There’s a lot of potential legacy giving out there in the universe. Per Giving USA, giving by bequest was an estimated $41.19 billion in 2020, and grew 10.3% from 2019 (an increase of 9.0%, adjusted for inflation). What are you doing to assure some of it will flow to your cause? First you have to identify…
People are unpredictable sometimes. They’re also predictable.
If you see someone yawn, you’re likely to yawn too.
If I tell you seats are limited, you’re likely to purchase a ticket now rather than later.
What if you knew donating to your nonprofit could be a predictable consequence of something you did?
It turns out you can encourage people to act in desirable ways simply by applying a few lessons learned from neuroscience, psychology and behavioral economics.
Scientists have learned a lot over the past few decades. It’s up to us to put that learning to good use.
As Daniel Pink, author of To Sell Is Human, has noted: “There’s a gap between what science knows and what business does.”
Today I’d like to consider five specific strategies that will help you ethically take advantage of some of the psychology underlying human behavior. Once you understand these principles, you can begin to strategically apply them to your integrated development (marketing and fundraising) strategy. If you’re nervous about this, you can test what you did before against a new strategy informed by science. Break your mailing list randomly in half, send an “A” and a “B” version of your appeal, and see which performs best.
Ready for the science-informed strategies?
You’ve still got time to sprinkle a little magic into your year-end fundraising!
Consider each of these seven words a magic potion unto themselves.
The more of these words you use, the more powerful a spell your appeal will cast.
Each of these packs a bigger persuasive punch than you might imagine.
Let’s take a closer look at how this works.
You drop your quarters into the slot, tap a couple of buttons, and the machine gives you two candy bars for the price of one. Hallelujah! You’re rich!
The concept of matching gifts works just like that vending machine.
You get twice the money at no additional cost to your donors.
Think of it this way: If someone offered to give your organization free contributions each time someone donated, would you say yes? Of course!
But where is all the free extra money coming from?
The extra “free” money comes from corporations!
Over the past several years, social responsibility has become a phenomenon that’s taken over the for-profit and nonprofit sectors alike. Corporations have quickly become aware of their responsibility to do good in their communities. Each day, more companies are building their initiatives to include new programs to support their employees’ philanthropic efforts. Among these programs are matching gifts that empower donors to double, triple, or sometimes quadruple their gifts to eligible nonprofits.
Here’s what’s new: the digital revolution has made it incredibly easy to determine eligibility and submit match requests.
Here’s what’s sad: a mere 7% of donors at companies with matching gift programs actually submit a request. That equates to more than $4-7 billion in unclaimed revenue every single year, according to recent matching gift studies.
… every time a nonprofit board or staff member told you “We’re the best kept secret in town; if people knew what we do, they’d give to support us.”
Nonprofits tell me this all the time! If I had all those dimes, I could make a nice contribution to your cause. And I would, if…
You see, merely “building awareness” will not ipso facto raise more money for your cause.
Just because I care about something, and somehow learn you are involved in doing something about that thing, doesn’t mean I’m going to support you financially.
Why should I? There are a lot of good causes out there, and making a decision to invest in you is something I need to act on.
I’m busy. I’m overloaded with information. And inertia is just too powerful a force.
You’ve got to do better than just hope I’ll stumble upon your website, see your social media post, hear about you on the news, or even open your direct email if you want me to really sit up, pay attention, and actively engage.
Especially if you want me to engage as a philanthropist.
The job of the smart fundraiser is inspiring passionate philanthropy to make people’s lives better. I know you’re smart, because you’re reading this article! But none of us is born with a fundraising gene. And no one ever really teaches us how to write a smart fundraising appeal. We copy from our predecessors. Or maybe read…
I know you’re working on calendar year-end fundraising right now.
And if you’re not, start immediately!
Per Mobile Cause:
Before it’s too late, I want to share with you four almost magic strategies that have worked well for me for decades!
Yes, there are ways to tweak these strategies to conform to the current zeitgeist and recognize we live in a digitally revolutionized world. This can be super helpful, and I highly recommend you pay attention to the ways fundraising and nonprofit marketing are evolving. It means new skills are needed, more money must be invested to yield your most positive returns, and you’re no longer going to be able to rest on your laurels.
That being said, I don’t want you to get so caught up in bells and whistles you neglect the fundamentals. Nor do I want you to throw up your hands in despair, culminating in a decision that you just can’t compete or do a better job because… (fill in the blank).
No excuses!
The magic strategies below have worked for me, and countless nonprofits, over generations. They’ll work for you too.
Truly, I promise if you do these things you’ll raise more money this year.
Ready to get started?
Whatever side of the political spectrum you’re on, the photo below is triggering.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58654351
Note: I can’t show you the photo because it’s copyrighted, but if you click on the link you’ll recognize it immediately (unless you’ve been living underground over the past week).
Why am I sharing this photo I can’t even show you?
I want to make an important point.
One I feel too few nonprofits give much thought to.
Could you be among them?
If so, I don’t fault you. No one teaches us these things.
Most of us didn’t go to journalism school.
But, let’s face it, journalists really do know how to grab attention!
You want to grab attention with this year’s fundraising appeal, right?
Okay then.
I’m going to share a simple tip that will boost your fundraising returns this year by leaps and bounds.
Again, it’s super simple.
But you’ve got to start now. Or maybe even yesterday.
Are you ready?
What the heck are “planned gifts?”
For some reason, this term remains largely mysterious for many nonprofits. There’s a feeling planned giving is complicated. Not for the faint of heart or the small of budget.
