Donor in the Middle
Posted by at Sep 11, 2008 04:04 PM CDT
Categories: Fundraising

So as usual I find myself scrambling to find a topic to write about today.   Scouring the web I find lots of possibilities around current research in the area of online fundraising, the seventh anniversary of 9-11, and Hurricane IKE sitting just off the coast of my fair state. 

Strangely I find my mind wandering to a question not about web trends and hurricane evacuees, but rather if I would live long enough to see the day that every prospect has been identified, cultivated, and converted into a donor?  To answer that I first need to know if it’s even possible to convert every single person to be a donor? Or is there a spectrum that explains people’s likelihood to give?  Statistically could we show people’s propensity to donate falls along a bell curve where maybe 20% will give regardless of what we message them with, 20% will never give, and the bulk of people lie somewhere in the middle?

It is this middle 60%, or whatever that number works out to be, that I am thinking about today.  These people have to somehow be exposed to the mission of the organization in order to give to it.   How do we reach them?  Sure there is the web, direct mail, telemarketing, but also being a direct recipient of the services your charity provides.

And so today I think about the residents of Houston and coastal Texas and Louisiana as they evacuate from hurricane IKE’s path; and the families of those affected by 9-11; and of the wonderful volunteers, disaster relief charities, and other organizations that were there, and will continue to be there, for all of us in our time of need.  And who knows, maybe as a result of the good work these organizations are doing now, when it comes time to give back, that middle 60% will get just a little bit smaller.   

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