YMCA Pilot Project Annual Campaign Recommendations Reportbloqs.s3.amazonaws.com/50-5384/202485_YMCAPilotProject... · 2017-11-28 · Annual Campaign Recommendations – November 2017

YMCA Pilot Project

Annual Campaign

Recommendations Report

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED FOR THE PILOT PROJECT:

DECEMBER 12, 2016

UPDATED AT THE END OF YEAR ONE OF THE PROJECT AND

REVISED FOR OTHER YMCAS:

NOVEMBER 18, 2017

Annual Campaign Recommendations – November 2017 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE BIG PICTURE ................................................................................................................. 3

Project Background: ............................................................................................................ 3

Year-One Results and Learnings: ........................................................................................ 5

Key Learnings from Year-One Implementation: ................................................................. 7

INTRODUCTION TO IMPLEMENTATION .............................................................................. 8

CORE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUR ANNUAL CAMPAIGN .......................................... 11

SUPPORTING RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................. 16


THE BIG PICTURE

Project Background:

In 2015, Cygnus Applied Research conducted a National Survey of YMCA Supporters for

the YMCA of the USA. One of the primary conclusions from that research was that

many existing YMCA donors not only possessed untapped philanthropic capacity, but

could be inspired to give more generously to their local YMCA, if they:

• were asked to make larger contributions to specific cases for support;

• were presented with an improved fundraising case;

• were provided with more information on how their YMCA was positively

affecting the local community;

• received improved post-gift communication that focused on the impact and use

of contributions; and

• more fully understood the relationship between membership fees and the

YMCA’s broader mission.

Inspired by the findings of this research, the YMCA of the USA embarked upon a Pilot

Project with 10 YMCAs from across the country. This three-year project – currently in its

second year – is testing a variety of enhancements to the communication, solicitation

and stewardship activities related to the annual campaigns of the 10 pilot YMCAs in

order to better serve the needs and interests of existing Y donors. The implementation

and impacts of these changes are being monitored across the Pilot Group to identify the

strategies and tactics that are most effective at increasing campaign revenue. The most

beneficial approaches – as identified by actual results – are being collected and provided

to the broader YMCA movement so that all YMCAs can benefit from the Pilot Project.

This document is a cornerstone of that effort. It contains the key recommendations and

supporting information/tactics that the Pilot Project YMCAs have been following.

Key Principles:

The Pilot Project and this document incorporate a wide variety of approaches and

tactics. Any given YMCA can and should adapt these recommended strategies to fit best

with its own abilities, goals, capacity and context. As a result, some recommendations –

particularly from the Supporting Recommendations section – could be either extremely

useful or completely irrelevant, depending on the situation at any given YMCA. That

said, there is a heart to the Pilot Project recommendations. We call these the “Core”

recommendations and they are based on four simple principles:


Connect a Specific Case for Support to Specific Donors:

One of the most powerful tools in attracting donors, motivating larger gifts and

inspiring donor loyalty is the ability to connect donors to a single, focused and

compelling case for support. This is something YMCA solicitors do frequently but

often informally in their face-to-face solicitations. It reflects major-gift style

fundraising, even if the dollar amounts are less than $500 in many cases.

The challenge facing many YMCAs is recording a particular donor’s strongest

point of interest and using that data point to guide subsequent stewardship and

re-solicitation tactics. Not being able to link donors to specific cases for support

leads to less effective solicitations and subsequently, weaker and potentially

confusing gift-impact reporting. This leads to smaller gift amounts initially and

higher donor attrition through subsequent renewal periods.

Use the Database as a Stewardship Tool:

While no two YMCAs in the Pilot Group have the same database systems or data-

management policies, the common thread is the absence of any significant

ability to use data as a strong platform for stewardship. Key challenges include:

• duplicate or conflicting records,

• little information on donor designations and interests,

• difficulties in extracting useful reports with reasonable time and effort,

• the exclusion of many staff from accessing the database fully, and

• a proliferation of informal shadow databases created by staff or branches

who feel the official database is not meeting their needs.

Solve the Problem of Chronic Under-asking … the ASK FOR MORE solution:

It seems that the most common closing line in a YMCA gift solicitation is, “If you

could give what you gave last year, that would be great.” A gift-solicitation

culture in which volunteers and staff are happy to simply renew a donor’s gift

has led to widespread gift stagnation. This combines with factors like a strong

focus on recognizing gifts of certain amounts – $1,000 is the almost universal

magic number – and thus unintentionally locking donors in at that gift level. This

leads to a lack of motivation to make the case for additional generosity, limits

the need for targeted and powerful donor stewardship, allows volunteers and

volunteer training to fall into ruts and ultimately, it means that even the YMCA’s

loyal donors are typically giving well below their capacity and interest.


Reporting Specific Gift Impact:

For a decade and a half, Cygnus’ sector-wide research and its work with specific

clients have shown consistently that reporting to donors on the impact of their

previous gifts is one of the most powerful ways to inspire loyalty and greater

generosity. Outside of capital campaign fundraising, this kind of reporting is a

weakness of the YMCA system for a variety of reasons, though the two most

fundamental are the overuse of a general, allocation-free case for support and a

lack of gift allocation/area of interest information in the donor database.

Year-One Results and Learnings:

Once all Pilot Project YMCAs completed their 2017 annual campaigns, Cygnus reviewed

their database records to assess the impact of the project on gift averages.1 From the

six YMCAs for which we have complete data at the time of writing2, the outcomes from

the Pilot Project were, in a word, impressive:

• Across the Pilot Group, contributions from supporters giving up to $2,500

annually3 had an average increase of almost $125.00 or 28.5%. By contrast, the

average contributions from donors at those same YMCAs who were not solicited

as part of the project decreased by 0.9%.

• Pilot Project donors at all six Pilot YMCAs outperformed the average

contributions from the other donors in the annual campaign. The percentage

improvement in gift averages varied considerably from a 6% improvement to

over 80%.