This couldn’t be more wrong.
People wonder:
They’re all of the above!
If there’s any overarching guideline, the truth is that planned gifts generally represent the largest gift a donor will make to you.
One of my secret pleasures is watching the show “Chopped” on the Food Network. Today I watched an episode that just had me bawling at the end. It was the most heartwarming show I’ve ever seen. And it reminded me of why all of you do the work you do in the social benefit sector.
So please allow me to share.
I don’t know if I can adequately convey the pathos I felt, but if you haven’t had a chance to see this episode I would strongly recommend it. It will make you feel very good. At the same time, it will make you understand — even more than ever — how much work there is to be done.
And why YOU, toiling in the vineyards of the social benefit sector, are just the person to do it!
You’ve got to make donor retention more of a priority to survive and thrive in today’s competitive nonprofit marketplace.
Research shows the average nonprofit in the U.S. loses 81% of donors after the first gift!!!!!
In and out a revolving door is too expensive to be sustainable.
To make matters worse, the probability a donor will make five consecutive gifts is only 10-15%. These numbers are just not sustainable for most organizations. By the time you’ve added a new donor most of your previous new donors are out the door.
And, by the way, did you know donor acquisition costs you money? Yup. On average, it will cost you $1.00 – $1.25 to bring in a new donor dollar. So… the value of a new donor to your organization is wrapped up in the concept of donor lifetime value. Once you have a new donor, the cost to renew them is much less expensive than the cost to acquire them. Just like in for profit marketing, keeping a current customer is easier than finding a new one. But… you have to actively engage in customer cultivation and renewal strategies.
If you don’t energetically renew and upgrade donors over time, you may as well never have recruited them.
Allow that to sink in a moment.
Might you effectively be wasting a lot of time, energy and money on acquisition? Could some of your resources be more effectively deployed to donor retention?
I’m going to go out on a limb and wager the answer is a resounding YES.
Do you know what your donor retention rate is? If you do, there’s hope for you to improve it. Read on.
If you don’t, you don’t even know there’s something that needs fixing! Read on.
The modern model is more like a vortex — an energized circle where everyone is equal. People move in and out as needed, and your job is to keep the energy flowing.
NOTE: My article on the topic of moving away from the donor pyramid model for donor acquisition, cultivation and major gift solicitation recently resurfaced on social media dialogue, so I thought it was time for a reprint.
Why do we always think of donors with pyramids? The pyramids were built in Egypt. On the backs of slaves. It took a very, very long time. The cost, in human terms, was untenable and unsustainable.
That’s why you don’t see many pyramids being built these days.
Except in nonprofits, where building the donor pyramid is still the holy grail. Get ’em in. Move ’em up. Acquire through direct mail. Convert to monthly donor or sustainer. Acquire through events. Convert to mail. Up, up, up … to the pinnacle of major and planned gifts!
Except for one tiny thing.
It doesn’t work.
Pyramid building is so 2630 BCE. Nobody’s got 100,000 workers (aka direct-mail donors) building a solid pyramid anymore. Many so-called pyramids really look like hourglasses. Or upside-down pyramids. Or plateaus. Even the pyramid-shaped ones are resting on shaky foundations of donors who move in and out, in and out — eight out of 10 newly acquired bottom-of-the-pyramid donors leave — making the “foundation” more like a river than a solid, secure slab of mortar. The days of the donor pyramid model are gone!
Digital toppled the donor pyramid. Actually, it crumbled it … slowly, surely … until there was nothing left but an empty frame. A triangle on paper. The donors no longer fit inside of it.
The donor pyramid (sometimes call the donor ladder) was a great model for linear thinkers like me. It was neat and orderly. Engage folks from the bottom up, level by level, one step at a time. It was stable.
Or so we thought,
Fundraising is too often seen, at best, as a ‘necessary evil.’
When viewed this way, folks – staff and volunteers alike – understandably prefer not to touch it with a 10-foot pole. Who wants to place themselves on the side of ‘evil?’
Yipes stripes!
But that’s not what fundraising is at all.
The tagline for my business, Clairification, is “philanthropy, not fundraising.” I often talk to folks about how the word philanthropy comes from the Greek and translates into “love of humankind.” Nothing evil about that!
In fact, if you ask folks to throw out the first word that comes to mind when you say ‘fundraising,’ and then ask them to do the same when you say ‘philanthropy,’ you’ll see it breaks down pretty neatly between good and evil.
If you’re coming at fundraising from the perspective of ‘necessary evil’ or ‘no pain, no gain,’ you’re never going to be effective. Especially when it comes to asking individuals, one-to-one, for passionate gifts.
As long as you hate it, donors will be able to tell you hate it. I call this wallowing in the pain. Never a good approach. Distaste for asking begets distaste for giving. It’s done grudgingly, not passionately.
When donors can sense you’d rather be doing anything else than asking them for a gift, guess what happens? They follow your lead! In other words, they feel they’d rather be doing anything else than making a gift.
But there’s more to reframing fundraising so it’s seen as a really, truly good thing.
I like to reframe it thusly:
If you’re fortunate enough to be a successful nonprofit, this means you’re helping solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.
You can’t just call someone up out of the blue and ask them for a major gift to your campaign. Period. Full stop.
This won’t work any better than building a house before you’ve found the right location, created a blueprint, laid a foundation and brought in just the right crew to build according to your specifications.
