff to create. However, AI can generate easily-overlooked inconsiderate or compromising content that would alienate your constituents.
Consider what content your organization is most confident about generating with AI support, and make sure your employees understand the rationale behind these decisions. Even if your organization implements text-generating AI to facilitate rapid, personalized electronic correspondence, thoughtful communication with potential donors is more challenging to replace. As text-generating AI becomes commonplace in the nonprofit workplace, personal connections among potential donors are becoming increasingly important. If AI has facilitated significantly reduced workloads, use this opportunity to foster deeper relationships with your prospective donors.
What Could AI Pricing and Legal Troubles Prompt?
Programs such as ChatGPT are free or inexpensive for now, but their price model may change. If your organization implements services like these, it will be worthwhile to avoid unfettered access.
How quickly could your organization adjust to changes in access to specific AI software?
What if lawmakers passed laws to limit or stop using the AI programs of your choice? How would you recuperate costs in building your custom application?
How would you meet the exact needs with a different solution?
Numerous pending lawsuits may set new standards for how AI and copyrighted materials interact. Currently, copyright law does not protect works created solely by AI, even if a human uses their own prompt to generate content, so think about this carefully when deciding what materials your organization will be starting with AI tools.
What Risks Come With Early Adoption of AI at your nonprofit?
Often, being the first mover in the marketplace places you at an advantage as it allows you to experiment and learn for a longer time than those who wait. But good opportunities are rarely without risk, which you must evaluate as you consider using the latest tools.
How do you estimate the value of being the first to adopt new tools? What if the shiny tools are only polished and not functional?
What if you build something, but the tech changes so fast that any custom development might be obsolete?
With Generative AI, there are other reputational risks, too: What if significant hidden costs exist related to issues important to your organization, such as environmental damage from data center cooling?
You must weigh the potential benefits against the potential costs and risks to determine if being an early adopter makes strategic sense for your organization. Consider running small-scale pilot projects to test the new tools before committing fully. We also recommend having an exit plan ready if the tools do not deliver on their promised capabilities or have unacceptable hidden costs.
Can Your Nonprofit Rely on AI-Generated Materials?
Generative Text AI often presents biases based on the data it has trained itself on, so you will likely need more than a cursory review of generated materials to catch problematic content. You might be able to review and edit one or two bodies of text, but when you create hundreds of variations, what if something slips through?
How might you respond if your organization made a biased or otherwise controversial statement generated by AI?
A better approach would be to consider AI-generated text as draft zero rather than the first draft. What about images? What if the pictures contain almost invisible patterns that some find offensive but fail to recognize? Although people can interpret the written word differently, viewers’ perception of images varies wildly. While using AI to create social media captions can save time and require little effort to proofread, longer-form materials have more opportunities for errors and likely require more time from more employees to screen correctly.
Nonprofit aI Implementation: unprecedented potential
We hope these thought exercises have proven helpful for you and your organization to decide if and how to implement this exciting new technology. It can feel daunting to embrace and implement disruptive new technologies when they emerge. However, with proper consideration and thoughtful implementation, AI has the potential to advance your nonprofit capacity in ways never imagined.
Learn how to go from vision to strategy at your arts and culture institution with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, focusing on diversity, digital engagement, and unprecedented philanthropy.
Explore the transformational potential of artificial intelligence in modern fundraising practices in this video featuring leading experts and practitioners in the field.
We explore US giving trends and what motivates donors as well as the common fundraising challenges nonprofit staff face today. Learn strategies and tactics to address those challenges, as well as insights from our experience partnering with more than 700 nonprofits annually.
This report provides a comprehensive look at the current state of US philanthropy, compiling and analyzing annual data from Giving USA and other prominent research to ensure your organization stays up-to-date on the most significant industry trends.
Individual giving remains the top giving source for philanthropy in the US. However, obtaining and developing donors continues to challenge every sector, especially arts and culture. With shifts such as the Great Wealth Transfer and the younger donor generation’s differing priorities, learning how to energize and engage the next generation of museum supporters is vital to fundraising success.
Individual Giving Remains Strong
Individual giving provided 64% of the nearly $499.33 billion donated to nonprofit organizations in 2022, significantly above other sources (foundations at 21%, bequests at 9%, and corporations at 6%). Yet 60% of surveyed arts and culture institutions reported that donor acquisition was their top fundraising challenge, and 47% said similarly of donor retention/stewardship.
As individual giving remains the majority source of fundraising revenue, and with nonprofits beginning to assess the potential impact of Gen X, Millennials, and even Gen Z in the philanthropic space, how can museums ensure that they appropriately cultivate their future supporters?
Next Generation — or Rising Generation?
