The continuing challenge of fundraising

According to a recent article in Contribute magazine entitled 'Donor drain: As mistrust grows, loyalty goes,' most nonprofits post an average gain of just 10 percent each year: they lose 52 percent of their donations, which is then offset by a 62 percent gain in new or upgraded donations.

Author Tracie McMillan equates this to 'pouring a river of money into a nearly open drain.'

There are two main points that this article suggests that non-profits must embrace in order to reduce the 'churn' of donors.

First is transparency in accounting and accountability about the community impact contributions make.

And the second is manking sure that donors are adequately thanked.

While United Way of Summit County suffers from some of the same loss of donors that other non-profit organizations face, we take great care in being full transparent with our finances and we strive to appropriately thank all our donors.

So, as we continue to reach out to new donors and increase the money available to our affiliated agencies to help them do more of what they do and do it better, your United Way of Summit County will always work to ensure we keep as many of our current donors as we can.

To read the article in Contribute Magazine, click here.