Moving donors up the pyramid alison thompson - kings college london

Moving donors ‘up’ the pyramid

Supporter Care & Stewardship Conference21 September 2012

Alison ThompsonHead of High Value University Fundraising

Fundraising & Supporter Development, King’s College London

Fundraising perfection

Your donor pyramid?

OR OR

What is the mid-level?

A numbers game

10% of your goal

40% of your goal

40% of your goal

10% of your goal

1 donor!

10 donors

100 donors

All other donors

Why invest in the mid-level?£1 million income:

King’s campaign

Size of Gift Average Gift SizeTotal number of gifts needed

Total number gifts received so far

Total value of gifts received so far (£)

Total Gift Amount needed (£)

£20M+ 20,000,000 1 1 20,000,000 20,000,000

£10M-£19.9M 15,000,000 1 0 0 0

£5M-£9.9M 7,500,000 6 3 17,000,000 45,000,000

£1.5M-£4.9M 3,250,000 16 18 48,705,754 52,000,000

£500k-£1.49M 1,000,000 45 34 25,544,903 45,000,000

£100k-£499.9k 300,000 174 158 28,183,671 52,200,000

£50k-£99.9 75,000 108 139 9,617,383 8,100,000

£10k-£49.9 30,000 237 299 6,809,426 7,110,000

£1k-£9.9k 5000 660 788 1,743,263 3,300,000

Research

Plan

Cultivate & Involve

AskClose

Thanking

Steward

IdentifyWhen to define a stewardship strategy

And in a campaign?• 2004:

– Campaign I closed with £44m raised• 2005-7:

– Feasibility study immediately commenced– Evaluation of Campaign I and analysis of donors– Planning for Campaign II and identification of priorities

• 2008-2010:– Development of Case for Support and Campaign Brand: World

questions|King’s answers– Recruiting the Campaign Board, Campaign ‘quiet phase’– Define & refine gift pyramid & stewardship matrix

• November 2010:– World questions|King’s answers public launch with simultaneous

events in London, Hong Kong and New York• 2012:

– Donor events capitalising on publicity around launch– £380m raised against goal of £500m

Selecting projects

Testing projects

Quiet phase

Public Launch

Recognising the mid-level

Tate patrons

Beware what you promise$

mil

lio

ns

Alzheimer’s Association - USA

Building a community

The Alzheimer's Association Zenith Society represents the Association's leading philanthropists…In FY11, the group grew to include 53 members and awarded four

research grants totalling $1.8 million. Since its inception, the Zenith Fellows program has awarded over $27 million to more than 100 researchers worldwide.

National Trust – Benefactors (£1,000-£4,999)

National Trust – Quercus (+£5,000)

‘A newsletter for Stanford’s most generous donors’“As a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, Rick Sapp,

’78, is no stranger to high-risk ventures. So when he learned about Bio-X, Stanford’s pioneering interdisciplinary program that provides seed funding to high-risk science, he followed it with keen interest. He can’t cure Parkinson’s or cerebral palsy, but he hopes to provide financial resources to someone who can.”

Stewardship is not about the money, it’s about the work that being carried out. If you start by talking about the

money you won’t get more and you won’t deserve more.

Alison Thompson on Harold Sumption, 1916-1998Council member at Oxfam 1950 until his death Honorary Fellow, Institute of Fundraising

Getting the messaging right

Donor Motivations

Emotional benefit

Social benefit

Financial benefit

Insurance

Altruism

Making stewardship stories a SUCCESsSimple

UnexpectedConcreteCredibleEmotionStories Making it Stick

Chip & Dan Heath

Have you got who it takes?

Gift Agreements

Naming policy

A final thought…