Today I’ve got my personal round-up edition with the TOP 10 POSTS on the Clairification blog as selected by you – my wonderful Clairification readers. I’ll no doubt be writing more about these topics in the coming year, but if there’s something you’d particularly like me to address please send me a direct email at Claire@clairification.com. I always love to hear from you!
One of my secret pleasures is watching the show “Chopped” show 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 that 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’ve 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.
I chose the word “w(h)ither” in my title very deliberately. It can mean “Where are you going?” It can also mean “Dying on the vine.” Which does it mean for you and your nonprofit?
If the former, where are you going? You’ll find some “To Do’s” in this article to help you on your way towards a sustainable future. If the latter, how can your prevent this from happening? You’ll find some “don’ts” to help you breathe life into your organization.
Today I’ve got my year-end edition with some final tips for the end of the year, some ideas as you’re making your new year’s resolutions and a list of predictions to get you off on the right foot in 2015.
Don’t miss the practical, last-minute stuff, and tape these resolutions and predictions next to your computer so you can give them some serious thought when you return from you holiday break. Oh, and did I mention there are a few more gifts at the end?
Still stuck for subject lines for your year-end emails?
The subject line is like the outer envelope for direct mail. It’s the window into your message. Make sure it’s wide open and gives a glimpse of something that grabs folks’ attention. Make it intriguing, urgent, exciting, compelling, emotional, shocking or funny. The more useful and specific it is the better.
And by the way, if you’re not planning a series of year-end emails — get on it NOW! Did you know that a full third (33%) of December gifts occur on the 31st of the month? If you’re not putting forward your most compelling fundraising offer at a timed when folks are primed to give the most, you’re really missing your best opportunity.
In 15 Subject Line Examples for Your Holiday Email Marketing Ryan Pinkham provides inspiration that applies as well to nonprofits as to retail businesses. Here are examples I particularly like, with thoughts about how you can use them to boost your year-end fundraising:
Today I’ve got another eclectic Clairity Click-it mix of tips for you from both fundraising and marketing blogs. Plus I’ve got some real food for thought that goes to the heart of your fundraising and marketing strategy. Take a read, and see if you don’t find a nugget or two that makes you sit up and take notice. Oh, and did I mention there are more gifts at the end?
I’m constantly watching my mailbox and inbox to find great examples of marketing communications that really do their job. Sometimes I find examples that are so horrible I also have to point them out so you’ll avoid making the same mistake. This week I’ve got a great example of a year-end email appeal. It says “GO!” on multiple levels, and I’m going to tell you why it’s so effective.
Yet it includes one mistake. You may not think it’s horrible. And I understand why they did it. But I wish they wouldn’t and wish that all nonprofits would stop doing this.
Ready? Let’s begin.
Giving Tuesday. What’s it all about? Read about the origins here. It’s one of those things that sounds good on paper, but in actual implementation it can be less than ideal. Why? Because it comes right smack dab in the middle of most folks annual campaigns. So there’s often little time to do it right. And it can cannibalize other fundraising efforts.
One of my favorite things to do is to raid the halls of business blogs to see what they’re doing that should be applied to nonprofit businesses. Sadly, we still seem to be last to the party when it comes to really thinking outside the box, adopting tried-and-true best practices (I don’t mean the shiniest new object; I mean stuff that’s working super well, creating lots of brand awareness and raising lots of money). So this week I’ve got a bunch of simple and powerful business tips for you… plus some stuff to get you thinking. I hope a light bulb goes off for you!
In Part 1 of this article we discussed four out of nine tricks to boost your social media traffic and build relationships with your target audiences. They included (1) optimizing your profile; (2) joining different networks; (3) crafting catchy, relevant titles, and (4) creating engaging content. Now it’s time to reveal the rest.
Before I do, it’s worth noting that there’s one dominant strategy underlying all my recommendations: Develop and rock a blog. All of these tricks will work without one, but a blog is the absolute best way to deliver content to your social networks. So make it the hub of your marketing communications strategy. Honest-to-goodness it will make your life easier! If you have numerous excuses holding you back from blogging, read this article to get over them [and see below for some help with implementation]. Got it? Okay. Let’s move on to tricks five through nine.
