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If you're a healthcare fundraiser, you are undoubtedly familiar with the industry'smany initiatives to improve service lines; improve outcomes; improve quality; or even to improve employee satisfaction. Everyone of these depends on accurate measures and benchmarks to monitor progress.

But, what about donor loyalty? Probably not. Many fundraisers, without regular measures of their donors’ satisfaction, are not even aware they have a problem.

While many in the world of philanthropy will agree with this sentiment, it is the rare and exceptional organization that goes beyond perfunctory follow up to actually measuring the satisfaction of their benefactors. Since fundraising depends on the ongoing largesse of donors — year after year — donor retention is the single most important key to successful fundraising.

Donor loyalty is a fragile thing. Cultivate it and your organization can thrive. Neglect it and you can find yourself devoting greater and greater effort to smaller and smaller returns.
Fewer than 35 per cent of donors who make a first gift to a charitable organization ever make a second one to that same beneficiary.

Why you need the Donor Loyalty Index

“Donor attrition is not yet on the radar screen of the fundraising industry, even though it is the number one problem in the business.”

Penelope Burke
Donor Centered Fundraising

“Indeed, I’m razor close to saying that the single most important metric — and fundraising challenge — revolves around this one … getting the second gift. If you’re not willing to work as hard and as creatively to win the second gift, it’s almost like … why bother to get the first one?! You might as well be flushing your nonprofit’s prospecting budget down the toilet.”

Tom Belford
The Agitator