• By following the methodology set out by Cygnus, Pilot Project campaigners were

able to secure larger gifts from existing supporters in 49.5% of cases. 36.3% of

contributors increased the value of their contribution by 50% or more when

compared with their previous year’s donation.

1 Donor retention performance can only be evaluated following the 2018 campaign as supporters are only now being sent enhanced stewardship material.

2 The figures cited in this document (prepared in November 2017) reflect the results of six Pilot Project

YMCAs. This number is less than the original ten Ys because one YMCA dropped out, but not until it was too late for the replacement YMCA to be included in Year One. Two YMCAs worked through significant staff transitions that pushed back their full implementation of the Pilot Project. The fourth missing YMCA will be included in this analysis, but at the time of writing, we were still resolving a data consistency issue.

3 The $2,500 threshold employed here and elsewhere ensures that one or two exceptionally large gifts do not unduly influence the average results.


• Focusing exclusively on those supporters who upgraded the value of their

contributions in the Pilot Project, the average gift increase was $266.07, or

44.2%.

• Based on overall performance figures, Cygnus estimates that if the Pilot Project

were implemented fully across any YMCA, on average it would increase total

revenue by 21.4% from supporters giving less than $2,500 a year. While every

YMCA is different, a typical YMCA in an urban setting might raise around $1

Million in its annual campaign. This would translate into around $200,000 in

additional philanthropic revenue for mid-sized YMCAs in an urban or

metropolitan setting.

All the success described above was achieved knowing that no YMCA would ever be able

to fully or perfectly implement all of the Pilot Project recommendations. A post-

campaign survey of the Pilot Project solicitors found that:

• Only 85% of those trained to be part of the Pilot Project fully heard and

comprehended the instructions they were given to ask for contributions using a

specific fundraising case and for an amount that was double the value of their

prospects’ most recent gift.

• Cygnus estimates that Pilot Project solicitors only asked for a contribution that

was “double the size” in 38% of their solicitations. 31% of the time solicitors did

not specify a figure or asked for the same amount as the previous year.

This is particularly important because we know that the more closely a YMCA

followed the Pilot Project guidelines, the more successful it was. For example, in

one Pilot YMCA, 83% of their solicitors asked their prospects for contributions of

at least double in value. The result was that 69% of that YMCA’s Pilot Project

donors upgraded the value of their contributions, resulting in an increase in total

contributions of 65%.

• The solicitors themselves also seem happier with the additional guidance and

material provided by the enhanced Pilot Project training, even as the project

asked these solicitors to do something most people would find difficult – ask for

significantly larger gifts. 24% said they were “Much more satisfied” and 33% said

they were “Slightly more satisfied” with their experience as a YMCA fundraiser as

a result of being part of the Pilot Project. Only 4.5% said they were “Less

satisfied.”


Key Learnings from Year-One Implementation:

The Pilot Project team is extremely pleased with the success realized at the end of the

first year of the project, but we actually believe that the results represent just a fraction

of the potential that can be unlocked from supporters using the Pilot Project tactics.

After reviewing the performance and implementation efforts, it is clear that the greatest

obstacle in the way of even greater growth in revenue is not fundraising methodology,

the fundraising case, or the worthiness of the cause. It is ensuring that the fundraising

strategy is fully and properly managed and implemented. The experiences and results

of the YMCA Pilot Group pointed to three key obstacles that can impede success, even

with a sound plan in place:

• Staff turnover was a significant factor. Not surprisingly, any YMCA that

experienced staff change during the Pilot Project was working at a significant

disadvantage and it often led to difficulties or lapses in implementing the “Core

Plan”. The importance of good staff transition plans for all areas of fundraising

operations cannot be overstated. In addition, strong executive leadership is

required to oversee the handover of responsibilities in a timely, precise and

detail-oriented manner whenever there is change in a key staff position.

• There are serious and repeated issues with the donor information technology

systems used by some YMCAs. Some systems appear to be unable to efficiently

manage basic information about supporters. This problem was compounded by

the fact that in some cases, staff assigned to the task of recording and managing

this information lacked the necessary skills, flexibility, time-management skills,

and/or were insufficiently orientated toward properly supporting a fundraising

campaign. In short, database technology and IT staff should be enhancing

fundraising success, but at some YMCAs they are clearly holding it back.

• Lastly, there is the broader issue of disciplined project management.

Successfully implementing the tactics of the Pilot Project requires the

engagement of all levels of an organization, from the CEO to Branch Executives

to campaigners. Development staff cannot do it on their own. They need the

clout of leadership to ensure that everyone who needs to be involved is, in fact,

engaged and executing the required tasks. All aspects of the project work

together. If the delivery of one aspect of the plan (such as getting pledge card

data transferred into the database or ensuring that program staff understand

the importance of getting gift impact information to the development team) falls

short, it weakens the impact of all other aspects of the plan and, most

importantly, weakens the results.


For the YMCAs in the Pilot Project, and for any YMCAs considering implementing the

project tactics, the potential to generate a significant increase in income is certainly

compelling, but keep in mind that this average outcome is the result of incomplete

execution. Consistently throughout the Pilot Project, the greater the discipline in

planning and execution, the better the results. It is highly likely that any YMCA closely

following the project’s recommendations with strong project coordination and full

commitment from the front-line solicitors will produce results far beyond the Pilot

Project average from Year One.

INTRODUCTION TO IMPLEMENTATION

The tactical recommendations in this report appear in two sections. The second section

– Supporting Recommendations – provides suggestions on a number of ways to improve

your work with donors on a number of fronts. We hope you will implement as many of

these recommendations as make sense at your Y. However, the first section of the

recommendations – the Core Plan – is the area that requires your greatest attention and

that represents the common approaches implemented at all of the Pilot Project YMCAs.

Smarter, not harder or more expensive:

The strategies in this report are designed to help YMCAs retain more donors and inspire

greater generosity over time by working smarter, not necessarily harder. Additionally,

the vast majority of recommendations require little, if any, marginal financial

investment.

