Communications: Like Sparkplugs

Once you have the database system in place, consider the next component in your development engine…Your donor communications stream. How often and in what ways will you communicate with donors? Which donors will hear from you most often? How do you decide?

A good donor communication stream has basic mailings a few times a year that all donors receive and some specialized mailings only a few donors receive. For example, you may produce a monthly e-Newsletter and send it to all donors. But you may only send an expensive direct mail package to donors most likely to give on an annual basis to your station.

If you do on-air fundraising, such as a share-a-thon, you will have mailings that are connected specifically to that effort. You will need to do some careful analysis of your donor file to decide how and when to mail or contact your donors based on their giving levels and giving history. Each mailing, if properly worded and timed has the potential to spark another gift to your organization. Direct mail, while not an exact science, can still be quite effective if certain industry best practices are followed.

The driving concern of any good donor communication stream has to be moves management. What we’re trying to accomplish is a series of definable steps that we move our donors through in order to move them from new name in the database to annual donor to, if they are capable, major donor and station champion.