NYC Donor Reengagement and Matching Recruitment

Report by: NYC Fundraising Committee
Raising for: State Bridges + Candidates
Date: March-April
Time: 2 hrs/committee member
Total raised: $3,500 for New Virginia Majority + 4 Commitments for Future Matching Donations

What are the steps you took for this process?

1. Downloaded the donor records from 2020 from our Knack Fundraising Portal
2. Sorted the list from highest dollar amount to lowest to gage what our threshold would be for this reengagement process ($100)
3. Created a Google Sheet to share with the entire NYC leadership team to help “divide & conquer” the list. Team Leaders were then able to “claim” a donor they had a personal relationship with to maximize the impact of the donor solicitation. For those no Team Leader had connection with, members of the fundraising team would assign themselves to make those contacts. The members of the Fundraising Team each reached out to 15-20 people and the other Team Leaders found 3-5 connections that they would reach out to.
4. Crafted an email to share with these donors (below) to offer donors three different ways to maximize the impact of their giving — hosting a friendraiser, serving as a matching donor or joining our recruiting friends for a giving circle

What results did you see?

1. This was an easy lift for leadership members outside of the fundraising committee to take to maximize fundraising (less than 15 minutes spent emailing & phone calling for each donor lead with the pre-crafted language)
2. This was also a good opportunity to delegate the fundraising leadership roles; by assigning each chair a specific type of giving, we are able to spend more time developing the ask, implementation and follow through of the process.
3. $3,500 raised from previous donors to SDP NYC

Example Email

Dear First Name,

Thank you for being such a generous and energetic supporter of Sister District and our candidates over the last four years. You make the work and the wins possible!

This year, in addition to our usual events and fundraisers, we’d like to help you to optimize your efforts in any of these three ways:

• Friendraisers: a fundraiser designed for and promoted to the host’s friends/network. You can host your friends in person or virtually or do it by email. Sister District NYC’s Fundraising Team will be available to assist and guide you: you can reach out to Betsy Spanbock to learn more about Friendraising.
• Matching Donations: Matching donors pledge to contribute a pre-determined amount when our team has succeeded in raising the equivalent in donations. Matching challenges are an effective tool that help our members set ambitious, measurable goals and amplify the impact of our team’s fundraising in a powerful way. Even if you can’t give a lot, we can group a number of donors together to make a match (e.g. 5 people x $100 = $500 match). Please reach out to Chad Horner if you’re interested in becoming a matching donor (for any amount!).
• Giving Circles: Giving Circles are a group of friends who agree to make a donation every month to a specified cause. This is a very high-impact form of relational organizing. Our experienced team can help get you started, create dedicated donation links so you can track your progress, and provide support every step of the way: you can reach out to Brooke Nadell to learn more about Giving Circles.

We hope you’ll consider participating in one of these ways. If you have a preference of how you want your money to be allocated (e.g. to our candidates or to one of our State Bridges organizations), that can be accommodated. And of course we hope to see you at events this year and we are thankful for any support you give.

Thanks for your consideration,
SD NYC Fundraising Team
Chad Horner, Brooke Nadell, Tracey Ryan, Betsy Spanbock