The Most Underutilized Giving Metric

Takeaways

Too often in our effort to establish credibility to attract funding, we accidently create exclusivity instead.

I was sitting with a colleague who had attended one of our fundraising events and I was eager to get his feedback. He was a fundraising expert and his input meant a lot to me and I honestly felt like we had done a pretty good job at the event. I went into the conversation ready to hear about some of our logistical issues, a production quality snafu, and a handful of minor tweaks but one comment felt like a punch in the gut.

He said, “It honestly felt like you guys were doing so well that you didn’t need me to give.”  Ugh. Really?

 We intentionally included the endorsements of a few well-known media and business stars who had been long-time supporters. These were people of means, some supported in significant ways, while others made generous donations but well below what most people probably assumed.

As I replayed the tape of that night in my mind, I saw things from my friend’s perspective and knew instantly he was right. We thought we were creating credibility by celebrating the support of well-known, trusted people, while in reality everyone in the room, heard, “These people are underwriting this whole operation.”  We were unwittingly telling people that the support we wanted most was from famous people who could write huge checks when the opposite was true. We desperately needed the generous support of everyone.

The Forgotten Donor Metric.

One completely underutilized tool to help draw in those donors who may be feeling that their gift is unnoticed or insignificant is to talk about your average gift size.  It is one of the most commonly tracked metrics in the non-profit space but has seldom been shared beyond the boardroom and internal financial reports.

Often the average gift size for many organizations hovers around $150 per gift, and around $850 per donor per year. That is very achievable for many families to do for their favorite charity. This is fantastic news. Why aren’t we sharing that? Most donors already feel that their giving is inadequate in the face of the challenging problems that non-profits are tackling but when they know their giving is right on par, or close to what others are doing, their shoulders go back just a bit and their chin sits a bit taller.

The most common hesitation for using this metric is the fear that major donors might drift lower in their giving if they see how much less the average donor gives.  But I have found that when that happens there is usually something wrong with our messaging to major donors.  If they are looking for an excuse to give less, they will find it, whether it is through learning the average gift size or something else. And if your major donors are feeling that way, you have much more serious issues to tackle that you can’t blame on sharing average gift size statistics.

As you roll into planning your next event or gala, just a reminder that in your efforts to establish credibility, don’t fall into creating exclusivity instead. It is a fine line.