Has The Annual Report Become A Shrine To Transactions?

The fall is a great time of year, it's back to school, it's back to work from summer vacations, it's the start of annual fund season, football and it is the time of year the publication houses are excited about printing millions of annual reports. A google search reveals 768,000,000 results for annual reports less than %4 of that number for customized donor experiences.

What I find remarkable about this habit of producing annual reports is I can't quite tell if we do it because of the impact or because it is exactly what we have always done. If the AFP Fundraising Effectiveness (Ineffectiveness Really) is correct we are mere creatures of habit.

In many ways the annual report is our industries shrine to honoring the transaction. Our obsession with tying success in fundraising to simple measures around transactions has produced the lowest donor retention numbers our industry has ever seen. And please remember the annual report that describes how awesome the organization is is not at all about our most valued customers.

I ask you to consider if something else is at all possible? Do individuals wish to be funding a deficit? Or do they desire making a difference? Which would you value?

Might it be possible that the annual fund is actually an opportunity for people to become stewards of an

institution? What would your communications strategy look like if you were designing an opportunity for donors to have a sense of purpose and feel a level of responsibility in ensuring that the organization's mission could be maximized. Wouldn't that be more powerful than conversations such as: “doesn't really matter what you give as long as you participate.” That statement diminishes the organization, its purpose and trivializes individual investment and commitment.

I hope that you will consider that creating an opportunity with real purpose is what your donors and prospects desire. Here is a quick test to evaluate where your organization is:  write down on a sheet of paper the current average length of time your donors stay on the books, compare that with what that number was five years ago and then compare it to the same number of decade ago. If you don't know those three numbers it's highly possible that your organization has been building and maintaining a fundraising model that honors transactions.

It is remarkable that in an industry that suggests real success is about the quality of relationships that not a single national Association recognizes organizations that have had the longest relationships with financial supporters. There is also no recognition for those organizations that have dramatically improved the length of time they sustain their most important relationships. We do however award organizations that have turned their annual reports into beautiful works of art. Artfully honoring transactions appears to be valued.

Might it be time to honor something other than financial transactions? What does the data on your donors suggest, continuing 5 decades of similar strategy or creating something else? 

If you are interested in reviewing online tutorials on new ways to approach your Annual Fund click here

AF Strategy Habit Or Data Driven?

40 years ago this month Art Garfunkel sang this tune “All I Know”. In those four decades all we have seemed to know in the nonprofit sector is to continue doing the same things and measuring things the same as well.  Almost a decade ago the concept of donor centric fundraising hit the street and today I can't find where that model has led to significant increases in donor retention. The reason is really quite simple. Saying the words donor centric but not creating any new metrics or implementing new strategy has just become a catchy phrase for the status quo. 

As you prepare for this year's annual fund initiative I'm sure you're acutely aware that the single activity that will generate the majority of your success in the current fiscal year will be related to your organization's ability to renew your donors from last year.  The donor centric model conversation never seemed to advance anything that changed the nature of the questions regarding this highly critical fact.

Peter Drucker made a wonderful statement decades ago that every business model reaches a point of

diminishing return. To use the title of Art Garfunkel's song, “all I know” is the way we've measured and designed our fundraising is pretty much over. Best Practice, as we've known it, is of little value, look at national statistics on sustaining donor relationships. The rock bands of yesterday don't fill the seats based on their latest hit, they are living off of what use to be. How many bands do you see able to do that for 5 decades? It may work in music despite their venues get smaller. Is your operation a breath of fresh air and original or are you

going through the same old motions. Are you and Mick Jagger trying to figure out how to keep living off Jumpin Jack Flash?

Today's donors require significantly different customer experiences and this new thinking requires a

completely new dashboard and strategy. I had the privilege in the last month of being part of two board retreats. What was exciting for me was seeing that the data in the new dashboards were compelling from a measurement perspective and logical when reviewing the organizations track record over a decade. Both boards could quickly see that the logic of the past four decades was simply no longer able to generate the kind of roi needed in today's development effort. One example: we did an exercise on naming a single invoice that could be paid by a participation number. zero

I would love the opportunity to discuss how your organization can dramatically benefit from shifting from decades of similar metrics to a new and dynamic dashboard that will accelerate your fundraising success. Email

If you are interested in an online tutorial of new annual fund strategies that can accelerate your operational cash flow click here.