I’m overjoyed that the PFRA’s attrition survey shows that attrition is slowing down because we seem to have been fighting what seems like a never-ending battle against attrition rates.

But one aspect of that report really jumped out at me. I’ve already posted a response to Howard’s news story but I’d also like to see if we can get some thinking around this in the forums too.

What catches my attention is the bit about there being a spike in cancellation rates on the first anniversary of a donor’s gift.

Most donors probably couldn’t tell you when the anniversary of their gift falls so what is it that we are doing that prompts them to cancel on this date? Because if they aren’t aware it’s their first birthday, we must have made them aware.

I can’t help but think that it’s because we are asking them to upgrade before we have thanked them properly for giving for a whole year.

Anniversaries are significant occasions, but I’m prepared to bet that fundraisers are viewing it as significant for them rather than significant for the donor. Normally on an anniversary, you’d send something celebrating that anniversary – birthday presents or wedding anniversary cards. But we’re treating it just as a convenient touchpoint to get a bigger gift.

Gift anniversaries are a stewardship opportunity, when we can thank the donor for their support for the first year and let them know how their gift as been used and the good it has brought about.

At Relationship Marketing we’ve just done a test that showed that donors were five per cent more likely to upgrade if they received a thank you call three months before the upgrade call, and when they did, they made 41 per cent higher upgrades than those who didn’t get a thank you call. Five per cent may not seem like much, but if you take that over an entire database, the numbers quickly stack up.

This test wasn’t based around any particular gift anniversary, but it will be interesting to repeat this test and see whether we get better results if that thank you call comes on the anniversary of the gift.

My gut feeling is that the results will be even better, and I think we should be looking to shift the upgrade call to 15 months rather than 12 months, and replace the 12-month upgrade call with a simple, non-ask thank-you call.

Then I reckon we’d see that 12-month spike in cancellations fall a lot, or maybe disappear altogether, because we treat the first anniversary as something special for the donor and celebrate it with them.

Gordon Michie
Director of development
Relationship Marketing
Gordon@relationshipmarketing.org.uk [1]
0771 851 3144