The ability to optimally engage with these potential future supporters requires an understanding of who these groups are, such as generational differences, behaviors, and interests. However, the concept of the next generation of philanthropists can encompass people from their 20s to their 50s. While the term "next gen" is an easy way to lump those potential donors together, is it the most accurate?
Author Jay Hughes, Jr. feels that the term next gen "suggests a kind of dynastic succession" and ignores each generation's differentiated priorities and concerns and the individuals within it. He utilizes the term "rising gens" instead, highlighting that we cannot expect each generation to follow in the path of the one that came before. Instead, we should be prepared for them to chart their own course.
The great wealth transfer
Regardless of how we refer to them, addressing these challenges of attracting and retaining the next donor generations becomes even more apparent when we consider the wealth transfer that has already begun shifting assets among age groups. By 2045, over $84 trillion is anticipated to change hands, with approximately $73 trillion expected to transfer directly to heirs and approximately $12 trillion to philanthropic causes.
Noticeably, these generations deprioritize arts and culture when compared to those currently holding the largest wealth. This further validates the importance of creating an intentional set of generation-segmented engagement strategies.
The Next Donor Generation Is Generous
While the task facing museums would be easier if arts and culture were already among this group's top-valued causes, it is heartening to see the extent to which these generations have prioritized philanthropy. With a collective 79 million donors already giving over $56 billion a year, they are poised to continue growing the amount and the impact of their giving.
Rising gen donors agree—in a survey of high-net-worth individuals, 87% of respondents aged 21-42 (spanning Gen Z and Millennials) indicated they are prepared to support philanthropy. They went further, with 88% of Gen Z members and Millennials agreeing that "the next generation is strongly prepared to take on and support philanthropic causes" and 87% that "the next generation will be more effective in their philanthropic causes than older generations." This validates their commitment to giving, signaling a difference in how they will likely need to be engaged compared to older generations.
As organizations prioritize their fundraising strategies, they should explore generational trends around engagement. Various data points highlight nuances, such as the high value that Millennials place on experiences and how Gen Z prefers to give via social media. Further considerations include geographic and socio-political dynamics specific to each organization's location, culture, and mission.
Case Study for engaging the next generation of museum Donors
The Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation is a fitting example of a nonprofit arts organization focusing on the most pertinent trends and challenges and creating a structure to address them.
Founded in 1922 by Dr. Albert C. Barnes with a mission to promote "the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture," the Barnes Foundation has welcomed an average annual visitorship of 220,000 since moving to its location on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia in 2012. Visitors come to view one of the world’s greatest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modern paintings, with especially deep holdings in Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. The collection also includes important examples of African art, Native American pottery and jewelry, Pennsylvania German furniture, American avant-garde painting, and wrought-iron metalwork. It is displayed in “ensembles” meant to draw out visual similarities between objects not normally thought of together. Created as teaching tools, they were essential to the educational program Dr. Barnes developed in the 1920s.
A Personalized Approach to Engaging Rising Generation Members
The Barnes Foundation's current strategic plan includes goals around fostering a learning culture, challenging the perceived elitism associated with art institutions, and convening Philadelphia's cultural community. The institution sees the involvement of rising generations as essential to achieving those objectives. Accordingly, the Barnes has thoughtfully assessed what rising generation members look for and how its points of entry facilitate their participation.
In doing so, the Barnes sought to address the following questions:
Who are we trying to target?
What existing assets can we leverage?
Are we creating new programs or modifying existing ones?
Who are our potential colleagues for collaboration?
What resourcing is available to support these initiatives?
By intentionally and collaboratively seeking answers to these questions, the Barnes determined potential engagement platforms for rising generations across various interests.
INTEREST
POINTS OF ENTRY
Social Entertainment
→ Young Professionals Nights →First Fridays → Barnes Art Ball
Professional Advancement
→Contemporaries Membership → Summer Soirée → Young Professional Leadership Board → Volunteer opportunities → Community partnerships
Personal Enrichment
→ Membership and guest passes →Adult education classes → On-site, online, and hybrid programs → Group tours → Exhibition programming
Common threads tie these opportunities for engagement together. These include relevance to the mission and the opportunity for attendees to share experiences with peers and feel part of a collective with shared interests.
Next Steps for Cultivating Rising Generations of Museum Supporters
As you similarly seek to build out engagement offerings for members of the rising generations, consider the relevance of the questions posed by the Barnes. What additional questions would help you to develop an intentional and generation-segmented engagement plan?
Consider cost, ticketing, whether an event is invitation-only or open to all, and other logistics that may impact interest and attendance for the audience you aim to reach. Finally, think about the tools for engagement at your disposal, especially those that allow members of rising generations to co-create experiences and provide feedback on the events and programs they attend.
