Manage a Successful Major Gifts Program with PledgeMaker
Use PledgeMaker to target, track, and analyze major donor prospects and major gift solicitations to ensure the success of your organization’s major gifts program.
A successful major gifts program can be a vital fundraising strategy for many nonprofit organizations.
Securing major gifts requires resources, planning, and the ability to cultivate strong and consistent relationships with potential major donors.
Major gift cultivation encompasses all of the relationship-building actions which lead donors to give to your organization. It is through cultivation that you learn more about potential donors, and they learn more about your mission and initiatives. Once gifts are made, cultivation then continues as part of a stewardship program.
Your donor database is an essential repository for all of the significant details related to knowing your major donor prospects: the specific interests and concerns of a prospect; the complete giving history and all of the ways in which a prospect is connected to your mission; and the giving potential of a prospect. Recording this valuable information in one central and integrated location provides a solid foundation for managing a successful major gifts program.
PledgeMaker enables you to easily manage all stages of your organization’s major gifts program. PledgeMaker’s major gift capability allows you to organize relevant donor information in one location to help you create personalized strategies for each major donor prospect. PledgeMaker enables you to identify major donor prospects and track their complete contact and giving histories. Having these details in one centrally accessible location helps you and your staff build stronger relationships with your donors, better prepare them for solicitations, and successfully secure major gifts for your organization. PledgeMaker’s comprehensive major gift capability features tools and resources for: creating income projections and calculating lifetime values for individual major donors; importing and segmenting donor mailing lists from multiple internal and external sources; including related documents such as proposals and contracts associated with specific major donor campaigns; and monitoring your return on investment, donor retention, and performance of proposals and segments.
To learn more about managing your organization’s major gifts program with PledgeMaker, contact Sales at 800.442.9211 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
(Sources: SofTrek Corporation; FundRaising Success; majorgivingnow.org)
Research Your Major Donor Prospects
Nonprofit organizations raise funds by creating relationships with donors. Prospect research plays a major role in creating such relationships.
Prospect research relies on gaining knowledge about a potential major donor’s affiliation with your organization, capacity to give, and interest in giving. Prospect research is the collection, analysis, and dissemination of biographical and financial information that serves as the foundation for identifying (or further qualifying), cultivating, and soliciting major donor prospects to advance your major gifts program. This process helps identify current donors who have major gift potential, but who may be giving below their potential as well as prior major gift donors who are ready to give again.
Prospect research typically requires collecting information from and about a prospect. Access to resources via the internet makes this element of major gift identification easier than ever before. Consult biographical and general reference books, scan journals and newspapers, and search computerized databases and unpublished public records for necessary information about a major donor prospect. Analyze the data collected to establish the solicitation (the ask) amount, the purpose of the gift, the best solicitor, and the timing for the ask.
Prospect research often uncovers shared values, friends of prospective donors, and associates who can help form a basis for institutional involvement. Keep in mind that the information you collect and analyze must serve to advance the cause of fundraising and reflect respect of the relationship your organization has or plans to have with a donor.
Learn more about privacy and ethics related to prospect research at:
www.aprahome.org/PrivacyandProspectResearch/tabid/225/Default.aspx
(Sources: aprahome.org; FundRaising Success; ups.edu)
ClearView for PledgeMaker Planned Giving Capability Underway
SofTrek recently announced development of a new donor management product offering, ClearView for PledgeMakerTM. ClearView for PledgeMaker is a web-based donor management software system featuring an interface that can be personalized, intuitive fundraising tools, and
full integration with PledgeMaker to provide better access
to summary and high-level information in your donor database.
With the major giving capability well on its way, development has begun on the next phase of ClearView for PledgeMaker - planned giving. The planned giving capability will extend ClearView features to planned giving officers, providing them a new way to track and manage their activities. It will feature an easy to use interface, gift and donor views tailored to the planned giving officer’s needs, integration with planned giving presentation software, direct access to wealth screening services, and the full functionality of ClearView for managing all aspects of a planned giving program.
ClearView is the result of product and market research as well as input from nonprofit client organizations and consultants. The goal is to maximize effective use of the donor management software system for all users. ClearView capabilities will be released as they are developed.
