How to get more from the donors you have

A common fundraising strategy is to keep getting more and more new donors, without building stronger relationship with the donors you already have.

That is a quick path to failure.

You should be building your relationships with the donors you have — maximizing what they have to offer. When you do that, your acquisition efforts will lead to growth. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself in a constant state of very expensive churn.

Michael Rosen’s blog offers some good ways to get the balance right, at 6 Ways to Raise More Money without New Donors:

1. Ask for More.
   
2. Second Gift Appeal.
   
3. Recruit Monthly Donors.
   
4. Get a Challenge Grant.
   
5. Retain Donors.
   
6. Ask for Planned Gifts.
   

All these things fall under two of the three prongs of effective fundraising:

• Keep: retain the donors you already have
  
• Lift: encourage your donors to give more, either by giving more often or giving higher amounts
  

(The first prong is Win: acquire new donors.)

That’s how you succeed at fundraising.