Professor Adrian Sargeant of The Philanthropy Centre, talks about Donor Lifetime Value – an important measurement that can vastly improve your fundraising if you use it well… or dig you into a very deep hole if you use it poorly!
Learn what P&O Cruises and Domino’s Pizza learned and put to work in their marketing.
This may surprise you!
Please share what you’ve experienced working with Donor Lifetime Value by leaving your reply below. We’d love to learn from your experience.
Author
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Jeff Brooks is a Fundraisingologist at Moceanic. He has more than 30 years of experience in fundraising, and has worked as a writer and creative director on behalf of top nonprofits around the world, including CARE, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Feeding America, and many others.
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Thank you once again for meaningful guidance and motivation for doing the right things right.
What are the three questions?
The questions are:
1 I am a committed [organization] donor.
2 I feel a sense of loyalty to [organization].
3 [organization] is my favorite charitable organization.
More information on it here:
https://www.slideshare.net/kschulman14/donor-voice-donor-commitment-study2011-executive-summarydocx
I am going to share this video with all the upper management folks who scream ROI as if it is the be-all and end-all of what our direct mail program is all about and is the only ‘legitimate’ measure.
I keep trying to reiterate, we are a PIPE LINE to LTV. For us, 67% of our major donors began with a gift to direct mail. Does anyone remember the story of Bloomberg’s first gift to Johns Hopkins of $5?
He’s reported to have wanted to see how he would be treated. And now he has Hopkins buildings named after him because he is a major donor. I have to force other staffers to adopt LTV as a measure of success. Some corporations are already looking at customers through that lens. I am delighted with your video as it is a wonderful primer I can use to educate others.
Best of luck. ROI is a useful metric, but as you note, if that’s all you pay attention to, you will hamstring your program.