Events are important to annual funds as well. There are lots of different events to consider. Again, you all know those, you all probably have participated in those before. There are those community events, silent auctions, golf outings, galas, walk-athons. All the things listed on this slide here. The thing to note about this is it's a really great way to get visibility for your organization. The other key thing to think about when you're planning events or annual events is to try to get as many corporate sponsors as you possibly can to cover the costs. The big thing about events is they're expensive, right? So we want to try to get as much of that covered by corporate sponsors, so that anything that these folks as they participate and come to is just all gravy that comes in for your organization. Events can be creative, can be interesting, can be fun. There are also a lot of work. The key thing, I think the best benefit of an event, is that it increases your visibility. You can get often media attention for your events. So it's just a really great way to promote your organization. Memberships are another great tool to put in your tool box for an annual fund. A lot of us have members and it's a great way. So think of public television. There's an annual membership that you can have. If you think about the humane society, you can give at different levels. It's a really great way to build your base for support. You can engage members year round with events and with communications. I think a key point to think about when you think about memberships is that you should be constantly promoting them throughout the year. While you may want them to join it a calendar year or a fiscal year, I think the key thing is just keep talking about your memberships and why they should become a member, what's the benefit to them, and why do they want to be part of your organization. We've talked a lot about the different channels for annual fund. We've talked about direct mail, and e-mail, and telephone, and events. So, what I want to talk about now is how do you incorporate those all together. And the organizations that really seemed to do extremely well in their annual funds are ones that are using multi-channel approaches. They're doing the e-mail first and they're testing the message. And then if message works, then they're sending a great direct mail appeal to those that they don't have e-mails for. They're on the phone after the direct mail has dropped a few days or few weeks out and they're calling those folks they haven't heard from. So, they're really consistently using all of these channels in collaboration. So the more you use these channels together, the higher likelihood you have to start securing gift, and renewing gift, and renewing your memberships. Use all of your channels and use them together. Another thing to consider with your annual fund is how are you doing? I mean you need to track your results. There are lots of different ways you can measure how well you're doing. You can look at your participation rates. How are folks giving and at what level? How many dollars are coming in the door? How much did this appeal raise versus that appeal? You can look at the average gift size. If you want to try to continue to grow your program, if your average gift size was $75 this year, how do we move it to $100 this year? And you can track those results. It's really critical to that. You should also be looking at how your program's growing. Another key thing that folks are talking about is are they moving up? Are they moving down? Are they staying the same? What are our open rates for our e-mail? These are all key measurements that we can look at when evaluating our Annual Giving program. So there are lots of ways to measure how your program is doing. You can even look at channel migration, which is another way to say, last year they gave by phone and this year they gave by direct mail. So we can start measuring and seeing which tool is the most effective. So that's a really interesting way to track your results. So for example, last year if your average gift was $75, how do we move that donor to $100 this year? This is a really excellent way to track your annual Giving program. So finally, let's talk about how to demonstrate and celebrate the impact. Donors that give $50, a $100 to a $1000 a year, they are just as important of a donor, because they're your pipeline, they're your future. It's really, really important to talk about how those small gifts all added together. Let's say it's $50 from 1000 people, how all of those 1000 people made a difference. And the reason this is important is because donors are really savvy today. They have lots and lots of places to give their dollars. So, they're pretty savvy. They want to know that their gift made an impact. So let's tell them. There's huge amounts of competition today. I mean, I think Shawn talked earlier about the growth in the number of nonprofits that are coming onboard every year. So there's lots of competitions for your dollars. So how do you tell them how their gift made an impact and celebrate that with them, so that they stay loyal to your organization and your cause? The final and most important reason to celebrate impact is that it improves your results. If people know that they made a difference, they're going to give again. The key thing to remember when you think about your annual Giving program is it's about consistency. You have to message folks, and you have to message them often, and you have to keep trying new messages, but you just need to stay in front of them. Keep your message, your cause, your organization in front of them. Talk about the things that are important to them and find the connection points to them. The other thing is you have to have a calendar and work all of your different channels, your events, your online solicitations, how are you going to work in social media, and really think about a full year and how you're going to work all of the different channels together. The other key thing to remember is that donors can be trained. They are very accustomed to giving at certain times of the year. If their chancellor or a senior leader always sends an appeal out in October, they can become very accustomed to getting that appeal and giving at that time of year. Donors are also very used to giving at the end of the year, so they have some tax benefits. Donors really consistently like to give throughout the year, and they have their own way of doing it and the key is knowing when they're most interested in giving and making sure that solicitation lands right before they're ready to start giving. So to wrap annual giving up in a sort of one encapsulated thing, you need to think of it as the bread and butter of your organization. It's the baseline of your giving. It's where donors come in and then we try to keep them in. There are lots of different channels, we've talked about them all today, that they can give. You can use one, you can use two, you can use them all. It really depends on the size of your organization, the people power within your organization, the size of your budgets within your organization. All of these can be taken into consideration. But the most effective organizations use several of them together. And then again, of course, the most important thing to remember is it's about messaging and timing and knowing who your audience is. A successful annual fund campaign is about several things. But if you narrow it down to just a couple, it's about messaging. It has to be the right message, it has to get in their hands at the right time, and you have to have the message tuned to the right group of people. If you can factor all of those in, you can really have a successful annual Giving program.
