Marc A. Pitman's Blog, page 45
May 16, 2013
Fundraising for ministry support
A couple weeks ago, I gave a series of lectures at the Funding Your Ministry Symposium to over 100 coaches from around the world. These people represented 48 different missionary associations including large organizations like The Navigators, InterVarsity, Cru, YWAM, and Wycliffe.
The people they coach are raising their own ministry support. They don’t have time to mess around, wasting time. But they aren’t often the most eager fundraisers. They know they have to ask for money, but they got into their position to do “ministry,” not raise support.
Sounds like most people that start nonprofits, doesn’t it? They just want to do mission, not have to deal with the funding.
So these coaches get to help people see that fundraising is ministry. They were a wonderful bunch. They asked me to speak on:
The 5 Habits of Highly Successful Fundraisers
Helping Others Succeed at Fundraising (This much I know is true)
Overcoming Discouragment in Fundraising
Since they graciously recorded my talks, I’m offering them for free on my site. Go to the Symposium page here at http://fundraisingcoach.com/symposium/ to get the complete audio files, links to the PowerPoints, and links to any tools I shared.
If you’re fundraising for a faith-based cause, particularly for a Christian ministry, I’m sure you’ll benefit from these talks.
I also recommend you check out Scott Morton’s Funding Your Ministry. It’s simply the best book I’ve read for helping people raise their own ministry support.
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Welcome to the Funding Your Ministry Symposium V page!
Raising support for the Waterville Public Library
Fundraising Myth: If we build it, God will fund it
May 13, 2013
[Guest Post] Using Gallup’s StrengthsFinder to help your board fundraise more effectively
Today it’s my honor to introduce you to John Fulwider. I’m a guy who loves helping people find their strengths and talents. John is the first person I’ve met who teaches nonprofit boards how to use the Gallup StrengthsFinder to find their strengths. He’s a sought-after speaker, especially on nonprofit board and staff development and the author of two books: The Nonprofit Book of Awesome: 25 Tips for Achieving Greater Mission Impact and Personal Fulfillment, and the forthcoming Leadership Pairs for Mission Impact: Effective Nonprofit Board President-Chief Executive Partnerships,. You can follow him on Twitter @johnmfulwider.
Boards can lead from strengths to fundraise more effectively
by John M. Fulwider, Ph.D., business and career coach
www.johnfulwider.com
Nonprofit boards can fundraise and govern more effectively when they lead from their strengths.
Forming strengths-based leadership teams lets members operate from their natural talents, instead of pushing against their weaknesses. The result: More mission impact for the organization, and more personal fulfillment for the members.
In this post, I’ll show you how to:
Understand strengths psychology—the idea that you and your mission are better off when you play to your strengths, instead of try to “fix” your weaknesses.
Help board members understand how their Gallup StrengthsFinder strengths apply to ensuring abundant resources for your organization through fundraising.
Write a quick action plan to help your board lead from its strengths.
Understanding strengths psychology
The theory here is Donald Clifton’s strengths psychology—that people are “able to gain far more when they expend effort to build on their greatest talents than when they spend a comparable amount of effort to remediate their weaknesses.” The application is Gallup’s well-known StrengthsFinder assessments, which have helped millions of people identify and build their own strengths, plus work better in teams because they understand other people’s strengths.
Think of strengths as the path of least resistance between you and the results you want to achieve—both for individuals and for leadership teams, which is what boards are. In the team context, no one member is going to have all the qualities a board needs to fulfill its collective responsibilities and make big and lasting mission impact. As Tom Rath and Barry Conchie succinctly put it in their book Strengths-Based Leadership, “Although individuals need not be well-rounded, teams should be.”
Quickly identifying your strengths (before taking StrengthsFinder)
This isn’t an official definition, but it’s a helpful one. Strengths are your natural talents. They are things you can do well with less effort than things at which you are less strong. They are themes that define you. If you were to fill in the blanks in these sentences…
I’ve always had a knack for ________
People have always said I”m good at ________
I find that ________ comes naturally for me
…those would be your strengths. Go ahead and fill in those blanks. (Don’t write on your screen, please.)
Intrigued? You should be! Now go take StrengthsFinder from Gallup and learn your Top 5 strengths. You’ll invest about 10 bucks and 35 minutes of your time. (I’m in no way associated with Gallup, I’m just a big fan of their products and what they’ve done for me and my clients.)
