Why Having a $5 and $10 Ask Strategy Will Set Your Program Back

Annual fundraisers are creative animals.  Give them a number and the good ones will come up with a plan to get there, even if they occasionally color outside the lines.  In the last dozen or so years, the buzzwords “alumni participation” have been heard throughout hotel halls at conferences, boardrooms at trustee meetings, and chancellor and president’s offices far and wide.  Nearly every director of annual giving at some point within that timeframe has been charged with increasing participation to meet some artificial standard within their institution, probably in response to US News and World Report or other external measurements.  Perhaps the pressure applied at the upper levels of the development offices becomes so great that the short-term objectives of keeping the boss happy or staying employed outweigh the long-term, common sense fundraising strategies.  So naturally, like water through porous ground, some have taken the path of least resistance.  In response to the increased pressure and expectations of bringing alumni participation up, they sacrifice best practices and sell their soul to the fundraising devil…one $5 or $10 gift at a time.

Written into the scripts and training materials of many phone programs is the phrase, “We’re just trying to increase alumni participation- anything you can help with is appreciated- even $5”.  I’ve even seen programs that push for $1 pledges.  Not many checks end up being written for $1….most write in a slightly larger amount…often the $5 or $10 level out of guilt.  But the result is essentially the same.  By starting with such a small amount, we’ve downgraded our chances for getting a bigger gift, lost potential revenue by skipping levels, and more importantly demeaned the philanthropic process at your institution.  Asking for these extremely small gifts, especially for your first ask, is a fundraising gimmick- not a true effort to raise money and build donor loyalty.  Just as quick as you gained that person’s support, you’ll lose it the following year because you acquired their gift by taking a shortcut- not building a strong foundation of philanthropy and donor education.

When people decide which charities they give to on an ongoing basis, they look for those where they feel their gift can really makes a difference- especially in today’s economy when donations may need to be curtailed.  How many organizations do we give to where we really feel $5 (or $1) makes a lasting difference?  Yes, alumni participation is important.  But by only asking for $5, we’re teaching our alumni that a higher level of support is not needed.  Many of these alumni have the potential to give much more than that if they were educated about the reasons why their support is important and then properly challenged to give.  Perhaps some of them cannot give at large levels.  That’s ok so long as they had the opportunity to do so.  But to those who are willing and able to give at the larger levels, we’re essentially telling them that we don’t need their support beyond the token gift we ask for.  If they are not challenged to give at these upper levels, many will simply not do so.  They’ll give the rest of their charitable allotment to other worthy causes, meaning that their alma mater falls further down on their philanthropic priority list. 

There’s another consequence for beginning your ask levels at such small amounts- your callers are being taught that negotiation is no longer important.  They begin to believe that they should just drop to the lowest possible amount and throw needs and reasons to give out the window.  This is a terrible fundraising practice that creates long-term issues for your program.  Yes, corporations and foundations look at alumni giving when gauging their level of investment in the institution.   But that cannot be relied upon as a worthwhile reason to give for every fundraising call they make.  In my opinion, it’s usually the third most effective reason to give, and most of the time only valuable at the lowest levels of giving.   I instruct my callers not to ask for anything lower than $15, and only then if they have completed negotiation and asked for the other higher, scripted amounts (minimum 3 asks).  They can accept $5 or $10 pledges, but only if they are offered.  I ask my callers to think about it this way.  If the reasons for giving were compelling enough, and they themselves were really interested and passionate about the cause, could they give $25 on a part-time student caller salary?  The vast majority answer that they can.  At that point I ask them to remember that these are college graduates we’re calling…the overwhelming majority with full-time jobs.  When they tell us no, it’s not because they cannot afford it.  It’s that they haven’t made giving back to their alma mater a priority.  The caller’s job is to persuade and convince them to give; to turn apathy into loyalty.  If the caller can give $25 on their limited salary, then the alumni should be able to do the same assuming that the vast majority have a stronger financial income.   It’s about educating and making it a higher philanthropic priority, not begging them for loose change.

I realize that many fundraisers do not share this philosophy.  They believe a higher volume of $5 or $10 pledges will make up for whatever they lack in the average size of the gift.  They might hit their alumni participation number for that particular year, but they are leaving large sums of money on the table in pursuit of this short-sighted objective.  I have yet to see any phonathon program achieve its full potential with a strategy of asking for gifts $10 or below on the first or second ask.  And all too often, I see annual giving departments struggle after having such a strategy in place during prior years.   When the current development team moves on or changes plans (and they will eventually), how are those prospects going to react to being asked for $100 or $250 as opposed to $10?  Again, decision-making with only the short-term objective in mind almost always impacts long-term potential.  For best results, think ahead and choose your strategy wisely.

Comments

[Bryan]

Jason, what amount would you suggest as a first ask for never givers? $25? $50?

[Jen]

I don't know what Jason would suggest but our non-donor first ask is $100, laddering down to $75 and $50. We'll take less, but we don't ask for less than $50.