This is an important question when investing in your fundraising campaigns. Is it better to acquire new donor save your exisisting donors.

Well in terms of your Regular Giving campaign it is very important to try and save your donors from leaving. This is a really simple task, but many charities may not have the man power to complete it.

For example just say you have 2000 regular givers, every month the following will happen

Donors Credit Cards will expire, default, max out, be cancelled (without your knowledge)Donors will cancel their RG's

If you are able to keep on top of these, you will find most of the rejections are caused because the donor has changed their card for what ever reason, or it is because they don't have enough money at that time, which can be solved with simply reprocessing at a later time.

Example: 10 Donors RG are cancelled due to incorrect credit cards. If you call these 10 donors immediately 50% are likely to provide you with new card details to continue their pledge. Therefore you will keep 5 out of the 10. Reducing you costs to acquire another 10 to replace these to only 5, which is a massive saving.

Being in the industry for over 14 years has given me a lot of insight into what works and what doesn't for our clients. It has given me the knowledge to know straight up if a campaign will be a huge success or a major fail.

So is your current supplier performing? I mean in terms of providing you with a good return on investment.

A lof of fundraisers charge a lot up front and you are not really gauranteed anything. You are given forecasts and budgets, which give you an indication. But it is not always as great as what it is seems. They will tell you they will send this many letters, make so many calls, get aproximately this amount of money. Is this what you really want?

We are not just any fundraising supplier, we are so passionate about the work we do for our clients, we almost want to morph into the charity. Our performance is second to none in the industry, we provide quality and quantity. Not every campaign will make you money, but we know the ones that will benefit you and us as a team.

So think about the following when selecting a new supplier or renewing with your current supplier.

Upfront costsPerformanceReturn on investmentWhat additional offerings do they offer other than fundraising - eg donations responses, customer service, query handling, follow up calls.Are they really working for us or working for themselvesDo they support us outside of the agreement, sponsorship or attend events.

If you are thinking about

Have you noticed that it is a lot easier for your donor to leave your cause than it is for them to sign up or donate to begin with? Well you are right!

Many employees handling donation queries are not quite aware of how valuable a donor is. Most people would simply agree with the donors request and remove them from our list or cancel their regular gift donation with out second guessing a thing.

But what if you were to respond back, ask the donor the reason why, maybe provide them with a solution, because in most cases you will be able to keep the donor coming back for more.

Thank the donor for their supportAsk what is the reason for them to be leaving or cancelling their regular giftOffer them a solution - eg can't afford to donate $20 per month - then offer them a lower amount $15 or $10 just to keep them on board. Remind them of their support and how it has help your cause

The best way to communicate to donors is in every way possible.

Everyone likes to be communicated to in very different methods which could be age related or more importantly, what the donor prefers. Everyone is different, which means you have to be different when communicating.

It is fantastic to just send direct mail campaign out and expect your simple 1-3% return on investment. But some people love a chat, especially if you want them to donate more money and feel more apart of the community. Have you ever thought about calling them? DTS Group specilises in voice, mail and email fundraising and in the perfect combination it maximises your return on investment.

You don't need a large budget or a call centre to kick start a multi channel fundraising campaign, you just need a dedicated team and a sample to see how it can benefit your cause.

Most importantly don't forget to ASK FOR A DONATION and for the AMOUNT YOU NEED!!! you can always reduce it or accept what they offer. There is no crime in asking!