Penelope Burk
President, Cygnus Applied Research, Inc.

    Donor-Centered Fundraising is the breakthrough concept in donor communication and fundraising that raises more money by retaining donors longer and maximizing their generosity earlier. Donor-Centered Fundraising focuses on providing donors with the three things that impact their loyalty and gift value, as determined by seven years of research in donor communication and recognition conducted by Cygnus Applied Research, Inc. (Chicago, Toronto, York, UK).

Benefits and Learning Objectives

1. Understand the serious impact of donor attrition (the loss of donors) on fundraising performance and how modern-day practices keep cost per dollar raised artificially and unnecessarily high.
2. Understand the fundamental causes of donor attrition and how opting for quality of relationship with a manageable number of donors over increasing the volume of donors actually makes much more money.
3. Know that it is entirely within the control of charities and their fundraising personnel to overcome the things that cause donors to stop giving or give less than they could. A "donor-centered" approach to fundraising, which is fundraising redesigned on a customer service model, is both possible and lucrative.
4. Have several pragmatic strategies in gift acknowledgment and donor communication which can be implemented immediately and which will have a direct impact on monies raised the very next time donors are solicited.