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Giving increased .7% but you won’t hear many people celebrating and that’s really too bad
They were wrong.
Remember when the Lilly School predicted at least a $13 billion drop in giving due to the Trump Tax Cut (which would have taken us to $376 billion)?
Instead, we saw a .7% rise in real dollars to $427.71 billion.
They should have egg on their faces for their doomsday prediction. Instead I’m seeing reporters spin the recently released Giving USA data on last year’s charitable giving saying “the tax cut made people less generous.”
Good grief! Not true!!
Folks, the real reason people are giving just a little bit less (in inflation-adjusted dollars) is because people are fed up! They (your current and potential supporters) are sick and tired of being pummeled again and again by over-solicitous fundraising tactics that fail to provide value to them. PERIOD!
If you want to raise more money, keep focusing on providing value to your supporters. MAKE THEM FEEL GOOD!! Especially your major and legacy gift donors.
People are generous. But only if you treat them right. It’s just that simple!
Have a nice day. 🙂
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Feeling like your job is getting harder because donor expectations have changed and competition for the charitable dollar is growing?
Finding that the old orthodoxies and conventions espoused by so-called experts in online echo-chambers and at conferences don’t work anymore?
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Then this book is for you.
Engagement Fundraising was developed from the perspective of a donor who discovered firsthand that the impersonal, spray-and-pray approaches of his beloved charity were not only offensive but also wasteful and ineffective. So he took action. And now, you can too.
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In Denver CO, our major gifts of $1,000 or more decreased by 19% in our FY 2018 -19 which began July 1, 2018 compared to the previous fiscal year. I work for a human services agency. We have certainly experienced a downward trend for the first time in years driven by the new tax law.
So are you saying you had specific conversations with the major donors and they said explicitly that they stopped giving because they did not get a tax benefit?
Honestly, I’d be surprised if that was the case. Most people’s passion (especially among those who can afford to make 4-figure donations) for a cause does not wane in that way.
I strongly suggest you use my Fundraising Report Card (www.fundraisingreportcard.com) to identify who stopped giving. Then call them and ask them why. I seriously doubt they’ll say it’s because of the tax law and, instead, will tell you other reasons.
They did not stop giving but the amount of their gifts decreased well below $1,000. Thank you.