SPI Idea Contest Examples
Here are a few examples to get you thinking about your entry. These ideas are simply meant as illustrations – not expectations for entries.
- Announcing a leadership gift brings in more donor dollars than a matching gift offer for direct mail pieces.
- Do $3:$1 matches bring in more money than $1:$1 matches?
- Can information about other donors affect (or pressure) an individual donor to give more?
1. What fundraising idea would you like to see SPI Test?
Announcing a leadership gift brings in more donor dollars than a match.
Describe the rationale or thought-process behind your idea.
A few years ago, a donor bestowed a large gift and wanted our organization to leverage the funds to raise more dollars. Our staff was divided about the best method to approach our donor base; do we market the donation as a leadership gift or as matching dollars? We were unsure what was the best method and arbitrarily decided to utilize the funds as matching dollars. It was a successful fundraiser but we still debate to this day which method would have brought in more dollars.
How would you measure the ultimate success of this idea?
Success would be determined by the dollars raised and by how much. One strategy would have to outraise the other strategy by a substantial margin.
Optional: If you have unlimited resources and abilities, how would you test your idea?
A loyal donor gifted us $25,000 and we need to raise $75,000 more for our spring campaign. We could test whether a leadership gift or matching funds are more effective at increasing donations from our donor base by sending out a direct mail piece. Our donor base will receive both mail and email solicitations (our traditional method of fundraising) with one of the following messages:
- Help us reach our fundraising goal of $75,000 with your tax-deductible donation. We have already secured $25,000!
- Help us reach our fundraising goal of $75,000. Your tax-deductible donation will be doubled with a special matching gift, up to a total of $25,000.
SPI TIDBIT:
This has been tested! If given the choice, announcing the presence of a leadership gift increases the number of donations by 19%!
See SPI’s Resources Page: Matching Gift Effects for more information.
2. What fundraising idea would you like to see SPI Test?
Higher matches ($3: $1) bring in more money than $1: $1 matches
Describe the rationale or thought-process behind your idea.
We have a donor that likes to offer matches up to a certain amount. The donor and our organization believe that higher matches (3:1 or 2:1) bring in more dollars. However, we have never tested this theory. We are curious to see if this theory is true.
How would you measure the ultimate success of this idea?
Success would be measured by how much money was raised
Optional: If you have unlimited resources and abilities, how would you test your idea?
We would offer three different matches (3:1, 1:1 and no match) to our donors. We would let them know in direct mail (and email) pieces that we are offering a match. Each piece would be identical with the exception of the match amount (3:1, 1:1, no match).
SPI TIDBIT:
This has been tested! Announcing a match does increase the number of donations BUT 3:1 matches are just as effective as offering 1:1 matches or 1:3 matches. Larger or smaller matches have no additional effect on the desire to donate or the amount.
See SPI’s Resources Page: Matching Gift Effects for more information.
3. What fundraising idea would you like to see SPI Test?
Can information about other donors affect (or pressure) an individual donor to give more?
Describe the rationale or thought-process behind your idea.
We have noticed that with our major donors, informing them of another donor’s gifts can increase giving. We would like to see if this effect could be translated with our smaller (perhaps direct mail) donors.
How would you measure the ultimate success of this idea?
Results showing that information about other donors influenced the amount donors gave.
Optional: If you have unlimited resources and abilities, how would you test your idea?
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SPI TIDBIT:
This has been tested! If donor A is informed that donor B made a higher contribution than donor A, donation size increased by an average of $12. If donor A is informed that donor B made a lower contribution than the amount given by the donor A, donation size increased by an average of $24!
See SPI’s Resources Page: Social Information for more information.