Cultivation Today Is Fundraising Success Tomorrow
Building a foundation of engagement for rising generations as the great wealth transfer continues does need to be a thoughtful process, but it does not need to be a difficult one. The key is to start now, even if that means starting small, to build the foundation for sustainable fundraising operations and growth and energize young museum donors.
South Florida is experiencing great philanthropic growth, and the momentum looks likely to continue well into the future. In this article, we help you understand the most important trends and components of the philanthropic landscape that will help you maximize fundraising opportunities in South Florida.
Learn how to go from vision to strategy at your arts and culture institution with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, focusing on diversity, digital engagement, and unprecedented philanthropy.
In an increasingly competitive job market, nonprofits must recruit and retain the best talent. These are important considerations, especially around fundraising roles in organisations that rely heavily on philanthropic revenue. Insights from CCS’s extensive experience with major higher education institutions confirm the following:
Maximised talent leads to thriving development teams and greater fundraising results.
Misappropriation of time and resources impacts productivity, funds raised, and job satisfaction.
Staff turnover is costly.
How can you mitigate some of the risks leading to turnover in your development office? Create a positive, inspiring work environment by amplifying your team’s skills. Ensure that all staff can professionally thrive by optimising their work.
How are Your Frontline Fundraisers Spending Their Time?
Utilising data gathered from over 70 annual higher education partners, CCS has found a ratio of 1:3 – 1:5 frontline fundraisers to support staff is optimal. In this model, “support staff” includes far more than administrative team members. Consider any member of your team who provides resources for your frontline fundraisers part of this definition of “support staff.”
A ratio below 1:3 may indicate your fundraisers are not dedicating enough time to active donor engagement as they are forced to balance administrative tasks. This results in an under-optimised fundraising team, fewer funds raised, and increased burnout. Your fundraisers do not have the opportunity to do what they do best; deepen donor relationships and inspire new prospects. For experiences fundraisers this can be a frustrating position to be in and can lead to high staff turnover.
A ratioabove 1:5 may indicate an environment where “back of house” team members dominate, creating a high volume of red tape and potentially inefficient systems and processes. This results in an under-optimised fundraising team that is unable to focus on relationship building through strategic cultivation and solicitation leading to transformational gifts.
If your frontline fundraisers conduct any of the following indirect fundraising tasks, read on!
Event planning and/or management
Proposal writing and gift agreement administration
Programme support
Prospect research
Administrative responsibilities (e.g., data entry)
the case for retention
Last year, CCS supported over 70 colleges and universities and worked with a total of 700 organisations located in over 350 cities across 18 countries. We frequently encounter frontline fundraisers with inordinate responsibilities that keep them from direct fundraising, which we define as cultivating, soliciting, and expertly stewarding prospective supporters and donors.
Though it might seem reasonable for fundraisers to wear multiple hats, this approach may cause frustration and increase turnover. Fundraisers need time to build relationships and time spent elsewhere can be costly especially when a majority of philanthropic giving is driven by individuals. Individual philanthropy thrives on personal connections to your organisation’s mission, and the time required to build those relationships is critical to fundraising success.
Retaining your fundraisers has a huge financial impact. It takes multiple years for a fundraising professional to meet their peak potential. In fact, the Chronicle of Philanthropy found that it took, on average, four years for major-gift fundraisers to “mature into their roles.” After four years, frontline fundraisers dramatically increased the average money they raised.
how to optimise Your Team
1. Evaluate and Redistribute Responsibilities
Begin by defining who you consider a frontline fundraiser and who you consider support, noting that support does not always equate to strictly administrative responsibilities. The simplest approach is to consider support staff as any role that does not hold direct fundraising responsibilities. Some roles may be split (e.g., roles that include managerial, administrative or other responsibilities), and for those roles you can divide their time across both categories (.25, .5, .75 etc.).
Here are some examples of how this might be approached:
Sample Role
Frontline
Support
Director of Development
.5
.5
Manager of Individual Giving
1
Major Gift Officer
1
Manager of Institutional Giving/Corporate Relations
1
Planned Giving Officer
1
Communications Coordinator
1
Research Analyst
1
Database Manager
1
Development Associate/Assistant
1
Special Events Manager
1
Alumni Relations Staff
1
Advancement Communications Staff
1
If the fundraising to support ratio falls short of our recommended 1:3 – 1:5 ratio, you should determine where you can delegate more of your fundraisers’ indirect work to support staff.
