Steven Screen

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.

Things an Old Fundraiser Knows

Steven Screen  |  Tips
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At the beginning of last year, Steven wrote one of his most popular blogs. It came after he’d just finished writing his 25th year-end campaign. The thoughts he jotted down are timeless, and not surprisingly, are super-helpful right now.

In his post, Steven lists off 6 things that he’s discovered on his fundraising journey. I particularly like the last one.

So, in this crazy time, I hope you can take a moment and learn from this old fundraiser. He’s still young at heart, though.

– Jonathan

I just completed my 25th year-end fundraising campaign.

It made me think about the lessons I’ve learned over the years communicating to donors en masse. Not the ‘one major donor who likes this’ or ‘the foundation that likes that,’ but when nonprofits are communicating to everyone on their file.

So in hopes that this is helpful, here are a handful of big-picture things that this Fundraiser has come to realize are enduring truths…

It’s harder than ever to get and keep attention

Get great at getting your donor’s attention. And keeping it. This means more drama and less process. More National Enquirer and less National Geographic. This means louder, bolder, redder, and not that fricking shade of light blue that no older donor can see or read.

Mostly it means not assuming that your donor is going to read anything you send them, let alone the whole thing.

You have to earn their attention, my friend.

The way your organization does its work is rarely important

And I mean rarely.

Most organizations, most of the time, should be talking about the outcomes their work creates. They should not be talking about how the organization creates those outcomes.

So if you find yourself talking about your process, the names of your programs, the features of your programs … rethink what you’re talking to donors about.

The best-performing fundraising is usually about something the donor cares about, at the level at which they understand it, and about what their gift will do about it.

This is a hard truth. It saddens me to say that most small nonprofits never embrace this, and they stay small because of it.

Most small nonprofits have ‘untapped giving’ of 15% to 25% of their total revenue

This is based on applying best practices to a LOT of smaller nonprofits. They simply have a lot of donors who would like to give more money if they are Asked well and then cultivated correctly.

It’s a thrill to get to work with those organizations because the increase is real and immediate.

Most of the barriers to raising more money are self-imposed

The things that are holding back small- to medium-sized nonprofits are almost always fear-based barriers:

  • “We can’t talk to our donors more, we’ll wear them out”
  • “We have to share everything that we do, and that we are good at it”
  • “We can’t be so forward, we need to engage our donors/potential donors more before…”

If you’re willing to do things differently, an experienced fundraiser can help you start raising more money immediately.

Successful fundraising is a knowledge issue, not a talent issue

One of the biggest joys of my life is watching fundraisers become Fundraisers. And it almost always happens when they internalize an idea – like the ones I mention above – rather than learning a new tactic.

Donor generosity is amazing

Donors continue to surprise me, even after 25 years. Their generosity is astounding. They want to make the world a better place. They are looking for opportunities to do so.

And we get to tap into that. For a living.

Fundraisers have the best job in the world.

5 reasons the Myth of “Donor Fatigue” Persists

Steven Screen  |  Ask
Donor fatigue.

Steven Screen wrote this blog on the myths of “donor fatigue” more than a year ago. And I think the message is more relevant now, than ever. Because right now, we know that donors are wanting to make a positive difference in the world. So, it’s important to keep a close eye on your results and let your data tell you when to pump the brakes on your fundraising.

In a nutshell, let your donors decide when they want to stop giving. Don’t make that important decision for them.

Enjoy Steven’s blog!

– Jonathan

Just a super quick reminder that “donor fatigue” – that mythical beast that haunts the futures of Fundraisers everywhere – doesn’t exist.

I’m neck-deep in donor data and fundraising performance all the time. And “donor fatigue” simply doesn’t exist for 99.9% of nonprofits.

But this mythical creature still affects the behavior of too many fundraisers. And without question, the fear of “donor fatigue” causes organizations to raise less money and do less good.

This is such a brutal fact that I’m going to repeat it: the fear of something that doesn’t exist – “donor fatigue” – causes hundreds of thousands of nonprofits to raise less money and do less good.

