Reinvigorating an Annual Fund Program
By Jessica Harrington, Vice President
August 2011
For years, Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital managed a solid annual giving program, buoyed by donations from its older medical school alumni base. While the program was generating adequate revenue, Jefferson's leadership realized that it was not sustainable: the core constituency was shrinking, few new donors were coming into the file, and annual giving revenue wasn't diversified - the majority of funds were being raised from the medical college's alumni.
Schultz & Williams was retained to evaluate Jefferson's annual fund and create a plan for the future - looking at ways to increase revenue, bring on new donors and engage other constituencies.
Once the plan was finalized, Jefferson continued to engage S&W to help provide support, guidance and analysis to Jefferson's annual giving team, including creating yearly projections and benchmarks with which to measure their efforts. Our work continues, as we help revise and refine the plan based on testing outcomes, current results, changing institutional programs and priorities, and the present giving environment.
S&W Strategy
Schultz & Williams developed an action plan that prioritized tactics by impact on revenue. Our top four priorities were:
- Increase revenue from existing donors. Generating more revenue from existing donors is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve the annual fund. For Jefferson, our key strategies involved re-soliciting current donors within the same fiscal year, aggressively upgrading donors by asking for a larger gift than their last gift and implementing a more robust mailing schedule to increase giving frequency.
- Acquire new donors. New donor acquisition is a priority with every organization. Jefferson has two distinct audiences - alumni and grateful patients - who are connected to the institution in different ways and, therefore, need to be solicited differently. Our main strategies for bringing on new donors were: improve the creative product, illustrate specifically why a new donation was vital to Jefferson's programming and test lower gift amounts.
- Improve the mid-level giving program. One of the biggest areas of opportunity for Jefferson was their mid-level giving club, the President's Club. Since our report, Jefferson has revamped the Club by enhancing benefits and recognition, making the Club appealing to all constituencies and upgrading the Club's materials. Current plans include more customization and personalized follow-up for non-renewals.
- Improve data capture processes and reporting. An annual program's success is dependent on efficient implementation, clean data capture, and regular and meaningful reporting. Our work with Jefferson included implementing more standard practices for segmenting and coding gifts within Raiser's Edge, streamlining mailings and creating weekly, monthly and yearly reports to monitor and analyze the program.
Results
In the last two years, Jefferson's annual giving revenue has increased by 48% - a remarkable achievement in the current fundraising environment. Average gifts have grown by nearly 20%, and mailing revenues have gone up more than 30%.
Jefferson is now poised to expand its annual giving program, with focus on engaging younger donors via the Web and social media as well as new techniques and tactics to acquire new donors.
Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.
