Reimagining How We Make Fundraising Easy
2021 was another challenging year for most industries and the fundraising sector was certainly not exempt from this. Unfortunately, many of the recruitment channels that underpin charities’ sustainability and growth were again massively hampered by the ongoing restrictions of the pandemic. That said, there are many positives to be grateful for and the resilience of regular give donors is very much one of these.
Despite obvious challenges, we’ve seen approval rates (payment success rates) remain strong in all markets, we’ve seen no significant uplift in attrition rates for those donors who are already giving and in general we’ve seen average gifts increase slightly throughout the year. All of these factors again highlight the importance of charities building their own regular give donor bases. Our experience is that those charities who already have these bases have seen income levels remain far more stable and, in some cases, still continue to grow.
At SG Support, as we look towards 2022, our focus will be to provide charity partners with more options, more flexibility. Historically, we’ve focused on developing a holistic approach to donor stewardship – owning all aspects of the donor journey to maximise the opportunities for continuity and leverage the benefits of seeing the whole giving picture. Whilst we still see this approach as optimal, we recognise that for some charities, having the flexibility to choose the services most essential to them and being able to integrate SG in a more modular approach, may be beneficial to them. This new approach will see SG work in partnership with more third-party CRMs, payment providers and communication platforms. In doing so, it is my hope that SG will be able to allow even more charities to benefit from our unique market position, fundraising products and experience.
Hope to see you all soon.
RP
Since our founding in 2008, SG Support has been guided by a belief in the power of collaboration and the idea that working in partnership with charities to grow their regular give campaigns will bring about lasting change.
In the past year, we were inspired by those who continued to advocate for accountability and change in the world, while grappling with the effects of the pandemic. We witnessed the relentless effort and commitment from our charity partners to ensure that aid continued to be channelled to those in our communities who were in need, despite the unexpected challenges the year brought.
Our values guide our actions, which is why we are constantly looking for ways to provide new and better fundraising solutions, and improve our existing offerings, so our charity partners can focus on their missions. We are proud and honoured to have been able to support these great organisations to meet their fundraising goals with our end-to-end donor acquisition and retention programmes.
While we are proud of what we have achieved, our work is not done. We are committed to continually innovating solutions to make fundraising easy in a post-covid world for non-profits everywhere.
Since our founding in 2008, SG Support has been guided by a belief in the power of collaboration and the idea that working in partnership with charities to grow their regular give campaigns will bring about lasting change.
In the past year, we were inspired by those who continued to advocate for accountability and change in the world, while grappling with the effects of the pandemic. We witnessed the relentless effort and commitment from our charity partners to ensure that aid continued to be channelled to those in our communities who were in need, despite the unexpected challenges the year brought.
Our values guide our actions, which is why we are constantly looking for ways to provide new and better fundraising solutions, and improve our existing offerings, so our charity partners can focus on their missions. We are proud and honoured to have been able to support these great organisations to meet their fundraising goals with our end-to-end donor acquisition and retention programmes.
While we are proud of what we have achieved, our work is not done. We are committed to continually innovating solutions to make fundraising easy in a post-covid world for non-profits everywhere.
Donations Collected
Transactions Processed
New Recurring Donors
Donations Collected
Transactions Processed
New Recurring Donors
Never has our purpose been so pivotal than in the past year, with the continued disruption of face-to-face acquisition in many markets, coupled with natural disasters, political unrest, and regulatory changes putting additional pressures on donor base retention.
Fortunately, we were better prepared this time around, not just to respond to unexpected situations but to be one step ahead. The strength of our operating processes and the resilience of our teams ensured that donations could continue to be processed in a secure and timely manner from any remote location. In 2021, we collected $156 million worth of donations and processed more than 9 million charitable transactions for over 60 charities across 14 countries.
Mobilising alternative acquisition and retention strategies meant reimagining what it means to be “hands-on” at a time that required flexibility and innovation. In the past year, we challenged ourselves to think out of the box to find new ways to reach donors and help them support the causes they love. We provided our non-profit partners with timely, data-driven insights to help with reactivating face-to-face campaigns, setting up alternative fundraising channels, and making sense of individual giving trends in their respective markets. No matter the method, our aim is to bring charities and donors a little closer using a donor-focused programme in support of our broader fundraising engagement initiatives.