Here are a bunch of October goodies for you. Treats to get you thinking about the role of philanthropy in society… habits of the most effective fundraisers… what it takes to grow loyal supporters… how to assure your website visitors don’t run from you screaming in horror… and much more. And these treats won’t even give you cavities! Don’t miss the special offers at the bottom of the post.
I’m going to tell you to do exactly what I do.
Don’t ignore a single disgruntled supporter. Express compassion and contrition.
If someone takes the time to tell you they’re unhappy, that means they care. They’re connected to you. They want something from you, and you’re disappointing them.
This is your golden opportunity to get inside your donor’s head and find out what your supporter really cares about!
Don’t blow this person off. Instead,
When it comes to improving donor retention, I often try to guide organizations through the process of shifting their thinking – and the culture of their organization – in the direction of gratitude rather than greediness toward their donors.
What’s important about making this philosophical shift is that it forces you to think very specifically about what you’re grateful for.
You aren’t simply asking your donors for money. Similarly, you aren’t thanking your donors for money.
Here’s this week’s Clairity Click-it, leading off with a provocative piece about the state of the charitable sector and roaming through a mix of interesting and useful nonprofit marketing and fundraising tips — all designed to help you be the best you can be. Enjoy!
Changes in Philanthropy
Click-It: Philanthropy Reconsidered: The Paradigm Shift is a fascinating, thought-provoking article
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 recently asked folks what ONE word they would use to sum up what is needed to transform donor loyalty. I received some interesting answers and thought I’d share them with you, along with my comments, here. First, let me remind you of my own Big Secret — the one principle I’ve found that makes the greatest difference to long-term, sustainable fundraising success:
“We’re the best kept secret around.” “No one knows what we do.” “If folks understood the depth and breadth of our work they’d want to support us.”
Does this lament sound familiar? It’s probably the most common complaint I hear from nonprofits. And all too often folks think the answer is hiring someone to write a newsletter or annual report. Or getting someone to “do” social media. All with the end goal of explaining what you do to people so they understand and want to make a charitable gift.
Folks, you can’t explain people into caring about you.
Here”s your ‘Back to School’ Clairity Click-it. It’s a good time to learn a few new tricks — and there are plenty of them here for you to noodle on and sink your teeth into. Let’s take a lo! Best Fundraising Asks Click-It: Your Favorite Fundraising Asks or Offers in Your Appeals? Kivi LeRoux Miller…
Who writes your annual appeal letter? If it’s your executive director or your board chair there’s a very good chance it’s filled with jargon. This (pardon my non-jargon language) sucks.
Jargon is the opposite of constituent-centered writing.
It’s not your writer’s fault. Most of us use jargon all the time without being aware we’re doing so. It’s the language we speak when we work together in groups. It’s a sort of short-hand. Acronyms. Labels. Terms of art. It pops up all over the place. But, again, when it comes to using it in your fundraising appeals it’s bad news. Yet it’s exceedingly difficult to avoid. Why?
Your year-end appeal is less likely to fall on deaf ears than at any other time of year. Why? It’s the time of year when people are naturally inclined towards counting their blessings and feeling both grateful and giving. Some nonprofits raise as much as 40% or more of their annual giving total during the last few months of the year. And 33% of December gifts are made on December 31st. It would be a shame to miss out on this!
In essence, you’ve got people where you want them in November and December. This being the case, don’t you want to put your best foot forward?
I’m going to let you in on a little secret…
Julia C. Campbell and I were clearly separated at birth, and I’ve told her as much. Because I tend to agree – in spades – with everything she writes. [Plus, her middle name is Claire, so what further proof is needed?] Her recent article, 6 Ways Nonprofits Are Getting On Fundraising All Wrong, is no…
Or… What Your Donors Won’t Tell You about Your Nonprofit Messaging.
