Memorial and Tribute Donors Can Be Retained (With Some Help)

Fundraisers who track their donor retention rates often ask if they should include memorial and tribute donors in their calculations.

My response is always the same: should baseball teams include the pitching staff’s (usually dismal) batting average in their team average?

Just because the average is lower for one type of donor does not mean there isn’t an opportunity to improve it!

There’s no doubt about it: retaining memorial and tribute donors is just plain tough. Retention rates are typically in the single digits. However, this initial reason is a great foundation to work from, since they understand and appreciate philanthropy.

A Special Introduction

When my father passed away several years ago, the funeral home director asked if we would like to name a nonprofit for memorial gifts. I reached out to our chosen charity to ask who the top fundraising executive was so that I could make a very special introduction.

The charity received 31 memorial gifts ranging from $20 to $150 in size. I decided to create a handwritten thank you note for every person or family that had been kind enough to make a memorial gift. Near the end of each note I introduced the fundraising professional at the chosen charity and mentioned she would love to inform the donor of just what the monies would be used for.

Positive Results!

In our conversation she stated that the retention rate for this group of memorial donors was already well above any previous ones they had seen. This just might be a bit of a breakthrough strategy if you have a member of the family or two that would like to participate in their own note writing.

How about the rest of you out there, have you tried this method of follow-up with memorial and tribute donors? If so, did the retention rate improve? Let me know in the comments below!