The donors who gave once

The gala was a triumph. Six hundred first-time donors. The development team celebrated, sent a form letter three weeks later and moved on to the spring appeal. Twelve months on, 140 of the 600 gave again. The other 460 heard from the museum once, at year end, in a mass email.

Picture a mid-sized museum with 4,000 members and a development team of five. Visitors bought tickets and were never asked to give. Online, one gift in four was abandoned at checkout. Gifts were keyed in by hand and thanked three weeks later. Members got renewal letters after they lapsed, and 68% renewed. Three in four first-time donors never gave again.

What SBK rebuilt

SBK mapped the path from first visit to second gift. The cheapest money was in the donors the museum already had. At an average first gift of $150, the 460 gala donors who never gave again were $69,000 a year that nobody asked for. The rebuild sends an ask after each visit, with a story about what the ticket supported. Giving moved to a page that works on a phone in seconds. Every gift is thanked within a day, and the big ones get a call. Second asks are timed to each donor. Renewal starts 60 days before a membership ends.

What moved

Half of first-time donors gave again, up from one in four. Nineteen gifts in twenty were finished online. Members who renewed rose from 68% to 84%. Donors were thanked in a day, not three weeks. The gala's donors became next year's base.