Straight-forward core recommendations:

We have formulated the key recommendations in this report so that any YMCA can

implement them immediately. There will be no need to overhaul data entry processes,

no need to shift the messaging in marketing materials, no need to purchase ad space

and time, no need to recruit dozens of new volunteers. While this report has a large

number of potential strategies to employ, the ones that form the foundation of the plan

are relatively few.


Resource Support from the Pilot Project:

This document is not the only guidance and support related to the Pilot Project. To help

you implement the recommendations contained in this report, Cygnus has created a

number of resources and templates for your use as you see fit. These include:

1. Solicitor training video on “Asking for More” (the content of this 20-

minute video is also available as a PowerPoint presentation)

2. Leadership video providing an overview of the Pilot Project, a summary of

first-year results and a summary of key contributions YMCA leaders can

make to ensuring the tactics of the Pilot Project are successful

3. Sample solicitor training agenda

4. Sample training case study on asking for a single case for support

5. Sample solicitation/data tracking grid

6. Sample gift acknowledgement guide and letter templates

7. Sample thank-you telephone call scripts

8. Sample gift thank-you letter

9. Guide for making gift impact videos

10. Sample and guide to developing effective donor impact reports

Preparing for Success:

Regardless of the specific tactics employed by a YMCA to steward its donors, there are

certain conditions and habits that the most successful YMCA stewardship operations

appear to share. This report contains recommendations designed to assist with many of

these conditions while others simply require diligence and discipline.

• Advance Planning: The best-prepared YMCAs often produce the best results. In

an environment where the majority of staff involved in fundraising are not

dedicated fundraising staff, advance planning can easily suffer.

• Consistent Gift Entry and Accounting Processes and Policies: With (usually) no

staff dedicated exclusively to gift entry and donor data maintenance, YMCAs can

easily be limited in their donor stewardship options because of weak database

content. The data that is in the database is often difficult to understand,

challenging to manipulate and/or lacking consistency and quality. The easy rule

to follow in almost all instances is that database policies and processes should be

known and accessible to all key staff, simple enough for all staff to follow, and

straightforward enough for donors to understand if they were to read them.


• Strong Technological Platform: A significant number of the YMCAs in the Pilot

Project have database systems that are not meeting their needs and these

YMCAs are certainly not unique. Leaving aside the quality of the data itself, a

number of associations still have challenges connecting membership and giving

data, providing a smooth online giving experience, tracking key stewardship

information like gift allocations and areas of interest, and providing easy access

to donor information for front-line staff. Sound technology makes so much of

donor stewardship work much easier.

• Appreciation for Staff Realities: So many of the key fundraisers in any YMCA are

staff who tack their fundraising duties onto other responsibilities. Therefore, it is

vital that every YMCA find efficiencies whenever possible to reduce the burden

of fundraising commitments while continuing to support success. As a result,

any time the key tasks that support strong fundraising – such as data

management, materials production, planning and policy creation – can rest with

dedicated fundraising staff, that is a benefit to all staff.

• Allow for both Uniformity and Individuality: Every association, branch and

member of the staff team does things at least a little differently from any other.

Often within a single association, there is palpable tension between the desire to

achieve consistency and the desire to be individuals. To succeed in stewarding

donors, the YMCA needs to be prepared to support different approaches. For

example:

o Sticking with a consistent brand and message, but allowing branches,

publications and solicitors to narrow that message as required,

o Creating and following consistent and uniform data entry processes and

policies while also allowing an appropriately large number of people to

access information from the database, and

o Relying on proven fundraising approaches like those described in the Red

Book, while exploring new approaches and innovations around things like

personal campaigner webpages.


CORE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUR ANNUAL

CAMPAIGN

Raising More Money:

The YMCA has a unique fundraising approach, a long and successful fundraising tradition

and programs that address important community needs. Despite these advantages,

YMCAs are leaving a lot of money on the table by not stewarding and re-soliciting their

existing donors in the ways that best inspire loyalty and increasing generosity. This plan

is designed to change that.

There are two sections to our recommendations. The second section – Supporting

Recommendations – is a menu of potential tactics that should enhance your work with

donors. We encourage you to implement the tactics you believe will have the most

impact at your YMCA. However, the main part of this plan is the collection of eight

recommendations in what we are calling the Core Plan. These are the

recommendations the Pilot Project YMCAs have all followed and, therefore, these are

the tactics responsible for generating the results the project has achieved.

THE CORE PROJECT PLAN:

1. Select a Small Number of High-Priority Cases for Support:

Outside of capital campaigns, YMCAs usually have difficulty limiting the case for

support to a small and well-defined group of high-priority choices. Creating this

kind of small list of choices allows you and your campaigners to focus on having

quality information, stories and approaches built around these cases (in addition

to quality stewardship material later on). It also significantly reduces the

temptation to ask for gifts to “the Y” – the kind of unrestricted gift that has

proven to inspire relatively small gifts and be difficult to steward effectively. The

criteria for selecting your cases for support should be:

• They must be high priorities for your Y.

• They must either be well defined currently, or you must be willing to

invest the effort to articulate the cases in a clear and compelling manner.


• Ideally, the cases should feature identifiable and measurable markers of

progress or success. For example, you should be trying to grow

participation in a program by a certain percentage, add a new location for

an outreach program or enhance an existing program to make it

demonstrably more effective.

• The cases should allow you to use both the compelling stories and

compelling measurable results associated with them.

• The cases should meet well-defined needs in the community.

• You should have a clear plan for investing the donors’ gifts and a known

timeline for implementation.

2. Identify a Select Group of “Core” Solicitors:

Within the Pilot Project, we asked the participating YMCAs to pick a select group

of campaigners to work within the context of the Pilot Project. At your YMCA,

you can choose whether you want to share the Core Strategy with a small group,

large group or all of your campaigners. In selecting campaigners to be involved,

you should be clear with them about your expectations:

• They must be willing to ask their donors for gifts that are DOUBLE in

value from the previous year.