To learn more about ClearView for PledgeMaker or to schedule a product demo, contact Sales at 800.442.9211 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
The Importance of Metrics
It has become easier than ever for nonprofits to track all kinds of data that can help measure and evaluate performance. You can know down to the minute how many people are downloading reports, signing up to volunteer, sending emails to decision makers, and so on. It is not only easier to collect and store data, but also to publish this data which increases your transparency as you increase your measurements. None would argue that this is necessarily a bad thing. But are you really measuring what matters? Does all that data really tell you if you are meeting your mission?
Tracking metrics is important because nonprofits have significant financial pressures to operate efficiently and effectively within appropriate budgets. An increased focus on accountability to boards and stakeholders as well as expectations for performance mean that nonprofits need to measure metrics in order to: align personnel and other resources within the mission and initiatives of the organization; find ways to link strategies and defined outcomes with business practices and procedures; and run the organization “more like a business.”
Looking at any one set of numbers alone (especially without any trend information) does not indicate whether or not you are achieving your mission and goals. But together, metrics can start to indicate how well your organization is doing.
At the end of the day, nonprofits are more than metrics. Nonprofits are stories - the tales of the lives you touch and the communities you shape. And while metrics are a necessary and good part of your work, they usually don’t (and can’t) tell your whole story.
Know Your Donors and Their Tendencies
You may have noticed that the key to successful relationships in life is awareness of the other person. The same is also true in fundraising.
Knowledge about your donors is critical. Quality of information is generally more important than quantity. So what should you know about your donors and their tendencies?
Speed matters most. Recency, frequency, and monetary value are traditionally used as indicators of giving. However, a more accurate predictor is how quickly a donor gives.
Compare apples to apples. “Normal” is different for everyone. Instead of comparing one donor to another, compare a donor to him/herself. Has the donor increased or decreased giving? Is the donor giving more or less frequently?
Be patient. Your organization may have to wait up to two years to calculate true ROI. Being patient not only makes assessment easier, but also makes the next acquisition campaign easier to approve.
Remember that all bubbles burst. The single biggest indicator that your ask strategy is too aggressive is a significant drop in number of donors and an increase in revenue during the same period.
Know your donors. Talk to your donors. Get to know them. You’ll probably find that knowing your donors is the key to creating meaningful relationships with them.
News & Notes
2008 Users' Conference
The 2008 Users’ Conference is quickly approaching - July 28 through 30. If you have not registered yet, there is still time. Visit www.regonline.com/softrekusersconference for registration information, the session schedule, and details about networking events. We look forward to seeing you at this year’s Conference.
Client Survey
Thank you to everyone who participated in SofTrek's recent client satisfaction survey. Your input and feedback will help us improve our products and services in order to meet your expectations. Congratulations to Kelly Borbon of Russ Reid who won an Apple Video iPod. Thanks again for participating!
PledgeMaker eTips
Do you receive eTips? PledgeMaker eTips is an e-newsletter that gives users an extra hand in using features, capabilities, and functionalities. Delivered monthly to your inbox, eTips contains practical tips and tricks aimed at helping you make the most of our PledgeMaker fundraising software. To subscribe, simply send an email with the subject “subscribe” to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
Links and Resources
Fundraising Forum
The site contains information related to annual campaign fundraising and nonprofit organizations. Search the forum library by category, get training resources, learn about workshops and seminars, or pose fundraising-related questions to the author.
DMA Nonprofit Federation
The site provides links to full-text reports covering online fundraising regulation, creation and design of charity websites, and issues facing nonprofit organizations with websites. Find a list of related links as well as industry resources for education and public awareness of direct and interactive market driven philanthropy.
Portico
The site is a collection of web sites containing publicly available information compiled specifically for use by the fundraising community. Browse the comprehensive set of links for resources related to the nonprofit community including prospect research pages, professional organizations, electronic libraries, and periodicals.
Charity Fraud
The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) site provides information to help donors give wisely. Find cases filed by the FTC, links to other charity-monitoring organizations, and a charity checklist donors can use to avoid making contributions to fraudulent charities.
"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up." - Jesse Jackson
Visit Us Online:
www.softrek.com
Contact Us:
800.442.9211
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Insights
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Sales
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Client Support
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Copyright © 2008 SofTrek Corporation
