Dear Editor:
Several of my staff passed around the On Dangerous Ground piece you
did in the General Ramblings column (Aug. 1, 2008). Your comments just
hit it right on the head in reference to the ongoing need for
reinvestment in your donor file.
Our "choir" here at our agency were jumping for joy that
a third party expert points out the reasonable conclusion that the
critical component of acquisition in your development strategy must be
utilized or the result is a "recipe for disaster."
Unfortunately, in these times of economic uncertainty many of
current or prospective clients are pursuing a cutback in acquisition
with the intent of bringing in greater net short-term dollars.
Unfortunately, we believe that the inevitability of this strategy is
long-term disaster unless a major benefactor or board member steps in to
bail the organization out. Based on my experience, this usually does not
happen and the last standing staff takes the rap for the "bad
plan" and the financial shortfall.
Most of my professional life was spent in running Special Olympics
organizations and I quickly learned in the early days that a broke
organization simply could not fulfill the mission and vision of the
founder. While I came from the program ranks, I quickly learned as CEO
of several state organizations that the investment in direct marketing
via mail and phone was vital to our future success.
From these prospecting and investing days in acquisition and file
development came our future major givers, our special event attendees,
our volunteers, our board members as well as an occasional planned gift.
With this ongoing trend to cut back on acquisition, more organizations
are mailing or contacting the same donors over and over again. As you
know, the attrition is going up and the current donor base will simply
continue to provide less and less funds.
In a number of sessions at the recent Bridge Conference, experts
continued to declare the importance of the list in any marketing or
development venture. The estimates of importance went from 60 to 90
percent! What this continues to shout is that the financial success of
any organization is based on the quality of your supporters and the size
of your donor file.
If an organization continues to not invest in this practice, year
after year, there is simply pending doom and watchdog organizations will
not be there to provide any finances to help meet the shortfall.
Acquisition as well as any development activity of new staff, major gift
cultivation, planned giving ventures takes years of investment and
reinvestment for long-term value. I am always surprised when
"experts" take on the issue of reasonable percentages with no
regard to long term value and overall contributions to the organization.
This shout and advocacy for investment in acquisition is a service to
the nonprofit community.
Thanks for the article and guidance.
John C. Braune
President & CEO
The Heritage Company
North Little Rock, Ark.
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