If you’re applying the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat rhythm to your donor communications, congratulations! You are on your way to raising more money in 2016!
So here’s a challenge that will take your fundraising to the next level; remove mentions of your organization from most of your communications, and focus instead on making the content of your fundraising communication about your donors and your beneficiaries.
Here are three examples for you:
- Send an appeal letter that asks the donor to send a gift to help solve a specific problem. Don’t ask them to “send a gift so that we can…” or “join us to…” or “help us to…”
- When you thank a donor for her gift, thank her for what she did, not for what she helped your organization do. So don’t tell her about all of your programs, or all the people you help. Thank her for making a generous gift, for having compassion, and for making the world a better place. Don’t try to convince her that your organization is great, tell her that she is great!
- Report back to your donors by sending a newsletter that gives all the credit to the donor reading it. Tell stories about beneficiaries and how the donor helped them. Use the word “you” far more often than the word “we.”
The more you can help your donor feel like she is helping someone, the more money you’ll raise.
