Want to lose money? Put a lot of space between fundraising asks

There’s a lot of bad advice out there about how soon you should ask a donor for their next gift. Especially on LinkedIn, where it seems you don’t really need actual knowledge to pontificate about such things.

So I was glad to see some useful and trustworthy information on LinkedIn recently, in Dennis Hoffman’s feed.

Dennis looked at the number of days after an initial gift that a second ask went out.

Guess what?

Sooner is better.

Here are some findings you should pay attention to:

• Average gift starts declining when follow-up drifts past about 22 days.
• Response rate falls gradually through day 30.
• ROI collapses after day 32. ​

Think about what this tells us. If you wait more than three weeks before your next ask, it’s starting to cost you. First in falling average gift, then in dropping response rates. And if you wait a month (32 days) — “collapse.”

My own experience with timing accords with this. The less time passes between asks, the better you do. And it’s not at the cost of retention rates.

A little different from the common wisdom that you should give donors a “rest” from giving. And that rest is often well beyond one month. It’s often 60 days, 90 days, or more.

When you look at response rates, you’ll find that the group with the highest response rate are those who have given most recently.

If you are worried that giving to your organization is something donors don’t really like to do … and if you ask again too soon, they’ll really get ticked and cross you off their list … well, that’s not what it’s like.

Giving feels good. And giving leads to more giving.

Waiting just means they forget. Or their interest cools.

Whatever the cause, deciding for donors that they won’t give is bad for results.