In today’s pod we sat down with Dr. Margaret Faulkner, Senior Marketing Scientist at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science to talk about how nonprofits really grow.
The Institute is famous for its evidence-based approach to marketing and the groundbreaking book How Brands Grow. Dr. Faulkner brings decades of research from blue-chip commercial brands to the nonprofit sector, challenging some of our most deeply held beliefs about donor loyalty, retention, and brand differentiation.
Key Takeaways
- Acquisition Beats Retention for Growth: While the nonprofit sector has heavily indexed on donor retention for the last 20 years, science shows that acquisition is actually the vital driver of growth. Because donors naturally lapse due to changing life circumstances (attrition), you must continually acquire new donors just to stand still, let alone grow. Relying solely on retention will eventually erode your donor file and lead to a deficit.
- The Law of Double Jeopardy: Smaller charities often assume they have better loyalty and deeper connections with their donors than massive organizations. However, research proves otherwise. Big brands naturally have higher loyalty metrics simply because they are highly visible and easy to think of.
- Mental Availability & Category Entry Points: To grow, you need “mental availability”—the propensity for a donor to easily think of your brand. This is built by connecting your charity to “Category Entry Points,” which are the real-life triggers that prompt someone to give (e.g., tax time, turning 60 and wanting to run a marathon, or wanting to leave a legacy).
- Physical Availability: Mental availability is useless if it’s hard to make a gift. Physical availability means making your online platforms streamlined and ensuring that donating, volunteering, or signing up for events requires as few clicks as possible.
- Focus On Marketing Reach: When spending your marketing budget, prioritize broad reach over high frequency. It is better to reach a wide audience once than to inundate a small group of the same people multiple times. Ensure your creative uses distinctive brand assets early on to capture attention in a cluttered environment.
—
⛰️ Don’t miss out on the next BuildGood Summit! Sign up to be the first to know about the dates, location and super early bird discounted tickets at www.buildgoodsummit.com
🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/
🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/
❤️ And if you haven’t yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1
Thanks for listening!
