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Weekly UpdatesCRS began querying donors about the possibility of consolidation in June 2005. The objective was to find out if donors were dedicated to giving monthly to particular programs, or to CRS in general, said Simmons. The nonprofit had already scaled back the number of invitation appeals for each of the monthly giving programs from two per year to one, and eventually to none. The entire consolidation process took about 18 months from start to finish.
One of the more surprising findings, said Simmons, was that many donors didn't even know what monthly program they were in; they simply wanted to support CRS--one example of why Simmons felt it was important to reach out to donors before moving ahead with any changes. "We didn't go into it lightly. We could really upset people, and we didn't want to make an assumption," said Simmons, who noted that donors were informed of the consolidation in their year-end statement mailed in December.
"Donors are always telling us how important it is to be an efficient program," said Simmons, who said that donors in several of the programs kept up the amount of their annual contributions even after the consolidation. Simmons partly attributed this to one of the program's biggest selling points of moving donors from check payment to the more efficient EFT.
"Those who agree to become monthly givers to CRS know they'll be getting limited mailings," Simmons said of another selling point. But while they may get "a restricted diet" of how many appeals they receive, Simmons said donors also know to expect to be included in emergency appeals, or add-gives. "Monthly givers give tremendously for emergencies," she said. "A monthly giving program is the most efficient way of gathering life-saving funds."
After more than a decade, "Footsteps" now boasts 15,000 donors while the six-year-old "Lifeline" program has approximately 1,500 donors. CRS bases a donor's gift on giving history, with an average monthly contribution between $25 and $45. Combined revenue for both programs makes up about 7 percent of the direct response revenue for CRS, and by the end of FY06 on September 30 the programs are expected to generate $6.7 million.
Upcoming for 2007, Simmons said the fundraising team at CRS will spend more time recruiting for "Footsteps in Faith." Historically, the organization sends one invite for the sustainer program, but two or three are expected for next year. There are plans to continue the push to get donors away from checks and into EFT, as well as to reach out to lapsed donors, with hopes of getting the monthly programs up to 10 percent of the organization's direct response revenue base.
Testing, one, two
In contrast to the traditional sustainer program, there's also requesting a monthly gift to benefit a specific objective or purpose, explained Scott Wood, director of annual giving for the National law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) in Washington, D.C. He suggested tying a monthly giving program to a specific goal or mission. For the NLEOMF, that means a program specially-designed to raise money for a museum.
The average gift to the NLEOMF ranges from $15 to $20, said Wood. Like most, the fund's monthly giving program targets donors who give multiple times a year, and those donors at certain giving levels.
NLEOMF, said Wood, decided to get more specific, and is testing two monthly giving program offers against its standard $8 per month program, including one for a museum that it hopes to break ground on next year and open by 2009. The capital campaign portion--which the museum launched about three years ago by initiating donors, and now has gone public--has raised $25 million of its $80 million goal. Wood said NLEOMF is expecting to roll out a museum-specific monthly giving program shortly.
NLEOMF also is testing its standard control request of $8 per month to support the memorial using only credit cards or EFT against the same offer with the option of monthly statements.
The museum-specific monthly program being tested asks donors for $27 a month over three years. Donors would have their names included in the "Thin Blue Line," which are names engraved in blue within the inner glass railing along the glass bridge of the museum's atrium. This program will begin through EFT, which means it will build more slowly, Wood said, but also will realize increased cost savings since the administration of the program will be easier.
Higher contributors were screened out, so as not to bring down their annual gift, Wood said. Donors then were segmented out based on frequency--as an indication of who might be inclined to join a monthly club--and amount of giving--groups with average gifts that might fit the offer.
A monthly sustainer initiative typically increases a donor's value on an annual basis, according to Wood. For instance, a donor who gives two or three times a year at a high level might give more often at a lower level as part of a sustainer program, making their annual gift larger.
Wood estimates that less than 1 percent of the fund's 525,000 donors are in the monthly giving program. "That's a function of the youth of the program," he said of the low rate. Similar sustainer programs have about a 3- to 5-percent target range of total donors.
The fund's monthly online giving program started about three years ago while its direct mail program is newer, having kicked off within the past six to eight months. Incorporated in 1984, NLEOMF raised $11 million for the memorial, which was dedicated in 1991.
Starting a monthly giving program by using EFT, which would charge a credit card or debit a checking account, will build the initiative more slowly, Wood said, but a non-profit could enjoy more cost savings since administration of the program would be easier by avoiding paperwork.
One of the issues a nonprofit must settle before initiating a monthly giving program is how to receive the payment: by EFT or by check. The fulfillment on statements is much lower, Wood said, at a rate of about 65 percent, compared to 95 percent with EFT, which really only runs into problems when a credit card expires.
For nonprofits deciding on whether to start a sustainer program, Wood suggested tying the dollar amount of a monthly giving program to a specific mission--"something in your organization that makes sense. 'Give $10 a month to help fulfill this mission.' The offer needs to be mission-based, so that it tends to be focused on the organization."
RELATED ARTICLE: NAACP cleared in political activity probe.
An investigation by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) concluded that political statements made by leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) did not violate conditions of its tax-exempt status.
The examination looked into comments made by NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond at the 2004 national convention that were critical of President George W. Bush and his policies. The IRS had received complaints from Republican members of Congress who claimed their constituents believed Bond's comments "crossed the line of non-partisanship."
"It is disappointing that the IRS took nearly two years to conclude what we know from the beginning: the NAACP did not violate tax laws and continues to be politically non-partisan," NAACP President and CEO Bruce S. Gordon said in a statement. "Tax-exempt organizations should feel free to critique and challenge governmental policies under the First Amendment without fear of IRS intervention."
Bond said, "The good news is that we are vindicated. The bad news for us and other freedom-loving Americans is that it was initiated for partisan purposes to threaten our right to free speech. We'll continue to speak truth to power."
Kay Guinane, director of the Nonprofit Advocacy Program at OMB Watch, a government watchdog group, said it's now time to examine the IRS procedures that led to the NAACP case. "The entire NAACP debacle should be a learning moment for IRS officials. The investigation took an unconscionable amount of time--nearly two years. It cast a cloud over the NAACP's ongoing advocacy. It left the entire nonprofit sector wondering if its right to comment on the issues of the day was being summarily taken away," she said in a statement.
The Baltimore, Md.-based civil rights organization released copies of all the documents provided by the IRS through Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests, including a two-page letter dated Aug. 9, 2006 from Marsha A. Ramirez, director, EO Examinations, and 1,715 pages of documents related to the nearly two-year investigation.
The documents included complaints filed by U.S. Sens Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), Reps. JoAnn Davis (R-Va.) and Larry Combest (R-Texas), then-Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), and then-Reps. Robert Ehrlich (R-Md.) and Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.), as well as political contributor Richard Hug.
The NAACP did not provide information requested by the IRS, which ended up viewing video footage of Bond's speech at the 2004 convention, according to Ramirez's letter. "That additional information, when added to the information that the Service previously had been able to gather, indicated that political intervention did not occur.
"Although we would have been able to conclude this matter more expeditiously with your cooperation, we were ultimately able to obtain sufficient information to resolve the serious and credible allegation giving rise to the examination," Ramirez wrote in her letter to the NAACP.
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