Who are mid-level donors and why aren’t you focusing on them?
The mid-level donor seems to be a mystery to many organizations, they give too much to be included in a general cash appeal, but they have not graduated to transformational giving. While many organizations aspire to treat them as major donors to support a robust pipeline, few have the resources to do that effectively. Mid-level donors have shown an interest in your organization’s mission and your strategy should be focused on converting that interest into a long-term commitment.
We have a solution.
Nothing says long-term commitment like an ongoing monthly gift. Unfortunately, mid-level donors are often overlooked or under-served in the development of a monthly donor strategy. Even when converted to monthly giving upgrading a mid-level donor can be challenging.
Our solution is to remove mid-level donors from your standard conversion campaign and run a bespoke program that allows donors to fund a program or campaign that reflects their value, their interests, and provides an opportunity to make an impactful ongoing gift.
What does a bespoke mid-level monthly strategy look like?
Rather than asking donors to contribute to a general fund, creating a bespoke program for mid-level donors is about isolating areas of interest to this group and providing them with an ongoing opportunity to contribute to it in a meaningful way.
For example, on behalf of one client, we contacted donors currently giving over $1500 annually and asked them to contribute $250 a month to one specific program assisting a particular beneficiary group. As part of this program, those monthly donors who came on board were then offered the opportunity to speak directly with the beneficiaries of their gift.
This ideal culmination of the bespoke program, clear impact, and ongoing stewardship resulted in a 10.9% conversion rate.
Mid-level donors like to see their donations in action and hearing about how their gift has made a direct impact. This coupled with an enhanced stewardship strategy can help prime these donors to make the move to the next level and become a major gift donor.
If your annual year kicks off in July, we cannot recommend highly enough planning a mid-level conversion program, for a lift in your monthly donor program and an increase in your major donors, there is no better campaign.
For strategic insight in establishing a mid-level donor conversion program contact us today.