That’s the question that has fundraisers everywhere scratching their heads and crying in their beers.
Hmmn…
Donor retention has continued to plummet every year for the past seven years. It’s really, truly an awful problem. For some unknown reason, all that hard work you put into acquiring new donors is, seemingly, being wasted. Why?
I love my Agitators, I really do. I’m hoping they meant to provoke, and were really being tongue-in-cheek with their recent article. Forget About Donor-Centric is very provocative, and certainly there’s truth here. Nonprofits do seriously ramp up their fundraising activities at this time of year, and it may appear they’re thinking more about money than their donor. It’s solicitation time, not stewardship time. And “Donor Tom” (Tom Belford) tells us he understands. He reasons that at this time of year he’s going to be so bombarded by appeals that he’s not going to be thinking about building a relationship with you. He just wants to give to those he’s already given to and “escape with some spending money for Christmas presents.”
That’s exactly the perspective you don’t want your donor to have.
This week’s Clairity Click-it – your eclectic array of easy to-“click-it” links to posts I’ve found thought provoking. With, of course, a few comments of my own.
Body Language
Click-it: 4 Body Language Cues You Need to Know When Networking. It’s important to remember that first impressions count. A lot. You may be unconsciously giving the wrong one. This article by Ivan Misner in Entrepreneur describes how to avoid this. I myself have to constantly remind myself not to keep my arms folded (signifying boredom or being closed off). If you’re up for the challenge, try this suggestion from Misner:
You’ve no doubt heard folks bandying about the latest buzzword: “content marketing.” There’s a reason it’s buzz-worthy. Without content, you’ve got nothing. You’re just a box with nothing inside. Kids like to play with boxes; most folks — when they grow up — are looking for something of value inside the box. At the same time…
It’s perplexing to still hear folks ask “Do we really need social media?” Do you need to text and respond to your kid’s texts? Well… only if you want to be in touch! That question is so 2008. In 2013 it’s more like “my way or the highway.”
Here’s the problem if you’re a small nonprofit:
You’re resource challenged. You don’t have enough staff to do everything that needs to be done as it is. Now you’re supposed to add social media?! Well, which channels? You can’t do it all, for goodness sakes. There must be one best channel. Maybe you can just squeeze that in.
In case you don’t know, troglodytes are hermits who live in caves. There are 3 ways I’ve found that folks in the development profession fit this description. Are you a cave dweller? If so, here’s how to get out more.
In my last post I channeled Bob Dylan, calling for a change in the way we do fundraising. Because the times truly are a changin’…
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command, your old road is rapidly agin’…
When I grew up in fundraising I had a shoe box as my database. I wrote grant proposals on yellow legal pads. When we got our first FAX machine I complained that now folks expected us to mail and FAX them (so double the work). When email came on the scene I complained that now folks wanted us to mail and FAX and email (so triple the work). But it was still the same old road of outbound marketing. At least I understood what it was all about.
Now we’re on a new road entirely. Because folks are coming to us. They’re telling us what they want. They’re defining our brand. And they’re doing so in real time via a multitude of online channels and using a multitude of Web-connected devices. Opportunity is knocking.
Once upon a time I knew what I was doing. I attended The Fundraising School, discovered a host of tried-and-true techniques, mastered the art and science of fundraising transactions and went forth to apply the tools at my disposal. Money was raised.
Fast forward several decades, to sometime about five years ago. I had a dawning realization. I no longer knew what I was doing. I had somehow entered “wing and a prayer” territory. The culprit? Revolutionary and disruptive technology that, simply put, has ended “business as usual.”
What can you think of that has been done the same way for 50 years? For too many nonprofits the answer is fundraising and marketing (aka “development”). And it’s beyond time for a change. In fact, a sea change. It turns out Bob Dylan got it right.
Just building it isn’t enough. Whatever it may be. A blog. A Facebook page. A Twitter profile. You name it.
Sorry.
They won’t call. They won’t write. They won’t wax on rhapsodically about your finer qualities. The most they might do is notice you out of the corner of their eye; then move on.
It’s on you.
To get real value from social media you must build it, get folks to come, get folks to talk and get folks to recommend you to others.
Here’s the kicker: You’re not 100% in control. Yeah, I know it kind of sucks. Us control freaks just have to get over it. Folks are going to be learning about you through others, and you won’t know about it. They’ll talk about you, and you won’t know what they’re saying.
Let me tell you a tale of two siblings, Outbound and Inbound.
Talking is what builds your reputation and develops relationships with those who share the values your organization enacts. Talking is central to your blog – and entire social media – strategy. So… let’s talk!