How StrengthsFinder strengths apply to fundraising
In a workshop I’ve put together called Strengths-Based Board Leadership, I provide some suggested matches for strengths and fundraising responsibilities. These suggestions are intended to inspire your own thinking about how you can form strong leadership teams using your colleagues’ mix of strengths.
Achiever: Works hard at personal efforts to generate financial resources.
Activator: Gets a fundraising initiative moving quickly from plan to action.
Adaptability: Balances the analytical and cautious to try new things.
Analytical: Analyzes the highest-ROI revenue generation measures.
Consistency: Adheres to the organization's business plan for sustainability.
Discipline: Doesn't succumb to mission creep to generate revenue.
Focus: Keeps pursuing revenue-generation plan when the going gets tough.
Input: Gathers new funding ideas.
How StrengthsFinder strengths apply to getting the good word out
But what if my board’s fearful of fundraising? Well, Marc Pitman can help you learn to, you know, Ask Without Fear (ba dum dum CHING!), but strengths-based leadership can as well. An often-overlooked element of ensuring abundant resources is enhancing the organization’s public standing. The public’s high regard for your organization is itself a resource you can transform into dollars. To learn more, head over to johnfulwider.com to read my followup article, “Boards can lead from strengths to raise a nonprofit's public standing.”
Take action to lead from strengths
What will you do to lead from your strengths? Answer these questions (again, donit write on your screen!) to build a quick action plan with which you can implement what you’ve learned.
Your Envisioned Future: When you’ve successfully built strengths-based leadership teams on your board, what will these people and things look like? How will they have changed?
You
The people you serve
Your board
Your community
Your Purpose Statement: Why do you want to achieve this future?
Your Current Reality: What’s your current reality? What are the gaps between today and your envisioned future?
Specific Action Commitments: What will you commit to doing to create your envisioned future?
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
[Guest Post] Three Ways Nonprofits Can Use Promotional Products Effectively
[Guest Post] 7 ways to thank a donor
[Guest Post] Why Donors Stop Giving
May 7, 2013
Throw statistics out of your fundraising letters!
These are the words that matter to us as fundraisers
These are the words that matter to a donor
A couple weeks ago, I was grounded in Newark, NJ so I got to listen to some NJ radio. One ad for a nonprofit caught my attention and then quickly failed. I blogged about it at Does the phrase “tax deductible” kill donations?And I gave some suggestions on how the ad could’ve gotten me to make a donation.
That post is getting a lot of traffic and great comments. But why will thousands of nonprofit fundraisers use that phrase as though it were a “deal clincher” for a gift? I think it’s because it sounds logical.
Unfortunately for them, logic kills fundraising success.
A Security Blanket, Statistically Speaking
I think nonprofit fundraisers have a love affair with rational phrases and statistics because they feel these make them seem smarter. Make their nonprofit seem like a smart investment. But as Tom Ahern said years ago in a post called You love stats. But do stats love you?:
“[statistics] can be surprisingly weak persuaders when you are trying to move people to give.”
Part of the reason is, as Tom puts it, “donors want to IMAGINE their gifts at work.” Statistics don’t let them. Especially when they’re thrown kitchen-sink style at a donor.
Often our fundraising letters or newsletters look like this: We shook 2031 hands and fed 62 children and fixed 423 sashes with a 97.3% accuracy rating and exactly 94.3% of your gift went directly to do that.
We think it’s clear that we’re doing a lot of good. But donors don’t have anything to compare those numbers against. And there are so many, it’s difficult for them to imagine themselves making the difference.
Studies Show Analysis is a Bad Fundraising Appeal
As irritating as this will be for the logical among us, studies are consistently showing that when it comes to fundraising, logic kills donations.
Worse still, the evidence shows that we can’t mix emotion and logic. Telling an emotional story and throwing in even one calculation or statistic can have devestating results on your fundraising.
In a comment to my “tax deductible” post, Marc Koenig from Nonprofit Hub reminded us that Chip & Dan Heath write about this in their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Take Hold and Others Come Unstuck. On page 167, they write:
“The results [of pitching with a primarily emotional appeal with an analytical detail] are shocking. The mere act of calculation reduced people’s charity. Once we put on our analytical hat, we react to emotional appeals differently. We hinder our ability to feel.”
