asks to investment

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a colleague at a small liberal arts college regarding ask amounts. Her concern was that in the current economic environment, she is being overly aggressive with her ask array and was looking for some insight into how to ensure that she was effectively making meaningful asks. We talked for 30 minutes or so about segmentation based upon gift history and prior engagement and what other factors have impact on how much a prospect should be asked for. After we hung up, I continued to think for a while about amounts, funds and solicitation methods and got to wondering how well we do at using that type of information in our electronic fundraising efforts. My conclusion was; not well, not well at all.

With a few notable exceptions, we tend to approach online fundraising in a fashion similar to mail in the early 90s. That approach is generic, nonspecific and not effective. Take a good look at the next piece going out from your direct mail efforts, I would venture a guess that it has multiple variables, custom asks, is segmented at least by gift history and most likely includes additional segmentation based upon engagement, degree, major, involvement as a student among many other common variables. Now take the same look at your next online solicitation. How many of the same variables does it contain and address?

I hear a common objection when I raise this issue: Folks aren't giving this way so why am I putting the same level of investment and effort into this as my mail pieces? My last mailing was to 11,442 people and raised $24,311 to complete the 2008-2009 fiscal year. My last email was to 45,187 alumni and I can directly connect it to $6,345, also at the end of the last fiscal year.

Given that comparison, clearly I should be spending most of my time in mail right? To me that is the wrong view and ultimately circles back to the conversation about clicks and gifts. A huge part of the reason that we end up with clicks but no gifts and checks rather than online contributions is the effect of what we put in leading to what we get out.

Investing in online engagement (different from an online community) will eventually lead to online gifts but it takes the same level of effort and a financial commitment to accomplish this. Segmentation, matching asks, inclusion of specific funds and identification of signers and solicitors matters, maybe more online than in direct mail or phone but our efforts as fundraisers do not support this need and the results hold that up.