In both cases, first you must lay the groundwork. I like to think of this as making sure all the pre-conditions to a successful ask are in place before I make someone an offer I know they won’t be able to refuse. And I’ll know I’m ready to pop the question because first I’ll have answered “Yes!” to all of the ten questions that follow.
I’ve created for you a little “Declaration of Fundraising Independence” to help you become a fruitful philanthropy facilitator from this day forward.
This Declaration incorporates what I consider to be essential fundraising truths — four pre-conditions which must be met before you’ll be able to successfully exercise your fundraising strategies. Within these four pre-conditions are additional hidden truths (don’t worry; I’ll call them out for you).
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that not all charities are created equal, that they are endowed by their constituencies with certain unalienable visions, missions and values, that among these are visions, missions and values that some, but not all, members of the public share. That to secure these visions, missions and values, charities are instituted among the public, deriving their just powers from the support of the public. That whenever any form of charity becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to fail to support it, and to instead support those institutions as to them shall seem most likely to effect the safety, happiness, goodwill and public benefit of the populace.
Fundraising is not an end in itself. It serves noble ends.
(1) When those ends are ones valued by the people, and
(2) When folks trust you’re doing an effective job meeting needs they believe must be met, then
(3) You earn the privilege of fundraising and, in fact,
(4) You assume the responsibility to fundraise to assure those who rely on you to meet these needs are not left high and dry.
So… this is where you get your Declaration of Fundraising Independence. You are ‘free to fundraise’ once you’re able to make a case to enough people that you deserve to exist. For this to be the case:
Legacy gifts don’t fall from the sky.
Legacy donors aren’t delivered by storks.
You won’t find them hiding behind cabbage leaves.
You’ll mostly find them living in your donor database, volunteer roster, alumni mailing list, membership roll, client files and anyplace else folks connect with you and have a positive affiliation. An affiliation with you.
You see, the mere fact someone is wealthy does not make them a legacy giving prospect. Period. And the fact they’re wealthy and philanthropically inclined does not make them a legacy giving prospect for your charity.
The biggest indicator someone is a good legacy giving prospect for your organization is their affinity and loyalty. Generally this is demonstrated through affiliation (how they are connected to you) and behavior (what they do with you).
Of course, someone who simply shares the values your organization enacts can also be a viable legacy giving prospect. But they’re not likely to make a bequest or other type of legacy gift unless you first develop their affinity and loyalty — to your charity. So let’s begin with the fruit already picked and in your donor basket. We can look at the low-hanging fruit later. I do not recommend investing a lot of resources going after the fruit you’re hoping will just fall from the sky (though a little couldn’t hurt).
What do you most need to sustain your nonprofit through thick and thin?
A steady, reliable source of income – natch!
For most nonprofits this means loyal donors.
How do you get them?
Alas, too many nonprofits act as if all they need to do is acquire the donor; then, magically, that donor will stick with them forever. Sadly, the data shows otherwise. On average only 20% of first-time donors renew; only 43% of all donors renew. And there’s a very good reason this sorry state of affairs exists.
It may not happen all the time. But it happens enough. Too often, in fact. Does this look at all like the trajectory of how you handle a newly acquired gift?
Actively show donors love and trust. This is the best way to get them to love and trust you, and the two most important aspects of donor loyalty. Relationships that last are reciprocal. Penelope Burk, the queen of donor-centered fundraising, famously found through her research that donors’ number one desire is … please, please “show me that you know me.” If you want donors to trust you and be loyal to you, you have to trust them and be loyal to them. Simple, yes? Actually, no.
To earn trust and loyalty takes strategy. And it takes work. Mark Schaefer makes a brilliant analogy
No one can do it alone, sitting in their own little corner.
Not the E.D. Not the development director. Not the development committee of the board. Not the fundraising consultant.
One-person shows don’t work in fundraising.
This isn’t tennis, figure skating or golf. You’re not one person trying to be the best you can be, with all the glory accruing to you. You’re part of a team, all pulling together in the same direction, with the glory accruing not just to your team but also to your fans and your community.
Siloes don’t work in fundraising.
You aren’t saving up grain for the winter. Besides, simply hoarding won’t help enough. Development operations must figure out how to grow and harvest as much grain as possible so you can feed more and more people in need. Hoarding in siloes is a scarcity, not an abundance, mindset. A status quo, not a growth mindset.
If you have vision and big goals you need a team to see you through.
Begin with recruitment of stakeholders.
Look around you. Who do you see? You see internal and external stakeholders. People who care about your organization winning.
Generally, you’ll see:
You’ve no doubt become familiar by now with the term “digital revolution.” It’s something that’s been dawning on us, slowly but surely, over the past few decades, and particularly in the past ten years with the advent of social media. How far has your nonprofit come? Far enough?
It’s hard to believe, but a mere ten years ago so few nonprofits had jumped on the digital bandwagon I began blogging about it. I even wrote monthly for a national social media blog, becoming their guest nonprofit expert. It makes me chuckle now, because use of technology is by no means my sweet spot. But I was just so troubled by the elephant in the room too few nonprofits were naming.
Today, most nonprofits have a digital strategy. Some are even going so far as to discontinue direct mail entirely. I don’t recommend this; still, it’s testimony to how far we’ve come in a short period.