For the vast majority of nonprofits, letting “donor fatigue” affect your behavior is like not going outside because you might get hit by lightning.

I’ve identified 5 reasons that “donor fatigue” continues to haunt our sector and lower revenue. If you know of others, please share them with us. Here are my five:

  1. The complaints of a donor or three, occasionally a Board member, that your organization is asking for money too often.
  2. The fear that comes from thinking those complainers might speak for all your donors.
  3. The awkwardness some people feel about asking for money in the first place.
  4. The lack of understanding that nonprofits can be communicating to their donors far more often than they think.
  5. “Donor fatigue” is sometimes used as a scapegoat for bad fundraising. If an appeal or newsletter or campaign doesn’t work well, that elusive “donor fatigue” is blamed. Then no one has to feel bad, take responsibility, or learn from the mistake.

The first four items above are all real things. They matter.

But complaints and fears should not matter as much as the hundreds and thousands of additional gifts that will come in when you communicate with your donors more often about things they care about.

Look, if you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know we believe in Asking more – because all our data shows that it works like crazy, with almost zero negative consequences.

One of the reasons Better Fundraising has been so successful is that we show our clients how organizations their size are communicating to their donors more often and raising a lot more money doing it. (And of course there are other things an organization has to do well, but Asking more is a one of the biggest levers you can pull.)

So next time someone brings up “donor fatigue,” tell them that “donor fatigue” isn’t the problem. And don’t let “donor fatigue” be used as a reason or excuse in your organization.

Acknowledge the fear that caused “donor fatigue” to rear its hideous head, then move forward.

You owe it to your beneficiaries.

Your donors will thank you for it with increased engagement and giving.

You’ll love raising more money and getting to do more good

The Lesson from a Nonprofit that Shut its Doors

Steven Screen  |  Ask
out of business

A nonprofit I’ve supported off and on for a few years just went under.

My heart goes out to the staff and to the people they serve.

I’m sharing this with you because what they did over the last couple of months is an object lesson in how to fail.

The Lesson For You

Don’t hide your needs.

If you have a need right now, please share it with your donors.

Seriously, if you have a big need and haven’t put it in front of your donors, stop reading this and go write an e-appeal.

Let your donors decide whether to meet that need or not. Don’t take the decision out of their hands.

What the (Former) Organization Did

They hid the need.

I looked back at all the emails I received from them over the past two months.

In the two months before they went under, their fundraising shared nothing but success stories.

Which, unsurprisingly, made me think that nothing was wrong.

How was I supposed to know that my help was urgently needed?

How were donors supposed to know that they could play a meaningful part in helping the organization survive?

Courage & Vulnerability

This organization did not have the courage to share the real situation with their donors.

This organization did not have the vulnerability to really tell donors what was going on and ask their donors to help.

To the end, the organization wanted to keep their fundraising completely positive. They did. And they ended.

So to you I say…

Be Courageous and Vulnerable.

Be courageous and communicate with your donors more during the next few months, not less.

Be vulnerable and share the needs your organization and your beneficiaries are facing, then ask donors to meet those needs with a gift today.

Since receiving this news, I’ve had meetings with two organizations we’re working with. The smaller organization has raised twice as much money thus far this year as they normally do.

The larger organization is ahead of where they were last year, and was up 30% in April.

Just trying to make my final point for today:

Donors will do their part to help the charities, causes and beneficiary groups that they love.

If we let them know that help is needed, that is.

The Easy Way to Raise More Money and Keep Your Donors

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
repeat

Really simple – but powerful – idea for your nonprofit…

If you communicate to your donors more through the pandemic, you’ll be more likely to retain your donors.

Your communications have to be relevant, of course. They can’t be all about your feelings about the pandemic and downturn. They can’t be about what the pandemic is doing to your staff or your partners.

Your communications need to be about your cause or beneficiaries. And they need to be about your donors.

