This Independence Day we’re reminded of the line, “toward a more perfect union.”
Not perfect, but trying to get better every year.
Just like fundraising.
Happy Fourth!
Happy Fourth!
Author: Steven
Steven Screen is Co-Founder of The Better Fundraising Company and lead author of its blog. With over 25 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.
Fundraising is a Gift an Organization Gives
I’d like to interrupt the regularly scheduled blog with a big idea.
We believe that fundraising is a gift that a nonprofit gives its beneficiaries, donors, and community.
Most people don’t believe that fundraising is a gift. They believe that fundraising bothers donors. Or they believe that fundraising is emotionally manipulative. Occasionally they believe they shouldn’t have to fundraise at all.
But having a core understanding that fundraising is a gift leads to a happier fundraising life and to doing more good.
A Gift to Three Groups
It’s easy to see why an organization’s fundraising is a gift to its beneficiaries or cause. The organization generously spends time and money – to multiply that time and money – so that more help can be given to the beneficiaries or cause.
Fundraising is also a gift to donors. Your organization’s donors care about your beneficiaries or cause, but lack the expertise or programs to do very much. So fundraising that gives a donor a chance to do something meaningful for beneficiaries or a cause that they care about. That sounds like a gift to me.
And as Henri Nouwen argues in A Spirituality of Fundraising, fundraising gives donors a chance to “put their money where their values are.” (That’s a gift too, even though it occasionally makes us uncomfortable.)
Finally, fundraising is a gift to the community you live and operate in. More people knowing the truth about what’s going on, and more people taking action to help, is good for everyone. Fundraising is an effective tool to make that happen.
Beliefs Drive Actions
Believing that fundraising is a gift causes reals changes to organizations and Fundraisers…
If an organization believes that their fundraising is a gift, are they fearful when they send it out?
No.
Maybe a little nervous to see how it does? Sure. Maybe a little worried about a complaint? That’s only human. But the removal of fear from an organization’s fundraising life is a massive improvement.
If an organization believes that their fundraising is a gift, do they only ask donors to help a couple of times a year?
No.
Because they aren’t afraid, and they know that donors love to help, they give donors more chances throughout the year.
If an organization believes that their fundraising is a gift, do they enjoy their fundraising life more?
Yes.
Imagine never thinking you’re bothering or somehow manipulating donors. Imagine fundraising bosses saying, “Yes, let’s try that new idea of yours.” Imagine celebrating the gifts that come in and brushing away the complaints like you shoo a housefly.
Imagine your shoulders, but lowered. Imagine your breathing, but deeper.
And here’s the kicker: if an organization believes that their fundraising is a gift, do they raise more and do more good?
Yes! Because as they create their annual plans, and as they create each piece of fundraising through the year, they make a hundred little generous decisions from a position of strength. Those decisions give their donors more chances to say “yes.” Those decisions make each individual piece of fundraising more engaging for donors. So they raise more money and do more good.
When we work with a nonprofit and they immediately start raising more money, it can look like the tactics were the cause of the success.
But when we help organizations turn around their fundraising, or make “the leap” to their next level of income, it’s because we approach their fundraising with a different set of beliefs.
Because if you believe that fundraising is a gift – that the act of fundraising is a generous act – the fundraising you create will be more powerful than if you believe something else about fundraising.
Interestingly, in our daily lives everybody knows that if you’re more generous, people will be more generous with you in turn.
Turns out the same thing is true in fundraising.
Five Tips for the First Sentence of Your Next Appeal Letter
People ask me all the time,
“How do you start your appeals? I have the hardest time with that.”
If starting appeals or e-appeals is something you can have trouble with, check out Five Tips for the First Sentence of Your Next Appeal Letter.
The tips are easy to follow. And they make beginning your next appeal or email a snap.
By the way, I think first sentences, subject lines and teasers are becoming more important in our work as Fundraisers. Getting and keeping people’s attention is harder than it’s ever been.
The people and organizations who can reliably create great first sentences are going to have a larger impact.
How to Get Matching Funds from a Major Donor
I wrote earlier this week that the signs are pointing to donations from individual donors being down this year.
If that holds true for the rest of the year, it’s important to do everything you can to make your fall fundraising attractive.
And the slam-dunk way to do that is to have matching funds available at year-end – and all of your fall fundraising if possible.
If you’re interested, you should read How to Get Matching Funds from a Major Donor.
I think the main reason this approach works so well – and that this blog post is our second-most-popular post of all time – is the question that we recommend asking the major donor.
Most organizations ask the major to solve the organization’s problem: “Will you give us matching funds so that we can use them in our fundraising?” Instead, you’ll see how to get your major donor wanting to give you matching funds because it helps them get what they want.
Go read the post, and then go get some matching funds for this fall!
The Difference Between “Understanding” and “Feeling”
A major donor can understand that their gift was appreciated. That’s nice. And pretty easy to make that happen.