The statistics and tax deductibility are important. Just not in our fundraising appeals. Because if we’re to be successful at fundraising, we need our donors to feel.
Your Homework
I always end my coaching calls with homework for the client. So I’ll end this post with homework for you.
This week, review the rest of this year’s fundraising letters and see about removing analytical words. Opt instead for anecdotes, one story to put to face on the stats.
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Fundraising Secret #33: Include a donation form link in your email fundraising letters
A good time to throw stones
3 more contrarian tips for writing successful fundraising letters
May 6, 2013
21 Social Media Tips for Nonprofits from Top Experts
I love nonprofits. And I love social media.
But nonprofits don’t always “get” social media. While there are few truly firm rules about using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, or any of the other myriad of platforms out there, there are some things that bug donors.
So I emailed some of the top authors and social media experts from around the world and asked them to quickly answer this question:
What is 1 thing you wish nonprofits “got” about social media?
The replies were great! Here they are.
Use Social Media for New Work
“I wish nonprofits would use it as a platform for new work, not a way to hide from doing the old work.”
-Seth Godin, New York Times Bestselling author and inspiring business artist
Focus on Being Useful
“Like most businesses, non-profits tend to look at social media as a money-first or money-only channel. So I would recommend they temper the expectations that social is about fundraising and just focus on being a resource, useful and/or entertaining to their core audience. Make people happy with your content. The donations will come.”
Use Visual Stories
“Using visual stories: That is taking pictures and posting them on sites like Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, etc. and then writing the story behind it. They could also take videos where the story is and recite it as it plays.
I have seen dog shelters do this. They take videos of dogs that came to them in very bad conditions and were then nursed back to health. It’s a complete story. Told visually.”
Use Social Media Year Round
“I would say consistency is so important. I often see non-profits only when they have an event or a campaign they want you to be involved with. I think they could increase awareness and response if they worked on building the relationship throughout the year.”
Create a Volunteer Social Media Corp
“Create a volunteer social media corp. For nonprofits to be really effective at social media, the first step is teaching your volunteers to amplify your messages. By ‘amplifying,’ I mean sharing with their own social profiles and connections, not speaking on behalf of the non-profit. To do this well, you’ll want to create some method of getting the word out to the volunteers when you have content that needs sharing. You can use a service like GaggleAmp or create a Facebook group or Google+ community.
“As you start to see that some individuals are more adept than others, you might want to start training them to actually become community managers. Even if in a group of volunteers of, say 10 people, each person took one hour per week, it could have an enormous impact on your social media communications. To read more about this approach, check out my blog post on Social Media Today.”
Leave Gaps & Be Vulnerable
“One lesson that I’ve learned is when asking for help is to leave gaps.
Let people a place they can help and make a difference.
People are more willing to help if you look like you need it and if they can see gaps that they can help with.
Harness the Amazing Energy of Others
“Non-profits must find a way to tap into and utilize the passionate amateurs who surround their brands. Frequently, there are people who are more than willing to donate their time and expertise to your cause. Find a way to tap into their energy and put them to work. Ask them to attend events and shoot photos or video. Invite them to blog. Hold a monthly meeting and ask for their ideas. These people represent a powerful force with amazing energy just waiting to be tapped into. What are you waiting for?”
Keep Social Media Usage Visual
“One thing I wish nonprofits would get right about their social media is knowing that it is important to have a visual focus when it comes to marketing your content. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with sharing content on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc that highlights links, text or video but in the end it is vital that a major focus of all these channels is to share visuals over all other types of content.
“A study conducted by psychologist Albert Mehrabian showed that 93% of communication is nonverbal, since visuals can be processed by the mind 60,000 times faster than text. With this in mind, it’s crucial to tell the story of your mission using appealing visual elements across all of your social platforms.
A helpful article on how nonprofits can focus on the visual elements of their social strategy is 5 Ways to Get Visual on Social Media.”
- Brian Honigman, Digital Marketing Executive at Marc Ecko Enterprises
Be Social!
“I wish that nonprofits would get that social media is social. So many nonprofits broadcast only. It’s like they are standing on the balcony, shouting their message onto the people below. A few nonprofits get down and walk into the crowd. They speak to people one on one and in small groups. They talk normally. They are social. Those are the nonprofits I actually connect with using social media.”
