Viguerie’s BLOG: Lifetime Value

Post #7

November 24th, 2024

Dear Conservative Leader/Activist,

If you don’t know the Lifetime Value (LTV) of your donors, you have no idea how much money you should invest to acquire a new donor.

Yes, I know it’s difficult to determine the LTV—there are so many variables, including you’re a new organization and you have no experience with receiving wills and bequests; you don’t know how long the average donor will contribute; you don’t know how effective your development team will be, etc. But you must make an effort to come away with an average/range, e.g., “somewhere between $100 and $200,” or “at least $1,000,” and “probably not more than $2,000,” etc.

What should you include in your LTV? The answer is—everything.

• Net from regular (usually monthly) postal mailings to your donors
• Net from emails to your donors
• Any net from newsletters
• Monthly giving programs
• Major gifts
• Wills/bequests
• Income from rental or exchange of your donor file
• Income from fundraising dinners, receptions, etc.
• Etc., etc.

Lifetime Value means Lifetime Value, not the value of new donors after 1-3-5-or even 10 years.  The LTV of donors often includes their largest gift—the one you receive after their death.

If you don’t make an attempt to determine the LTV, you will have no idea how much to invest on acquiring new donors, which means most of the time you’ll be super cautious and not spend near enough to acquire new donors, which means you’ll leave lots of money on the table for others.

Of course, only part of the LTV of your donors/supporters consists of the donations they give you.

When considering your LTV, keep in mind the purpose of your organization and the value of all the benefits from your mailings, including education, building your BRAND, BRANDING your opponents, passing or defeating legislation, etc.  Remember the 3^rd largest form of advertising is postal mail.