• They must be willing to ask all of their donors to give to one of the core

cases for support you have identified.

• They must be willing to participate in training that supports the process

of focusing on select cases for support and on asking for larger gifts.

• They must be prepared to report back on each solicitation with how

much they asked for and what case for support they used for the ask.


3. Create a Small Number of Critical, Searchable Database Codes:

Within the Pilot Project group, data and database management is critical

because we are measuring progress and being accountable to the partners and

funders of the project. At your YMCA, these are not factors, but we encourage

you to take a similar approach to data tracking for two reasons. First, it will give

you the ability to understand the impact of your efforts and therefore, the

information required to evaluate and refine your efforts year-to-year. Second, it

sets up more effective long-term donor stewardship.

At the end of your campaign period, if you want to be able to take advantage of

those two possibilities, every donor solicited by your “Core” campaigners should

have the following information available in his/her record:

• Amount requested – if different from gift amount secured (numeric field)

• Solicitor (sortable code)

• Case for support used (sortable code)

• Methodology – face-to-face, telephone, email, letter, etc. (sortable code)

• Donor’s preferred medium for impact reporting (sortable code)

4. Train the Core Solicitors on the Case for Support and Asking for More:

Every YMCA trains its solicitors. Your Core campaigners will need to participate

in training that – in addition to providing the information you would normally

provide – covers your selected cases for support and how to ask for more

money.

• Cases for Support: Case training should involve program participants

and/or staff who can provide personal and compelling stories about the

impact of the relevant programs. You will also need to be able to explain

clearly to the solicitors why these cases for support are particularly high

priorities for your YMCA and what impact these cases will have on the

YMCA and/or the broader community. Ideally, this training will also

include some time for the solicitors to practice translating the case for

support information into a story they feel comfortable telling.


• Asking for More: Cygnus has created a video and a PowerPoint

presentation that can support this part of your campaigner training. Key

components include providing data that will increase solicitors’

confidence in asking for larger gifts, ways to ask for more, sample

language (particularly opening and closing lines which can be the most

difficult), tips on how to avoid short-circuiting your own ask and guidance

on using the case for support in ways that support increases in giving.

5. Ensure Core Solicitors Ask for Significantly Larger Gifts:

This part of the process is about providing clear direction – and reminders as

necessary – to campaigners that their goal is to double the value of their donors’

previous gifts. This will involve, for you, delivering the training described above,

working with the solicitors to identify gift amounts and preferred cases for

support for each donor, and ensuring that all solicitors understand the

accountabilities required and the importance of their follow through.

6. Track the Activities and Results of the Core Solicitors Diligently:

To give you the data points necessary to track your results and organize targeted

stewardships, you will need detailed information from every Core campaigner.

All solicitors will need to be oriented to the process you would like them to use

to record and submit this information. The Pilot Project resources include a

tracking template that may help you in this part of the process.

7. Identify and Prepare Compelling Impact Reports – After the Gift:

For each of the cases for support involved in your work on the Core plan, you will

need to collect and create the kinds of information, stories and resources that

make for an effective report on donor impact. This will include:

• A well-defined and clearly articulated expression of the community’s

need for the programs in question,

• Identifiable and, ideally, measurable markers of success or progress,

• Identified people who have benefited from the programs in question,

• Stories from these people (note that the best stories show deep impact,

some emotion, demonstrable change through program participation and

the involvement of donors in making the stories happen),

• Well-written versions of the stories in question,


• Quality photography and video whenever possible,

• The ability to translate dollar amounts into an approximate impact – it is

not necessary to price out to the dollar every aspect of the program, but

knowing roughly how much a single program participant, a single location

or a program revision costs will be helpful.

From the information gathered, you will be able to develop a donor impact

report for each of your core cases. The specific format and medium used is up to

you, however, a high-quality impact report will:

• Provide information on the donor’s intended area of impact (their case

for support)

• Provide both anecdotal-style information (impact stories) and measures

(quantifiable data)

• Specifically reference the donor’s impact on the program – YMCAs can

tend to focus impact communications on the organization’s programs,

describing what the YMCA has accomplished without clearly stating that

donors and their donations are a big part of that work

• Be brief – a one-page report, or even a paragraph or two within a letter

or email may be entirely adequate, depending on the complexity of the

program and the amount of information available

• Be focused on impact only – it will not, for example, solicit the next gift,

market swim lessons or ask donors to complete a survey.

One of the resources available from the Pilot Project provides guidance and a

template on producing effective impact reports.

8. Distribute Targeted Impact Reports to Donors After the Gift:

The report should reflect the donor’s communication preferences, to the best of

your knowledge. As a result, you may end up sending some reports by email,

others by mail, etc. The ideal delivery time for the report coincides with a time

when the donor’s gift being put to use. For example, if the donor gives to a

summer program, the arrival of the first students at the beginning of July would

be a perfect milestone for an impact report. Obviously, a donor should only

receive the impact report that matches with the case he or she supported.


SUPPORTING RECOMMENDATIONS

While the recommendations described above address the most significant and

widespread issues holding YMCAs back from raising even more money from current

donors, there are still many more things your YMCA can do to enhance its donor

stewardship and fundraising results. Because these tactics were not specifically tested

as part of the Pilot Project, we don’t have data to quantify their impact, but

implementing the recommendations in this section should enhance your fundraising

program and contribute to improvements in both donor loyalty and gift values.

Database/Technology

Generally, YMCAs lack the ability to use their donor databases to segment supporters

based on factors like areas of interest and previous gift designations, and to connect

donor records to membership/program registration histories. In short, few YMCA donor

databases have the capacity to provide the foundation of high-quality donor

stewardship.

Recommendations:

• Maximize data maintained in searchable, sortable codes: In most YMCA donor

databases, a significant amount of the donors’ information is stored in comment

text and call reports. To provide segmented donor stewardship, YMCAs need to

be able to organize and segment donors based on sortable codes. The best place

to begin is by connecting donors to specific cases for support/areas of interest.

