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.
Years ago I served an organization that was raising about $350,000 per year from their individual donors.
They had a belief that they needed to share all of their programs, and show how those programs worked together to “solve the whole problem,” in order for donors to give gifts. Their belief resulted in fundraising that spent significant time describing their programs and how their programs worked together.
I advised them that they needed to keep things simpler. I suggested that they focus an e-appeal on one specific program.
They pushed back:
“We’re not a simple organization like one of those big national organizations you work with. What we do is complex.”
I explained to them the lesson I had learned over the years: that the big national organizations have sophisticated approaches and programs, but that they purposefully keep their fundraising simple and emotional in order to make their organization more accessible to more people.
Those big organizations want everybody to be able to donate, not just the people who are interested enough to learn about their programs.
The organization I was working with had assumed that because the fundraising to individual donors was simple, the organization and its programs must be simple.
But the lesson is that those big organizations appear simple because of a conscious messaging choice. In their fundraising to individual donors, they choose to focus on single programs or simple outcomes because doing so is proven to help them attract more new donors and raise more money from current donors.
Sophisticated fundraising looks simple on purpose.
Most nonprofits, without realizing it, make a big assumption when
they write their fundraising.
They assume their donors will read the whole
thing. The whole email. The whole letter.
That’s a really unhelpful assumption.
Here’s a heatmap of a 1-page direct mail letter. It shows what a donor’s eyes tend to look at, and in what order it happens:
Click image to see a larger version.
We could spend a lot of time talking about what
this means for your fundraising writing and design. But there’s one main lesson
I want you to take away…
You Have to Earn and Keep a Donor’s Attention
You cannot assume your donor will read the whole
thing.
Well, you can. But you’ll raise a lot less
money.
So first you have to earn your donor’s
attention. That’s having a great teaser on your envelope. Or a catchy subject
line for your email. You need to get good
at those things.
For your mass donor fundraising to excel, you need to be better at earning attention than you need to be at describing your organization or your programs.
That might feel like a “sad truth.” But it’s a
really helpful truth if you want to
raise more money and do more good.
How to Earn Donor Attention
There are three main ways to earn donor
attention. You need to make your fundraising:
Interesting to donors. This almost always means talking about your beneficiaries and your cause more than your organization and your programs. Remember: your donor first got involved because of your beneficiaries or cause, not because of your programs.
Emotional. Emotions are what keep us reading. You want to constantly be using the emotional triggers: Anger, Exclusivity, Fear, Flattery, Greed, Guilt, Salvation.
Dramatic. You want your fundraising to be full of drama and conflict.
“[NAME] Theatre is dedicated to producing high-quality, daring
productions that take on challenging topics.”
vs.
“I’m writing you today about something you care about – and it’s
in danger.”
I can basically guarantee you that more people are going to keep reading the second example. It’s written directly to the donor, it’s about something she cares about; it’s emotional, and it’s dramatic.
The first example – from a real letter from my files – is a classic example of telling the donor something the donor probably already knows and doesn’t really care about.
Note: Arts organizations often say that their fundraising can’t be emotional or dramatic because they don’t have babies or puppies to raise money for. I think the first example above shows that Arts organizations can absolutely be dramatic and emotional in their fundraising – they just need to think about it differently. After all, if a Theatre can’t get dramatic, it’s probably not that great a Theatre!
The Big Lesson
Your donors are moving fast. They don’t read the
whole thing, watch the whole thing, or listen to the whole thing.
You need to get great at getting and keeping their attention. Study it. Know what
your donors care about and then borrow tactics from advertising and social
media to get your donor’s attention. And remember; we have 70 years of
best-practices for earning and keeping donor attention. Smart fundraisers have
learned a LOT over the years. Tap into it!
Because if you can earn your donors’ attention, they are more likely to keep reading.
And if you can keep your donors’ attention, they are more likely to give you a
gift.
I was speaking with a founder of a nonprofit recently, and she said something that was so good I knew I had to share it with you…
We were talking about sharing the needs of beneficiaries in appeals and e-appeals. I shared that we believed in sharing those needs, even though sometimes doing so made donors uncomfortable. Her reply was fantastic:
She knew those stories sometime caused tension in donors, she said.
Then she continued…
“When we nonprofits tell a story that shares the needs of a beneficiary, we don’t create the tension that the donor feels. The story just reveals the internal tension the donor holds between how the world is and how they believe the world should be.”
