Midlevel Study: Discussion Guide
Several colleagues have shared that they have hosted small gatherings within their organizations to review our latest study of midlevel donors The Missing Middle Part IV and to discuss how to apply the findings to their work.
We were inspired by the gatherings and thought we’d put together a discussion guide in case others want to do the same. See questions and thought experiments below.
For those of you who haven’t read the report, you can download it here. As a reminder, our team along with the folks at Edge Research surveyed nearly 6,000 midlevel donors from 36 organizations and the report showcases what motivates midlevel donors to give, what keeps them engaged and what might encourage them to increase their support.
Our hope is that this data can help midlevel fundraisers foster even more satisfying donor relationships.
- How are we creating the next generations of midlevel donors?
- With many Boomers deep into retirement, how are we passing the torch to Generation X?
- How can we start building relationships with Millennials and GenZ who may not yet be in their midlevel giving years, but who are creating relationships with their favored causes now?
- How will we measure success over the long-term?
2. How are we currently identifying major donor prospects from our midlevel file and what might this study tell us about that strategy?
3. How might we optimize our bequest/planned giving strategy based on this data?
4. How do we want to approach conversations with midlevel donors about non-program spending? How, if at all, can we leverage the fact that younger donors appear to be less focused on non-program spending?
5. What optimizations should we make to our website in order to make the case for giving at the midlevel and facilitating the gift?
- What shifts might we make to cater to All Business donors?
- What activities/engagements might we offer Engagement Seekers and Hands-On donors?
- Engagement Seekers, in particular, want more opportunities to share their own views and opinions with us. How might we make that possible?
- How can we provide more choices for midlevel donors to tell us what they want to receive from us and by what channel?
- How might we start shifting our segmentation strategy to reflect the profiles?
7. How can we attract and retain more non-white donors?