How many times a year should you solicit your donors?
By Wayne Gurley
President & Creative Director
How many times a year should you solicit your donors?
The answer is - it depends on what kind of annual renewal rate you want.
According to the 2021 Blackbaud Institute Charitable Giving Report, the current first-year, offline donor retention rate is 29% (which translates into 71% attrition). If you're happy with 71%, then solicit your donors once or twice a year. But you shouldn't be happy with 71% attrition. That's a terrible number.
Instead, you should be renewing 60% - 80% of donors annually. To accomplish this, you'll need to "touch" them more frequently.
(By the way - do you even KNOW what your annual retention and attrition rates are? If not, let us know. We can help!)
Blackbaud says…
"Your organization should calculate your overall donor retention rate annually to assess who chooses to stay in your donor circle every year.
"While organizations with a high retention rate keep or renew many donors from year to year, those with a low rate must acquire new donors to keep their bottom lines above water.
"This reinforces the significance of calculating retention to benchmark your internal progress from year to year."
Setting donor renewal goals
Let’s say you have 5,000 donors who currently receive four solicitations annually. On average, your annual yield from these appeals might be at least one gift per year from 2,000 of them, or 40%.
If you want to hit 60% annual renewal, how many more solicitations do you need to achieve your goal? If your response rate is 10% from each appeal, the answer is 2. If your response rate is 5%, the answer is 4.
Admittedly, this is a quick and dirty calculation. Some donors won't give again, and some will give more than once. But multiple annual gifts from donors are highly desirable, are they not?
Mail as often as necessary to achieve peak retention
Determining your "optimum organizational exposure rate" is a lot like determining the number of times a TV or radio ad must be seen or heard before it becomes effective. If a person is exposed to it only once, it may not sink in at first. But if they encounter it multiple times, they're more likely to remember the message and respond to it.
If you're currently soliciting your donors only once or twice a year, consider doubling your frequency. If you're sending out 4 appeals, consider 6.
Years ago, I worked with a ministry in Texas. They solicited certain segments of their file every two weeks - 26 times per year. Sound excessive? Not when you consider most of these folks were quite accustomed to putting something in the collection plate every Sunday morning.
There's no "magic" number for soliciting, other than what it may take to achieve your retention goals. Your budget also plays a role. If your budget is too small, lobby for more money so you can reach your goals. It'll be worth it in the long run.
Your donors aren't "your donors."
Don’t be afraid to ask donors for their support. And don't make the decision for them as to how many times a year they're going to give by limiting the number of opportunities you provide.
Let them tell you how much they care (or don't care) by their response. On average, your donors are already giving to 7-10 different charities, and yours is just one of them.
Another way to put it: Your donors are not “your donors.” They spread their money around.
If you’re not asking your donors regularly or if you are protecting them for some reason by not asking, you can be sure some other nonprofit IS asking them.
Always keep in mind - your lapsed donors are some other organization's active donors.