NOTE: I find abandoning direct mail a bit extreme and precipitous. A classic “leaving money on the table” rookie mistake. Merely substituting an online for an offline channel ignores today’s reality. What’s that? It’s a multichannel world. Sure, it’s more work than in the past. Where you used to just have to communicate in one space, now you must show up in many. Yet there’s good news: layering your strategies can result in richer engagement than before, because you’re meeting folks where they are and reaching people you’d never have before reached. And donors cross channels! The lion’s share of philanthropy still comes from direct mail, but things are evolving. Online giving may be precipitated by offline fundraising strategies. Even if you engage in direct mail, you need to consider the convenience of your prospects and donors. What makes giving easy, convenient and likely for them? Simply sticking to online fundraising may narrow your chances for success. Did you know average email lifespan is 17 seconds vs. direct mail’s average of 17 days? Also, did you know 31% of offline-only first-time donors are retained for over a year, versus 25% of online-only first-time donors? So you’re going to want to hedge your bets and not just fundraise in one place.
Okay, back to the revolution.
Is your digital adoption of a transformational nature? Has it fundamentally altered how you do business? We’re at a transformation tipping point, and transformation doesn’t move backwards.
I’m about to share some data with you to demonstrate how online engagement and revenue grew in 2020. But first I want to share some broad perspective strategic thinking on the subject.
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.
Nor should you ever adopt a sky-is-falling stance of “we can’t compete in this environment, so let’s lower expectations and cut back.”
Did your organization cut back on development expenses last year? Did you lay off fundraising and marketing staff? Did you send fewer appeals?
If you did, chances are you didn’t tell, and sell, your case for support.
At least not as effectively as possible.
That’s a sure-fire recipe for raising less money than you could or should.
Here are three evergreen, fundamental fundraising truths:
You want to raise money with your fundraising appeal, right?
Guess what?
However you feel when you sit down to write is how your readers will feel when they sit down to read.
Feeling anxious? Unprepared? Bored?
Your feelings come through in your writing. Or not.
So… first put a smile on your face! Think about what inspires you about your mission. What are you passionate about? What drew you here and keeps you here?
Passion is contagious.
You can do this – it’s just like talking to a friend about how important your cause is.
Yup. Your donor is your friend.
Talk to them exactly that way.
Becoming a writer is about being conscious.
“When you’re conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader.”
– Ann Lamott
Greg Warner of Market Smart writes a lot about the difference between “work” and “progress.” I appreciate the distinction, both professionally and personally. I think you can use this notion, so I’m going to suggest a way to extend this idea to your nonprofit fundraising.
Warner notes in Why You Should Never Get a Job and Go to Work: “work” is tedious and negative; “progress” is inspiring and positive.
This is about being intentional about where you’re going.
It’s somewhat about perception and desitnation, but I’d argue it’s largely about the journey.
Your journey. Your donor’s journey.
And how everyone feels about the endeavor.
Spring is always a good time for rebirth and dusting away the cobwebs. And what a grave, dusty, cobwebby year it’s been.
As I sat down to write today’s article, I found my mind jumping from idea to idea. After all, it’s been pretty hard to focus with everything going on. So I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and tried to pull together the various challenges I’ve seen nonprofit leaders, and fundraisers, grapple with in the past year.
I thought: what can people do now to set themselves up for success as we move forward into high fundraising season at the end of this coming year.
It’s not too soon to be thinking about this.
I ended up with four tips I hope you’ll find relevant and timely.
Whether it’s a marketing or fundraising communication, keep these four basics in mind.
Giving is an emotional experience. It deserves an emotional response.
Be human.
Ever notice how sometimes when we put on our work hats we cease to be human? How we somehow morph into little robotic “professionals” and become enamored of jargon?
“Lybnts.” “Sybnts.” “Recaptures.”
Not that those things aren’t important. You need goals and objectives.
And given the dreadful state of donor retention in the U.S. today (and in the U.K and Canada as well), it’s vital you be able to measure how you’re doing. Because growth in giving is a factor not just of how many new donors and dollars you acquire, but also of how many donors and dollars you lose.
If you lose as many current donors as you gain new ones, you’re getting nowhere. Fast.
Slow down.
Think about what you’re doing and why. You may need to change your frame of mind.
When you acquire a new donor, is it for that one-time transaction? If so, that’s not a very thoughtful strategy, because it costs more money than you make to acquire new donors. In fact, you likely won’t make back your investment for 18 months or so. You won’t make it back at all if you don’t renew that donor.
Nonprofits, sadly, have been on a non-stop treadmill. Donors in. Donors out. Donors in. Donors out. So… something about just measuring this stuff isn’t really working.
No doubt you know the donor thank you is important. You may not fully grasp how important. ‘Thank you’ may be the most important element of your entire fundraising strategy. I mean it! Why? Because effective fundraising depends on sustaining loyalty over time. A one-time donor costs you money. Generally it costs $1.25 to acquire a new…
13 happens to be my lucky number. I want it to be lucky for you too.
Today, I’m going to reveal to you how you can make this happen.
A recent survey of wills reported on by the Chronicle of Philanthropy reveals the average bequest by everyday donors is $78,630.
Some people will leave less; some people will leave more. What this survey reveals, however, is you only need 12 to 13 donors making a provision for your organization in their will to reap $1 million.
If a major gift for your organization is $1000 (or even 5000 or 10,000), I imagine this sounds off the charts to you. Guess what?
Legacy giving is off the charts!
In fact, bequest marketing produces the highest ROI (return on investment) of any fundraising activity.
The first step to making this happen for your organization is to encourage bequests. Actively.
If you don’t actively encourage charitable bequests, people are unlikely to make them.
