With the uncertainties in the world right now, you may be wondering how best to, or even if you should, reconnect with your donors. It’s understandable. Everyone has so much on their minds right now. And yet, there’s a good chance that people need the work that you’re doing. It’s important that you continue to let them know that you’re there, honoring your mission, even with everything that’s happening.
Sometimes all you need to make a change is to see things from a new perspective. Earlier this month, that happened for me, and it resulted in success for a fundraising campaign I was organizing.
As the campaign approached an important deadline, we were still short on our break even point. It was then that something lucky happened. A new donor mentioned how eager she was to be included in the line up of published sponsors-- she had been impressed when she'd read over the list of names from last year. Her enthusiasm for our sponsors was such a welcome breath of fresh air. It moved me out of the 'hard work to raise money' frame of mind, into a space of deep appreciation for the people who recognize and support the value of our work.
As we move into the second half of the year, it’s a good time to start thinking about donors who have given last year, or even some year, but not yet this year. Built into the FundRaiser reports are options for LYBUNT (Last Year But Not This Year) and SYBUNT (Some Year But Not This Year). These are both great tools to determine donors who have given during your last calendar (or reporting year if it’s different) year, but not this one, and begin to extend your outreach to those individuals.
However, did you know that in our groupings options, we offer even more variations on the traditional LYBUNT/SYBUNT criteria?
Dear Kim:
What is a Lie-Bunt? I have some pro bono consulting from this high powered direct mail and social media person and she told me we have a lot of lie-bunts we should be asking. I already feel stupid around her and don’t want to ask her what she means. Do you have any idea?
I’ve worked at FundRaiser for many years now, and for all of that time I’ve been deeply inspired by the work our customers do. Committed to a wide range of missions, the nonprofits using FundRaiser actively make a difference in our world.
Given that sense of admiration, of course I decided to try my own hand at the fundraising part of nonprofit work. What I’ve learned is that each time I use FundRaiser to help raise funds for an organization I care about, I succeed. I also learn something new about the whole process of fundraising, and I get better for next time. That all adds up to more funds to help achieve what I’d like to see happen in the world. An example, in the first year of using FundRaiser, I learned the value of some very basic donor management practices:
Moving donors up the giving ladder is one of the prime reasons to keep a donor database. Here are some tips for how to prepare to ask your members to move up the giving ladder.
Creating a Reality-Based Gift ChartCompile an A to Z listing of all current donors and lapsed donors—no more than three years (excluding those whose reason for lapsing is known).
In June, I tried my hand at my first fundraising campaign. I started with a basic mailing to loyal donors. You can read about my beginning efforts in my blog post here.
After I sent the letters out, I didn’t have to wait long before our first donations came in. Loyal donors replied rapidly, and it was great fun to open the envelopes and see their notes and checks.
In Kim Klein's blog article this month, she explains what the term LYBUNT means, which is a good thing, but there is another that is used in FundRaiser we need to know, too: SYBUNT. SYBUNT is similar to LYBUNT, but reaches further into a lapsed donor's past. A SYBUNT has given "Some Year But Not This". You can find both of these terms scattered throughout FundRaiser: in the "WHO" section of reports and mass mailings (in the "MasterFile" dropdown), the "Common Patterns" section of creating a Grouping, and elsewhere. They are just easier ways to describe certain donor situations.
Precisely, Generally SpeakingOnce you know the definitions, you may run into another situation due to the business world view that there are two distinct types of years: calendar and fiscal (which FundRaiser calls "Reporting" year). FundRaiser's Reporting year is, by default, set to the calendar year, but can be changed to coincide with the fiscal year your organization uses for accounting purposes. It's changed in the Options, General, Printing menu, and requires that you set the beginning month of the yearly period you want to consider for your Reporting year. Be aware that, if you make a change here, you will need to run the Rebuild Statistics Page Data utility (in the Utilities menu) in order to make certain all the yearly totals reflect your reporting year, and that people are able to be put properly in their LYBUNT and SYBUNT places.
Dear Kim:
What is a Lie-Bunt? I have some pro bono consulting from this high powered direct mail and social media person and she told me we have a lot of lie-bunts we should be asking. I already feel stupid around her and don’t want to ask her what she means. Do you have any idea?
