There’s a blogger I like named “Gabe The Bass Player” who writes primarily for musicians. I find him thought provoking.
Talking mostly to musicians, he recently said, “You keep getting to do this because enough people continually add you as part of their story.”
I think the same thing is true about nonprofits and fundraising – your organization keeps getting to do its thing because enough people add you as part of their story.
Keep thinking about that last part: “…people add you as part of their story.”
There are a million different ways to think about fundraising. But any way that ignores the fact that an individual donor is primarily adding you to her story is not going to work very well.
Is it true that she’s also part of your story? Of course.
Is it true that she’s also part of the story of your cause or community? Of course.
But at that mostly sub-conscious “give or don’t give” moment, her story is the most important story to her.
So for your mail and email fundraising to really succeed, it must be created in such a way that the donor sees herself and wants to add your organization to her story.
Steven Screen is Co-Founder of The Better Fundraising Company and lead author of its blog. With over 30 years' fundraising experience, he gets energized by helping organizations understand how they can raise more money. He’s a second-generation fundraiser, a past winner of the Direct Mail Package of the Year, and data-driven.
- Steven Screenhttps://betterfundraising.com/author/steven/
- Steven Screenhttps://betterfundraising.com/author/steven/
- Steven Screenhttps://betterfundraising.com/author/steven/
- Steven Screenhttps://betterfundraising.com/author/steven/
