Find Hidden Gems in Your Donor Database: Interview with Steven Shattuck

Who’s hiding in your donor database? In this video interview with Steven Shattuck, Bloomerang’s Chief Engagement Officer, you’ll discover how to find all those hidden gems in your donor database. Here’s what to look for…

The full interview transcript (with minor edits for clarity) appears below.

Finding Diamond-in-the-Rough Donor Prospects

AE:   Hi, I’m Amy Eisenstein, and I’m thrilled to have Steven Shattuck with me here today. My friend and colleague from Bloomerang, he’s the Chief Engagement Officer at Bloomerang. Today, we’re going to talk about diamond-in-the-rough prospects. So, welcome, Steven.

SS:   Yeah, thanks for having me.

AE:   What are diamond-in-the-rough prospects? What do we mean by that?

SS:   I think they’re people in your database that you should be paying more attention to and maybe that need a little bit more stewarding, or that you’ve been doing a great job stewarding but aren’t quite giving at capacity. Maybe we can get some more money from them.

AE:   Great. How do we find them?

SS:   Well, there’s lot of different data segments, right?

I always start with first-time donors because, to me, they’re still prospects. Even though they’ve given, they’ve only given once, so I don’t think we should be throwing a party for ourselves necessarily, especially when you look at the average donor attrition rates for first-time donors are high 20s, low 30s, so we lose a lot of them.

I recommend people pay special attention to the first-time donors so that they become multiple-year donors and then maybe can get on major gifts and bequest tracks over the years.

Paying Special Attention to First-Time Donors

AE:   When you say “pay special attention to [first-time donors],” what do we mean by that?

SS:   I think fundraisers fail to be curious about new donors, specifically, why are they giving?

To me, that’s something that I would naturally ask any time someone donated to my organization if we didn’t know them. What is their reason?

You could find out that maybe they had a grandmother who died of Alzheimer’s, or maybe they had a daughter who went through the program or something like that. Finding out those little stories, I think, can guide your efforts as you communicate to them throughout the course of the relationship.

AE:   Yeah, and I know that it’s time-consuming, but that just means picking up the phone, sending an email.

SS:   And some of it can even be automated. I’ve seen online donation sort of things where you make an online donation, then there’s an automatic survey that’s given to them. It’s simple…

• Why did you give?
• Why are you passionate about clean water, animal welfare, whatever it is?

You can get those little tidbits of information, and suddenly base the whole communications track around what you learned from that donor.

AE:   Oh, that’s great. I didn’t think of automation, but absolutely.

SS:   It shouldn’t take the place of the things you mentioned. Nothing is going to replace a phone call or a one-on-one meeting, but you can at least get the conversation started that way.

Clues that Lead to Hidden Gems in Your Database

AE:   Okay, let’s move beyond first-time donors. Let’s say you do have some donors, maybe lower-level donors, people you don’t know in your database or you haven’t thought about. How do you find them? How do they stand out? What are we looking for?

SS:   There’s lots of different data points. Monthly donors is another big one. It’s sort of separate from the gift amount.

For example, a $5-a-month monthly donor, I think, in a lot of ways, is more significant than someone who gives maybe $50 a year. But we see that gift amount, and we think, “Oh, $5, it’s not that much.” But they also gave us a credit card that they trust us with charging every single month or withdrawing from the checking account.

We can forecast that revenue. To me, and there’s a lot of research that backs this up — something like they’re seven times more likely to leave a bequest, regardless of the gift amount that is the monthly transaction. So pay attention to those people.

And monthly donors, they don’t get treated very well typically. They get this perfunctory, automatic message every month. Here’s your receipt, here’s your year-end statement. So, telling those donors what the story of their impact of the gift is, and working towards maybe upgrading them or getting a 13th gift that is a one-off gift, that’s a really nice compounding signal.

But beyond monthly donors, it’s getting those other little factors — like if they donate and they volunteer, or if they donate and they fundraise for you, or whether they donate and they spread the word about you somehow on social media. Looking for little multiple engagement signals is way more significant than the actual gift amount or maybe even how often they give throughout the year.