Invest in Good Design
“What I really like is seeing nonprofits investing in great design. It really stands out about other nonprofit websites and helps people more easily connect with their cause.”
- Cindy King, Director of Editorial at Social Media Examiner
Humanize
“The 1 thing I wish nonprofits “got” about social media is how to humanize the purpose of their cause.”
Share
“Let the folks who give be part with their hands and minds – not just their hearts and wallets. We’re not the only ones with great ideas. We’re not the only ones who can get things done. Let them paticipate fully and they will own what they do, protect it, and love it too.”
- Liz Strauss, Co-Founder SOBCon (and on Forbe’s list of Top 10 Women Social Media Influencers)
Become a trusted member of your community
“Make a sincere effort to become a trusted member of your community – to become one of them. What this means is pouring sweat, tears and love into listening and demonstrating how much you care – with replies on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. It means expressing appreciation for your community to the point where it almost seems like the community and the cause comes way before your organization. When this is done correctly, it always results in increased donors, volunteers and revenue. All that’s required is time, consideration and trust.”
Develop From Within
“The biggest thing is that they can no longer ignore it.
The web is now a connected one and that means that every nonprofit must add interacting and storytelling into their marketing and fundraising initiatives. Relying on only phone calls, fund raisers and direct mailings is no longer enough.
They need to bring in new blood to help them determine how best to approach social media. There are no cookie cutter solutions, so it is important to develop from within.”
Tell Your Story
“Telling their story, it’s baseline, basic, who do they impact and how? Show me how you are changing the world…”
Unforgettable
“I wish more non profits focused on understanding their donor, and creating a positive unforgettable donor experience; whether it’s their website, email marketing or engagement on any social platform.”
Part of a 3-Pronged Strategy
“Social Media is one piece of the digital marketing equation, and it has a specific role. This is critical for every non-profit to understand. It is not the ‘godsend’ nor the ‘enemy.’ It is one key piece of a three-pronged approach.
Social Media is the ‘conversation driver’ that relies on other content. A non-profit’s blog should be the content center that offers substance and the full detail. As each new posted is created, then email marketing is the mechanism of distribution to extend the reach of the content to the current community. When content is created and distributed, then social media comes in as a way to cultivate conversation, build and extend community, and harness the energy and passion of the non-profits mission. Too many make the mistake of shouting out the needs of their non-profit via social media, rather than seeing it as the conversation and community builder that it can be.
When social media is used well within this 3-pronged online strategy, the entire digital marketing efforts of the non-profit are multiplied.”
Do Interesting Projects
“I wish Non-profits would realize that if you take risks and do interesting projects leveraging technology in innovative ways, social media will take care of itself.”
Make It Easy to Share Your Story
“I wish non-profits understood their stories are powerful, and the more rich the quality of the story, the more it will touch the lives of those you serve, and those you want to sponsor your organization. As much as you can, do video stories. If not video, do audio. If not audio, do a photo and text.
Tell me a story, get me involved, and help me see myself in your story. You can always make the richness smaller (videos can be converted to audio which can be converted to a photo and text) but it’s harder (and more expensive) to scale that up. Let your audience choose which format they want to consume – and which one they want to share.
Make it as easy as possible to share in whatever way I want to, and don’t worry about people stealing it. If it’s any good, they will steal it, they will rip it off, and they will riff on it. Embrace that.”
- Phil Gerbyshak, Chief Connections Officer, Milwaukee Social Media
The Power of Conversations
“The one key thing that I wish non profits understood better about social media is the power of conversation online and the art of telling real, human stories. Conversation is powerful. Sharing real human stories can be the difference that people need to understand and get behind supporting an issue. For example, the incredible work that Mark Horvath of Invisible People does by sharing video conversations with people who are facing homelessness has been invaluable in raising awareness related to the true epidemic that communities in Canada and the United States face related to this issue. That said, not every organization necessarily needs to make videos. How about gathering community stakeholders in Google+ Hangouts to discuss issues and solutions? What about using a tool like Audioboo to record the audio of key discussions, educational events or other important storytelling moments? Sometimes audio can be more engaging than video because it requires people to create images in their own mind’s eye.
There are amazing possibilities for non profits when they use social media tools in creative ways. Conversations and stories matter because we can all relate to them.”
Relationships are Primary
“In the nonprofit sector, relationships matters most: the relationships with the members, donors and supporters that NPOs depend on for volunteers, financial support and cause advocacy.
