One of the most obvious differences between Europe and the U.S., for example, is the different focus between recurring giving and major giving. Almost all survey participants in Europe stressed the importance of sustainer or monthly giving programs, while the results for North America remained flat. In fact, the U.S. has never truly adopted recurring-giving programs on mass, which, as a British person living in the U.S., I find interesting and a significant opportunity. A
recent report by Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, measured the results of monthly giving programs for more than 15 large U.S.-based organizations and found some telling trends:
- monthly donors tend to be younger than those that give single gifts;
- recurring donors have much higher retention rates; and
- monthly donations are less likely to be affected by economic downturns.
Not only are these recurring-gift programs an excellent source of mostly unrestricted, recurring revenue, but they also provide a huge pool of committed and loyal supporters who might make for excellent major- or planned-gift prospects.
The way European organizations acquire these monthly donors is also an interesting difference between our two continents. Face-to-face fundraising is still a huge method in Europe, where a fundraiser or canvasser stands on the street soliciting monthly donations from passers-by. The U.K.-based Third Sector publication estimates that approximately 700,000 donors signed up by this method in 2009. Clearly this form of acquisition is not common in the U.S., and many organizations would, I’m sure, claim that it would not work in the U.S.
Consider this though: Face-to-face is becoming more common in Canada (I was recently approached by two separate large and well-known international nonprofits in Toronto within 10 minutes), and Greenpeace already is successfully acquiring new donors in many U.S. cities.
While the U.S. is by far the largest philanthropic market in the world, there are other markets that are growing significantly (i.e., Latin America). These markets have not had the luxury of fundraising best practices or standards, and they often lack an established culture of giving. Many times they do not have a professional fundraising body and lack the capacity that we in developing countries take for granted.
What we do see in these markets are organizations that are extremely creative. They innovate. They take risks. With little to lose and almost no resources, they look for new and unique ways to reach their constituents and find great, and often unexpected, success. Perhaps that is something we can learn from them.