Here’s The Big Idea

You know those “big” nonprofits who send out 14 pieces of direct mail and 75 emails a year?

They don’t send so many pieces of fundraising because they’re big organizations.

They became big nonprofits because they send out 14 pieces of direct mail and 75 emails a year.

Wait, What?!?

Here’s what happens:

  • Your organization sends out a couple more fundraising appeals and emails than normal
  • You pay attention to results, and your organization learns more about what works and doesn’t work for your fundraising
  • Your organization gets more efficient at creating each piece of fundraising
  • Soon each piece raises more money and costs less to make
  • Now your organization is raising more, doing more good, and getting bigger

You get bigger because you start mailing more and learning more.

It’s All About Reps

The way to get better at direct response fundraising (your appeals, e-appeals, newsletters, etc.) is to practice.

You need more reps.

More practice + pay attention to results = learn more about what works

Learn more about what works + more practice = more money

So, during the incredible fundraising opportunity we’re all living through, figure out how to get more practice.

With time not spent on other things, could you send out two more e-appeals this month? (And don’t worry about “donor fatigue,” instead worry about being relevant.)

With time not spent on other things, could you get a couple powerful e-reports out? (You know, so your donors know that their gift to your organization makes a difference, so that they are more likely to give you a gift the next time you ask?)

Get more reps in. Pay attention to results. If the myth of donor fatigue is stopping you, throw that idea out the window, it’s useless.

Practice.

Get better.

Do more good.

[FREE VIDEO] Fundraising Now: What to Expect, and How to Succeed

Steven Screen  |  Crisis
chart video

Here’s a free video for you today.

If you want to learn quickly how to succeed in the coming weeks and months – and don’t want to take the time to read our free white paper – watch this video.

I’ll walk you through it in just a few minutes, show you what to watch out for in the coming fundraising slump, and show you how to emerge from this crisis stronger than before.

Watch the video here.

I also have two pieces of great news to report…

  1. “The Bump” has lasted a lot longer than I predicted and is still happening right now – it’s easy to raise a lot of money right now. (And not because we Fundraisers are amazing. It’s because people are GOOD and donors are generous.)

Please do send in your questions. And keep giving your donors the chance to give by asking them to help – their generosity will amaze you!

How to Create Fundraising That Resonates During the Pandemic

Steven Screen  |  Ask
resonate

There are two main threats to nonprofit communications in the coming months.

This post is about how to overcome the first challenge: how to modify your fundraising so that it’s relevant to donors, while still following direct response best practices.

Here’s what’s going on in a nutshell:

  1. Your donor is living in a new, different world than she was two months ago.
  2. If your fundraising sounds the same as it did two months ago, you run the risk of sounding out of touch. Irrelevant, even.
  3. How do you modify your fundraising to stay relevant?

Because you can guess how many donations your fundraising communications are going to raise during the slump if they sound out of touch or irrelevant…

Context

I’m not talking about a wholesale change in your message.

But I am talking about recontextualizing why your donor is needed right now, and what your donor’s gift will do.

Which is just a fancy way of saying, modify the way you describe why your donor’s gift is needed. To make it clear you’re talking about right now.

Example Time

First things first: avoid “pandemic-splaining.” You’ve seen this, I’m sure – the e-appeal you received last week where the first three boring paragraphs explained the pandemic.

You don’t need to do this. You might write those paragraphs – I know I have. But you just need to delete them before sending.

You want to acknowledge the new normal, not spend time on it.

Which brings me to a mildly effective way to make your fundraising relevant – tell your donor that her gift is important.

  • “Because now more than ever, your gift is needed to save the whales… “
  • “During this critical time, your gift to support the Arts in Topeka… “

That’s good fundraising, and it’s always important. It’s a powerful message right now because it taps into your donor’s context that the world is a different place.

