Innovative year-round fundraising and donor stewardship

Highlights

Learn how Raise from Gravyty helped MPB identify, qualify, and creatively steward donors, getting the following outstanding results:

• Doubled the number of major donors
• Achieved 95% major donor retention
• Raised nearly $325,000 throughout the year
• Received over $100,000 worth of new gifts

With a little help from Contributor Development Partnership

MPB was supported in its fundraising efforts by Contributor Development Partnership (CDP)—a member-led coalition of public media stations that supports more than 250 Public Media stations across the country. CDP works with local stations to advance and deploy innovative fundraising strategies and maximize operational efficiency. 

CDP has partnered with Gravyty for the past 4 years, introducing their AI-based fundraising technology to public media organizations looking to upgrade and streamline their fundraising operations. 

Unique problems in public media fundraising 

Public media organizations face unique fundraising challenges. While the typical non-profit organization receives 80% of its revenue from 20% of donors, the opposite is true of public media organizations, where the membership model means lots of small-time donors. 

“The average station gets less than 20% of their revenue from donors who give around $1000 a year, i.e. 80% of the revenue comes from 80% of the donors. Major donor fundraising in this sector is way behind what it could and should be, and public media are missing a massive opportunity.” 

• Hunter Sears, Director of Partnership Development, CDP

MPB realized there were millions of dollars worth of missed opportunity sitting in their donor files—especially at the mid and major donor levels. 

Unfortunately, the “small but mighty” fundraising team at the MPB Foundation lacked the manpower and resources to adequately develop this potentially lucrative pool of donors.  

An AI-based fundraising tool was needed.

How an AI-enabled fundraising tool boosted MPB’s fundraising activity

Raise from Gravyty helped the fundraising team at MPB Foundation develop, identify, qualify and engage mid-level and major donors in the following ways: 

• Identify—The Raise AI algorithm trawled through MPB’s CRM, identifying suitable donors and flagging them up for an approach.  

• Qualify—Raise used the data in the CRM to suggest the fundraising approach most likely to succeed with each donor.  

• Engage—Raise drastically cut down the time fundraisers need for research before approaching donors by drafting a targeted email that fundraisers could review, edit and send as needed. Raise regularly prompted fundraisers when it was time to reach out to a donor, e.g. to send a birthday greeting, thank you message, make an appeal request or just send a newsletter or update. 

• Boost face-to-face interaction—Overall, Raise freed up MPB fundraiser’s time, giving them  more time to personally engage donors on a regular basis and even organize high-value face-to-face interactions. 

“In this digital world we live in, we must take the digital approach to fundraising as well. With Gratavid and Raise from Gravyty, you get that personal touch that we so greatly need. That is something you cannot put a dollar figure on, and I think that is what sets us apart. Those who take advantage of these fundraising tools will set themselves apart as well in this digital age.”

• Angela Crossley Ferraez, Executive Director of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting Foundation

Personal engagement—the MPB way 

Use the following creative fundraising ideas from MPB to inspire your non-profit fundraising efforts:

1. Get a well-known personality involved  

The personal touch, especially with a well-known or respected figure from your local community can go a long way to boost donor engagement. MPB recruited renowned Mississippi musician and host of the popular “Grassroots” music program, Bill Ellison, tasking him with the role of personally calling donors on the phone, engaging with them, and making them feel appreciated and special.

2. Make it about them

Personal calls are a great way to engage donors but don’t make it about you, make it about them. When Bill calls donors, he thanks them wholeheartedly for their contribution and asks if there is any way he can help them. If he fails to reach a donor on the phone, he leaves them a warm voicemail message stating who he is and saying thank you. 

3. Follow up with an email

After each call, follow up with an email. Again, the focus should be on thanking and offering to help donors and not on asking them for anything in particular. 

4. The occasional “ask” is okay

Every now and then, donors can be asked if they want to renew their membership or make a donation. For example, Bill Ellison calls and emails all major donors about renewing if their renewal is coming up or if they have lapsed. It helps if these calls also have another purpose, e.g., to inform donors about an upcoming event. 

Nonprofit fundraising, made easier with AI

“To anyone considering Raise, it’s a no-brainer! Since using Raise, we’ve had over 95% major donor retention. We’ve doubled our major donors, and we’ve raised nearly $325,000 – over $100,000 of which was new gifts.”

• Angela Crossley Ferraez, Executive Director of the Mississippi Public Broadcasting Foundation

Help your fundraisers steward more donors and get more done each day using the power of AI-enabled fundraising. Let’s talk.