1. Client Story
  2.  » Children of the Nations

Children of the Nations

Moving beyond child sponsorships
A child sponsorship organization needed to raise funds for programs and projects, too. Veritus trained them to ask for more.
  1. Problem / Challenge

COTN staff were good at stewardship of their child sponsorship donors. But they needed to raise funds for programs and projects, over and above the sponsorships.

  1. Solution

Veritus Group helped provide major gift training focused on asking, accountability, solicitation strategies and stretch goals/asks.

  1. Results

     

COTN fundraisers had a clearer path to successfully managing donors, more intentional touches and larger asks. AND, they increased their revenue by 9% while reducing donor attrition by almost 1/3.

“Our Veritus coach has been so great to work with. She always follows up, cares about how I’m doing, knows each team member, and actively works to help us succeed. Debi is quick to respond and thinks strategically — she’s always encouraging me to push myself to be better. We love Veritus Group!”

– Fraser Ratzlaff

Director of Development, Children of the Nations

Going Beyond Sponsorships

What the Organization Needed

COTN staff wanted Major Gift training, concentrating on Solicitation, as they were good at stewardship – they are a child sponsorship organization, and they care for sponsors well.  Yet the organization needed to raise funds for programs and projects, over and above the sponsorships.

They needed to cultivate donors into deeper relationships with the organization, resulting in larger gifts. They wanted a structure and some solicitation strategies and training. And their donor value attrition was at 48%, way too high.

With Veritus Group’s help and training, COTN fundraisers learned the Permission-Based Asking conversation model and grew donated income by an average 10% each year for three years. They also reduced donor value attrition by almost 1/3 and kept gaining donors even during COVID.

One high-net-worth donor working with an MGO loved the mission, was very savvy, and was increasing his gifts by $50K every year; he gave $220K in early 2020. The Veritus Coach helped the MGO create a proposal with an ask of $400K in December 2020. The donor gave $405K in January 2021 (an increase of $185K)!

Cancer survivor with smiling child.

The Results

Heart

Personal Stories

Donors are saying: “Thank you for sharing stories of impact” “Wow! You are calling to thank me for a gift of $500?” “I appreciate having someone at COTN to connect with.”

31%

Lower Value Attrition

Before working with Veritus, an analysis showed a value attrition year-over-year of 48%. After one year, the attrition rate for the entire donor file was 33%; that’s a 31% improvement!.

$220k

Increased Giving

In just the first year of the partnership, three MGO caseloads produced increased giving of $220,000.

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