Payment processing is at the heart of every regular give programme, and at SG Support, we are constantly looking for new ways to optimise billing cycles and increase approval rates. With Project Phoenix, we set out to test non-intrusive changes to the billing process which aimed to improve long-term approval rates and, by extension, donors’ giving lifecycles.
Spanning three markets and twelve months, the tests yielded valuable insights on payment card approvals, recovery rates after donation lapses, intelligence on failed collections and the potential for incremental LTV from selected donor segments.
The fundraising sector has been on a journey of digital transformation in recent years, and we are committed to supporting charities in seamlessly adapting to digital technologies. SG Support’s new digital donor acquisition platform, signUP, is a cloud-based contactless tool which allows fundraisers to use QR codes to sign up new donors. In the past year, we’ve completed successful tests in Malaysia and Korea.
signUP has the potential to increase piece rates for face-to-face fundraisers, allow charities to receive donations faster, provide better cash-flow, and reduce cancellation before first debits. In an environment where donors were sheltering at home and face-to-face acquisition was disrupted, we enabled charities to pivot to a hybrid model of digital acquisition. In the past year, we have helped charities test and optimise digital-led donor acquisition campaigns, providing the starting point for additional revenue streams.
We believe that localised, data-driven fundraising decisions drive results. Our data experts are constantly developing a variety of data models to improve fundraising decision-making and ultimately increase campaign ROIs. Our newly developed retrospective cohort analysis for retention, Donor Survival Rate, helps charities understand the percentage of donors that can be expected to continue to be active givers in the years following their first gift.
Our showcase study of the Malaysian donor base highlighted that donor cohorts acquired in pre-pandemic years remained largely loyal in 2020 (the pandemic onset). The Donor Survival Rate model could shed light on whether donor cohorts acquired during the pandemic (2020 and 2021) may exhibit lower retention rates in years to come. These insights could help charities better predict long-term campaign ROIs and devise targetted retention strategies.
Payment processing is at the heart of every regular give programme, and at SG Support, we are constantly looking for new ways to optimise billing cycles and increase approval rates. With Project Phoenix, we set out to test non-intrusive changes to the billing process which aimed to improve long-term approval rates and, by extension, donors’ giving lifecycles.
Spanning three markets and twelve months, the tests yielded valuable insights on payment card approvals, recovery rates after donation lapses, intelligence on failed collections and the potential for incremental LTV from selected donor segments.
The fundraising sector has been on a journey of digital transformation in recent years, and we are committed to supporting charities in seamlessly adapting to digital technologies. SG Support’s new digital donor acquisition platform, signUP, is a cloud-based contactless tool which allows fundraisers to use QR codes to sign up new donors. In the past year, we’ve completed successful tests in Malaysia and Korea.
signUP has the potential to increase piece rates for face-to-face fundraisers, allow charities to receive donations faster, provide better cash-flow, and reduce cancellation before first debits. In an environment where donors were sheltering at home and face-to-face acquisition was disrupted, we enabled charities to pivot to a hybrid model of digital acquisition. In the past year, we have helped charities test and optimise digital-led donor acquisition campaigns, providing the starting point for additional revenue streams.
We believe that localised, data-driven fundraising decisions drive results. Our data experts are constantly developing a variety of data models to improve fundraising decision-making and ultimately increase campaign ROIs. Our newly developed retrospective cohort analysis for retention, Donor Survival Rate, helps charities understand the percentage of donors that can be expected to continue to be active givers in the years following their first gift.
Our showcase study of the Malaysian donor base highlighted that donor cohorts acquired in pre-pandemic years remained largely loyal in 2020 (the pandemic onset). The Donor Survival Rate model could shed light on whether donor cohorts acquired during the pandemic (2020 and 2021) may exhibit lower retention rates in years to come. These insights could help charities better predict long-term campaign ROIs and devise targetted retention strategies.
