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Weekly UpdatesFundraisers raise funds. It's in the title. But great fundraisers are more than human automated teller machines.
Raising the most money really isn't the only measure of a great fundraiser. Overcoming obstacles and still breaking new ground for the future is just as important to an organization's bottom line as today's dollar.
Editors of The NonProfit Times asked readers in multiple emails to more than 90,000 subscribers to NPT Weekly to nominate great fundraisers. Industry leaders were solicited and editors checked their own notebooks to find the nation's unique development executives. In some cases, local programs were doing work that would be the envy of national programs. In other instances, some of the tried and true national industry giants were true to form.
Will there be an argument regarding who made it and who didn't? Absolutely. All of these types of illuminations are conversation starters. That's the point. It's the exchange of ideas that raises the level of everyone's game.
YOUNGER THAN 40
SARAH TANNER
Getting Cash Free And Clear
In some smaller communities, the local United Way functions as the community chest--the fundraising arm of that town. But for United Way of Pioneer Valley, located in urban Springfield, Mass., being just a pass-through organization could very well mean obsolescence.
"If you look at the United Way story, designations (gifts) don't help us," said Sarah Tanner, vice president of resource development at United Way of Pioneer Valley (UWPV)." And for many of (our donors), they don't really understand how designating a gift was hurting ... the longevity of United Way in our community."
Tanner, who joined UWPV during 2005, has since helped the charity reduce its designations from 36 percent to 32 percent, a significant drop for an organization and community that had long been familiar with directing dollars. "Anything we can do to get more unrestricted (gifts) is wonderful, and so, yes, it's a very big drop for us," said the 35-year-old. "We'd like to see it dropping further. Obviously, if we could be somewhere around 25 percent, that would be great."
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Prior to joining UWPV, Tanner held positions with United Way chapters in Denver, New York City and nearby Hampshire County, first in marketing and later in campaigns. Tanner said she left UW of Hampshire County, located right up the road in Northampton, Mass., because of the growth opportunities available at UWPV. "I also saw a challenge here," said Tanner.
Once at UWPV, Tanner said she realized one of the challenges with lower- ing the number of restricted gifts is the notion that while donors want to have an impact, they also want to have a choice in where they effect that impact. "The key for us in seeing that drop was just creating more value to our donors in our general fund," said Tanner. "And, explaining to them, providing more definition of what the general fund truly is and what they're getting in return, and what the community's getting in return when they support that type of funding."
This resulted in a compromise: the creation of specialized funds targeting specific areas of concern in the community, to be managed by the United Way. "We're almost creating our own in-house designation options," said Tanner. By targeting new impact areas, she added, "that allows us to go after some larger funders and ask for increased giving knowing that they would have some recognition and some ownership of the program rolling out of United Way."
To market the program, Tanner wanted the message to be positive. "We said, 'Here's what's so great about our community fund, and this is the core of what United Way's about, and this is how you can be a part of it," she said. UWPV solicited some of its key leadership, donors who were giving $10,000 or more, to be the champions of that message. "And once we got those people on board with us, they became our advocates and they went out and they would make their asks with this message," she said.
Revenue has remained flat during the last few years, around $7 million, but Tanner said the charity is headed in the right direction. In addition to reducing the number of restricted donations, UWPV is making strides in garnering a younger constituency.
"We're not focused on their financial contribution to us at this time," Tanner said of the group's Young Leaders' Society, which targets those aged 40 and younger. "We're trying to provide (them with) experiences where they start to feel invested not only with United Way, but with the community."
With so many young people moving out of Springfield, Tanner also would like to see the Young Leaders' Society facilitate a stronger connection to the community. "Hopefully it helps them put some roots down here so they stay here."--MARLA E. NOBLES
BRIAN COWART
A Million New Donors, Sometimes One At A Time
When St. Jude Children's Research Hospital gets a new donor, Brian Cowart can claim that the person is one in a million. That's because that's how many new donors the hospital is now getting.
The way Cowart describes it, he just sort of stumbled into the field of nonprofit fundraising and direct mail. "It's not something I went to school for or had knowledge in," he said. "Very few people come out and find their way into the direct mail/fundraising industry."
Cowart, 36, majored in commerce at the University of Virginia but there were no extensive courses or training in direct marketing. After some time in sales and marketing, he wound up at Response Media Products as a list manager.
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Before long Cowart joined CARE in Atlanta, primarily because of his direct marketing experience, but the list management experience didn't hurt. "It just sort of evolved; it happens a lot in the industry, I think." While he was director of direct marketing for five years at CARE, the relief agency routinely generated more than $60 million in public support annually before reaching the $100-million mark in 2003 and 2004.
A native of Atlanta, Cowart relocated to Memphis when he joined St. Jude two years ago. As senior director of mail acquisition and donor retention, he's responsible for acquiring and cultivating new donors through traditional direct marketing channels like mail and telemarketing. That means raising $240 million annually. He's the primary source of new donors that funnel into the organization, which lately is running about a million new donors each year.
Cowart is part of St. Jude's national direct marketing division, the largest revenue generator for the children's re search hospital. It raises nearly half of the more than $500 million in total annual revenue. Cowart's responsibilities include raising about 80 percent of the $250 million raised by the division.
The hospital last year moved from the third-largest health charity to the second-largest health charity in terms of private donations, said Lori O'Brien, senior vice president, national direct marketing. St. Jude has seen public support rise by 17 percent and 9 percent, respectively, during the past two years, approaching the $500-million mark.
"He has done some interesting work with both the donor file and with creative strategy, to identify the donors on file who have the capacity to give larger gifts, but who currently give small gifts," said O'Brien. "By identifying propensity for giving and also a strong affinity for St. Jude, Brian is zeroing in on donors who don't naturally self-identify as larger givers," she said.
"We continue to see very positive response rates ... and a fairly modest increase in donors we're bringing in year-to-year," Cowart said. The average gift to St. Jude has grown 5 to 6 percent during the past several years, he said, attributing some of that to pursuing higher-value lists, but also to some industry-wide evolution. The number of new donors acquired also has grown by 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in the past two years.
Looking ahead, Cowart expects to "not focus as much on the numbers of new donors, but equally on the value of those donors long-term. "As we move forward, we'll be looking more to the value of donors, not the response and how many we acquire," he said.
The hospital is "constantly trying to find new ways to bring in new donors," Cowart said, such as exploring face-to-face fundraising, and viral marketing over the telephone for donors to reach out to friends and family. In an effort to bring in new donor audiences, the organization will reach out to audiences "we may have been under-investing in," he said, such as the African-American and Hispanic communities.
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His favorite part of the job? "Knowing what I'm doing makes a difference in the life of someone else. Also, what I love about direct marketing is you can instantly, or fairly instantly, measure the impact of a campaign, and the success of a campaign, and identify opportunities for improvement through numbers."--MARK HRYWNA
DIRECT MAIL
SUSAN LOTH
Mailing Less And Making More
Susan Loth has seen the direct mail program at Disabled American Veterans (DAV) more than double in revenue during the past 16 years. Its database of active donors has grown to more than seven million names, no small feat even for the direct-mail behemoth that is DAV. The head of fundraising at the Cincinnati-based nonprofit, Loth has played a starring role in that growth.
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During her tenure, the last five as director of fundraising, DAV's mail program has weathered increased competition, enjoyed drool-worthy response rates in an industry plagued by numbers going in the opposite direction, and maintained a reputation as a leader in the direct-mail industry. And while it's never been an easy trail, Loth has done her share of blazing.
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