At first blush, tepid tapioca and gooey hot chocolate might appear to have nothing whatsoever to do with securing vital resources to further your mission. Blush again.
Blush hard. Think of all the good things you could accomplish were you to more effectively master the art and science of fundraising. Feel the warm pink tinge beginning to creep up your neck as you embrace the errors of your ways over the past year. Or two. Or 10. Or even more.
Are you still doing things like it was 1985? 2000? 2008? If so, you should probably be embarrassed. Because I know very few organizations who are succeeding today using yesterday’s strategies.
Last week, in part 1 of this post, I encouraged you to begin blogging if you’re not doing so already. And, if you are, to do so effectively. Make your blog the hub of your content marketing. It will simplify your life in so many ways, and become the anchor for your marketing communications…
Do you have a mature social media operation, or are you just a baby? Or a teen? Babies babble. Teens make it all about themselves. Are you simply using Twitter to babble? Facebook to say “look at me?” Or have you embraced a more full-grown strategy? The best place to start, and the fastest way to get there, is with a blog.
They’ve been around the longest, and they’re pretty tried-and-true.
[I am responding to Andrea Kihlstedt’s Open Letter to me, Is The Donor Pyramid Really Dead, in the Guidestar blog. She was responding to my recent posts on the death of the Donor Pyramid in Fundraising Success Magazine: R.I.P. Donor Pyramid? and Maximize Social Business Blog How Social Media Toppled the Donor Pyramid – What that Means for Nonprofits.]
First, let me say this is a great dialogue to be having. The donor pyramid is a sacred dinosaur, and it’s good to challenge old assumptions from time to time. After all, the dinosaurs had a very good run, but even they became extinct.
Andrea says “no, the pyramid is alive and well,” making the case that (especially in capital campaigns) not all donors are equal. She also finds use for the pyramid in other campaigns, noting a Kickstarter campaign she recently worked on in which the biggest gifts came from donors who were approached face-to-face rather than via online strategies.
Once upon a time (around about 2008) a big mean recession cast its dark shadow over many a nonprofit. Grantors cut back on funding. Donors zipped up their wallets. Salaries and benefits got cut. Seasoned professionals were laid off, or left voluntarily. Others lasted awhile, but became increasingly discouraged.
Six years out from the biggest stock market crash since 1929, I’m beginning to hear a lot of organizations crying “Uncle!” These are the ones that, for reasons unbeknownst to them, have not rebounded. And they’re desperately trying to beat back the wolf at the door.
Do you know why your dog is not only your best friend, but your exuberantly best friend – a Best Friend Forever on steroids?
Can anything be as joyous and lovingly loyal as a dog? Picture Snoopy doing the ‘Ode to Joy’ dance. Unbridled ecstasy. Happy, happy, happy. What makes Snoopy Charlie Brown’s BFF? My guess is that it’s the same thing that makes your pooch pop with pleasure as you poke yourself across the threshold at the end of the day.
Chances are 9 out of 10 that your doggie is your BFF because you are hers. You treat your pet like royalty. How are you treating your donors?
Truths: Today, there are two things broken from my perspective: (1) my arm, and (2) the donor pyramid.
Yup! I’m really not much of a camper, but had a momentary lapse in judgement over the week-end. Kaboom!
Luckily, I managed to type up an article about the sad state of the donor pyramid prior to being reduced to a one-handed hunter/pecker (because this method is SLOW, baby)! That article, “R.I.P.Donor Pyramid,“ is gracing the cover of the May/June Fundraising Success Magazine, so I hope you’ll check it out over there and let me know what you think. Here’s my bottom line:
In Part 1 I covered how quality trumps quantity when it comes to networking with your supporter base. It’s not so much about counting fans as it is about developing fans you can count on. In this two-parter I’m offering 8 ways to reframe your nonprofit marketing and fundraising stewardship objectives so you actually get…
Collecting — whether business cards, numbers of followers on Twitter or ‘likes’ on Facebook — is meaningless without a strategy to turn those relatively “blank” connections into meaningful relationships. If your marketing and/or fundraising strategy is based on counting, it’s time to rethink this strategy. Collecting is merely the “on ramp to build new relationships.” In his new book “Power Relationships,” author Andrew Sobel tells us there’s a better approach to networking.
