Don’t put the fundraising cart before the friendraising horse! There’s an essential precondition for all fundraising: FRIENDraising. It’s the work horse that pulls the cart. Marketing and fundraising have changed so much since the digital revolution, you can no longer simply push messages out to folks and expect them to jump on board. So, let’s…
Details
“If done correctly, I would say the most donor-centric thing a fundraiser can do is ask a donor for a gift. Why? Because you are allowing the donor to change the world. You can’t get more donor-centric than that.”
— Jeff Schreifels, Veritus Group
Jeff made the comment above in response to an article by Roger Craver on the Agitator blog: Donor-Centric or Faux Donor-Centric? Check the Plumbing. It has a terrific checklist of ways to tell whether or not your organization is donor-centric (I’ve summarized the list at the bottom of this article).
Everything on the list applies to donors of all stripes. If you’re going to do major gift fundraising (and you really, truly should because 88% of dollars raised comes from 12% of donors), these tips apply in SPADES.
Jeff was offering the ultimate donor-centric item to add to this checklist, and I could not agree more.
Details
Are you aware one of the hottest things in for-profit management over the past five years or so is “customer service,” otherwise known as “customer experience” or CX? There’s an entire industry that’s grown up around it. If you want to learn , I highly recommend Strategic Customer Service and Customer Experience 3.0 by customer…
Details
I wish I had a dime for every time a nonprofit board or staff member told me “We’re the best kept secret in town; if people knew what we do, they’d give to support us.”
If I had all those dimes, I could make a nice contribution to your cause. That is, 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.
Details
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 recommend some of his articles to you and also 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.
Details
I’m a huge fan of the Greater Good Science Center at U.C. Berkeley, and often apply their research to nonprofit fundraising and marketing. A recent article really struck me: How to Find Your Purpose in Life.
Over my 30 years of practice as an in-house development professional, the fundamental thing I learned is this:
You serve your donors every bit as much as they serve your organization’s mission.
Please allow that to sink in.
You have a mission. A purpose. Donors can help you get there.
Your donors are looking for purpose. You can help them find it.
It’s a symbiotic relationship. And you have a role in fostering that relationship. What is that role?
Your job is to facilitate your donor’s philanthropic journey. Their journey to discover their purpose.
So what’s this really all about?
Details
“People do not give to the most urgent needs, but rather they support causes that mean something to them.”
This is the finding from a report done by the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy at the University of Kent: “How Donor Choose Charities.” They begin their study from the widely-accepted premise that charities exist primarily to help needy people and the desire to meet needs is a key criterion in the selection of charitable beneficiaries. Interviews with committed donors found this was not the reason they gave. In brief, the study concludes:
Giving and philanthropy have always been supply-led rather than demand-driven: the freedom to distribute as much as one wants, to whom one chooses, is what distinguishes giving from paying tax. Yet the methods used to encourage donations tend to assume that philanthropy depends on objective assessments of need rather than on donors’ enthusiasms. The tendency to overestimate the extent to which people act as rational agents results in fundraising literature that often focuses on the dimensions and urgency of the problem for which funding is sought. The assumption underlying this approach is that donations are distributed in relation to evidence of neediness, when in fact much giving could be described as ‘taste-based’ rather than ‘needs-based’.
If there was ever a time to commit to finding out more about the folks on your mailing list so you know what floats their boats, this report indicates that time is decidedly NOW. Otherwise, you’re just ‘spraying and praying’ as you buy into the conceit that “if only” folks knew about the need we address they would give. Because they “should.” That’s not why folks give.
In fact, the study cites four criteria that influenced donor decision making, and they are not based on meeting your or your clients’ needs.
Details
Philanthropy should not just be about big checks.
Last week I shared some reasons not to eschew small gift fundraising. Today I’m following up with some tips for building and mobilizing your community to find, sustain and grow these gifts.
This is important, because a donor’s first gift is seldom their largest. It’s a starting point.
The majority of your gifts will be small, but the majority of your income will come from a small group of major donors.
You have to grow this cadre of loyal, passionate philanthropists by building relationships with supporters over time.
The lion’s share of major gifts come from previously small gift donors.
A client I’m working with told me 50% of their major donors began with very small gifts. How about tracking this for your organization? Sure, some major donors come in at the top. But I’ll bet you a majority start by dipping their toe in the water. How can you get folks more fully immersed?
DetailsRecognition. Appreciation. Acknowledgment. Gratitude.
Psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, economists and historians have often studied and documented this phenomenon. It’s part of our quest for meaning and connection.
I like the way
Details
In Part 1 we looked at establishing event goals and objectives; then determining if an event was the most efficient and effective way to achieve desired outcomes.
We recognized most events are less about actual monetary return on investment (ROI) than they are about return on engagement (ROE).
In other words, if you’re doing an event purely to raise money there are other more cost-effective fundraising strategies. However, events done right are an excellent awareness-raising, branding and donor cultivation tool. You just have to go into events fully cognizant of what success will look like, both from your organization’s and your donor’s perspectives. Only armed with this understanding can you create events that will be worth your while.
Today we look at ways to make events – once you’ve decided to hold them – fulfill both your and your donors’ dreams.
Details