However, the savvy organizations go one step further – in addition to saying that the donor’s gift is more important, you tell her why it’s more important:

  • “Due to the uncertainty all of us are experiencing, more people than ever are interested in the Gospel. Your gift to share the Word is more effective today than it was just weeks ago. Because more people are more interested in hearing it!”
  • “You’ve probably read that domestic violence has increased since we’ve been sheltering in place. Your gift to provide a night of safety for a victim of domestic abuse is doubly important right now… “
  • “Unfortunately, we’re facing increased food costs that are beyond our budget. Fresh vegetables are more expensive than they’ve ever been. Your gift will help the kids you care so much about by helping meet the increased expenses.”  

Note that the examples have nothing to do with the coronavirus or the medical response to the resulting sickness. These are examples of how organizations that are still being harmed by the current situation can share that harm with their donors.

What You Should Look For

Look for the ways the coronavirus, the economic downturn, and social changes have harmed your organization, beneficiaries, or cause. And look for how your organization’s work has been changed – for better or worse.

Use them in your fundraising in the coming months to make your fundraising relevant to your donors.

If your donors are anything like the donors of the organizations we’ve been privileged to communicate with (and they are!), your donors will respond with remarkable compassion and generosity!

1 Update + 2 Challenges Incoming

Steven Screen  |  Crisis
challenge

We have some “big picture” guidance for Fundraisers today.

(All of this will make more sense if you’ve downloaded our free guidance on Fundraising In a Pandemic: What Will Happen, How You Can Succeed.)

First, here’s an update based on what we’re seeing and the results the organizations we serve are experiencing:

  • The bad news – I suspect “the slump” is going to last longer than we expected. The number of things being canceled this fall implies that the economy won’t be up to full speed for months. This will lengthen the slump.
  • The great news – “the bump” is much larger and lasting a lot longer than we originally expected. A majority of our clients are having record-breaking springs. If you’re not fundraising right now, you should be. Donors want to help right now. As @PatrickTiernan said recently on Twitter, “Charitable giving allows people to exert a sense of control in a world that is otherwise spinning.”

And now, a word about the future. Most organizations are going to face two significant challenges over the coming months.

Challenge #1

Modifying your fundraising so that it’s relevant to donors, while still following direct response best practices.

Because if your fundraising sounds like it’s business-as-usual, it will sound irrelevant to your donors in the new world we’re living in.

Your go-to offers will work best if they’re recontextualized to today’s world. Additionally, you probably have new offers available to you (new things you’re doing, new needs you’re meeting, new expenses you’re incurring, new revenue shortfalls you’re experiencing, etc.)

This is going to be hard work.

Challenge #2

Staying the course when you start raising less money.

Sooner or later, that appeal that annually brings in $50k is going to bring in $35k. And then that email that usually brings in $35k is going to bring in $26k.

You’re going to be tempted to mail less. To stop spending money to acquire new donors. And to cancel that campaign.

But that’s almost always the wrong approach. Because during “the slump,” you’re playing a longer game than normal – you’re playing for mindshare. And you don’t keep mindshare by slowing your communications.

Because if you stay top-of-mind for your donors – when “the surge” comes – it will happen faster for your organization, and you’ll raise more money.

It’s Nice to Have a Map

We keep hearing from Fundraisers (and Board members and E.D.s) that they don’t know what to do next because the world is so different right now.

We’re sharing the updates above, and published Fundraising In A Pandemic so that any Fundraiser can have a “map” for what the next few months will look like.

Remember, organizations like yours have survived (and even thrived) fundraising situations like this one before.

And if you’d like help during this crazy time, get in touch. We can help you keep your fundraising relevant during the coming months, or even create your fundraising for you.

Good luck out there! And right now, perhaps more than ever, “lean in” to donor generosity. They want to help!

Reporting Back in a Pandemic (Or after Any Disaster)

Steven Screen  |  Report
reporting

Better Fundraising has three tips to make your Reporting Back to donors resonate.

Because if your reports are timeless – if they could have been sent at any time during the past year – it means they aren’t relevant to the world the donor is living in today.

And if they aren’t relevant, they don’t need to be read.

Which trains your donor to read fewer of your communications – and you don’t want that, do you?