Why? There are three primary reasons:
I get lots of questions about what to include in donor surveys. But that’s the wrong place to begin.
First you must have clarity on why you’re sending the survey. You can’t bring top value to your donor survey unless you’re specific about what value you want to receive and deliver. The great thing about donor surveys is they’re a genuine “twofer.”
Donor surveys are an opportunity for a value-for-value exchange. This is at the heart of all successful fundraising and marketing. The donor gives something of value (usually time and/or money) and you return something of value (usually an intangible “feel good;” a sense of meaning, purpose and connection). Donors are focused on value; you need to focus there too. And value is understood as a clear ‘walking’ of your talk.
Never do something merely to check the task off your ‘to-do’ list. If you’ve had “do a survey” on your back burner for a while, now’s the time to move it to the forefront and give it a closer and more purposeful look. What pieces of the puzzle are you looking to uncover? Begin with asking: How will I know this survey was successful?
When organizations aren’t raising as much money as they need, they’ll often tell me: “We need to recruit new board members.” This is very often true, but it’s only a piece of the puzzle as to why they’re not being successful with fundraising. So if you’re about to embark on some board recruitment, I…
If you’ve been around ten years or more, and have demonstrated you have staying power, it’s time to start thinking about promoting legacy giving. And not just a little. A lot.
Even during a pandemic. Why?
Because once you have a steady stream of legacy gifts maturing, you’ve secured your nonprofit’s future — in good times and bad. Not 100% of course. You’ll still need to continue with annual fundraising. But you’ll be confident in the knowledge that every year or so unanticipated income will flow into your nonprofit’s coffers, like a windfall from heaven. In fact, after a while you’ll even be able to conservatively budget for a certain amount of bequest income (based on your averages) each year.
Legacy gifts can be quite transformative for the financial trajectory of your nonprofit. Think about this for a minute. While not every bequest will be six or seven figures, it’s rare to see a two or three figure bequest. They’re all major gifts!
Except… legacy gifts won’t usually fall from the sky unless you seed the clouds.
So let’s take a look at how to do that.
It’s the time of year when nonprofits are evaluating their recent fundraising results and making plans to bring in more contributions in the coming year. But… how?
What will move the needle for you this year?
This question came up in a recent call I was on, and the subject turned to this organization’s monthly giving program. It was doing okay, but they weren’t persuaded it was worth the time and effort compared with focusing on major donors. What I tried to tell them was that many monthly donors are major donors or major or legacy donors in waiting!
If you’re not thinking about your monthly donor program this way, this year is your opportunity to reframe how you think about it.
CONSIDER THIS: A $50 monthly donor is a $600 donor. A $100 monthly donor is a $1,200 donor. PLUS… monthly donors are exceedingly loyal. One-time donors renew, on average, at a rate of 45%. Monthly donors renew, on average, at a rate of nearly 90%. And the fact they give consistently over time means they truly identify with your charity. You are so important to them you are like one of their children to whom they give a monthly allowance! So there’s a good chance they may also leave you a legacy gift. Wouldn’t it make sense to double down this year to try to grow and cultivate more of these loyal supporters?
On my recent call with the charity feeling uncertain about how much resources to devote to monthly giving, I remembered this conversation I had a few years back with expert, Bill Sayre, CEO of Merkle RMG. Since he works with hundreds of organizations to help them build and manage their sustainer programs, I’d asked him to give me his thoughts on what you can do to begin and/or better manage your monthly giving program.
Chances are you already have some sort of monthly sustainer program. But… is it the best it can be? Could it do more heavy lifting for you?
Today I’m re-running this article in the hopes it will help you plan for the year ahead. You’ll learn not only why monthly donor programs are a good idea, but how you can put management systems in place, grow your revenue, keep donors happy and maximize return on your investment.
I don’t compile a list like this every year, but this year was different. It marked a shift in the direction of my content, because… “business as usual” seemed out of sync with the times we found ourselves in. So this year I’m going to summarize my writing of the year by sharing the articles…
You are a philanthropy facilitator. Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to persuade people to act now, during the most giving time of the year.
Studies show nearly one-third of all charitable giving happens in December. While you absolutely should be using multiple fundraising channels to get best results, right now whatever you’ve got planned for offline is pretty much cooked. So your best bet for boosting year-end results is digital.
What do you have planned between now and December 31st?
Network for Good and True Sense Marketing found a third of all online giving occurs in December, and more than 20% of all online giving for the entire year occurs on the last two days of the calendar year. And, among digital strategies, email rules. According to M+R’s Benchmarks Study, email was responsible for 16% of all online revenue for nonprofits.
For at least the last decade, the last week of the year – and particularly the last day of the year– have been huge for online fundraising.
To boost your year-end fundraising success, you need to craft an email offer your donor can’t refuse.
In a nutshell, you need three things for any fundraising offer:
Has this really been going on this long?
Way back in March and April of 2020 I wrote a bunch of articles about crisis fundraising, donor communications in the time of corona and how to adapt your management and planning. Feel free to join me for a walk down memory lane here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Honestly, I’ve been continuing ever since then with as many helpful tips and concrete examples I could dream up and offer.
Today, I’d like to revisit something absolutely fundamental.
It’s not a tip or a tactic. It’s a modus operandi.
Eight months ago Joan Garry wrote True Leadership in the Time of Corona, an awesome piece I commend to you in full. At the time, we were grappling with the first wave. Now, as we head into a long winter, the lessons from this article are worth revisiting.