These case codes allow for segmenting impact communications, customizing

broader communications like newsletters, preparing solicitors and guiding event

invitations, to name just a few examples.

• Make gathering donor stewardship information a constant, organization-wide

priority: Tactics that can be put in place include:

o Emphasize with solicitors the need to gather and report donor interests

(this will often mean simply ensuring they complete the interest/

designation section on pledge cards).

o Encourage front-line staff to immediately record (or even code, where

these staff have access to the donor database directly) any area of

interest expressed by a YMCA member or donor.

o Include a drop-down interest/allocation question in online giving forms.


o Include an interest areas question on membership forms and address

update forms.

• Develop an easy-to-use and brief database manual for staff: The manual should

describe simply:

o How to look up donor to identify key interests and giving history,

o What kinds of information should be entered into the database as

searchable codes and what kinds of information should be open text,

o How to add an interest code to a donor record, and

o How to generate or request segmented donor lists that identify donors

who share key characteristics.

• Explore making intuitive donor interest assessments: While the membership

and program registration database is usually maintained separately from donor

records, it can still provide insight into donor giving interests. For example, in

the absence of direct knowledge of donors’ interest in a particular area of the

YMCA’s work, anyone who is a graduate of the summer camp and/or has

children enrolled in the camp could assumed to have at least some interest in

camp as a philanthropic case for support. In fact, an even more sophisticated

approach would be able to isolate people who were both camp alumni and

parents, and then identify those individuals as priority donors for

cultivation/stewardship due to the strength of their connection to that program.

Case for Support

YMCAs have outstanding raw material – namely, impactful programs that address real

community needs – for creating cases for support that motivate donors. However,

YMCAs also tend to deploy their case strategies and materials in ways that do not fully

maximize their impact on fundraising performance.

Recommendations:

• Separate the philanthropic case for support from the desire to tell the whole

YMCA story: “In an effort to educate, we inundate.” Cygnus’ North American-

wide donor research and anecdotal evidence from YMCA solicitors both reveal

that the most compelling cases for support are specific cases that align with the

priorities of the organization and the interests of the donors. When trying to


“sell” a donor on the idea of giving, it is counterproductive to also try to ensure

that he or she understands the full scope of the YMCA’s work.

• Convince your colleagues of the value of designated giving: The vast majority of

revenue generated by YMCAs is earned – and therefore unrestricted – income.

In fact, annual giving rarely accounts for more than 10% of all revenue in most

associations. As a result, there is little risk to overall budget flexibility in

encouraging donors to make contributions to designated causes or priorities

within the YMCA. All evidence in the fundraising sector points to the fact that

DESIGNATED GIVING RAISES MORE MONEY. Don’t be afraid of taking a specific

case for support to your donors.

• Bundle cases for support to maintain flexibility: Grouping programs to provide

cases that appear specific (for example, student learning) but actually

incorporate multiple programs (for example, achievement gap program, school

prep and after-school programs) provides the kind of specific case for support

that has proven to inspire donors, but still allows the organization to maintain

funding flexibility while asking for a designated gift.

• Identify and define the community need: Being able to identify, describe and

quantify the community need addressed by particular YMCA programs helps

establish the framework for reporting on gift impact, which is a big part of good

donor stewardship. As a result, whenever possible, cases for support should

describe specifically the community need that inspired the creation of the

program.

• Feature donors more prominently in the case for support: Across the continent,

YMCAs rightfully take credit for their outstanding work in the community.

However, there is a tendency for YMCAs to leave donors out of the story when

telling that story in various communication vehicles. In all case-for-support

materials – indeed, in as many communication vehicles as possible – donors

should be present. This can mean changes as simple as adding small pieces of

language – like “because of our donors” – so donors understand where their

dollars are having an impact.


Gift Acknowledgement & Thank-You Process

Acknowledging donations is a process that often seems to fight against itself: there is a

need for speed, but also personalization; the requirement for administrative detail

combined with heartfelt gratitude. Focusing on the post-donation communication as a

three-stage process can provide donors what they want while creating a more

manageable set of tasks for the YMCA.

Recommendations:

• Treat the gift-response process as three distinct, but connected parts: By having

distinct gift acknowledgements, thank-you communications and donor-impact

communications, you can create efficiency where speed is important (immediate

gift acknowledgement), personalization where donors expect the YMCA to

acknowledge them as individuals (gift thank-you communication) and specific

and compelling details when the donors are looking to understand the impact of

their philanthropy (impact reports).

o Provide immediate gift acknowledgements:

▪ Across most YMCAs, the standard target turn-around for a gift

acknowledgement seems to be 48 hours between receiving the

gift and sending the acknowledgement. However, meeting that

timeline often proves difficult. The immediate gift

acknowledgement does not need to be artful – it must thank the

donor, confirm the gift amount and allocation, briefly describe the

plan for reporting on impact (such as, “We will send you an

update when the first group of students arrives at Camp Wanakita

in July.”) and it should identify a specific contact person for

follow-up and/or questions.

▪ A frequent delaying factor in prompt gift acknowledgement is

getting the signature on the letter. It is important for the letters

to be signed by key people in the organization (donors do notice),

so CEOs, branch execs, board chairs and board members should

be at the top of the list for signers. The specific signer should be

the person (or people) from this group most likely to adhere to

the timeline and different people can sign letters to expedite the

process if necessary.


o Thank-you communication:

▪ On a manageable timeline – 4-6 weeks after the gift – YMCAs can

provide a personal and heart-felt thank-you communication that

is distinct from the immediate gift acknowledgement. This is the

communication that speaks to the donor’s giving history, contains

personal notes and includes an invitation (if appropriate) to see

the gift in action.

o Impact communication:

▪ When the donor’s gift is actually put to use, the YMCA should

send the donor an update on the impact of the gift. This report

can take multiple formats, but should explicitly connect the

donor’s gift to the case for support supported by the donor. See

the Reporting and Demonstrating Impact section below for more

details on when and how to deliver this critical information.