So here are three tips to make your Report Backs relevant to your donors:

Report back on something that happened during the pandemic.

What happened in January isn’t relevant right now.

And your messaging has to be relevant right now, or it’s mostly useless.

You want to share a story of something that happened because of the pandemic. That might mean a transition to telemedicine to care for a hurting person. It might mean emergency rent assistance for someone who lost their job.

But it can’t be the same story you would have told if the pandemic hadn’t happened.

Think of it this way: during Christmastime, you don’t see a lot of stories about Halloween. And any story you tell right now about something that happened before the pandemic is at high risk of being about Halloween while everyone else is singing Christmas carols.

A “Breathless Report from The Field” will beat “Standard E-News.”

Your donor knows that the world is upside down. So don’t give her a standard e-news report.

Don’t treat your writing like business-as-usual.

The organizations that will bond with their donors most closely are ones who make their donors feel like they are right there – getting the fresh news. Yesterday’s update from the CEO. The email that came in earlier this morning from program staff.

We’re already seeing this in action. Organizations we serve are sharing simple little updates of stories that just came in. The person who received the meds they needed – the family that was rescued.

And the donors love it! High open rates. Lots of giving in response to Reports. And even replies to the emails thanking the organizations for letting the donors know what’s going on.

Donors respond to this type of immediacy.

Donors are wondering, “what’s going on right now?” and are forgiving (even appreciative) of communications feeling like they were put together at the last minute.

Remember: donors care more about your beneficiaries and knowing what’s going on than they care about the professionalism of your communications.  

Fear is Contagious. Hope Is, Too.

Donor generosity is amazing.

Hopefully, you’ve done a great job sharing the problems facing your beneficiaries, cause, or organization. And you’ve raised a ton of money these last few weeks.

So be sure to share good news and hope, too.

Because donors want to hear some good news; they’re hoping that there are signs of people taking care of each other when there’s so much bad news on the front page.

When you do this, give the credit to your donor. Be super clear that the good news is happening because of her, and her generosity.

Because if donors are looking for some good news – and you share good news with them and give your donor the credit for causing that good news – don’t you think that increases the likelihood that she’ll like your organization a bit more?

And don’t you think that will increase the chance she’ll read your next email or letter?

And don’t you think that increases the chance that she’ll give to you during the coming slump?

And she’ll continue to be a donor once all of this is over?

I don’t “think so” – I know so.

Silver Linings in a Pandemic

Steven Screen  |  Crisis
silver lining

We at Better Fundraising have noticed a lot of “fundraising silver linings” in the past few weeks.

So with absolutely all due respect to the loss of life, the people sacrificing on the front lines, and the ways we’ve all be harmed by the current situation… there are plenty of silver linings for donors, Fundraisers and fundraising.

  • Donor generosity is amazing.
  • Donor retention is going to be up this year, based on what we’re seeing.
  • Most of our clients had a great March. For many of them, it was their best month ever.
  • More nonprofits are practicing fundraising essentialism: doing the things that drive results and nothing more. Put another way, they’re abandoning the activities they’ve always done “because they were supposed to” and are doing the things that drive measurable results.
  • Organizations that had systematic approaches to major donor fundraising knew exactly who to call. And those donors came through.
  • Nonprofits that have put in the work before all this – communicating enough, making sure donors know that their gifts make a real difference – are seeing incredible giving.
  • Even nonprofits that haven’t put in the work are seeing the incredible giving. I repeat: donor generosity is amazing.
  • Nonprofits using data to know whether they are still in the Bump or have moved into the Slump, and modifying their messaging accordingly.
  • Nonprofits seeing incredible response to their emails continuing to send those emails until results start to drop.
  • Nonprofits sending direct mail because they know that their emails don’t penetrate the older portion of their file.
  • More and more older donors getting comfortable giving online.

Huge thanks to all the Fundraisers out there making all this possible. You’re giving donors chances to support the causes, beneficiaries and organizations they care about. And you’re raising money for causes that matter.