The 3 year itch – Get ahead of the fundraising curve by never standing still
So, you have your sparkly new fundraising product, months of planning behind you, internal debates on big decisions now long forgotten. You have an affluent, engaged audience to market to, a great creative and strategy to drive the product forward, and you have had a successful year one. Fantastic work: go celebrate that you’ve achieved something special – something that many don’t.
But the harsh truth is that no matter how good year 1 has performed, your fundraising product will decline at some stage. At some point, you will notice a significant downturn in income, and sign-up numbers will be fewer than in previous years. You will instantly know from the underperforming data that will be fed through day by day. Sometimes, there is a slight downturn year on year, but your fundraising products will often fall off the cliff with little warning. This can happen at some point, just as it does with any commercial product in the commercial world if it’s left standing still (did you know that 95% of commercial products created each year fail).
Okay, you may be thinking, who’s this fella with a negative attitude? Absolutely not, so please hear me out. This is a practical mindset approach and something that should be built into your plan and strategy. Products cannot stand still. Behaviours change, trends change, technology changes, and media trends sway from this to that.
Other charities (potentially competitors) bring similar products into market and talk to your audience. Supporters want to see progression, the new, improved version of what was initially so successful. As marketeers, we have to ‘sing for our supper’; we have to work hard to continually engage with our audience in exciting new ways. We cannot stand still, and we cannot take what we have for granted. Our products need a little love; the reward is having our fantastic supporters engaging with us, championing us, participating, fundraising, and donating.
From our experience working on hundreds of products and campaigns over the years, it’s the 3-year turning point when we see this pattern of behaviour. We call this the ‘3-Year Itch’. There are many reasons why the decline of a product can happen. It’s very rarely one single thing, but rather several important, but sometimes small, things, many of which can be easily addressed before a potential decline.
If we have something successful, let’s invest in it, fight for it to progress, cherish it and never take it or our audience for granted by standing still. It’s more cost-effective to re-shape an existing product than it is to invest in a new one.