2. Consider Hiring Support Staff
Next time a vacancy opens up on your team, or you have an opportunity to add headcount, pause to reflect on this ratio and how your staff are currently spending their time. Consider asking your staff to spend two weeks tracking their time. This exercise will provide data for an informed assessment to support potential changes in the way you delegate and/or how you reallocate tasks.
To maximise your team’s efficiency with limited resources, CCS often encourages our clients to consider adding these support staff positions before adding costly frontline fundraisers:
Please note that one role may cover more than one of the responsibilities listed below.
Areas of Support
Impact
Proposal or Grant Writing
Frontline staff can advise on content but are not tasked with the considerable time necessary to produce stellar proposals.
Stewardship Report Writing
Frontline staff can focus on amplifying the stewardship process (e.g., arrange to hand-deliver a report) if not tasked with writing the content.
Event Coordination
Frontline staff can focus on inviting prospects and engaging attendees during and after the event, ensuring positive experiences, and deepening relationships.
Data Entry
This reduces desk time and ensures both efficacy and continuity of information included in the CRM.
Data Analysis
Harnessing your data to make informed decisions (e.g., portfolio analysis) can improve fundraising performance.
Prospect Research
Frontline staff can focus instead on research insights, connecting their donors to demonstrated areas of interest.
Board Management
Boards are frequently the biggest drivers of fundraising activity and expert management is key. Dedicated staff ensures that your Board is leveraged to their fullest extent and ensures a seamless donor experience.
Volunteer Management
Connecting donors to meaningful volunteer opportunities (such as Advisory Boards, Alumni Councils, Admissions, Career Development, etc.) frequently results in greater philanthropic investments. Frontline staff should connect the dots, while others should manage logistics such as volunteer assignments, training, and data collection.
Where your team spends its time is where your organisation spends its money. Investing in the right kind and amount of support for your frontline fundraisers will reduce turnover, increase funds raised, and can make all the difference.
South Florida is experiencing great philanthropic growth, and the momentum looks likely to continue well into the future. In this article, we help you understand the most important trends and components of the philanthropic landscape that will help you maximize fundraising opportunities in South Florida.
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Fall is almost officially here, so your organization’s year-end fundraising campaign will soon be underway.
Year-end giving is critical to engage and motivate your supporters as they reflect on the past and anticipate the future. When putting together your fundraising strategy, do not forget to include the planned giving vehicles. Gift planning can play a pivotal role in shaping the success of your year-end campaign and advancing your mission over the long term. Additionally, year-end fundraising campaigns are an opportunity to provide donors with every possible option to support your organization’s mission.
Most organizations see the majority of their funds raised in the last three months of the calendar year. That’s because donors are often motivated by the spirit of generosity and to take advantage of potential tax breaks. Nonprofits have a unique opportunity to capitalize on these factors, realizing the short-term goals of cash while prioritizing assets donated that are considered future cash.
Planned giving methods
Various planned giving vehicles are available to implement during your year-end fundraising campaign, enabling your donors to make thoughtful and structured contributions. Beyond the immediate traditional cash donations, individuals can integrate their long-term philanthropy goals into their overall financial and estate planning.
Here are a few planned giving vehicles to consider in the context of year-end fundraising campaigns:
A bequest is a gift made through a will or a trust that designates a portion of the donor’s estate to your nonprofit. This popular and straightforward method allows donors to make significant contributions without impacting their financial situation.
Charitable Gift Annuities (CGAs)
A CGA involves a donor making a gift of cash or other assets to your organization in exchange for a fixed annual income for themselves or a loved one. This gift provides donors with a dependable income stream while supporting your mission. If you are unsure if your organization is capable of providing this type of planned giving vehicle, the American Council on Gift Annuities provides helpful information about CGAs.
Charitable Remainder Trusts
Donors can establish charitable remainder trusts that allow them to transfer assets into a trust that provides income to beneficiaries for a specific period. After the trust term concludes, the remaining assets come to your organization.
Donors can designate your organization as a life insurance policy beneficiary. Donors can leverage existing policies or buy new ones, which could mean substantial future cash for your organization.
Planned Giving Allows for Deeper Donor Relationships
Adding planned giving vehicles into your year-end campaign allows donors to build deeper, more meaningful connections with your nonprofit. By educating your donors about your impact, you also provide an invitation to support in other meaningful ways.
Immediate cash will always remain essential, but you should also plan for future cash.
Implementation is the key, and here are some ideas:
Segment your donors who are 70 years old and older and email them about the opportunity to give from their IRAs. Those 72 and older must satisfy the required minimum distribution from these financial assets.
Ask your donors to name your organization in their will, trust, or DAFs.
Send a survey asking your donors if they have designated your organization in their will, trust, or DAF.
The only way to ensure you receive future cash gifts is to announce that donors can give these types of gifts.
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