Where do you go to look for new donors to support your nonprofit in 2014?
If you’ve not yet tapped into the power of electronic communication to find new supporters – social, mobile, email, crowd funding, online donating — read my recent post on Maximize Social Business: The Answer to Finding Nonprofit Donors: Social Media.
While this is in no way a slam dunk, neither is any type of lead generation strategy a magic bullet to converting leads into donors. You still have to do the hard work of building relationships with these folks. Yet…
Fun events may bring in hundreds of attendees, but a fundraising event is not an end in and of itself. Often the charity never sees these folks again (or at least not until the next event) because these folks are golfers or ‘thoners, not donors. These events are a waste of your precious resources.
Don’t tell me that you “raised awareness.”
Unless you raised awareness towards a particular end (usually generating greater philanthropic support) – and you have a plan to intentionally build on this awareness — then everything your attendees may have learned about you will go in one ear and out the other. Awareness that isn’t reinforced lasts about two seconds.
Don’t tell me that you “raised good money.”
Did you really? Well, think again.
An eclectic mix this week – mostly designed to make you think. We don’t take enough time to think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, do we? In the end, thinking saves us a lot of time, preventing us from doing the wrong things (even if we do them the right way). So… gives yourself some thought space.
A mixed bag of great links from around the web. I leave them to you to enjoy!
Fundraising is Fun
Click-it: Why Fundraising is Fun. This opinion piece by Arthur C. Brooks in the New York Times echoes something I’ve taught for years. Fundraising is a way you facilitate philanthropy.
Stop counting likes and follows. If your work plan has “increase FB likes from X to Y or increase Twitter follows from Y to Z” as an objective, delete, delete, delete! Your objective must relate to your “why;” it can’t just be a “what.”
Who cares how many “friends” you have if none of them are engaging with you? Liking is passive. Engaging is active. What do you want folks to feel/think/do? You simply won’t get there by wishing and hoping. You get there by inspiring.
While most non-profits realize the benefits of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, far fewer organizations fully realize the inherent power of LinkedIn.
As one of the original social networking platforms geared primarily toward professionals and businesspeople, LinkedIn can provide your organization with networking and marketing benefits, no matter the size of your non-profit. Here’s how to effectively use the LinkedIn platform to increase your organization’s reach and profile:
If you’re like most nonprofits, you’re still trying to figure out how social media can help you sustain and grow your mission. Most of you are getting it wrong.
Sorry to be so blunt.
Here’s how you’re going astray: (1) your posts are too promotional; (2) your content isn’t relevant to your readers, and (3) you’re too repetitive and boring, without adding value. If you’re simply counting up your numbers of “likes” and “follows” and patting yourself on the back for how you’re growing your lists, you’re totally missing the point.
I know you’ve got a nice juicy steak. And you think that’s amazing. And it is. But it’s not enough to make me buy it.
Why not? I’ll tell you why not.
Two articles caught my attention this week, and each provides the answer to how nonprofits can share what they do in a manner that inspires passionate philanthropic investment.
In Part 1 we covered 5 steps to woo your donors with a communications strategy. Today we’ll look more closely at 9 key communications tools you can use effectively to build closer relationships with your supporters. Some are extraordinarily simple. It’s just that many nonprofits fail to use these tools consistently, or well. If you make a practice of doing so, you’ll be well ahead of the game.
You want to be the favorite child, don’t you?
Did you know that half of donors give 2/3rds of their annual giving to a single charity. That’s why you want to become the “favorite.” Wouldn’t it be terrific if your donors adopted you and thought of you as a member of their family?
Truly, that’s how important you want to become to your supporters. But it won’t happen just because you’re a “good cause.” There are oodles of great causes out there. Oodles. It will happen only when
Keep telling yourself you need a better website to build greater awareness for your cause?
