This report garnered from a conference report in FundRaising Success magazine shows that our US cousins can think laterally about relationship fundraising!

In a session at the DMA Nonprofit Federation’s 2008 Washington Nonprofit Conference, ASPCA’s Steve Froehlich managed to get the audience going with a little risqué banter.

In the session titled, “Repeat After Me… I Will Give Again: Cementing Relationships that Garner a Second Gift,” that Steve co-presented with Margaret Carter from American Red Cross and Convio’s Brian Hauf, he started off with this provocative question:

“Before I begin, I’d like everyone who has ever had a one-night stand to think about how they felt the morning after.” (A collective sigh of relief when the audience realised he wasn’t asking anyone to raise their hands).

Some possible morning-after emotions:
* Maybe a little excited… but uncertain if it was a one-time thing.
* Confused… maybe a little scared.
* Regret, embarrassment, remorse.
* Used or cast aside.
* Uncertain about the future.

This was quickly followed with, “Now I’d like you to think about the last time a stranger asked you for money and you gave it to them… maybe with a credit card. How did it make you feel a couple of days later?”

No real surprises when Steve listed some possible post-donation emotions:
* Maybe a little excited… but uncertain if it was a one-time thing.
* Confused… maybe a little scared.
* Regret, embarrassment, remorse.
* Used or cast aside.
* Uncertain about the future.

A neat way of making a point that “It’s not a relationship unless it happens a second time.” Here are Steve’s tips for securing that second “time”:

* Say thank you quickly, communicate in the natural tone that reflects your organisation, and enclose a second ask with an envelope.
* Use a monthly donor invitation phone call within the first three or four months after the first gift.
* Suppress the donor’s name from list exchange for the first few months a donor is on the file.
* Try posting online leads in your mail stream and vice versa — an integrated donor is a valuable donor.

Steve didn’t own up to the “how about you?” question.

Kevin Kibble