Building a Grassroots Donor-Base

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Summary:

During this episode of the 7-Figure Fundraising Podcast, host Trevor Bragdon speaks with Scott Hennig, the president and CEO of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. 

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been a unique nonprofit taxpayer advocacy group in Canada for the last 29 years. Scott has worked for the Federation for 14 years, moving up the ranks before taking over leadership in 2019. Across Canada, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has over 200,000 members and activists. 

Scott unpacks how the Canadian Taxpayers Federation uses grassroots fundraisers and one-on-one donor meetings to build a base of over 26,000 individual donors.

Who they are

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) began as a small group of people who wanted to fight the creation of new taxes in Canada. The nonprofit runs advocacy campaigns that motivate supporters and donors to take action and contact their politicians when they are opposed to (or in favor of) certain tax laws.

Scott says the nonprofit runs stunts, like driving a national debt clock around on a truck, to get their point across. Additionally, this year alone, he expects his team to give four to five thousand media interviews which is where Scott got his start in the nonprofit by participating in media interviews.

Scott shares that for his nonprofit, there’s no lack of issues to work on, which helps keep donors active. He estimates there are between 50 and 100 issues his team could work on at any given time, and the challenge is to pare down those issues to about 12. Scott also says he and his team are always on the watch for what the government will try to tax next.

CTF is also a nonpartisan organization, meaning none of their staff or board can join a political party or donate to a party or politician. This ensures they are consistent in fighting for lower taxes, less waste of funds and more government accountability. Scott says it is the secret to their longevity as a public policy nonprofit.

Raising money from small donors through field agents

Scott says his nonprofit has roughly 26,000 donors who make around 31,000 donations each year. Nearly 75 percent of those donations — about 3.2 million dollars — come through about 60 field agents.

12:10 “They’re usually out knocking on the doors of small businesses and farms and are setting up . . . meetings, doing the presentations, making the pitch and collecting donations. And the donations will range anywhere from one hundred to a couple thousand dollars.”

The other 25 percent of revenue comes through online donations, direct mail, and telemarketing.

Often, field agents will contact a small business or farm through a referral. However, if an agent starts working in a city in which no one from the organization has worked before, they will make cold calls and ask for appointments.

Field agents have a prepared presentation kit they take with them to each one-on-one donor meeting. In the donor presentation, they highlight what the nonprofit is doing, why they need the donor’s support and make an ask. A year later the field agent meets with the donor again, tells them what the nonprofit has been doing with their donation and asks them to donate a bit more.

Scott says the nonprofit’s field agents are constantly knocking on new doors, meeting with people who aren’t yet convinced to give and meeting with returning donors. Scott’s organization is successful in this area mainly because they maintain a high percentage of those donors.

15:39 “We typically retain about 85 to 90 percent of those donors.”

Scott thinks the yearly face-to-face meeting between donors and the field agents is what makes the difference because a lot more happens in those meetings than simple fundraising.

16:27 “They’re not just doing fundraising, but they’re also doing advocacy and they’re doing information sharing and motivating our supporters. . . . We’re not just looking for a check.”

Scott says field agents take time to inform donors about different petitions the nonprofit is working on and invite them to take part. That inclusion is what increases donor support and turns donors into activists. Donor meetings also act as an informal polling process that allows the nonprofit to know what the Canadian people are thinking in terms of public policy. 

18:58 “We get all kinds of really good tips from our supporters through our agents.”

Maintaining donor loyalty

Scott says a few years ago when celebrating the organization’s 25th anniversary, he looked into how many people had been donating for all 25 years.

19:54 “I was blown away that we had so many. There were almost 3,000 people who had been contributing to our organization every year for 25 years at that point.”

Those 3,000 donors make up nearly 15 percent of all of the organization’s donors. Scott says it’s very humbling because many donors have a longer history with the organization than he does. He says donors remain when an organization stays true to its vision.

Hiring field agents

Scott says that hiring field agents is not easy. In general, field agents at his nonprofit tend to be in their mid-50s and have a history in sales, owning a business, or farming. They have to be good at hearing a lot of “no’s”.

22:52 “But I’ll tell you, some of our most successful field agents have no sales history; they’re just very passionate about the mission. And the mission for them was what motivated them to get involved and that’s what keeps them around. You can’t replace passion. And you can’t force somebody who’s not passionate about what you’re doing to be there.”

Each field agent is given a region of Canada to cover as well as a list of returning donors with whom they will continue to meet. Scott says the agents’ hours and payment structure varies. Some agents are full-time, others work part-time, and others work based on commission. Scott says the agents typically meet with small business owners because they are usually the people most interested in opposing new taxes.

How to start grassroots fundraising

For anyone who wants to try a field agent-based fundraising model, Scott recommends starting small. He says this model is more to engage activists and is very infrastructure heavy.

34:03 “Hire a couple of people and send them out there trying to raise money. If it works, then grow and try to scale it. That’s the way we started.”

Scott also recommends aiming low in terms of expected donation amount. Start by asking for $100 instead of several thousand. He says this is the best way to start a grassroots network because more people will be willing and able to participate. Scott says organizations just starting to fundraise should take advantage of online fundraising streams as well. Scott also advises fundraisers in the advocacy space to recognize that two figure fundraising is also worthwhile.

39:14 “If someone is willing to give you $10, they’re invested. They’re going to take part in your campaigns, they’re going to go out there and rattle the cages of your politicians and they’re going to be as helpful as anyone else in getting your policy victories through in the end.”

For more information on Scott and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, visit taxpayer.com.

To find out how to become an expert fundraiser, visit 7figurefundraising.com.