Attrition management and stewardship

Attrition Management & Stewardship

Face-to-face Fundraising 2012 Institute of Fundraising Conference

4th December 2012

The Problem…

Fundraiser

Donor

Charity ? Donor

The Solution…?

OR

Our Four Pillars ‘Sweetening’ Your Acquisition Campaign …

• Inspiring & motivating donors • Retention plan

• Taking care of your donor’s money • Data management

• Donor performance • Management reporting

• Treating the donor differently • Testing & evaluating

No Acquisition Without… a Retention Plan

DARS Evidence – Minimising Attrition

• Increased freq. & customisation of comms

• Evidencing ongoing need (appeals)

• Capture & build upon donor motivations

• Upgrade around 7-11 months for best longer-term performance, even if donor does not upgrade

Do…

DARS Evidence – Driving Down Retention

• Allow donor to choose frequency & channel of communications

– Send them all everything anyway!

• Leave donors un-contacted in case reminds them to cancel

• Send all comms using single channel

Don’t…

No Acquisition Without… Backroom Data Management

Donor Payment Health Check

58%

5% 2% 1%

2%

1%

1%

29%

1% Not yet started

Actively paying (no issues)

Reactivated (no issues)

Reactivated (not started)

Active - have paid, but more than 2 payments out Active - reported as unpaid

Active - missing any payment history Reactivated - payment issues

Cancelled

Reactivated - CANX

Data: Minimising Attrition

• Regular meetings with data team

• Sense-check data imports every month/quarter

• Reconciling payment files every month

• ‘Missed’ payments identified & cancelled quickly – reactivation calling maximised

• Income projections based on income banked!

Do…

Data: Driving Down Retention

• Fail to work with the data team & reconcile all donors

• Projecting future income on un-reconciled cancellations reported by database

• Blaming when banked income falls far short of levels projected

Don’t…

No Acquisition Without… Management Reporting

Reporting : Minimising Attrition

• Early KPIs from campaign will play a key part in attrition – Av gift, av. Age, DD start date lapse, full comms capture (email…)

• Treating your agency as a partner – regular meetings

• Monthly reporting of attrition based on month of 1st payment

• End of year planning looking at mix of F2F/D2D/PS

• Look at ROI of Yr 1 and lifetime value of prev. yrs on ongoing basis

Do…

Benchmarking Against DARS Average

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60%

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80%

90%

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59

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Months

Campaign averages by year: street

Street 2006

Street 2007

Street 2008

Street 2009

Street 2010

Street 2011

Benchmarking Against DARS Average

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10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

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80%

90%

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59

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Campaign averages by year: door

Door 2006

Door 2007

Door 2008

Door 2009

Door 2010

Door 2011

Benchmarking Against DARS Average

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10%

20%

30%

40%

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90%

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Months

Campaign averages by year: private sites

Private sites 2008

Private sites 2009

Private sites 2010

Private sites 2011

Reporting: Driving Down Retention

• Driving agency to deliver to phasing at all costs

• View agency as supplier: minimum contact

• Reporting on attrition based only on cancellations

• Review theoretical ROI at yr end & move on to next year’s acquisition campaign

• Choice of channel based on personal preferences

• Not factoring in economic climate/changes in perf.

Don’t…

No Acquisition Without… Testing & Evaluating

Testing & Evaluating: Minimising Attrition

• Find out what’s worked: ask fundraising teams

• Payment-based communication with donors

• Enhancing donor communications based on attrition trends: Bespoke

– (…Mencap video)

• Spit test key variables on quarterly basis

Do…

Testing & Evaluation: Driving Down Retention

• Only review material at end of each campaign

• Communicate with donors on time-basis only

– Easter Appeal at Easter; Christmas Appeal at …

• Not pick up on data trends

Don’t…

What’s the Point in Doing All This?

Is it Cheaper to Just Acquire More Donors??

What’s the Point?

0%

10%

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80%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

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Attrition rates by charity: door 2010 2 3 4 6 9 14 15 20 29 35 35(2) 35(3) 40 41 45 47 51 53 54 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

What’s the Point in Investing Time & Resource Into Attrition Management

& Stewardship?

Difference in Income of Actual 1,000 Donor Campaign Over 5 Years Between Best &

Worst Attrition?

£135,000 (50%)!

Our Donor’s Experience With Us

…to this, in practical terms?

How do we go from this…

Fundraiser

Donor

Charity Donor

Database Finance

Comms Digital

Donor Donor

Donor

Donor

Don’t Assume Anything!

Sign up & Test for Yourself - Are you Happy with the

Experience?

DARS: Get Involved!

• DARS 2012 Report Out in 2 Weeks

• User Panel presentation Thurs 13th Dec

– Presentation of report

– Feedback from Users to build DARS 2013

• Jan/Feb DARS 2013 launched

• Feb/Mar DARS 2013; submit your data

• Presentation @ PFRA AGM June 2013 (& IoF)

Thank You & Questions

Morag Fleming: morag@decaidconsulting.co.uk

moragf@futurefundraising.co.uk

Rupert Tappin: rupert@decaidconsulting.co.uk

rupertt@futurefundraising.co.uk