Rocks, balancing.

Balancing Trick: You. Donor. Nonprofit.

Rocks, balancing.When the world feels wildly out of whack, it’s time to figure out how to bring things back into some semblance of balance.

Today I share a proven 1-2-3 formula for nonprofit fundraising success — even when the ground underneath feels shaky.

This is a time when keeping one’s balance is quite a challenge. But, if you use this formula, you can steady yourself, right your organizational ship, and bring meaning, purpose and joy to others in your community who share your values.

What I’m about to share is obvious. I know you know it. But… do you do it?

Just in case you need a little reminder.

  1. The first step is essential for success in anything.
  2. The second step is essential for success in any consumer-facing business.
  3. The third step is essential for success in reaching any fundraising goal.

Begin with Centering Actions: For Yourself, Others and Your Mission.

I’m talking about balancing self-love with donor-love with mission-love.

You’re no doubt familiar with the adage “You can’t help others unless you first take care of yourself.”

This is a truism you should carry with you throughout your life, and not just when the oxygen masks come down on an airplane. It’s never been truer than in the times in which we’re currently living, when there are new things about which to worry seemingly daily.

How do you lead the way forward, helping yourself and others navigate through the tough times?

I’d like to suggest you heed this 3-Step Formula to nonprofit fundraising success.

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Because They Care—Invite Donor Feedback to Deepen Your Relationship

puzzle pieces

You’ve got your work cut out for you.

How will you connect with donors in a manner that deepens their connection with you? How will you match their passions and values to the passions and values you enact?

You can’t — unless you explicitly ask donors for their feedback.

You do this with friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors, don’t you? “What do you think?” “Which color looks better?” “Paper or plastic?” “Italian or Thai?”

Guessing about what floats your donor’s boat is as bad as guessing whether your family prefers Italian or Thai food for dinner. It’s a recipe for disaster. Or at least for satisfying exactly no one.

There’s a better way.

Show Donors They Matter: Use Surveys to Listen, Learn, and Deepen Connection

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.”

  1. One is for you –useful information you will act on.
  2. One is for your donor —a way to usefully participate, other than giving money, and feel a part of a community of like-minded folks.

Donor surveys are an opportunity for a value-for-value exchange.

This is, after all, 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. But it’s tricky to do this unles you endeavor to get inside your donor’s head and find out how their values match those your organization enacts.

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. Ask the “Why are we doing this?” question. What pieces of your particular donor puzzle are you looking to uncover? Begin with asking: How will I know this survey was successful?

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Coping in Trying Times: Empathy + Innovation are Essential Nonprofit Philanthropic Strategies

How will you and your nonprofit make it through these trying times? Two words: EMPATHY. INNOVATION. These are the two qualities most needed in today’s topsy-turvy world. And they’re by far the best way to connect meaningfully with your constituents. I’d like you to think of them as your newly essential fundraising and communication strategies.…

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Nonprofit Crisis Response Tip-a-Day-DO-Dah!

Sign StaySafeBeKindNo matter your politics, this is crisis time for many nonprofits who rely on federal grants and loans (about 30% of all charities).

It’s also crisis time for the beneficiaries of many nonprofits, who are scared, stressed, depressed and otherwise at loose ends due to the rapidly changing environment. Many of the resources on which folks once relied have disappeared or are at risk. For some of your constituents, it feels as if the rug has been pulled out. Or the other shoe is about to drop.

During times like these, people want to come together and help. It’s your job, as a philanthropy facilitator, to help them in this communal endeavor. Stay calm, carry on, and communicate your particular needs.

Resist the temptation to throw your hands up in the air, assume people feel too uncertain to give now, and simply leave folks (donors and clients) to their own devices. We know from past experience this won’t end well.

During the 2008-09 worldwide recession, many charities cut back on fundraising and marketing. Some of them still haven’t recovered. Something similar happened in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. People thought (assumed) it was unseemly to ask for contributions.

Be careful what you assume.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

Research collected from donors in response to the coronavirus pandemic showed:

  • Giving, and fundraising, was increasingly seen as good. Even donors who had been hit economically remained remarkably generous.
  • Charities with little relevance to tackling coronavirus still received support from donors that valued them – as long as they asked for help (otherwise they were perceived as not in need of funds).

“Many of the donors we spoke to report that they just don’t know what they should be doing or who they can trust. This led to a rise in levels of insecurity… Of course, they understand that things are changing and that plans will always need to adapt. But knowing that a strategy is in place will provide the security that they need. They also want to know what their role – as supporters – will be. And, most importantly, they are ready for a frank conversation about what is required of them.“

— 2020 Report, Bluefrog Fundraising

Donors want to help – and will help – but they need leadership.

This means telling people what you do that addresses the problems that worry them. For people feeling helpless, this can give them a sense of control. Show them how they can join you, and become a part of a community of like-minded people who share their concerns and values.

It all boils down to a need to put together both short and long-term plans to connect meaningfully with your supporters right now, using the correct approach and tone. Towards that end, I’ve put together five ‘to-do’s – one for each day of the work week.  I suggest you put aside a little bit of time this coming week to consider how you might actualize each of these suggestions, if not in whole at least in part.