As tempting as it may be to pretend everything will soon be ‘normal,’ that’s unlikely. And good leaders don’t bury their heads in the sand. They plan ahead for crisis contingencies.
The biggest fundraising time of the year for most nonprofits inexorably approaches.
It can be stressful.
Don’t succumb to the stress. You’ve got this!
Perhaps you can’t do everything you’d like to do this year, but you can do some things.
Here are 12 strategies that will pack a big punch.
Don’t become discouraged thinking you don’t have the time. Sometimes you don’t have time not to do these things.
None of these suggestions are big time consumers standing alone. They’re each little tweaks. Because often it’s the little things that count. That pack a surprising wallop.
So don’t save all your energy for writing your appeal. Help your appeal along by putting some of the dozen suggestions that follow into effect.
Even just one or two will make a difference.
Let’s get started…
I’m a fan of suggested ask amounts.
As you put the finishing touches on your year-end appeals, don’t make donors guess how much you need, or what you expect from them.
Clue people in. It’s the right thing to do.
If what you’re currently planning is some version of “please give whatever you can” or “please consider increasing your gift,” I encourage you to rethink your plan. Those phrases are vague. And vague requests yield token gifts. Or no gifts at all.
The best requests for money are for a specific purpose and a specific amount.
As in “Dad, I need $250 to buy school books.” Or “Grandma, I need $5,000 to buy a used car.” Or see the philanthropic ask examples from Oxfam and Charity: water below:
When you don’t give folks anchor amounts to hang onto, they’re apt to put your appeal aside for some time when they’ve more time to think about it.
More often than not, that ‘some time’ never happens.
So give folks an anchor of some sort, unless you want folks to stop dead in their tracks trying to figure out the right amount.
No one wants to feel ungenerous by giving less than is considered helpful.
No one wants to be a ‘chump’ by giving more than you need, or more than others like them are giving.
While some donors upgrade their giving without being asked, most donors wait to be asked – or at least to be offered a darn good reason to give more.
Research tells us donors will give more, on average, when they’re prompted with specific amounts. They’ll give even more when offered a choice of giving levels (download Sustainers in Focus by Blackbaud). But you have to do it the right way.
I’ve written about some of the new charitable deduction opportunities included in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act signed on March 27, 2020 before. But a recent post shared by Greg Warner of Market Smart — Dr. Russell James’ tips to help donors give wisely before this year ends — plus a recent conversation with a financial advisor, reminded me it’s a very good time to share with you again.
You see, there are several things that will impact donor deductions – THIS YEAR ONLY. It’s good for you to be aware of these as a fundraiser, because making your supporters mindful of these opportunities may lead to them making more, and larger, gifts to your organization.
Of course, you’re not in the business of offering legal, tax or financial advice. And it’s easier to tell yourself donors’ own advisors will likely tell them about these new provisions. And that “this isn’t really your responsibility.” Yet…
Not all of your donors have their own accountants or financial advisors.
And not all tax advisors are up to snuff, especially when it comes to charitable deductions. Do you want to risk not receiving generous gifts you could have otherwise received, just because you’re too lazy to share this useful information?
Sorry about using that “L” word, but too many fundraisers (IMHO) don’t 100% understand their job as a philanthropy facilitator. Do you?
Your job is to do everything within your power to make giving easy, joyful and meaningful for your supporters. Everything. Doing everything means
Believe it or not, this guest post appeared originally on my blog 3 1/2 years ago. I happened on it today, and thought it was still appropriate so wanted to share. One of my Clairification School students, Matt Patchell, had begun an important discussion in our online Subscriber Forum about what he termed the current “digital divide.”
He was referring to the chasm between nonprofits who are facing the digital revolution head-on, adapting their strategies to embrace its’ opportunities, vs. those sticking their heads in the sand and hoping it will go away.
Folks, digital engagement is not going away. Rather, it’s exploding.
As of late last year, one study found 43% of U.S. adults get political news online, rather than via television, radio or print media. A report from the Pew Research Center found one in five Americans get their news from Facebook. For the first time in the Center’s surveys, more than half (55%) of Americans age 50 or older report getting news on social media sites. That is 10 percentage points higher than the 45% who said so in the previous year. And that report is now three years old!
If you continue to ignore the channels your supporters frequent, and the ways they prefer to receive their information, the only thing that will be going bye-bye are your supporters.
It’s a sea change in how your marketing and fundraising team(s) operate and cooperate. Adopting is a far cry from adapting.
What does this have to do with Trump?
We use them to understand our world.
But do the same stories work in any time? For any person? No.
You need to understand your SMIT story – ‘Single Most Important Thing’ – at this moment in time.
And that SMIT will change, depending on the environment in which you’re operating.
You need to know your audience. Today. The story you told last year may not work as well this year.
To be a donor-centered fundraising expert, you must:
(1) Know what donors love, and
(2) Offer these lovable things to them.
There are three things I’ve found donors love when it comes to making donations.
Got it?
It’s that simple; yet very few organizations successfully offer these things to their donors. Instead, they fail their supporters by doing one or more of the following (take a look at your current appeal and see if you may be guilty of any of these sins):
This is all wrong!
Today I’m here to tell you what works. I’ve not only found these four things to be true anecdotally, based on personal experience with a range of different charities, but there’s also research to back this up.
Ready to learn the four secrets that will dramatically ramp up your fundraising this year?
