The Tyranny of One-Time Gifts

As a veteran fundraiser I have become familiar with a few mailing lists. In my humble opinion, I can take a few specifics about an organizations mailing list and make a few relatively useful observations. With a good look, I can make assumptions about how long an organization has been in operation to how many major donor prospects the organizations is overlooking.

One of the routinely overlooked characteristics I find in is an organizations one-time gift list. This list consists of batches of gifts typically linked to particular events or mailings. Good fundraising software will pull this sort of list relatively easily- some do it better than others. Regardless of the type of organization (large or small, local or national, religious or political), the large majority of these gifts will range between $25 and $100 with a few notable exceptions. One-time gifts are missed opportunities- individuals who at some point expressed an interest in the organization and have since taken their interest elsewhere.

The one-time gift is a classic dysfunction of a development office. For whatever reasons, and rest assured there are a few, an organizations one-time gift list is nothing to be proud of. The greater the length of time that has elapsed since a one-time gift was received can be even more embarrassing. If you show me two or three dozen one-time gifts without a single subsequent gift in the mix I can show you an organization that was not doing its job. If they insist they were doing their job I can show a renewal strategy that needs some serious work.

It is important to recognize the distinction between a first-time gift and a one-time gift. A one-time gift was obviously first-time gift at some point. In my office, a first-time gift is any single gift received from a new donor within the last twelve months. A one-time gift is any single gift received more than a year ago with no subsequent gift. An increasing number of first-time gifts year-to-year is strength. An increasing number of one-time gifts each year-to-year are a weakness.

In addition to distinguishing between first-time and one-time gifts, an organization also wants to recognize the difference between a one-time and multi-year pledge. In some cases the later will appear on a one-time gift report only because the pledge has yet to receive its second installment. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have become a big fan of multi-years pledges for a variety of reasons.

What an organization can typically say about their one-time gifts is very little. They know who gave them, the event or appeal that was responded to, and they can make some assumptions as to why the particular solicitation was successful. They don’t know whether the gift was necessarily intended as a one-time gift or whether it was intended to be the first of several. If the one-time gift was renewable they have no idea how large than subsequent gift could have been.

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