Does this
qualify as a trick question? Perhaps. Because of course it’s terribly easy to
cancel a Direct Debit. With Internet banking, all it takes is a click or two
and it’s gone, without so much as a puff of smoke – the regular gift that you no
doubt worked so hard to win in the first place.
And unless a
donor takes the trouble to tell you, months will pass before many charities
realize an important commitment is gone – the passage of time making it harder
still to renew.
So that’s the
mechanics of canceling a gift with dealt with – but is that all there is
to it? Is it really so easy? Putting aside my fundraiser’s hat for a moment and, in
its place, my stylish donor hat, I would find it very difficult indeed to
cancel any one of the Direct Debits I have set up (an extreme financial change
of circumstances aside). And by that, I mean emotionally difficult.
I’ll admit
there are, amongst my Direct Debits, some organizations I feel no great warmth
towards. But do I really not want there to be no new treatments found for
cancer? Do I want human rights abuses to go unchallenged?
Of course
not. And that’s what canceling really means. Or so – as fundraisers – we must
make it.
But how? Well
there’s some straightforward, yet often neglected messaging that should be an
integral part of recruiting and then communicating with a regular giver.
- They should
understand your mission and feel a key part of it.
- They should
understand what would be lost if you didn’t have their support.
- They should
feel like a valued important individual supporter, not just a number.
I guess what
I’m really talking about is creating an emotional engagement - making giving a genuine enhancement of life. Here’s an
example. I sponsor a cot with Child’s I and I happen to know (because they’ve
told me) that I’m one of only 33 cot sponsors. When they launched an emergency
appeal to raise money for Joey’s operation, I gave again. They send me personal
emails and films like this that show me the great work they do and they say thanks.
I won’t be
canceling.
CARE
International is much bigger organization and one we have worked with for many
years. If you’ve read this blog post by me or this one by Mark, you might know
about an additional tool we developed for them. It’s called U Space and it was
specifically designed to prevent attrition amongst those people who find it
easiest to cancel – Face to Face or Door to Door recruited regular givers.
At
recruitment, the donor gets this engaging piece which allows them to send a message
to a child at school in Zambia. Shortly after, they are invited to their own
webpage, which has blog style updates showing them that they are a key part of
CARE’s work. Soon donors will be able to see a film of those messages being
delivered to a class in Zambia, for example. They are made to feel valued.
Better still, they can adjust their regular gift dealing directly with the
charity. So instead of the blunt on/off button I mentioned at the beginning of
my post, they have the chance to reduce their gift, take a holiday, but keeping
the connection with the charity in place.
It’s proved
to reduce canceling rates significantly (up to half).
So I’ll
finish with a challenge. Have you made it difficult for regular givers to your
charity to cancel their gift? Could you make it more difficult still?
