This is a good example of a relatively simple report derived from Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT with the potential to significantly impact your organization’s long-term fundraising success. It is based on the stewardship premise that donors who are personally thanked by the organization’s leadership for their contributions will be more likely to give more and more often, especially when they receive thanks from the organization’s leadership.
The original concept for this RE report came from a college president who wished to personally thank all donors who made a gift over a certain dollar threshold during the prior week. They wanted this activity to be ingrained into their time planning for each week, so the report has to be delivered on the same schedule with maximum consistency. The behavior pattern will fall apart if the report is delivered on different days or skipped some weeks because of vacations, illness, holidays, etc. This is another case of RAAS software (Reporting as a Service) being advantageous, even if the report is not particularly unique.
The sample stewardship report below is sorted by campaign and contains the gift information and name, address, phone number, and email address of each donor (assuming it is all available in your Raiser’s Edge NXT database). If the report is created in Reporting Xpress, it could be further segmented by fund, geography, constituent code, or other factors. Reporting Xpress reports are not limited in the number of levels of segmentation (slicing and dicing) the way the standard Raiser’s Edge NXT reports often are.
The president would choose to either call, email, or write a thank you card to each donor over the next week depending on whether they had a prior relationship with the donor, the size of the gift, or other factors.
The concept is simple and works so well that the next logical step is to expand automated delivery of the report to the board or potentially other leadership. The expectation is not that the board should thank all donors. That would probably seem obnoxious to many donors. However, if a board member has an existing relationship with a donor, or recognizes them via some joint affiliation with a club, church, neighborhood, business connection, etc. where they are also likely to be recognized in return, it makes sense for them to also give a quick thank you. With all of the contact information right in front of them, it should only take a minute.
The general consensus from the nonprofits we have polled on this is that about a third of your board members are likely to participate in fundraising or stewardship at any level and thus take this little task seriously enough to follow through on a regular basis. You should thank them to reinforce that behavior!
I have also spoken to consultants who say they have research that indicates the most important gift to give thanks for is a donor’s second gift. A similar stewardship report format and automated distribution process leveraging RAAS software could be used to recognize donors’ second gifts.
Again, the key to this strategy being successful is a simple report containing all of the information necessary and consistent predictable delivery. The information should be in your Raiser’s Edge NXT database already. Reporting Xpress’ RAAS software can automatically extract that information via the Raiser’s Edge NXT API (SKYAPI) , produce the report in a format that is easy to use, and distribute it on a scheduled basis to leadership.
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