Storytelling is the best way to get attention of people on social networking sites. These stories emotionally connect people and they share them instantly. These actions not only create awareness among a mass audience but it ultimately helps NPO to raise funds and help people in a cause. One nonprofit really effective at this is NOT FOR SALE, an organization founded by David Batstone.
The second thing is to attract influencers to promote a cause; these influencers include celebrities as well. People are ready to act when their favorite influencer endorse something. Sharing visual content, both videos and stills is also an important tactic to go viral on social networks; visual content delivers a thought fast. For more, read Brian Solis’ post Social Slacktivism: How to use social media to promote human rights and social justice.”
- Muhammad Saad Khan, Social Media Consultant & Activist Fighting Human Trafficking
Before and After
“The one thing I wish nonprofits got about social media is that telling true before/after stories is a million times more compelling than kitty pics. Seriously.”
- Lori Randall Stradtman, author of Online Reputation Management for Dummies
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
3 reasons social media is worth the effort for local nonprofits
Join the conversation in Twitter – get social with “social media”
Thoughts on working social media from April’s #SMBME
May 3, 2013
[Secret Page] Ask Without Fear! DVD & Free Coaching Offer
Now through the end of May 5, we’re offering a free, private coaching session with Marc to with every purchase of the popular Ask Without Fear! DVD!
To qualify, you simply need to buy the DVD from this secret page:
http://fundraisingcoach.com/dvd/
Hurry, this offer ends at midnight, May 5!
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Ask Without Fear! DVD Special Offer [Secret Page]
Free seminar and win a free coaching session!
EXTENDED THROUGH GIVING TUESDAY: Amazing Cyber-Monday Offer on Fundraising Training Tools
May 1, 2013
Shame on UNICEF for attacking “slacktivism”
The Chronicle of Philanthropy just posted a note about an article in The Atlantic called “UNICEF Tells Slacktivists: Give Money, Not Facebook Likes.”
This really bothers me.
How dare we as NGOs or nonprofits command people in how to support us. How dare we berate them for “only” helping their friends know we exist by sharing about us on social media.
When we get to the point of feeling so frustrated that people aren’t giving, we need to grow up and realize our donors or “slacktivists” aren’t the problem. We are.
People Give Money Because They Are Asked
Study after study shows the #1 reason people don’t give is they’re not asked. It stands to reason the #1 reason people “like” a page on Facebook is that they are asked.
I’m glad UNICEF Sweden is helping people realize that as nice as “social proof” is, a like alone doesn’t save a life. But to have a harsh video like the one below beat up on people for not giving? That is a waste of resources and trust.
UNICEF Sweden spent alot time, effort, and presumably money, to basically tell the world their fundraising is ineffective.
I sure hope they got a government grant to fund it.
Get Better at Asking!
If your nonprofit isn’t getting the funding it needs, get better at asking. Don’t whine that people are “only” amplifying your message on social media. Sheesh. Many nonprofits would love to have that “problem.”
Lot’s of great training is out there. There are free fundraising articles and fundraising books and DVDs here on this site. The site www.MovieMondaysVideos.com offers free fundraising help. The presenters from Charity How To offer amazing webinars. A bunch of us have created 100 Donors in 90 Days and the companion Donor Retention Project.
Dozens of my colleagues have excellent blogs and websites, many with links on the right side of this blog. Even a simple Google search on “fundraising help” brings up great tools.
There’s simply no excuse for bad asking. UNICEF Sweden, if you need help, email me. I even speak Swedish.
The irony? I found UNICEF Sweden’s video on YouTube. Another social media site. Ironic, no?
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Slacktivism: Don’t go stealing my label – but feel free to steal my status
Is Google keeping people off your site?
Development and Social Media in a nutshell
April 23, 2013
Overhead isn’t the issue – and it’s not a fundraising tool
Last week, in my weekly email to Fundraising Kick subscribers, I told them to stop talking about what percent of their budget goes to “overhead.” I won’t go into the entire message I sent, but here’s a summary.
You need to know the percentage
People are talking about the percentage of a nonprofit’s budget that goes to “overhead.” Here in the USA, they can easily look at a charities 990 which publicly announces how much came in in donations and how much fundraising cost. The media and some self-proclaimed charity watch dog groups seem to love criticizing charities that have whatever they consider to be “high” overhead. They paint these nonprofits as greedy, lying organizations merely existing to rip off donors.