Yet it’s also possible for a major donor to really feel that their gift was appreciated.
There’s a big difference.
The blog post How to Thank a Major Donor So She’ll WANT to Give Again gives you a simple road map to making your major donors feel your organization’s appreciation.
I share that post today because the signs are pointing to donations from individual donors being down this year.
If that holds true for the rest of the year, it’s more important than ever for your organization to make sure your major donors feel your gratitude.
Here’s what often happens in down years. Major donors deploy a two-part strategy:
- They reduce the number of organizations they support, and
- They reduce the amount they give to each organization.
But major donors usually have a couple of organizations – close to their hearts, where they feel their giving really matters – that they do not cut or reduce.
That’s the group you want to be in.
But you must earn your way into that group.
So go read the post, then go make sure your majors feel your gratitude!
Two Groups of Fundraisers
Some people think all fundraising looks and sounds the same.
You’ve met and worked with these folks. They get kind of annoyed with fundraising materials because – to them – the letters and emails all seem to blend together. Ugh.
On the other hand…
There’s a second group of people who see and appreciate the differences in each piece of fundraising. They appreciate that no two pieces of fundraising are the same.
The people in the second group enjoy the details. The people in the second group have more fun.
By the way, it’s people in that second group who you want creating and evaluating your fundraising.
ABCD
Always Be Collecting Data.
On your journey as a fundraiser, always be on the lookout for little bits of data to save.
Here are just a handful of data points I’ve collected over the years, all a result of head-to-head tests…
- Thanking donors at the beginning of an e-appeal caused fewer of them to give.
- Putting gift ask amounts in ascending order caused people to give more.
- Removing distractions from a giving page caused increased conversion.
- Adding a “faux reply card” to the back of a printed newsletter caused a 15% increase in net revenue.
Collect a bunch of little data points like these and you’ll develop what I’d call “fundraising intuition.” But it’s intuition trained with data, not personal opinions.
It helps you make decisions with high likelihood of success.
It makes you valuable because when people ask for your opinion they’ll receive evidence-based answers, not feelings.
Always Be Collecting Data.
A Little Visual Punch
Last week I wrote about how adding ”handmade” touches to the design of your appeal letter can increase the chances it will connect with a donor.
Here’s another tool you can use: add elements that catch their eye and add impact to your message.
Look at the following table included in a recent successful appeal letter:
This table does a GREAT job communicating the main point of the letter; that the cost of living has dramatically increased for the beneficiaries of this organization.
We created the table and put it in the letter because the paragraphs we’d written about the increased costs just didn’t seem to be making an impact. The letter lacked punch. Something more visual and powerful was needed.
As you think about doing something like this in your fundraising, here are four qualities I’m aiming for as I help create something like this…
Visual Surprise
It’s a visual surprise to see a table like this in the middle of the letter copy. It sticks out, and readers’ eyes are drawn to it. Visual interest at key areas leads to more readers, and more readers leads to more givers.
Easy to Understand
Even though there are a lot of numbers, the chart is easy to understand.
The items in the left column are something every donor understands. The “% INCREASE” header of the right-hand column is bold and makes it easy to know what the table is about. And the percentages in the right column are also easy to understand.
Easy to Understand FAST
Most readers will read the upper left corner (“RICE IN HAITI”) and then blip right over to “% INCREASE” and “40.07%.” I suspect most people then immediately a) understood the point the table was communicating, b) immediately knew that the rest of the table just gave them more examples, and then c) moved on to the rest of the letter without reading anything else in the table.
For something like this to be successful, the reader should not have to read the whole thing.
Higher Impact
The size and type in the table communicate importance. The table made the point more strongly than a sentence like, “prices are rising dramatically, as much as 40% in Haiti for rice and 140% of potatoes in India.”
As you create your fundraising, always be on the lookout for ways you can spice up your letter by communicating information in ways other than words. Get good at it and your fundraising will have higher impact, higher engagement, and higher revenue.
Connect With What Your Donors ALREADY Feel
When organizations create their fundraising for individual donors, they usually have a goal that goes something like this:
Get donors emotionally connected to our work.
That’s a good goal – but it’s almost impossible to achieve in a letter or an email.
So I’d like to suggest a different goal for your mail and email:
Connect with the emotions that donors already feel.
Here’s why…
It’s easy to tap into a donor’s existing emotions. On the other hand, it’s hard work to teach donors about your work and then convince them to emotionally connect with it.
That’s too much to ask of a letter or email that most people will only spend a few seconds with.
So, construct your next letter or email to tap into the emotions about your beneficiaries or cause that you know your donors already have. You might know that they are angry about the injustice. Or that they are compassionate about the pain. Or that they get joy out of making the world a better place.
Whatever the emotions of your donors, name them for yourself and your team. Then build your fundraising to tap into them.
The result will be more engagement and more giving.
It’s the engagement and giving that will, over the years, result in your donors emotionally connecting with your work.