In the first part of this two-part post about how to get others to promote your blog we discussed how to find your natural “sharers” – those folks willing to be spokespersons on your behalf, whether they be influencers or advocates. Today we’re going to talk about how to get these boosters to spread your good word through digital word-of-mouth.
6 TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR TALKERS TALKING:
To make your blog worth the effort, it’s got to be shared. And that’s what we discussed in Part I: Share and Part II: Shareable of this S.S.T.S. Series. Great! But how do you get folks to really TALK about you, rather than just shooting out one-shot shares?
You begin with content, of course. No one is going to share crap, no matter how easy you make it for them to do so. In the C.P.A. Series we talked about getting folks to open and read your post. Done! In the R.C.A. Series we discussed giving folks something engaging to talk about – relevant, constituent-centered and actionable content. Done and done.
Now that you’ve got the good stuff, you need to get folks walking your talk!
You want more than short-term share transactions. You want shares that drive desired action responses; you want transformation!
R.C.A. is about getting folks walking; not just talking. It’s about good content and conversation that leads to your desired action. It refers to Relatable, Part I, Conversational, Part II, and Actionable. You remember this acronym by thinking about an RCA Victrola – that old-fashioned phonograph contraption that helped transport your grandparents and great-grandparents — and fire their imaginations — through the music that inspired them.
You want to transport your constituents with inspiring values and stories in the same way. The reason you want to transport them? So their inspiration will lead to engagement — action that helps to further your mission. So, today that’s what we’re going to talk about! Ready for action?
R.C.A.? Yup. When building a blog, you want to be Relatable, Conversational and Actionable. In Part I of this series I encouraged you to think like an RCA Victrola. You want your content to get people singing your song. And, heck, you can’t sing unless you know the words. So, today let’s put the “C”…
Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you):
I’m still using the word fundraising. In fact, my most recent post was To Sell is Human; To Give, Divine – Why We’re All in Fundraising Now. I received a lot of feedback (mostly embracing) on the first post in my 2013 Series: Philanthropy; Not Fundraising. But there’s evidently some confusion. So, let’s clairify.
If you want to move from a culture of transactions to one of transformation don’t get bogged down worrying about semantics! You say potato; I say potahto… a rose by any other name… It’s the concept I’m hoping you’ll grasp. The point is to come from a place of love; not need. A place that centers on our donor; not us. A place that is deeply relational; not one-sided.
Let me share a few comments I received and contribute my thoughts:
They want you to show them that you know them. And we do this best by listening.
I’m compelled to add this coda to the C.P.A. series because there’s some breaking news that pertains to what was one of my favorite listening tools. In Part I we covered the fact that key to writing a post folks will want to read is first finding out what folks want to hear! One of those tools, sadly, just kicked the proverbial bucket. Yet I’ve also discovered a host of new tools that may be extremely useful to you in your research. Yup, the universe taketh away; the universe giveth.
Who am I? What am I doing here? Who am I and what am I doing here? Ever feel that way about social media? You’re not alone. For many of us in the nonprofit sector it’s still a frontier. It’s tempting for us non-pioneer types to just want to call the whole thing off. Waagh!…
What if we said “Give Where Most Moved” instead? Too many folks still worship at the altar of unrestricted giving. I recently came across an article on NPR’s site, Disaster Donations Surge, But What About Tomorrow?, in which Eileen Heisman, the CEO of National Philanthropic Trust, admonishes potential donors to be loyal in…
Are you focused on the gift or the giver? Thanking donors is the one thing most nonprofits do not spend enough time thinking about. Too often I find that staff spend 95% of their time crafting the fundraising appeal and getting embroiled in project management – design; layout; ing, postage, etc. Finally, the letter (or…
This month I’m writing about how to be donor centered. Today I’m taking us in a perhaps unexpected direction – the path of social media. What does that have to do with being donor centered? Everything. There are two principle reasons why: 1. Social media is about relationships, not technology. Your constituents want a relationship.…
Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you). The alternative to fundraising is a lot scarier than fundraising. There are a lot of scary problems in the world. Cancer… global warming… natural disasters… homelessness… domestic violence… human trafficking… malaria… undrinkable water… injustice… poverty… Is fundraising scarier than doing what…
In the past series of posts I’ve talked about the reasons many board members loathe fundraising. It boils down to: (1) fear (see here, here and here; (2) lack of clarity about their role (see here, hereand here, and (3) insufficient framing, training, coaching and cheer leading by staff. As much as we staff …
Collecting for the poor is an honored tradition In Jewish tradition the “Gabbai Tzedekah,” the money collector, held a very special and esteemed role as the collector and disburser of funds to help the poor. The root of “tzedekah” means justice; it was simply the right thing to do to help. The Gabbai risked him/herself,…