So as a nonprofit staff member, you need to be ready to explain yours. High or low, be ready to tell the story.
But as you’re talking with donors and prospects, don’t brag about the percentage. You don’t want to be in that conversation. And focusing on percentages cripples your board members’ ability to fundraise.
It’s the wrong conversation
Focusing on percentages and budgets make it very difficult for board members and others to make solicitations. It stresses them out, like math tests did to so many of us in school. And that stress is unnecessary.
What really matters: changing the world
You want your conversation to be about:
Impact.
Change.
Making the world a better place.
The difference donors are making with their gifts.
It’s about stories and impact. And for board members, it’s about their story, why they’re giving.
Bragging about percentages sets you up to look awful when you need to invest in marketing, advertising, or events. But not investing could end up costing your nonprofit, eventually making it impossible to survive.
Every time you talk about the percentage, you make the nonprofit the center of the conversation. To be effective at fundraising, the donor needs to be at the center. Worse, you should be talking about things the donors can impact. They can’t do a thing about your nonprofit’s budgeting practices.
Review your stories and fundraising letters
I’m not advocating sloppy accounting or bloated expenses. I am advocating sensible budgeting. Ask the business owners who are your board members what they budget in marketing and advertising. Find out how your nonprofit compares.
But keep the conversation on impact and donors changing the world through your organization. That’s the kind of story that your board members can get behind and invite others to invest in.
And check your fundraising letters. They may need to be changed.
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Fundraising Secret #35: Overhead isn’t an issue for wealthy donors
Fundraising Secret #21: Is this about me or about you?
3 more contrarian tips for writing successful fundraising letters
April 20, 2013
Does the phrase “tax deductible” kill donations?
Last night my flight home to Maine was cancelled, presumably due to the manhunt in Boston. So I got to spend more time in NJ. While there, I turned on WDHA, a rock station in New Jersey.
In the midst of a commercial break, I heard an add about an organization that helped people get employment. It was a compelling story and when they said, “Your generousity makes this possible”, I realized the organization was a nonprofit.
But I think they blew it. Here’s why.
They started strong
The story was great. They started with how hard it is to get a job in this economy and even harder in NJ. But because of this organization, people were putting their lives back together.
They made it clear they were donation funded
I loved the phrase “Your generousity makes this possible.” They had me. “Wow. I make such a difference in people’s lives just by giving?! Tell me more!”
Then it fell apart in 1 sentence
The last sentence must’ve been written by committee. It said something like “To make your tax-deductible donation and to learn more about The XYZ Nonprofit, go to www.ourwebsite.org.”
I felt jilted.
Don’t stop the emotions
I was on a journey and all of a sudden they through the 5 syllable phrase “tax deductible” at me. That one phrase got me out of my emotional brain into my analytical. I started realizing why it was impractical for me to make a gift.
Then they added the “or to learn more.” What? Did they not really want my gift? It was a little confusing but I started to feel I was off the hook.
Finally they just gave their website. This is bad for two reasons.
If they really want my donation, don’t make me work to give. Tell me what page to go to. It would’ve been far better for them to say, “Go to www.ournonprofit.org/donate.” That would reiterate the message and make it easier to give.
They’ll have no clue if that radio ad is working. They could’ve said, “Go to www.ournonprofit.org/WDHA.” The radio station was saying their call letters incessantly. It felt like they repeated them multiple times every minute. Since listeners are used to that, why not use that to your advantage? Then you can track whether that ad is driving traffic and donations.
You could also use a page like “donate1″ or use “donate” for the WDHA ad and “give” for another ad.
Tax Deductions are not a fundraising appeal
Survey after survey shows that people don’t primarily give for a tax deduction. So why lead with that as an appeal?
More importantly, if you’re taking your donor prospects on an emotional journey designed to make them act, keep them on the journey through making the donation. Don’t jilt them. Just make it ridiculously easy to give.
Now my flight is about to board so I’ll end there. Do you agree?
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Are you using “the phrase that pays”?
