It’s almost mid-year for most fundraisers. Solicitations are out, calling starts by volunteers or paid staff, and the major gifts team is cranking out visits. All of this momentum should be continually tracked: If you know early, you have more time to do something about slipping results. Also, if you know early, you have time to celebrate early wins and reset final expectations.
Recognize When Giving Patterns Shift
However, what does an organization do if results are slipping? For instance, if you look at the Lily Family School of Philanthropy’s reading of the Giving USA report for 2025, you will notice that it announces a 5.7% increase in giving to US organizations in 2025 over 2024. However, read on and you will see that foundations and bequests had the highest percentage giving. Individual giving rose by 4.1%. I see that an realize that all of those bequests can not continue to bolster fundraising; after all, a person fulfills her bequest intentions only once – when she passes.
I’ll be discussing more of the current economy and who tends to give in an economy like ours during our November 10 Water Cooler Chat. What I want to discuss here is what to do if your organization is noticing an uptick in, say, corporate giving but a downtick in individual giving. Is that a new paradigm or a temporary shift? And how do you begin a pivot so that your sailing is smooth even as the winds change?
Start with Small Adjustments
I firmly believe in the Kaizen approach to most management problems. Shifting is easier on the human spirit than radical change, and introducing small shifts help staff see the value, adapt, and continue to perform with the new process.
Trace Declining Results Back to the Source
For instance, if you are noticing that the number of your mid-level donors is decreasing, consider a forensic method to find out if you can shift in reverse. Like a forensic scientist, start at the end: Your outcomes are slowing down for this segment. Then find out what step happened before that. Consider these questions:
- Did you have a staffing shift so that solicitation was off schedule?
- Were the ask amounts the same as last year? (We at Staupell always recommend boosting the ask in a thoughtful way for loyal donors.) It could be that the drift off is the natural attrition of mid-level donors but those who remain did not step up.
- Did your team solicit new prospects to give at this level?
- Did you lose key volunteers?
- Did your organization have a controversial, public event?
You might discover that the drift off goes all the way back to the mail house delaying for some reason or that your segmentation over the summer is now disrupted by local events. Just keep looking backward along your steps until you find what changed.
Then pivot:
- If you forgot to solicit new mid-level donors this year, solicit them now. No time is better than late fall to make charitable gift asks.
- If your direct mail process somehow upset the apple cart, send and additional appreciation piece to those who haven’t returned, reaffirming your appreciation of them.
- If it is a staff shift, be public about it to your audience. If people know that it wasn’t personal when you neglected them for a bit, they forgive.
- If it is a controversial event, let your controversial event handlers frame your communications and hold on.
I am constantly in mind of an African project decades ago where the consultants suggested making little hills around a field. The water collected, improved the soil, and made crops possible. This is the same thinking that went into the introduction of curvy field rows to stop the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. It was one shift and it worked.
Keep Adjusting Before Trying Again
Remember that the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. And success comes from persistence. What’s the difference between the two? Success is persistence in making adjustments before trying again.
If you are trying to figure out a similar question, let me know at marianne@staupell.com.