Respecting and benefiting from diversity in fundraising

Fundraisers should already know that every donor is different, but do we recognise all their many differences enough and reflect that in our communications with them? Diversity was the theme of last month’s Civil Society Congress in Amsterdam so one of the strands covered was the issue of diversity in fundraising.

The event was attended by delegates from a wide range of organisations – international NGOs, foundations, and arts & cultural, educational and political organisations. In the sessions and discussions we started with a definition of diversity, using one developed at the University of Oregon.

"The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognising our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. It is the exploration of these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing environment. It is about understanding each other and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of diversity contained within each individual."

There was a widespread acceptance among the delegates that we needed to look at the way we develop our messaging in fundraising to incorporate all these many facets. We needed to focus on reaching out and embracing the differences.
We looked at the whole question of immigration and religion, and what impact this can have on fundraising messages and approaches. Most religions endorse the concept of almsgiving. ‘Zakat’, for example, is one of the five pillars of Islam, and there is an obligation on believers to support certain specific categories of people, such as the poor and the needy. In other societies however there has been a shift away from giving to the church.

We moved on to considering how this understanding would affect the segmentation of databases, and how fundraisers can and should tailor their messages accordingly, beyond the standard analysis of Recency, Frequency and Monetary value. What other kinds of segmentation could we use?

We looked at the Arts Council’s segmentation for the arts sector in Britain, an attempt at "better understanding of the motivations and behaviours of different audience groups". It had yielded 13 segments ranging from ‘Urban Arts Eclectic’ through ‘Bedroom DJs’ to ‘Limited Means, Nothing Fancy’. We pondered how this kind of categorisation could work in the context of fundraising.

Chuck Longfield, the Chief Scientist at Blackbaud, talks about the ‘love index’ and how critical it is to track how interested your donors are in your organisation. Of course, we can add into this mix people’s behaviour and interaction online with an organisation. Put all of these together and you end up with the ability to send out ever more targeted communications to your donors and potential donors.

The analysis that Blackbaud have done over the last year shows that targeted donations online in particular are achieving average rates which are close to five times higher than the national (US) average gift. This is attributed to the careful, relevant building of strong relationships which results in the donor valuing the relationship and wanting to give more. The research also confirms that making sure that you ask for the right amount and don’t ask for less than they gave last time makes a huge difference.

There was some questioning at the conference about the value of building relationships. But this concern was focused on the delay in return on investment for this level of analysis and fine-tuning.

Overall the delegates concluded that it was essential to understand and explore diversity so that charities and not-for-profits could use this opportunity to focus on how each one of us is different, and how each of us can best be encouraged to offer appropriate support.