I love that! It jives with how I’ve always felt: great-performing appeals remind a donor that “something’s not right in the world, but it could be if you help.”
And it hints at why sharing the need is so effective in appeals and e-appeals: it taps into something the donor already knows and feels.
No education is needed. No programs or processes need to be discussed.
Your donors want to make the world a better place. So share “stories of need” in your appeals and newsletters. (Save your “stories of triumph” for your newsletters and other Reporting tactics.)
Use a story to remind your busy donors that the problem your organization is addressing is affecting people right now, today. And that their gift will make a meaningful difference.
When you do, more donors will exercise their values by giving a gift through your organization.
And later – in separate communications – be sure to remind your donors of the good that their gift and your organization has done. Because if you’re going to reveal the tension, you should also reveal the triumph.
Organizations that only do one or the other aren’t raising as much money and doing as much good as they could be.
There’s a gap between your organization and your donors.
Savvy fundraising organizations know that donors don’t know as much about your beneficiaries or cause as your organization does.
That donors often don’t care quite as much as you care.
That donors often use different words and phrases than you would.
Savvy fundraising organizations know that the people on the other side of the gap are not likely to close the gap themselves. Donors are quite happy as they are, thank you very much. They don’t have a felt need to be educated, learn new jargon, or grow to an expert’s level of understanding.
So savvy fundraisers make the generous act of crossing the gap and meeting donors where the donors are.
That means writing to donors at donors’ level of understanding. It means no jargon. It means being specific, not conceptual.
It means figuring out what motivates donors to give and crafting your fundraising around those motivators – even if those motivators are not what motivates the organization’s staff.
And when you’ve done the generous thing – crossed the gap to meet the donor where they are – then you can ask them to take a first step towards involvement and greater understanding.
That first step? It’s usually a financial gift. A check in the mail or a donation online.
And that gift happens because you gave them a gift, first. You crossed the gap. You went to them.
Direct mail is like kale – nobody likes it the first time they try it.
Kale is a tough, leafy vegetable that tastes like a hedge.
But over time, a person can come to see the benefits of eating kale. You start to appreciate kale. And with the right prep and dressings, even enjoy it.
Direct mail is a tough, counter-intuitive, expensive way to raise money.
But over time, an organization can come to see the revenue that direct mail brings in and the relationship it builds. You start to appreciate direct mail. And with the right approach and understanding, even enjoy it.
Kale will never be as enjoyable as a cheeseburger. Direct mail will never be as enjoyable as a great conversation with a major donor, or the emotional high of a beneficiary’s story at an event.
You might not like direct mail or kale. But both of them are still good for you.
Most nonprofits have a “higher ground” understanding of their work and their cause.
And they should! They are experts. They understand the cause they are working on, and they understand the complexities of what needs to be done. They’ve built programs that are effective. Their expertise makes them good at what they do.
But when organizations create fundraising that invites individual donors to join the organization on its higher ground – instead of creating fundraising that meets donors on shared common ground – they put barriers between their donors and giving.
They make their fundraising exclusive.
The hallmarks of higher ground fundraising are things like:
Spending more time explaining the process the organization uses (your programs, or a particular approach) instead of the change in the world that the process makes possible…
Focusing more on the organization itself, and less on the cause or beneficiaries…
Sharing statistics to illustrate the size of the need or the scope of the organization’s work…
Educating the donor about everything that the organization does, rather than focusing on what donors tend to be most interested in…
All while using the organization or sector’s jargon to sound professional.
It’s like higher ground fundraising requires the donor to know about the organization in order for them to help the beneficiaries.
Two Problems
Higher Ground fundraising causes two problems.
First, it raises less money. Every one of the bullets above, in our experience, causes individual donors to give less. Individual donors tend to be more interested in what’s happening with the cause or beneficiaries today, and the change that the donor’s gift will make (or has made). Individual donors tend to be less interested in the organization itself.
The bulleted points above are highly relevant to staff, organizational partners, grant-funding organizations, etc. But they aren’t as relevant to individual donors. Hence the old phrase, “Individual donors give through organizations, not to organizations.”
Second, the “higher ground” approach results in exclusive fundraising. It creates a filter where the people likely to donate are the people who are willing to put in the time, the people who are willing to learn about the organization’s approach, and the people who are willing to speak the way the organization speaks.
Each of these is a barrier that some people will not cross.
From Higher Ground to Common Ground
Do the hard work to make your fundraising simple and inclusive. Have a good offer. Create fundraising for individual donors that any person who cares about your beneficiaries, at any level of understanding, at any reading level, will find relevant.
