24/06/10
The third year of the PFRA’s annual Donor Attrition and Retention Survey (DARS) suggests that the effects of the recession might not be as bad as previously feared.
DARS – devised and conducted for the PFRA by Morag Fleming of Scottish social care charity Quarriers, and Rupert Tappin of Future Fundraising (both pictured) – records how many donors cancel their Direct Debits at monthly intervals after they first sign up.
This year, 27 charities took part recording attrition figures for 750,000 donors recruited in campaigns dating back to 2006.
Attrition is usually around 50 per cent after the first year for street F2F and slightly lower for door F2F. In other words, for all donors who sign up, 50 per cent have cancelled their Direct Debit after a year.
DARS 2009 predicted that attrition for street F2F was going to rise to about 56 per cent. However, with all the data collected in DARS 2010, the actual figure was only 53 per cent, and is not expected to increase this year either.
The survey also suggests that doorstep F2F attrition is actually falling. With five months data collected for donors recruited in 2010, retention levels are significantly higher than for any previous year covered by an edition of DARS (2004, 2006-9), meaning more donors recruited on the doorstep are staying with their chosen charities. If the trend continues, retention levels for doorstep F2F will be around 44-45 per cent this year, compared to the more usual 48 per cent.
Both Fleming and Tappin attribute this to charities exercising better donor care.
“The recession has certainly caused us problems, but perhaps they are not as bad as we might have feared,” Morag Fleming says. “However, that is probably because street fundraising is experiencing the same improvement in donor care and stewardship that has lead to improved doorstep attrition levels and so this is offsetting the worst effects of the recession.”
More details about the DARS 2010 – which was presented to delegates at the PFRA’s AGM in June – can be found in the press release.
The full survey will be distributed to participating charities in early July and made more widely available to the PFRA membership later this year.
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