In order for a not-for-profit to leverage your VA, like we covered with agencies, it’s important to know what the return on investment should look like.
Every charity works hard for every dollar donated, so it’s more important than ever that emails don’t build up and DMs don’t go unanswered when your team is under pressure. Because a slow reply can be the difference between getting that donation, or not.
The Goal:
Help us to catch up with our donor inbox and social DMs so we stop losing donations.
While recruiting for an admin role, this organisation’s unread emails were piling up. So too were their direct messages. With a team well over capacity and a fundraising promotion coming up in a few weeks, they needed interim support who could get up to speed quickly.
The Solution: Leverage your VA
In this case a Customer Service VA who could start immediately
We introduced a customer service VA with the capacity to catch up with the backlog. At the same time we introduced a backup VA so we could provide uninterrupted support in the event of Covid (which was working its way through the team). While we wouldn’t normally assign two VA’s to a short term client … thanks to Covid and labour shortages, these weren’t normal times.
Having good procedures in place meant we were able to hit the ground running; responding to all communications with common enquiries such as:
- how to donate
- how to get copies of receipts
- information on how the funds are appropriated
This also meant a much improved onboarding for the successful employee once they started.
Like any business, prompt response and clear communication make donors feel appreciated while giving them confidence in the charity. These responses can increase both the initial donation, and the golden (or second) donation … by which many charities measure success.
This is an excellent article if you’re looking for more information on Donor Retention, with some good strategies to increase golden donations.
The Results: ROI of $4,270
In the two month’s we were supporting, we increased monthly donation revenue by 23%. This was attributed to the fast response.
We also improved the retention rate from 30% to 44% (an increase of 14%).
How we measured ROI
One Action
If you’re an organisation under pressure, and this is affecting your response times, consider the cost. Consider how interim support could improve your response times, and what would that return on investment look like for your charity … and your cause.
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