How a war in Libya can kill your website
Fundraising Secret #44: Up your giving this year
April 15, 2013
[Guest Post] Why Donors Stop Giving
I’ve been a fan of Jay Love for years. I even interviewed him for my radio show back in 2008! He gets both databases and effective fundraising. So I asked him if he’d write a post on donor retention. Jay is a serial entrepreneur, the creator of eTapestry and now the creator of Bloomerang a web-based donor database focused on helping your nonprofit retain donors. You can reach him on Twitter @jaybarclaylove
Improve Donor Retention by Knowing Why Donors Leave
by Jay Love
The buzz around Donor Retention continues to circulate widely. Nearly every fundraising consultant I speak to in the charity sector acknowledges this topic as so important they have been preaching about it for years. Most are grateful because the topic is now on the tip of the tongue for almost every fundraising organization.
With so much conversation about Donor Retention it is quite surprising how little formal research there is regarding the underlying reasons why donors stop their giving to some organizations, but continue giving to others.
We all know the key foundation for funding of most non-profits is a dedicated group of loyal donors. There seems to be some research about what incites the loyalty aspect of recurring donors, but darn little on why the loyalty ends.
Thankfully, the non-profit world guru on Donor Retention and Loyalty has conducted research on the subject. Since the team at Bloomerang had compared Adrian’s research in Donor Retention to Customer Retention in the commercial sector, I asked them to research why customers leave and compare it to why donors leave.
Our research kept leading us to a project conducted by the Rockefeller Corporation on why customers leave a commercial business. Are there parallels to the reasons why donors leave? We think the answer is a resounding yes on many fronts.
Please note the comparison of reasons in the [INFOGRAPHIC] titled Nonprofit Donor Loyalty Primer below.
As we alluded to above the research is pulled from our chief scientist Adrian Sargeant and from The Rockefeller Corporation.
Although both sides of the image illustrate why the customers or donors are heading to the exit, there is a higher percentage based upon the ability to financially afford on the donor departure side. This is not surprising since supporting a nonprofit is discretionary compared with purchasing food or paying for lodging, transportation, clothing, etc…
The largest takeaway in our opinion for nonprofits, which rely on donor support for all or some portion of their operating budget, is how important proper communication processes and messages are. Notice how the following items add up to 53% of the reasons why donors leave:
Thought the charity did not need them – 5%
No information on how monies were used – 8%
No memory of supporting – 9%
Never thanked for donating – 13%
Poor service or communication – 18%
One can only imagine what a solid communication plan built upon a top notch CRM/Database solution could do for each item above. Perhaps all or most of the departures based on that 53% could be avoided with proper and regular communications. The reward is worth working for since it encourages, if not insures upward trends in donor loyalty and financial support!
Marc here: I believe any database solution can be used to improve donor retention, but definitely check out Bloomerang. It looks like they’re making a foolproof focus on donor retention. I also encourage you to check out the new The Donor Retention Project with tools and strategies from 12 experts, including Adrian Sargeant.(Of course if you need donors to retain, 100 Donors in 90 Days might be for you!)
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
[Guest Post] 7 ways to thank a donor
[Guest Post] Three Ways Nonprofits Can Use Promotional Products Effectively
[Guest Post] Special events: Make them worth the effort
April 10, 2013
The Donor Retention Project works!
Last week we released The Donor Retention Project.
Yesterday, I got this email from an already satisfied customer:
Thanks for the Donor Retention Project!
I’ve finished the first two segments. We’re doing a lot of what is recommended and it’s sparked a couple more ideas. So grateful this is helping our staff, CEO and Board fully engage in Development. My CEO actually told the Board and my colleagues on the management team that she’s pulling away from operations to spend more time supporting our strategizing and implementation of donor relations and asking. This includes her visiting with at least three donors per week, sometimes with me and sometimes by herself.
Thanks! I really do feel fortunate. A small Development team can’t do as much alone; but with help, we can do a lot!
Laura Alpert, VP for Development and Marketing
Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood, Albany, NY
What are you waiting for?
Donor retention is the single biggest problem facing nonprofits today. And the cheapest way to raise funds.
Find out how you can retain donors and bring in larger gifts in just 90 days by going to The Donor Retention Project website now.
(c) The Fundraising Coach, LLC
Get 100 donors in the next 12 weeks? Learn how: 100 Donors in 90 Days!
Other Possibly Related posts:
Put together the pieces of the Donor Retention Project in 2013
Explosive growth: The Donor Retention Project
Donor retention: Dance with the ones who brung ya
