Donors Screening Calls? 12 Strategies to Stop Being Defeatist.
Have you ever made a phone call hoping to talk with someone, but instead reached voice mail?
Of course you have!
Does that mean you don’t ever make phone calls?
Of course not!
What do you do?
You leave a message and ask the person to call, email or text you back.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
But at least they know you reached out to them. If they want to connect with you, they now have an invitation to do so. And if they know you, and like you, they’re very likely to return your call.
Donors know you. They like you. Otherwise they wouldn’t have made a gift to you.
So why are you, or your board members, so afraid to pick up the phone to thank them?
All the time nonprofits tell me “Asking our board members to make thank you calls won’t work, because people screen their calls these days; they won’t pick up.”
Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t.
Either way, you’ll have accomplished something important merely by proactively reaching out.
Stop worrying about how your donors will or won’t behave. Instead, worry about how you’re behaving. Or not.
Don’t donors deserve thank you calls?
Of course they do!
Penelope Burk, author of Donor-Centered Fundraising, found 91% of donors said this is their number one preferred method of recognition.
You’ve no doubt become familiar by now with the term “
The Lilly Family School of Philanthropy projects total giving will grow by an estimated 4.1% in 2021. So you can’t use the pandemic as an excuse for raising less money in the year ahead.
You want to raise money with your fundraising appeal, right?
Spring is always a good time for rebirth and dusting away the cobwebs. And what a grave, dusty, cobwebby year it’s been.
Giving is an emotional experience. It deserves an emotional response.
One of my pet peeves as a donor is making a contribution (via a peer-to-peer request or tribute gift in honor or memory) in support of a friend; then receiving nothing but a form receipt.