$10.8M Collected
881K Transactions
$6.9M Collected
277K Transactions
$24.1M Collected
1.8M Transactions
$9.9M Collected
401K Transactions
$5.5M Collected
348K Transactions
$13.5M Collected
684K Transactions
$52M Collected
3.9M Transactions
$10.1M Collected
829K Transactions
$23.1M Collected
455K Transactions
$126K Collected
6.9K Transactions
$52M Collected
3.9M Transactions
$23.1M Collected
455K Transactions
$24.1M Collected
1.8M Transactions
$10.8M Collected
881K Transactions
$13.5M Collected
684K Transactions
$10.1M Collected
829K Transactions
$6.9M Collected
277K Transactions
$9.9M Collected
401K Transactions
$5.5M Collected
348K Transactions
$126K Collected
6.9K Transactions
No matter the challenges the year presented, we held firm to our core promises.
We understand the challenges in fundraising and strive to provide solutions so our charity partners can go out and change the world.
Knowledge is power. And we are passionate about sharing what we know with others, because together, we are so much stronger.
In banner years and through difficult times, our charity partners can trust us to take care of the operational nitty gritty and deliver on goals.
We are constantly evolving our donor retention practices to respond to changing donor profiles, giving trends, as well as technological and environmental advances. However, the overarching purpose is always to provide every donor with the best possible giving experience so they can continue to support the causes they care about. This means communicating clearly and accurately about how their gifts are making a difference, using the right channels, at the right time. In 2021, across 14 countries, we reached out to donors via:
We are constantly evolving our donor retention practices to respond to changing donor profiles, giving trends, as well as technological and environmental advances. However, the overarching purpose is always to provide every donor with the best possible giving experience so they can continue to support the causes they care about. This means communicating clearly and accurately about how their gifts are making a difference, using the right channels, at the right time. In 2021, across 14 countries, we reached out to donors via:
Our mission is to make fundraising easy for our charity partners so they can do their best work, helping those in need. And it is our talented, dedicated employees who make this happen, day after day. People are at the centre of everything we do. We believe that our people are our best asset and we strive to ensure we remain a dynamic, inclusive and fun place to work.
New Staff Joined the Fold
Staff Celebrated 10 Years & Above
Days in a Hybrid Work Environment
As we emerge from the pandemic and look to the future, our focus will be to provide enhanced, modular fundraising solutions which address the needs of the 21st century non-profit. The age of the digital-first donor requires integrated systems and data-driven strategies. In addition, as the donor giving cycle matures, it is imperative that we look for ways to optimise the results of retention interventions through rapid test-and-learn models.
Key developments in the pipeline for 2022 include:
API integration with third-party platforms such as Salesforce to allow for seamless and rapid data exchange between SG and charities
Integrated donor acquisition solutions including QR code sign-up and POS debit capabilities
Contact centre optimisation including advanced data segmentation and standardisation of reporting metrics.
We are immensely grateful for the continued trust our charity partners put in us and for the spirit of partnership that fuels the good work we do together. The fundraising sector is at the cusp of an exciting new era and we are hopeful that our commitment to innovate and adapt will help power non-profits into the next level.
SG Support exists to make fundraising easy for charities by working in partnership to acquire new donors, retain existing ones
and win back those who have left. We do this through our complete suite of services that range from providing data-driven strategies,
consultancy and ensuring the smooth running of the operational aspects of payment processing, contact centre and financial reporting.
Since our establishment in 2002, we have grown to become the world’s largest fundraising agency working with 70 charities in more than
14 countries, managing over 3 million donors.
SG Support exists to make fundraising easy for charities by working in partnership to acquire new donors, retain existing ones
and win back those who have left. We do this through our complete suite of services that range from providing data-driven strategies,
consultancy and ensuring the smooth running of the operational aspects of payment processing, contact centre and financial reporting.
Since our establishment in 2002, we have grown to become the world’s largest fundraising agency working with 70 charities in more than
14 countries, managing over 3 million donors.