• Acknowledge donors’ cumulative giving: One way to personalize donors’

interactions with the YMCA is to acknowledge, whenever feasible, donors’

cumulative giving. By Incorporating acknowledgements of cumulative giving into

select donor interactions like in-branch recognition, solicitation letters and

thank-you communications, it not only provides additional recognition to loyal

donors, it reminds the YMCA team of the true value of a donor beyond his or her

most recent contribution. Additionally, long-time donors should be considered

for invitations to donor recognition events even if their annual giving total does

not meet the normal threshold for invitation – treating donors as major donors

often leads them to begin acting like major donors.

o One challenge in implementing cumulative recognition is that YMCA

donor databases usually go back no more than 10 or 15 years. One way

to address the lack of older records is to ask long-time donors to self-

report their giving beyond the period of reliable information. If they

exaggerate, all they have done is signal that they think of themselves as

generous donors. That’s a sign to the YMCA that those donors should be

stewarded and solicited as such.


First-time and Second-time Donor Renewals

Donor attrition rates at YMCAs are high. Collectively across the YMCAs in the Pilot

Project, for example, almost 80% of all new external donors acquired in 2015 did not

renew their annual campaign contributions in 2016. Directing stewardship activities to

new donors will help secure the first renewal gift and open the door to dramatically

improved retention rates.

Recommendations:

• Test a variety of first-time donor interventions designed to encourage a second

gift: Strategies to secure the elusive second gift could include:

o Ensuring new donors receive a thank-you phone call specifically

welcoming them as a first-time donor, asking (if the YMCA does not

already have it on record) for their main areas of interest and inviting

them to visit the applicable YMCA program site to see their gift in action.

o Including first-time donors in donor recognition events even if the value

of their gift does not reach the normal threshold for inclusion.

o Offering a gift match to first-time donors if they make a second gift.

While these approaches will likely improve retention, they should all supplement

the tactics described in the Core Plan – namely, knowing the donor’s area of

interest and reporting back specifically on the impact of the gift on that area of

the YMCA’s program.

Increasing Gift Value

The recommendations in this section will supplement the activities of the Core Plan in

helping to secure progressively larger gifts.

Recommendations:

• Help solicitors develop the confidence to ask for larger gifts: The critical first

step to raising more money from existing donors is preparing volunteer and staff

solicitors well enough that they have the confidence to ask for larger gifts. This

means that in training and in preparation, the YMCA should:


o Make the point that asking someone for a larger gift is a compliment –

and the solicitors can express it that way. A larger ask says, “We think you

are generous and successful enough financially to be able to give more.”

o Use the findings from the 2015 Cygnus survey of YMCA supporters to

show solicitors that donors themselves have told us that they have more

money to give and that they are willing to give it the YMCA under the

right circumstances. Then back that data up with the early results from

the Pilot Project that show donors actually giving more.

o Provide solicitors with the kind of information on individual donors that

will give them the confidence required to ask for a bigger gift. For

example, knowing that a donor is interested in a particular case for

support will allow the campaigner to create a pitch based around

something he/she already knows will be interesting to the donor.

o The YMCA culture is comfortable talking about paying for memberships

on a monthly basis (ie: a $660 annual membership is just $55 a month or

less than $2 a day). Solicitors should feel encouraged to take that

approach with donors. A solicitor may think asking a donor to increase a

$110 gift to $220 is huge jump, but if the increase is instead a request for

$9 a month, the ask can feel less intimidating. This encouragement of

recurring/perpetual gifts can also help with donor retention.

• Test the power of matching gifts to inspire greater generosity: Matching gifts

have proven in study after study to be consistently capable of motivating

increased generosity among donors. Providing matching funds for any donor

who, for example, doubles his or her most recent gift serves several purposes.

First, it’s motivating to the donor. Second, it gives the solicitor an easy reason to

ask for a significant gift increase since the terms of the match are asking people

double their gifts. Third, it provides a specific and powerful case to take to, for

example, board donors or large external donors who would be in a position to

make the matching funds available.

• Keep in mind that planned giving is another way to allow a donor to be more

generous to the YMCA: Remember that planned giving is a form of major giving

and volunteers and staff solicitors should be trained to mention the option of

planned giving to donors who are loyal supporters but express regret at not

being able to make larger gifts on an annual basis.


• Take a hard look at recognition structures that may be unintentionally holding

donors in place instead of inspiring them to give more generously: There is

widespread agreement among the YMCAs participating in the Pilot Project that

the typical recognition structure – seen most prominently with the Chair’s Round

Table – is “priced” too low and is, therefore, dragging some gift values down.

The most frequent threshold is $1,000 and that has usually been in place for a

decade or more, meaning that the impact of a CRT gift has been eroding since

the pricing was first established. There is merit in beginning a discussion around

reclassifying recognition level values.

Additionally, donors motivated by recognition or benefits are notoriously

difficult to escalate in gift value because they require ever-increasing benefits to

move up (think of PBS pledge breaks). The solution is to focus solicitors on gift

impact instead of on recognition or society membership.

• Branch executive directors should be in regular, non-solicitation contact with

key donors: Many branch/center execs already make the time to reach out to

their key donors simply to maintain strong relationships. For those who do not

already have a plan for that kind donor stewardship, we recommend starting

with a “top 12” initiative in which the branch exec identifies 12 donors – the

equivalent of one a month – and follows up with that donor at least once a year

to offer a site visit, facility tour, lunch meeting, coffee meeting or other

opportunity just to talk about the YMCA, its accomplishments and plans and to

learn more about the donor’s areas of interest.

• Ensure that YMCA staff donors are being properly stewarded to inspire them to

give more generously: YMCA staff are important donors. There is, however, a

fairly common sense among staff donors that they are not being solicited and

stewarded with the same care as other donors. Staff donors are worth as much

effort as any other YMCA supporter. In fact, staff – particularly long-serving staff

– will invest thousands of philanthropic dollars in the YMCA over their careers

and present strong possibilities for planned giving. Be sure that these important

donors are not excluded from regular donor communication and stewardship

strategies.