How to Handle the Lapsed Donors You Discover

AE:   Let’s talk about lapsed donors and how organizations know when to release them from the mailing list. What should organizations be doing with their lapsed donors?

SS:   Yeah, it’s hard. I think one quick answer to that is don’t call them lapsed donors to their face, right?

They may not think that they are lapsed, even though you think they’re lapsed. It’s kind of like major gift fundraising. I don’t have to tell you, but a major gift to you is not the same as what it is to the donor.

AE:   That’s true.

SS:   I think the same kind of essence is there. I think you have to look at what happened before the lapse. Did they give once and lapse? That’s a different strategy than did they give for 15 years in a row and then lapse, right?

AE:   Yes, totally different.

SS:   That’s a way different thing that you want to do with that. Maybe they moved, and you lost touch with them. Maybe they passed away. There are things we can do to cleanse our data, to maybe do NCOA once a year or other databases–

AE:   What’s an NCOA, just in case people don’t know?

SS:   That’ll check their mailing address versus the U.S. Postal Service database. If they move, they may still really like you, but they moved away, and you lost touch. But yeah, I think some common sense things come into play.

If they gave $5 during some online day of giving, or if it was a peer-to-peer campaign or maybe a memorial gift, you may have to work harder with those lapsed donors to kind of reintroduce yourself. They may have been giving on behalf of someone.

But if someone was loyally giving to you for a long time and then stopped, I wouldn’t get rid of that person out of the database just because it’s been a couple of years. I would maybe reach out to them, maybe send them a survey. Did we do something wrong? A donor satisfaction survey.

AE:   Well, if somebody’s been giving for 10 or 15 years and then stops, you better pick up the phone, right?

SS:   Absolutely.

AE:   It’s a question of what reports are you running to identify those people and how are you flagging them in the system.

SS:   Exactly. But even if you do that, come at it with kind of approaching it with a sense of gratitude for the past giving, rather than going, “Hey, what’s going on? You haven’t given.” “We miss you” is kind of in-between, but it still kind of puts the blame on the donor, rather than maybe we messed something up.

Constituency Indicators to Keep an Eye On

AE:   What are some other things that people should be looking for, constituency indicators that development directors can be looking for?

SS:   I think one thing is, if you’re a hyper-local organization, and you suddenly get a donation from way out of town, that may tell you that maybe you have a former service recipient that has gained capacity and wants to give back to you. I’d pick up the phone and call that person for sure.

There was an interesting study from the Lilly School of Philanthropy, I believe, that found that the surviving children of deceased long-time donors are great prospects, which makes sense because they were probably in the household, and I’m sure that passion passed on to them, for sure.

The other thing is, Amy, if someone reaches out to you without you prompting them and tells you that they are moving and they have a change of address, or that they’re getting ready to change their credit card, circle that person because they didn’t have to do that.

AE:   Star, circle, highlight.

SS:   Absolutely. I mean, you just saved all the money on the data services, but they want to keep in touch with you. They didn’t have to do that. They want to be getting your information. They want to maybe continue their monthly gift or whatever it is. Circle that person, for sure.

Final Thoughts from Steven

AE:   Any parting thoughts? Any key takeaways we can leave our viewers with?

SS:   Yeah, I would concentrate most on those first-time donors and the monthly donors.

Common sense comes into play if you have a high gift volume, but I would recommend maybe not caring so much about the gift amount, at least to start off the relationship because that may not be necessarily a marker of their generosity or passion for you, maybe just their capacity.

AE:   Right. So, it’s just about reaching out to those first-time donors with a special email, special handwritten note, phone call, whatever you can do to really reach out and touch them and ensure they make that second gift.

SS:   Yeah, absolutely. And find out why they gave. Because that’s going to guide your conversations going forward.

AE:   Perfect. Asking them what motivated them to give in the first place. Great, excellent. Thanks so much for being here.

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Steven and I would love to hear your thoughts. What sort of hidden gems have you found in your donor database? Tell us about them in the comments.