Let’s pretend you and your donor are not connecting meaningfully right now. You’re not sure why. Could it be they feel financially insecure… they’re worried for their kids… they’ve been let down by politicians… they’re just feeling cynical and/or hopeless? For whatever reason, things aren’t singing between you and them. They haven’t renewed. They haven’t upgraded. They haven’t responded to any of your outreach. They seem to have other priorities.
So, you decide to go to counseling to reinvigorate the relationship. The therapist makes a wise observation: Sometimes in life, one partner feels strong; the other less strong. In such times, the stronger partner has resources to support the weaker partner. Other times, neither partner feels they have coping resources. During these times, we have to depend more on ourselves, be patient, and accept that our partner is not currently in a strong position – even though we really need their support.
Are you being a support for your donor? Are you helping, not selling all the time? Are you being patient, yet persistently showing you care?
We’re in turbulent times.. Giving has surged overall during the pandemic, but there are fewer individual givers. Some industries, like education, are losing support. As are many smaller charities not involved in addressing hot-button topics. And prior to the pandemic studies showed giving to be sluggish. Donors are less loyal. Donors may be distracted by emergencies. Or so-called rage giving. Or simply uncertainty about what lies ahead. So they’re giving less consistently. As a result, donor centered fundraising has never been as important as it is now.
People are feeling a need to be nurtured. In other words: Ask not what your donors can do for you, but what you can do for your donors. Recognize they don’t serve you; you serve them. They don’t owe you; you owe them. Your job is to help them experience the joy of giving. It is through you they will achieve their most meaningful work.
Embrace the true meaning of philanthropy as love of humankind. Remember your donors are humankind; you must love them if you want to be a part of philanthropy. Otherwise, you’re just transacting business.
So… what can you do to embrace the love and thereby keep your donors close?
There are lots of aspects to a donor’s identity; not all are equally important to them.
Well, duh, you may say.
But this matters more than you may know. Because if you don’t really understand the difference between identity and identification you may be wasting a lot of time heading in the wrong directions.
Let me explain further.
If you loosely segment donors by aspects of their identity that are relatively meaningless as far as they’re concerned, you won’t improve your fundraising results. You’ll certainly be busy doing all this segmentation – and you’ll be able to report back to your boss on all the great, ‘scientific’ work you did – but it will end up being a lot of sound and fury. Signifying nothing.
Perhaps you’re an organization that develops personas or avatars for your constituents. This is something marketers do to know who they’re selling to, and what that person may value. Sell sweaters? It helps to know if you’re creating messaging for “Chilly Charlie” (who wants warm sweaters), “Stylin’ Stella” (who wants fashionable, trency sweaters), or “Frugal Freda” (who wants discount priced sweaters).
So too it helps when you write to ‘Suzy Soccer Mom’ vs. ‘Funky Grandpa.’ You assume they’re interested in different things, and they generally are. So you tailor your appeal differently to different target market segments.
But wait…
Ask yourself if the way you’re segmenting your donors is too generic. As helpful as it is to group prospective supporters by persona, it’s important not to go overboard with this strategy.
Why? Because it’s non-specific and based on the most obvious common denominator. If you don’t drill down a bit, you may miss the forest for the trees.
“Five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
— David Ogilvy, advertising legend
Your email subject line matters. A lot.
So this article is all about learning how to rock your online ‘envelope’ – which is really what determines if your email will get opened.
When you stop to think about this, it makes a lot of sense. Your email subject line has a function! And its form should follow that function.
People’s inboxes are increasingly cluttered, so you need to stand out. Big time! Really, you’ve probably got no more than two seconds to make an impression.
Do you think carefully about purpose when you create your email subject line? Do you even craft it at all, or do you delegate this essential function to someone else, perhaps an assistant or someone in your marketing or digital communications department? Someone who perhaps doesn’t really understand the email’s primary purpose as well as do you?
If you’re like most nonprofit fundraisers and marketers, you likely spend a lot of time crafting the perfect email body copy, selecting images and figuring out just the right design that will entice someone to respond to your call to action. Then, at the last minute, you’re ready to send it and hastily come up with a subject line.
This is one place you don’t have to social distance.
In fact, this is perhaps the most opportune time ever to do exactly the opposite.
But, not to worry.
Getting up close and personal… getting connected to your supporters and potential supporters in an authentic way… this is among the safest things you can do to give people warm, virtual hugs. At a time when folks are missing human contact the most.
And guess what?
It will make people feel good!
And when you make people feel good, they’ll associate that good feeling with you.
This sets the stage for them to be receptive to your call to action when you’re ready to make it.
Yet it can significantly increase the depth and breadth of your marketing reach.
You might think of social media as the new nonprofit advertising.
Per fundraising expert Tina Cincotti, donors are more likely to give, and stick with you, if you connect to them through multiple points of contact. In fact, they give at least 20% more than those connected through only one channel.
You don’t have to be everywhere, do everything, all the time.
When you think this way, you’ll never start.
Begin at the beginning.
Times are tough. It’s easy to get demoralized. Especially if you work for a business, nonprofit or otherwise, that doesn’t feel ‘essential’ in today’s environment.
It’s human to feel depressed.
A survey conducted in June by the Kaiser Family Foundation found more than 30% of adults in the United States were reporting symptoms consistent with anxiety or depression since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Even our former First Lady revealed in a recent podcast:
“There have been periods throughout this quarantine where I just have felt too low… I have to say, that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting. It has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life — in, in a while.”
I know it’s difficult to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. And waiting for time to pass sucks.
Yet my Mom always said, “This too shall pass.”
I found it comforting.
