Clairity Click-it: Leadership, Text Donations, Mobile Optimization, Saying Thank You

Click it!

Here are some important links for you as we head into prime fundraising season. Some will make you think. Others are hands-on and practical. Enjoy!

Leadership

Click-It: To Be a True Leader, Start by Listening. Check out this podcast where Allison Fine interviews Annie Murphy Paul, author of the upcoming Brilliant: The New Science of Smart, about the concept of “cognitive humility”—recognizing what you don’t know and having an eagerness to learn. Do you fear to let others know when you don’t know something? Learn how to embrace admitting this as a strength.

Click-It: 5 Questions Every Nonprofit Leader Should Ask by Nell Edgington is a worthwhile read. Nell suggests: “A true nonprofit leader drives the vision, marshals resources, forges alliances, inspires support, and, ultimately, leads the charge toward social change.” All of the questions are important, but I think I like #3 the best. You?

Text Donations

Click-It: Key information about text donations for nonprofits revealed in new survey. This study by mGive has lots of data to help you figure out whether text-to-give may be a viable fundraising strategy for your nonprofit. There’s stuff that’s counterintuitive (e.g., boomers do this more than millenials), surprising (e.g. females do this at a ratio of 3:1 over males) and just plain useful (83% of those surveyed suggested $50 or $75 as the maximum amount they’d donate via texting.

Mobile Optimization

Click-It: Donor Conversion: Why Mobile Optimization Is an Urgent Matter. The spider whose web isn’t sticky won’t catch any flies. The same holds true for your website’s Donation Landing Page. This article from the folks at Papilia reveals that more than 20% of online giving comes from mobile devices but more than 50% who attempted to make a mobile donation dropped off. That should be totally unacceptable to you! What are you going to do about it?

Power of Thank You

Click-It: Thank your donors well — or watch them leave. Jeff Brooks shared some advice from Get Fully Funded, at 9 Steps to a Powerful Thank You Letter. He notes that ” some day you’ll pay as much attention to donor retention as you currently do to donor acquisition”. If you don’t keep your donors, then you’re wasting a lot of time trying to get them – mostly at lower dollar levels – because you’ll never get a second (hopefully larger) gift.

Want to Make “Some Day” Today? Learn to Keep Lots More Donors Through the Simple Power of Thank You!

Check out my upcoming 4-week E-Course with expert Pamela Grow: The Power of Thank You/The Basics and More! We’ve got plenty of practical tips to help you WOW your donors and keep them for life. As a subscriber, reserve your spot before I go public with the announcement of this course next week. And if you register right away you’ll get the Early Bird discount. Get it now – the Early Bird flies away after September 22nd.

Photo: Flickr, Isaac Torronterra