Reporting and Demonstrating Impact The lifeblood of great cases for support and great reports on gift impact is the

compelling impact story, something the YMCA excels at generating. While every YMCA

produces a number of high-quality impact stories every year, the process of developing

and using these stories can always improve.

Recommendations:

• Offer donors the experience of seeing their gifts in action: As a donor, seeing

your gift in action is hugely motivating, but this is a privilege usually reserved

only for the highest level of contributors. We recommend conducting a test that

offers these invitations to a broader selection of donors – the larger the group

the better, but select a manageable number of donors. In prioritizing your

selections, go with long-term donors, donors who have moved up in gift value on

their own, and/or donors for whom you know a specific area of interest.

• Organize donor events that focus on impact and impact only: Multiple YMCAs

have had success with events that focus solely on the impact of donors (and

often volunteers as well). These events offer testimonials, impact speeches and

other opportunities for donors to connect with the people influenced by

philanthropy at the YMCA. It is important that these events do not try to raise

money or enlist new members. In addition, these events offer a great

opportunity to record the speeches, conduct the interviews and take the

photographs that can serve as strong resources for the development of letters,

newsletters, web copy and other materials that communicate gift impact.

• The YMCA should provide donors with a personalized annual communication

describing the impact of philanthropy at the YMCA: This is particularly

important given the confusion some supporters can have about the use of

membership dollars versus donations within the YMCA. The requirements of this

communication are simple:

o It must be personalized – a personally addressed letter or an email that

contains the person’s name in the body of the text – and come from a

specific individual, not just an organizational email address.

o It must have one purpose only – discussing the impact of philanthropy.

o It must be brief – ideally a single page or digital equivalent.

o It must come from a high-profile individual – the CEO, branch exec or

board chair would be ideal.


• Produce a publication that collects and reproduces thank-you notes: The YMCA

of San Diego County produces a donor thank-you book that contains images of

dozens of handwritten thank-you notes from program participants and

beneficiaries (most of them children). That’s all the publication is. This is a great

way to connect donors with the impact of their philanthropy.

• Utilize video to provide compelling impact stories across a variety of media:

Well-produced, but inexpensive video testimonials can provide excellent content

for your website, social media, e-newsletters, events and even in-facility video

screens. This kind of cross-platform utility makes video resources extremely

valuable. The key concepts will be recording the video in a location connected to

the impact of the story, ensuring the interviewer knows how to guide the

interview subject in providing quality answers, ensuring that the influence of

donors is part of the story and preparing videos so they can be used in situations

where the audio track is audible and where it is not (like in a facility lobby). One

of the Pilot Project resources is a guide to developing these kinds of videos.

• Continue to invest effort in measuring “outcomes” not just “outputs”: To

varying degrees, every YMCA in the Pilot Project is aware of the difference

between simply counting program participants (the program “output”) and

measuring the impact that the program has on those participants (the program

“outcome”). The former is simple, the latter is often complex and challenging.

However, “outcome” measurements help create outstanding cases for support,

motivate donors and make for exceptionally strong stewardship/impact

communications. We encourage you to continue to do the hard work of

measuring outcomes because it will pay off in enhanced donor generosity.

• Work to capture more long-term stories of YMCA impact: In many cases, the

real benefit of participating in a YMCA program cannot be measured until years

or even decades have passed as, for example, at-risk children go to college or

people with chronic diseases live long and healthier lives. As part of your

YMCA’s marketing efforts – from program guides to the website – consider

asking YMCA program alumni to “Tell Us Your Y Story.” The goal would be to

drive people to a webpage devoted to collecting basic stories on how a YMCA

program improved their lives and altered their trajectories. These would be

quick story summaries that would help the YMCA identify people who might be

willing to discuss the impact of the YMCA in more detail.


• Invest in a centralized resource for cataloging and developing impact stories:

Capturing, creating and distributing impact stories often gets pushed off the to-

do lists of multitasking YMCA staff. This problem can be solved by contracting

with a part-time communications person who has writing and basic video

production skills. This person can collect story ideas from YMCA staff, identify

the best story ideas, speak with the people involved, take photos, shoot videos

and write copy. This would build on the practice that many branches and

associations have of regularly collecting impact story ideas in staff meetings. Any

staff with impact story ideas would simply notify this member of the team who

would schedule a visit to conduct an interview and shoot photos and/or video.

Volunteers / Volunteer Training

While different YMCAs deploy their fundraising volunteers in different ways, every

YMCA depends on volunteers for important parts of its fundraising success. Ensuring

that fundraising volunteers are as well prepared and supported as possible not only

makes them more effective, but makes them more likely to stay engaged (reducing

volunteer turnover), to recruit new volunteers and to be prepared to do more (such as

follow through with the recommendations of this report) on behalf of the YMCA. The

early results of the Pilot Project also indicate that volunteers who are prepared better

and produce more in terms of fundraising results also have a more satisfying volunteer

experience.

Recommendations:

• Work with volunteers to perfect their case-related YMCA stories: For each of

your selected cases for support, every volunteer (and staff) campaigner should

have impact stories they can tell with passion. This can be a personal story or

the retelling of a story of someone else who has been affected by the program.

Another way to give these solicitors a story is to ensure they have the

opportunity to tour the programs and meet the participants – the story of the

tour can then be the solicitor’s story.

• Develop and implement a strategy designed to retain donors when the

volunteer who solicited them leaves: This strategy begins by training volunteers

to remember that responsible fundraisers have an obligation to ensure the

donor relationship includes both the solicitor and the organization. This means:


o The volunteer will help build the YMCA-donor relationship by ensuring

the YMCA has the donor’s preferred case and contact information,

inviting the donor to events and tours, encouraging the donor to become

a facility member, providing gift impact information and arranging

introductions to other YMCA volunteers and staff.

o The YMCA will work to identify campaigners who are considering leaving

and designate another campaigner to begin building relationships with

the affected donors, often by partnering on solicitations or by taking on

an active stewardship role by inviting the donors in question to events or

site visits.

o The YMCA will communicate with affected donors when their solicitor

leaves, using clear and honest language that describes the situation and

the YMCA’s desire to maintain the relationship with the donor. This

communication would indicate that a new solicitor (with name provided)

will be connecting with each donor at the appropriate time.