It was like she was sharing some universal truth by telling me time-specific depression need not turn to despair.
There’s another path.
Mrs. Obama said she had benefited from keeping a routine, including exercise, getting fresh air and having a regular dinner time. I’ve found these things useful as well. Most important, I’m learning to focus more on what I can control than what I can’t. Plus I’m learning to accept there are some things I can’t do. Some things I can’t fix. Not now.
Sometimes we have to wait.
Meanwhile, there are things to do to make the waiting bearable.
A good fundraising strategic plan, like a menu, should be broken into component parts so it’s easy to wrap your brain around.
With a menu, it might be appetizers, meat entrees, seafood entrees, vegetarian entrees, sides and desserts.
With a fundraising plan, it tends to break down into strategies.
It might be annual giving, major gifts, legacy gifts, foundation grants, business sponsors, events and so forth.
Before you can get to determining your priority strategies, however, you need to do a mini fundraising audit.
When I begin working with a new nonprofit client, I always ask the same three questions.
I learned something over three decades ago that I’ve never forgotten.
When I learned this, it made me very happy.
You see, I was transitioning from an unhappy, short-lived career in law and wasn’t really sure about my next chapter. Nonprofit work intrigued me, but… was it really a discipline or just something folks “winged?” How would I know I could be successful?
There weren’t a lot of role models around at the time, and I really didn’t know any other fundraisers. And there certainly were no articles to “google” online!
So, I enrolled in a week-long course offered by The Fundraising School, then led by founder Hank Rosso (who I call the “Daddy of Fundraising), which is now part of the Lily School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.
And my eyes were opened to the very nature of fundraising. And the essential pre-conditions for fundraising success.
Too often grant proposals begin with some variation of “we want money because we’re a good cause and, since you’re good guys too, naturally this will be a match made in heaven.”
There’s nothing natural about this request.
In fact, it’s a version of “Alice in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass” thinking.
To paraphrase the Cheshire Cat speaking to Alice: If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.
Or not.
In fact, Alice tells the Cat she just wants to get “somewhere.” Could this, perhaps, be like you just wanting to bring in ‘some’ money to balance your budget? Hmnn… The Cat tells Alice “Oh, you’re sure to do that. If you only walk long enough.”
Guess what?
Most funders reading your proposal will not want to read long enough. In fact, if you’re not clear on your destination from the get-go, they’re likely to abandon you before you get there. If you get there. In other words, wherever you end up, you won’t arrive there together.
And that’s the point of a grant proposal, right?
You seek a partnership… a travelling companion… an investor who cares about the outcome.
Right from the get-go, this is what funders need to hear from you.
No beating around the bush.
Get right to the point with the specifics.
If the funder must read through several paragraphs – or pages – before it’s clear how much money you’re requesting and what, specifically, you intend to use it for, they’ll be in a ticked-off frame of mind as they read your proposal.
Not good.
Get organized!
The 6-step formula I’m about to share is one I learned when I first entered this business decades ago.
There’s a pandemic out there killing people.
What can your nonprofit organization do to offer a remedy?
Kill ‘ em with kindness.
I’m talking about your supporters, of course.
In order for people to do good they have to feel good.
Seriously, philanthropy takes energy. It takes the ability to step out of one’s day-to-day grind and think about someone, or something, else. And it’s more difficult than usual for folks to find this generous space right now.
You can help.
Make this the giving season.
I often say “If you want gifts you must give them.”
Maya Angelou says “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Let’s talk about what you can give – as nonprofit staff and board — to create happier supporters.
Notice a lot of folks saying “2020 is a bad year?” People can use a bit of cheer. They’re tired of doom and gloom.
Remember when “random acts of kindness” was a thing? People would buy a coffee for the person behind them in line. Or they’d pay the bridge toll for the next car. Their reward was simply imagining the unexpected delight their gift would give to someone that day. Ever have it happen to you? Ever try it?
Now’s your chance!
I’d like to suggest practicing some creative planned (not random) acts of kindness.
Something to bring your donors and volunteers a bit of good cheer. It can be as simple as letting them know what they did to change someone’s life for the better. Or it can be a modest, human gesture showing them how grateful you are for their support. This is something you can have fun with. And the rewards will be huge, both for you and your donors.
Early in my career I received a piece of fundraising advice that has stuck with me to this day:
People are all people.
And what do you do with people if you want to build a relationship?
You get PERSONAL!
In fact, if I had to tell you how to win over donors with just one word, “personal” is the word I’d choose.
This word should become your mantra and underscore everything you do. Your annual appeal writing. Your special events. Your newsletters. Your blog posts. Your proposals. Your reports. Your social media.
If you take just this one word to heart — PERSONAL — you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.
This is the one word that can set you apart.
That can help you build relationships like nothing else.
Though we talk a lot about empathy and donor-centricity, truly valuable tools in building donor relationships, these terms are subsumed by the umbrella of the ‘person’ to whom they apply.
Make sense?
Today I’d like to flesh out the multiple meanings of this word, and discuss how getting personal can help you achieve your nonprofit fundraising and marketing goals.
This is something that has always mattered. Today, in an era of social distancing and striving for greater diversity, equity and inclusion, how we get personal and how we define people are more important than ever.
I just bought my 2021-day runner filler. Yes, I’m still one of the ‘old fashioned’ people who uses a paper planner. It just helps me get organized during chaos and writing things down helps me remember! I sure hope that next year will bring some travel again. Because that’s what I the most.…
People are wired for stories