This means consciously deciding to leave the high ground. It means you’ll have to defend your fundraising from internal audiences who love the high ground and want everyone to join them there.
Here’s why: there are a LOT of people out there who care about your beneficiaries and would like to give a gift to help. There are far fewer people out there who are willing to wade through an education in your work before they can give a gift.
So if your communication and fundraising are always on the higher ground – and inviting donors to join you there – you will remain smaller than you could be. You will remain doing less than you could be.
If your communication and fundraising are aimed at the common ground you share with donors, you will raise more money and have a larger impact.
If you would like your letters and emails to raise more money, they should begin by talking about something the donor already understands, as opposed to asking the donor to learn something new.
Here’s a made-up example of an appeal that starts by asking the donor to learn new things.
Did you know that 19% of the families in our community have no exposure to the Arts? We call them L.E.A.H.s (Lacking Arts Exposure Households) and a LEAH might be arts-curious, but never had an enjoyable introduction to the Arts that was relevant to their life.
Look at all the work the reader has to do:
Understand a statistic
Learn a new acronym
Learn a new phrase (“arts-curious”)
All that and they haven’t reached the second paragraph!
A Neuroscientist would say, “That paragraph puts a large cognitive load on the reader.” So do you think the reader is more likely to keep reading, or less likely to keep reading, after a paragraph like that?
Now, here’s an alternative approach to the first paragraph, one that begins with what the donor already knows…
A lot of families in our community don’t have the same relationship with the Arts that you and I do. And I know you’d love for everyone to experience the same fulfillment and joy that you feel. But too many people were never introduced to the Arts in a way that was relevant to their life.
In addition to sounding more personal and less like a teacher, that paragraph opens by talking about things the donor already understands and cares about.
A paragraph that speaks to the common ground the organization shares with the donor will create connection with the donor.
The donor is now more likely to keep reading. Which means the donor is now more likely to donate.
Is there ever time for a statistic or bit of education? Sure. But most likely at an event or in some other context (lunch with a major donor, blog post) where both you and the donor have more time.
In a context like the mail or email where donors are moving fast (when was the last time you read a fundraising email top to bottom on your phone?) start with something the donor already knows. Not an education barrier.
For your individual donors, your nonprofit’s brand is far more than your visual identity and voice.
Your brand is also:
Whether your fundraising is accessible, or takes thought and education to understand
Whether it’s easy to give you a gift online, or not
Whether you “report back” to donors that their gift made a difference, or you brag about how big a difference your organization makes (“We helped 4,317 people last year!”)
Whether you thank donors promptly, or not
For individual donors, your brand is the total experience a donor has while donating to your nonprofit.
For most small nonprofits, the “next step” to strengthening your brand with individual donors has nothing to do with your visual identity, and everything to do with your donors’ experience.
There’s a lot of unease in fundraising right now. It kind of feels like anything could happen this year.
So yesterday, while helping an organization review their plan for the rest of the year, I reminded them of the following principle:
If something happens in the world that causes your organization or beneficiaries to be in the news, create and send fundraising fast.
You want to have the first e-appeal in your donors’ inboxes, not the seventh.
This is when it’s good to remember that your individual donors operate at the “speed of news,” while most organizations operate at the “speed of nonprofit.”
“News speed” is fast. Things change every 24 hours. The news points your donors’ attention in different directions almost every day.
“Nonprofit speed” can often be sloooow. Need to get an appeal out? It could take 4 weeks…
The reason it’s important to move fast when your nonprofit or beneficiaries are in the news is that the news provides awareness for your situation, and your fundraising will always raise more money when there is more awareness.
So when something happens in the world that you should be fundraising about, move fast. Stop, “do not pass go,” write & send that email today.
And if my Monopoly reference hasn’t done it already, let me further date myself: back in the ‘90’s and early 2000’s I served multiple national organizations that had “emergency appeals” pre-printed and sitting in storage. When an emergency happened, all we had to do was quickly write a few lines of copy about the disaster. The copy was lasered on the front page of the letter. The letters would be in the mail 24 hours later.
The nonprofits went to the expense of pre-printing letters because we knew that losing even a day would mean raising less and helping less. This is hard for smaller organizations with less time and money to spend on fundraising.
But everyone can write and send an e-appeal.
The news moves fast. If the news focuses attention on your organization or beneficiaries, you should move fast, too.