I confess I don’t know a lot about Buddhism. But I do know it emphasizes compassion. And, in my mind, compassion inevitably leads to social engagement. Engagement is exactly the point of my post earlier this week: Why Nonprofit Social Media is a Waste of Time. If we’re not engaging, then we may as well…
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” – Lewis Carroll When we simply engage in incidental cultivation and stewardship – a meeting here, a party there – the only place we get to is the meeting or the party. Is that our goal? If at the end of the…
Philanthropy should not just be about big checks. We live in times of scarcity. How are you mobilizing your community in fresh and different ways? How are you building long-term capacity to sustain your organization? How are you creating stronger, deeper relationships with constituents? 1. Identify where your communities hang out.How? Lo for what groups…
It can’t all be about ‘push’. We’ve also got to ‘pull.’ Recently I’ve been writing a lot about social media. It’s an important tool for engaging with our supporters. But let’s not forget that what makes technology sing is not the technology; it’s the people behind the technology. Successful technology is about bonds, not bells…
Are you leading engagement with your tribes? Lots of interesting Q & A during last week’s webinar about blogging our way to increased constituent engagement. Particularly around the relative merits of blogging vs. engaging on and other social media. Our constituents’ agenda is often a quest for meaningful social interaction; a tribal connection. At…
Yesterday I had the opportunity to present a webinar about nonprofit blogging. It was a privilege to connect with 163 registrants on, and to take some time as a community to explore why nonprofits should blog, how we can (1) get started; (2) keep it up, and (3) use our blogs as a hub for…
One thing Moms know is that children usually know when adults are only half-listening. Just as kids can feel frustrated, unheard, and at times even und when this happens, so can our constituents feel ignored and unsatisfied when we merely broadcast information without asking for or responding to feedback.. Listening to constituents with our full…
Of all the killer social media engagement tools out there, none beats the blog. As the song from Disney’s Cinderella claims, it’s “the thingmabob that does the job.” If you’re at all in doubt, check your dubiousness at the door. Businesses that write on their blog regularly receive 55% website visitors and have 437% …
Tried and true fundraising strategies are great. Layering on social media can pump them up and make them better. Think of social media as putting your mother’s fundraising on steroids. Don’t we want to be the best? And it not only makes you stronger; it’s completely legal! Innovation takes us to the next level –…
I was recently alerted to a wonderful passionate giving series about the power of showing up. What does this mean? It means we must remember that major gifts work, necessarily, is about showing up – every day – and doing the right thing. There are some boring brass tacks strategies that are tried and true,…
Content curation is one of the new buzz worthy terms you’re hearing a lot about these days. And it’s for good reason. With so much information at the buffet , we need some help figuring out what to select. To pick an ‘object’ and add ‘beauty’ and meaning to it, we need curation from sources…
We’re six weeks into 2012, and our new year’s resolutions may be beginning to fade. For those on a June-July fiscal year, it’s planning time. What should we be thinking about when it comes to allocation of our energies and resources this year? First, let’s clear out some space. I’ve participated in many a planning…
Are you listening to your constituents and acting on what you learn from them? Last month I pondered on How Social Media is Like Peanut Buttered Toast – it can lead us into some messy situations if we don’t handle it carefully. A particularly sticky trap is cognitive dissonance – seeing what we want to see;…
We’ve been talking a lot about all the wonderful opportunities social media provides to us for building relationships with our communities. While this is true, usually every icious piece of peanut-buttered toast has the potential of falling sticky side down. Like peanut-buttered toast, social media can lead us into sticky situations if we toss it…
I recently came across a real goody: A blog post by Scott Gillum, contributing author to the Forbes network, offering wisdom collected over 20 years of work with some of the best, and worst, companies in the world. He found certain consistent themes regardless of company, industry or geography. It got me thinking about how…
You say you want a revolution? A lot of us in the public sector have to confess we’ve long had a affair with our top tier major donors. And this may be a problem. We’ve entered an era of power to the people –which dovetails nicely with the definition of philanthropy, from Greek phil…
The fact that development and marketing are charged with making the same relationship-building and communications decisions means that it is time, once and for all, to actively align these functions. Yesterday in Part 1 we discussed the natural linkages between these functions and that, first and foremost, everything we do is about the customer experience. Today,…
There’s no difference. There’s never been a difference. It’s time to call a spade a spade. When the term “development” came to be used in fundraising it was at a time when folks working in nonprofits wanted little to do with the world of “business”. Since marketing was a business term, nonprofits invented their own…
Full confession: I’m not a fan. To me, it falls into the category of TMI (Too Much Information). Not to mention all the privacy issues (for us non-nerdy types, it’s difficult to stay on top of this stuff — especially when FB seems to change their settings every couple of weeks!). However, I just…