Ready for your five timely tips?

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"Doing the right thing isn't always easy" storefront art

How Humanity and Trust Supercharge Nonprofit Fundraising

"Doing the right thing isn't always easy" storefront artEveryone’s been saying this, just about daily, for some time.

“These aren’t ordinary times.”

If the anthem for the Boomer generation was Bob Dylan’s “The TImes They Are A’Changin’,” what’s the anthem for today? History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. We’re living in the face of a firehose of breaking news, and much of it is difficult to digest. Let alone know how to face, handle and get through it with safety and sanity intact.

We can retreat, live in limbo or figure out a way to navigate through this reality and find opportunities to do our work in new and better ways.

It’s a difficult assignment, because it’s not easy to know where to begin.

As social benefit organizations, we want to come from a human-centered, community-centered place, but… what exactly might that be in this extraordinary time?

What the World Most Needs Right Now.

I think it’s humanity and trust.

Usually we have to guess at what will feel relevant to our supporters. Today, we pretty much know. Because we hear it all the time. On the news. On social media. When we zoom with colleagues. When we talk to our friends.

  • People want to know who they can trust.
  • People want their fellow humans to act the part.
  • People want to consciously engage — with humans they can trust — in a meaningful manner.

Social benefit organizations have a secret advantage.

Survival in the civil sector is based on the philanthropic exchange, and ‘philanthropy’ means ‘love of humanity’. Yet sometimes it seems all we see and hear is hatred of humanity. Us/Them.  Left/Right. Red/Blue. Young/Old. Good/Evil. Insiders/Outsiders. I could go on…

There’s a better way. When you infuse your nonprofit work with humanity, you’ll reach trust.

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Key Strategies to Give Meaningful Nonprofit Work Feedback

Awesome/Less Awesome Sandwich BoardConfession: This is something I struggled with in my 30 years as a manager.

I wanted to reward folks, but I tended to focus on things like money rather than gratitude, praise and recognition. And positive reinforcement didn’t come to me as naturally as pointing out weaknesses. I had both a boss (and a mother) who role modelled this for me.

This same critical boss also told me, whenever I wanted to give someone a raise, money didn’t motivate people.  All sorts of other things mattered more, including work environment.

At the time, I didn’t really believe this. I was constantly advocating for well-deserved raises because I thought it was the best gift I had to offer. And, by golly, it seemed like the right and fair thing to do! She told me resources were limited, and the satisfaction from a raise is fleeting, compared with things like greater authority, autonomy, praise and recognition.

You know what? She was right. Not about leaning into criticism, but about what is most meaningful to employees in a workplace.

What Matters Most?

I found, as much as the people who worked for me enjoyed a good raise, they complained a lot more about lack of advancement opportunity, responsibility without authority, a top-down infrastructure, lack of job fit, unrealistically high expectations, shortage of support and an overall stressful work environment.

If money is really bad, of course, it will get in the way.  However, it’s worth noting money is only fourth among the top five reasons people cite for leaving a job. In fact, the preponderance of research into the value of money as a motivator notes it is a motivator only up to a certain point; once folks reach that level, more money has a negligible impact on their satisfaction.

[Background: I was fortunate during my career not to work at places where folks were expected to buy into the “starvation cycle” mentality and live below minimum wage. Where I worked, people generally were fairly and well-compensated. Sure, they’d likely tell you they wanted more money.  But this was not the reason they left.]

“In a nutshell: money does not buy engagement.”

— Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author, Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (and How to Fix It)

Employee engagement is a product of overall work environment (culture) and specific management support (feedback, praise and recognition).

Begin with an Engaging Work Environment

A huge part of what employees will describe as “work environment” has to do with meaningful engagement, or lack thereof. And there are two ways to promote this engagement:

  1. Develop a broad, organizational culture of philanthropy [See here, here, here and here.]
  2. Develop a feedback system incorporating authentic praise, recognition and focus on strengths, not weaknesses.

I talk a lot about the former. Today I’d like to hone in on the latter.

(1) Because… for engagement to stick, the two types must go hand-in-hand.

In fact, research reveals

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Are You Rocking Donor Retention 101?

You love me. I love you. Let's hang out and rock!

You love me. I love you. Let’s hang out and rock!

 

Really, donors definitely want to rock and roll with you. It brings them joy and meaning!

Yet, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s doubtful you’re rocking along with your donors unless you’re making robust use of your donor database for this purpose.

In other words, you must make donor engagement and retention a TOP priority.

Retention lives or dies in how effectively, or not, you use your database to support your relationship-building, loyalty-driving efforts.

If you think of your database as a largely undifferentiated mailing list, you’re not going to realize your potential to:

  • Boost renewal rates
  • Increase average gift size
  • Upgrade donors
  • Secure major and legacy gifts
  • Recapture lapsed donors
  • … and more!

Really, I just can’t bear to think of you not maximizing return on your investment.

And that won’t happen unless you focus on donor lifetime value.

And lifetime value will be very, very small — unless you retain and upgrade donors over time.

There are 5 Keys to Donor Retention

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