Evidence Based Fundraising

Donors want to know their money is accomplishing something

A local Crime Stoppers publicizes crimes, solicits tips from citizens, and pays rewards for tips that lead to convictions. The board was having trouble raising money for rewards. In fact, funds were so low the board was reluctant to publicize crimes and offer rewards because they did not have the reward money. Then they realized that they had two audiences. One audience was the target of their mission, individuals who have information about crimes. The second audience was their donors. The first group wouldn''t act without reward, while the second group wouldn''t fund the reward without evidence, i.e. learning that Crime Stoppers help solve crimes.

Donors wanted to know their money was accomplishing something.

After understanding the two types of audiences or customers, the board concentrated on publicity ? not fund-raising publicity ? but rather crime-solving publicity to build evidence of success. Crimes were publicized, tips solicited, crimes solved, and rewards paid out ? all with aggressive publicity. The result was that donors became confident that Crime Stoppers was delivering on its mission and gave more money.

Fund raising changed from "Will you donate so we can offer rewards?" to "As you know, we just paid out a big reward, would you like to help cover it?" The whole business plan changed because Crime Stoppers better understood the motivation of the donor-audience. This group wanted to see evidence/results of their donations. By switching to the evidence based solicitation the effect on fundraising was enormous.

WHO IS THE CUSTOMER/AUDIENCE CAN BE COMPLEX

In the example Crime Stoppers used a marketing strategy familiar to any parent of a pre-teen. Two audiences, parents and pre-teens: by playing to one audience they got funding from the other. Thus the Hanna Montana title wave swept across America. Check out Branding For Non-Profits


In most for-profit organizations deciding who the customers are is fairly simple: Customers are those who receive the goods or services and give you money.

Non-for-profit organizations can be much more complex. Money often comes from donors, but services are provided to others. Which group are customers? The answer is, both.

Donors provide money, but they expect a service in exchange.

What services does the organization give donors? Evidence is the service. You provide donors with evidence of effective and efficient results, even though the results themselves are directed at others. For example: A donor gives you money, you provide medical treatment for the dispossessed. Then you provide evidence as accountability of the service, thus you provide donors good use for their money.

Douglas Molitor is communications professional, with over 20 years experience in messaging, positioning and branding. Check out his tips on branding.