Samenvatting

In January 2013, I approached the Utrecht-based NGO LiveBuild to inform if I could write my thesis for them. After some preliminary research, it turned out that they could use some help in the realm of communication. LiveBuild was established in 2008 and had acquired over 1500 structural donors since then. However, despite this and other successes, LB is exponentially losing its donors. Therefore, the main question of this thesis is: How can LiveBuild improve the relationship with their structural donors so they remain loyal to the organization? This thesis and the advice is written from a marketing perspective, since this has proven profitable for over five decades. The paradigm within marketing that will be addressed, is called “friendraising”. Friendraising is a fairly new concept within fundraising. It is aimed to look at donor relations not merely from a financial perspective, but to seek the person behind the money and, if possible, build a relationship. However, in order to establish such a relationship, a cause has to know itself as well as its donor. The following concepts help to establish that knowledge: • Identity – “the way an organization sees itself” • Image – “the way the organization is seen by its donors” • Reputation – “the overall opinion of the donor that is a result of image and identity” • Reciprocity – “the expectation of receiving something in return” • Trust – “The believe that somebody or something is good, sincere, honest, etc.” • Satisfaction – “the act of fulfilling a need or desire” • Involvement – “participating or feeling part of something”. There are several subsequent stages before reaching loyalty. The aim of this thesis was to find the missing link so that, with the advice in this thesis, LiveBuild - will be able to repair it. From the research can be concluded that LB does not have an image or identity problem; the cause has clear what it stands for and this is also reflected on its donors. It does seem however that LB’s reputation at the moment is somewhat fragile and subject to mild criticism and (at least) one rumor. Furthermore all three stages before involvement (reciprocity, trust, and satisfaction) are already said to be reached by at least 70% of the donors. The bottleneck, however seems to be the lack of involvement. Since donors do not (want to) feel part of the organization they feel less compelled to stay. For this reason, LB is highly recommended to strengthen the friendship with its donors. This can be done in three areas: • Recruiting new donors through friends of LB • Letting existing donors know they are heroes • Respecting the donors that do not want to intensify the relationship