Here’s to a great fundraising year in 2011. To help you increase your fundraising revenue, CBA is pleased to present 12 productive tips for 2011:

1. Start a renewal series or evaluate the one you have. Do you invite your donors to become members? If so, do you send those members annual renewal notices? You may want to consider sending a series of four or even more renewal notices for repeat gifts. Chances are you can raise significantly more revenue with a renewal series, and can boost revenue by improving your existing renewal efforts.

There are many ways of approaching this. Are you sending enough efforts in your series? Do the outer envelopes work as hard as they should? Does the gift array encourage the donor to think about upgrading? Are you coordinating and combining media such as email, direct mail and telemarketing to maximize response?

When reviewing your renewal series, always remember to test. You can test an entirely new series, individual efforts, timing, incentives and copy and design. CBA has had outstanding results improving retention from smart renewal tests.

2. Consider leveraging the change in tax law. The recently passed Reid-McConnell Tax Relief law reinstates the so-called “IRA charitable rollover” which first took effect in 2006 but expired at the end of 2009. Simply put, this allows retirement-age donors to make tax-free transfers from their IRAs to public charities. (Normally, they would get taxed on the disbursement prior to the contribution.)

Reid-McConnell reinstates the IRA rollover through the end of 2011 and makes it retroactive to the beginning of 2010. In fact, it permits any IRA distributions made to public charities by January 31, 2011 to be treated as if they were made by December 31, 2010.

You might consider an email campaign to apprise your donors of this special giving opportunity. Calling your major donors also makes sense.

A special thanks to Robert Tigner at ADRFCO for bringing this to our attention. They have put together a short summary of the workings of the charitable rollover and the section of the law setting out the January “bonus”. (Read on …)

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Tucked away in last week’s tax bill was something that might be of interest to non-profit Development offices: the reinstatement of what is known as the “IRA Charitable Rollover.”  Simply put, it allows retirement-age donors to make tax-free transfers from their IRAs to public charities.  Normally, they would get taxed on the disbursement prior to the contribution. (Read on …)

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CBA is hiring! Contact us if you know of any qualified and interested candidates.

Direct Marketing Data Manager – Carl Bloom Associates, White Plains, NY

Full-service direct response agency, Carl Bloom Associates, is seeking an extremely detail-oriented data specialist capable of handling multiple tasks at once. The Data Manager provides reporting, analytics and data support for all of our clients’ direct response campaigns. The position reports to the Director of Strategy and is based in White Plains, NY.

Responsibilities Include:

• Requesting, reviewing and processing client data
• Quality control and reviewing live data/imaging checks of direct marketing materials
• Writing data and merge/purge letter shop instructions
• Communicating with clients about data requirements
• Generating performance reports and preparing analysis of results
• Supporting the agency’s clients and their direct marketing programs

Qualifications:

• Minimum two years of direct marketing experience.  A degree in direct marketing and non-profit experience is helpful
• Capacity to use fundamentals of statistics to determine reliability of information
• Demonstration of ability to meet deadlines and schedules
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Access (MS Office Specialist Certification preferred)
• Experience with a wide variety of database applications, including non-profit fundraising software
• Ability to communicate clearly (verbal and written)

Contact us at jobs@carlbloom.com for more information or to send us your resume!

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Mike Jacobsen, CBA’s creative director/copywriter, recently enjoyed an article in Fundraising Success magazine about fundraising letter copy. In it, Kimberly Seville analyzes some pieces of direct mail she received during the most recent political campaign season from a pretty recognizable signer. According to Mike, the article manages to make two good points:

1. To be effective, there is absolutely no need for a letter to sound like it was “really” written by the person who signs it ­– the donor has no idea what that person sounds like anyway.
2. BUT an exception can and should be made when the signer is a well-known public personality with a distinctive voice (for example, Sarah Palin).

A very important thing to keep in mind: “The only voice we should be concerned about is the voice that works — the voice that raises the most money.”

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The folks at Nonprofit Tech 2.0 did a quick Q&A with the social media manger of a mid-sized health-related non-profit as part of a book they’re writing on how non-profits are using social media.  It’s a great case study on how one group is using tools like Facebook, Twitter and even MySpace (!) to reach out to constituencies. 

As I’ve noted before, there isn’t a lot of direct fundraising happening on these sites, but there is important cultivation which should results in more funds over the long term.  Most non-profits can’t afford to have a whole position dedicated to social media, so these best practices should point you in the right direction.

Of course, we can help too.

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When it comes to acquiring new donors, public broadcasting fundraisers have an option that the typical non-profit organization doesn’t have – and it’s an important one: Pledge.  While this is a great resource others can’t employ, it does have built-in limitations and is therefore just one source that should be considered in addition to all the others.

Each source of income – mail, on-air, online and telemarketing – has its own long- and short-term effect on your membership database and should each be seen as just one tool in your fundraising kit. Since each tool plays a different role in building membership and raising funds, none should be deemed replaceable by another or “too expensive” to use.

Just about everyone in public broadcasting knows that donors generated from on-air, online, telemarketing and direct mail perform differently when it comes to retention. We also know that members have individual preferences when it comes to how they want to communicate with the station they love. (Read on …)

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We’ve heard what the pundits have to say.  Now we want to know what public broadcasting professionals think!

Answer the quick CBA poll below, then tell us in the comment section of this post how you think it has affected your fundraising and what your members are telling you.  Your comments can even can be anonymous.

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What are the best criteria to use when building a list plan for your acquisition mail?

Yes, we all know we have to test lists and pick the ones that work.

But how do you decide what works best? What are the most reliable measurements of good list performance? Geography is important – we know that profitability differs from one zip code to another. And your station’s acceptable cost to acquire a member plays a critical role. But in selecting names it’s critical to consider the future pay-off on your investment in acquiring new members. What kind of a “customer” are you “buying” for your business long term?

A lot is riding on your judgment when putting together a plan for sending your appeal to many thousands of prospects in your viewing or listening area – like the financial health of your station and what will be judged the success (or failure) of your fundraising. (Read on …)

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The Postal Regulatory Commission‘s decision yesterday to reject the US Postal Service’s request for a rate increase means much more than sending your Christmas cards won’t be any more expensive this year.  It could have resulted in 5-6% increase for bulk (including non-profit) mailers as well.

(Read on …)

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Carl Bloom Associates continues its series of FREE 1-hour Brainstorming Sessions with two new sessions: November 10th, 2010, 2pm EST (11am PST) and November 11th, 2010, 2pm EST (11am PST). You can participate with other station colleagues and CBA’s direct response fundraising experts to discuss current fundraising trends and challenges.

To sign up for a session, please complete and submit the form below. If you have any questions, please contact us at 914-468-8942. (Read on …)

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