# Minimum donation levels: do you turn down small donations?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/04/03/minimum-donation-levels/
- Published: 2008-04-03T11:58:33+01:00
- Author: Kevin Kibble

**What would you think if you were my colleague Fran who was called on at home the
other night by a fundraiser on behalf of a development charity? She didn’t know 
much about the charity, but after giving the fundraiser a good grilling she was 
impressed enough to give them a go and offered to sign up at £2 per month.**

Now instead of being welcomed as a new supporter, she was told that **£2 a month
wasn’t enough** and that **the minimum they could accept was £5 per month** – and
really that was pretty cheap as **they usually only take £10!** By the way, this
is not a sponsorship programme either.

The fundraiser walked away without Fran’s money and in her words “I went to bed 
feeling like a nasty cheapskate who doesn’t care enough”. Are we on dangerous ground
here? Whereas in the sector we understand about the costs involved in acquisition,
how would potential donors who have no understanding of fundraising return on investment
or lifetime values feel about being turned away as ‘not worth the effort’?

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My colleagues in **Whitewater Research** have shown that baby boomer generation 
donors don’t believe that we can change the world for £2 a month, but much of our
DRTV and DM recruitment is aimed at this level and other generations, and especially
the young, do think that it is OK to give at this level.

If all this wasn’t bad enough, next morning at work Fran decided she still liked
the idea of supporting this charity and thought she would check out their website
and give via online direct debit. **Same thing – nothing less than £5 is enough 
to make it worthwhile processing the payment.**

Now I don’t know if I’m missing something here, but in a world where it is getting
tougher to acquire new donors, to deliberately exclude donors who may be supporting
a few charities at £2 a month, or who maybe younger and not in a position to give
£5 a month, is either very brave or just a bit crazy. Target donors whose life stage
or circumstances put them in the higher gift bracket by all means, but this policy
of minimum donation levels is not one that any charity I support should consider
or I will certainly cancel.

 * **[ActionAid supporters are happy!](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/01/21/actionaid-supporters-are-happy/)**(
   21 January 2011)
 * **[FRSB and Samaritans to train charities in handling difficult calls from the public](https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/09/22/frsb-and-samaritans-train-charities-handling-difficult-calls-public/)**(
   22 September 2011)
 * **[7 simple steps for developing effective supporter journeys](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/03/16/7-simple-steps-for-developing-effective-supporter-journeys/)**(
   16 March 2015)

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