Allegiance Group + Pursuant stands at the forefront of innovation, empowering nonprofits with cutting-edge, tech-led marketing and fundraising solutions. With a legacy of decades in digital, web, UX, and advertising excellence, we have evolved into the ultimate one-stop-shop for nonprofits seeking a comprehensive, digital-first partner.

Our mission is bold: To inspire action and create a lasting impact. Allegiance Group + Pursuant brings together experts in strategy, fundraising, development, creativity, and analysis. We are not just a service provider; we are your growth catalyst. From expanding your supporter base to enhancing brand experiences and leveraging custom fundraising software, we drive strategic and intelligent growth.

Choose Allegiance Group + Pursuant for Strategy & Consulting, Web Design & Development, Digital Marketing, Membership Acquisition & Retention, Donation Platforms, Loyalty Programs, and more. Our clients feed the hungry, heal the sick, nourish souls, enrich lives, care for animals, and build minds. You have an important goal, and we’re thrilled to leverage our blend of data, technology, and award-winning creative to get you there.

About Alicia M. Lifrak: An enthusiastic team builder and change agent, Alicia’s entrepreneurial approach derives from the philosophy that one must enable and empower people through genuine relationship building to be successful. With more than three decades of philanthropic leadership experience, she has built a record of success in generating consistent and sustainable fundraising, membership, and organizational growth. She is passionate about helping nonprofits build capacity and increase philanthropic support to better serve their community and the greater good for the world at large. Alicia works cross-functionally with all teams to seek growth opportunities for existing and new prospective clients through data, strategy, and resource optimization.

By: Alicia Lifrak, Executive Vice President 

If you pay any attention to giving trends — and I hope you do — you’ve no doubt seen the alarm bells ringing around the decline in donors. Of course, this isn’t news. Donor counts have been declining for about a decade. In Q3 of 2023, donor participation fell 7.6% year-over-year (YOY). The most significant drop (-23.6%) has been among small and micro donors who give $500 or less.

But if you look past the headlines, you’ll see room for optimism. Revenue is either flat or slightly up YOY. The donors are out there; they just aren’t giving in ways that we traditionally count. For instance, Airbnb raised nearly $37 million to support Ukrainians in the first two weeks of the Russian invasion. This is where those missing micro and small donors are going — to urgent, cause-driven giving.

So, what does this mean for you? It’s time to get creative. Don’t try to squeeze even more out of your shrinking donor file with yet another email campaign. Instead, look at what the data says. Dig into the research on how the different generations in your file feel about philanthropy and respond to appeals.  

This work is at the heart of what we do at Allegiance Group + Pursuant. Our services range from strategy, consulting, and web design to member acquisition and donor identification. We work with hundreds of clients, including Greek and fraternal organizations. But so do a lot of agencies. What sets us apart is the thought leadership and data intelligence that informs all our projects and processes.

At a time when organizations are tightening their belts, it’s more important than ever to invest in partners that know the giving landscape and can help you grow. Think about it: would you rather work with the team that cites all the relevant research, or the team that conducts the research? We study our partners closely, survey our clients every quarter, and lean on our data tool GivingDNA to inform every campaign we build.

For instance, it doesn’t matter if the “industry” says you should be texting donors. If your audience doesn’t respond to text messages, then don’t send them.

You don’t need courage to buck industry trends — you just need a partner that knows what trends apply to your unique organization.

Consider our work with Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity with 193 chapters and more than 278,000 members among 290 college campuses. The small fundraising team found it difficult to focus on prospects at all potential giving levels. Specifically, given the fraternity’s vast pool of alumni (and their friends and family), it was hard for the team to identify the right prospects for in-person meetings.

Upon reviewing the suite of services we offer, the Phi Delta Theta team used GivingDNA to find major donors that were hiding right within their file. The results were staggering:

  • A newly acquired donor gave a $50,000 donation.
  • A retained donor gave $100,000.
  • The fraternity raised more than $200,000 in six months.

Phi Delta Theta also used GivingDNA to find a needle in a haystack — or, in this case, a prospective major donor in a city where it had no large donor community or any prospects who had previously given to the organization. The tool identified a philanthropic nondonor in the area with more than $25,000 in predicted discretionary spending. In a single meeting, the major gift officer secured a $10,000 donation.

GivingDNA is a valuable tool in our arsenal, but what makes it so powerful is the team behind it and how we approach campaigns. Our work is built around data-driven strategy and cutting-edge industry best practices. Take the popular topic of generational giving. In partnership with Classy, Allegiance Group + Pursuant conducted a generational giving analysis to help fundraisers appeal to the giving potential of Gen Z. For instance, we found that 53% of Gen Z donors are likely to repeat a donation for a cause they feel passionately about. And 38% of these donors have given to the same organization at least three times in the past five years.

I hope that grabbed your attention. Gen Z was born between 1997 and 2012, so they’re your most recent college graduates. And while this generation is considered digital natives, it’s hard to stand out among the onslaught of digital communications they receive. Based on our research, we tend to recommend direct mail to grab their attention instead. Just be sure to include a QR code so they can go online and make a quick gift.

No two nonprofits are the same, even if you serve the same type of audience. Through our work and research, we help clients see beyond the trendy campaign and instead rely on the data — what they know to be true about their audience. This ranges from what communications they prefer to how they think about philanthropy, and it all comes together to inform the actions you take to acquire and retain donors.

This is just a glimpse of the work we do at Allegiance Group + Pursuant. We have a trove of resources available, including this new whitepaper on another hot topic, “Fundraising Metrics: AI and Data Analytics.”

The world of fundraising is changing. If you need a partner who can help you navigate the roads ahead, we’d love to chat. Visit our website to learn more.