• Give new solicitors time to develop into high-quality campaigners: Many

volunteer solicitors require time to become comfortable in their role. Be clear

with them during recruitment that this may be the case. Consensus throughout

our Pilot Group conversations was that many new recruits need three years to

become comfortable with solicitation methods, with the case for support and

with building the confidence to be a truly effective fundraiser.

• Involve volunteers in more than just the asks for gifts: A number of YMCAs are

using volunteer committees to do non-ask touches with donors – thank-you

calls, thank-you notes, issuing personal invitations to do program tours and other

types of stewardship touches. These kinds of experiences can be excellent ways

for new volunteers to become exposed to the fundraising process without

having to take part in potentially stressful solicitations. It also provides extra

support to the donor stewardship process.


Online Giving

In its relatively brief history, online giving has not typically been set up to maximize

donor retention or generosity. Instead, it tends to emphasize securing gifts quickly and

efficiently. The YMCA has the opportunity to make some relatively minor modifications

to its online giving resources in order to change that paradigm.

Recommendation:

• Ensure that the online giving page contains case-for-support information and is

not simply a transaction utility: By not assuming that anyone who clicks

“Donate Now” has already decided exactly how much to give, your YMCA can

provide the kind of information that may inspire potential donors to make larger

gifts. Some YMCAs embed micro-cases for support and dollar amounts right on

the giving form, showing that $51 will teach a child to swim, $210 will buy 30

soccer balls and $790 will send five children to summer sports camp. These

different kinds of impact statements and dollar levels allow donors to be inspired

to give more, and when a donor selects one of those options, it also provides

insight into the kind of case for support they appreciate.

Communications:

When the YMCA communicates with its broader audiences such as members and the

general public, it is also, of course, communicating with a significant number of donors

and potential donors. The broad-based marketing and communications efforts of the

organization, therefore, can influence donor stewardship.

Recommendations:

• Separate the desire to tell the full story of the YMCA from the desire to convey

a good fundraising case for support: Everyone involved with the Y movement

has had the experience of meeting people – often members, volunteers and

even staff – who don’t know all that the YMCA does. There is a natural desire to

try to fill this gap with comprehensive information. Keep in mind that this is the

job of communications and marketing. It is not the job of fundraisers.

Fundraisers benefit from focus in making the case for support.


• Keep in-branch and in-center displays fresh: We all have the experience of

realizing that we no longer see the crack in the wall at home. For many

members of the YMCA family, they visit facilities so frequently that every part of

the facility eventually becomes background, including the displays about gift

impact or the posters about the new case for support. Keep rotating, refreshing

or even just relocating these important communication vehicles so frequent

visitors will keep noticing them.

Staff as Fundraisers

Perhaps more than any other prominent charitable organization, YMCA staff who are

not hired to be fundraisers serve in a variety of fundraising capacities. Many staff are

also, of course, donors, so YMCAs need to be aware of the unique position these staff

occupy in the donor stewardship relationship.

Recommendations:

• Every member of the YMCA staff team can support fundraising effectively even

while they are not asking for gifts: All staff can support successful fundraising

through a variety of stewardship-related activities:

o Building relationships and connections with members and donors,

o Ensuring member/donor information gets into the donor database,

particularly any expressed interest in a case for support area,

o Developing and being prepared to provide an excellent answer to the

question, “Why should I give to the YMCA?”

o Being prepared to connect with donors in a stewardship capacity when

the volunteer who solicited those supporters leaves,

o Understanding and being able to explain the difference to the YMCA

between membership fees and donations, and

o Recommending to the fund development staff/team if there is a donor

who seems particularly open to moving up significantly in terms of gift

value based either on direct feedback from the donor and/or indications

of a change in philanthropic intention or gift capacity.


• Remind staff of the importance of fundraising results, even beyond the

financial implications: Fundraising is an integral part of the YMCA culture.

Whether they are active solicitors or not, all staff should be invested in their

YMCA’s fundraising results because one of the ways the YMCA can evaluate its

impact on the community is indirectly through the community’s responsiveness

to the YMCA’s fundraising efforts. A strong community impact should translate

into more philanthropic dollars, so good fundraising results are a reflection of

the quality of work taking place in the after-school program, the summer camp,

the seniors’ program, in the pool and in every other location of a YMCA program.

• Provide more detailed fundraising goals than simple dollars-raised targets: The

Pilot Group YMCAs feature a variety of strategies in setting fundraising goals for

staff. By far the most common measure for staff fundraising goals, however, is

dollars raised. Providing more specific and targeted goals allows more staff to

experience measurable fundraising success, puts attention on the many kinds of

activity and giving required to truly sustain a YMCA and directs staff to intervene

at the key leverage points that can have the most significant impact on long-

term fundraising success. These sub-goals should include percentage of new

donors retained, number of donors moved up in gift value, average percentage

of gift increase among returning donors, number of recurring/perpetual

commitments secured, number of volunteers recruited and number of

volunteers retained.

• Provide new, reluctant or struggling staff fundraisers with a buddy system to

assist in their development: Staff who are new to fundraising should have

access to a buddy system in which a professional fundraiser or experienced and

successful staff fundraiser partners with the newer staff on a few solicitations to

help boost the new fundraiser’s confidence and help him or her model successful

tactics.

Documents

YMCA Pilot Project Annual Campaign Recommendations Reportbloqs.s3.amazonaws.com/50-5384/202485_YMCAPilotProject... · 2017-11-28 · Annual Campaign Recommendations – November 2017