You can certainly do this. But are you asking the more important question?
Why the heck do you want greater awareness? And why would anyone want to be aware of you? Those are the questions too many nonprofits fail to ask. So ask. Seriously. Take a moment. I’ll wait.
“Because we want more people to know about us.”
WHY?
“Because we want to educate them about what we do.”
WHY?
“Because we want more people to support us.”
AHA! Now you’re getting somewhere.
Now ask yourself how getting a better website is going to get you more support. Chances are it won’t. Not really. Because folks are on a journey towards you that builds – from awareness… to interest… to engagement… to investment. And the kicker is that the latter two are where all the action happens. Awareness and interest alone are passive. They won’t get you the active investment you need to sustain your mission.
Engagement precedes investment!
Sadly, most nonprofit websites are lousy engagement vehicles. They’re especially lousy when compared with a blog.
Love Your Donors
Some special valentines today for you, and for your donors. Got that loving feeling? Don’t keep it to yourself. Share.
Outside the box gems today. Thought-provoking stuff to get your juices flowing and help you work smarter. This is the year to get off the treadmill and try something new!
You had me at hello.
That’s what your constituents should think and feel when your email arrives in their inbox.
Hello is a way to call attention… a greeting… an invitation to a dialogue. Does your email do that? Does it easily capture your intended reader’s attention? Does it greet them warmly? Does it encourage interaction with you?
If your emails aren’t getting the open rates you’d like, it’s time to take charge!
Here are some great links from around the nonprofit web. Plenty of food for thought, useful tips and some ‘to do’s’ to try out. Happy end of January (how did that happen?) To your success!
Imagine what it would mean to your mission if you doubled the lifetime value of all of your current supporters.
I recently listened in on an interview between Gail Perry and Jay Love of Bloomerang. It’s a great listen, and the two of them fired me up to write another post on the importance of focusing your efforts on donor retention.
Do you know even know what percentage of donors you’re retaining? According to Jay, less than 5% of fundraising offices know this answer! So, you’re not alone. But you can do better.
Here are some great 2014 To-Do’s to set you up for success in the coming year. Some is keying into trends so you’re not left behind. Some is honing your tried-and-true strategies to build a sustainable nonprofit. This is the year to get thoughtful – and smart. No more status quo, resting on laurels or just going through the motions.
At least if shouldn’t be so hard. After all, the commercial sector manages to retain 94% of their customers. Then why does the nonprofit sector only manage to retain 41%? Even worse, new nonprofit donor retention is only 19%, down from 27% in 2011. That’s abysmal. What’s going on?
Why are our for-profit brethren beating the pants off of us when it comes to retention?
Today I went to research something online and ended up viewing the first entry Google gave me – which was on Wikipedia. To my delight, I ran into an awesome fundraising campaign (this is an occupational hazard with fundraisers – we actually like and admire things like pledge breaks when they’re done well)!
Here’s what I found superimposed at the top of the screen:
Philanthropy, Not Fundraising
Are you confident your employees – all of them – are fully engaged in your mission so they don’t bungle openings to turn inquiries into interest, interest into involvement and involvement into investment? Do your workers just do their job, or do they understand their real job to be part of your greater vision-focused undertaking?
Unless you’ve created a culture of philanthropy in your organization – one where everyone who works there is fully informed and passionate about your work and the values you enact in the community – then you’re inevitably going to blow opportunities to garner vital support. Under-informed workers lead to disengaged workers. Disengaged workers lead to disengaged constituents. And here’s how it happens.
This week it’s about the three things that will boost your year-end giving: (1) social media done well will drive awareness of your cause and the current opportunity to make an impact; (2) creative, compelling content presented in the form of a story will trigger emotions that inspire philanthropy, and (3) your user-friendly, up-to-date website will make it easy for would-be donors to connect with you, donate and then continue to stay connected – and feel good about it – over time. This week’s links will give you food for thought – plus actionable tips.