Children of the Nations
Moving beyond child sponsorships
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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.
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Solution
Veritus Group helped provide major gift training focused on asking, accountability, solicitation strategies and stretch goals/asks.
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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!”
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)!
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
$220k
Increased Giving
In just the first year of the partnership, three MGO caseloads produced increased giving of $220,000.
More FEATURED CASE STUDIES
Greater Public
Fundraising in public media has a long history of highly successful membership drives. But over recent years, the trend line for membership has been flattening, and it became clear that philanthropic giving remained underdeveloped. Together, Veritus Group and Greater Public set out to see if public media stations could shift from a membership mindset into a relationship fundraising model.
Pinky Swear Foundation
Despite open lines of communication between Program and Fundraising, Pinky Swear lacked an efficient and consistent way to leverage their data to really show donors what their specific gift would mean for the families served.
Lock Haven University
The university needed a strategy for developing long-term relationships with donors so that they didn’t depend solely on events for giving.