Hey! I just made this short video for you because I was working late. I’m preparing for the best fundraising conference out there – the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference next week in San Diego. Click here to watch the video – and I hope to see you at the conference!
There’s a fundamental truth that savvy nonprofits use to raise more money.
They craft their fundraising to make it easier for donors to say “yes.” And because they’ve made it easier for the donor, these organizations raise more money.
Here’s how smart nonprofits do it and how you can raise more money with your very next appeal, e-appeal, or event…
They don’t ask donors to “support our mission.” That requires a donor to find or figure out what your mission is. Then the donor has to understand it – which is often difficult because so many organizational missions are filled with insider jargon. Then the donor actually has to want to support the whole thing. That’s a lot of work.
They don’t ask donors to understand the whole organization. That requires a list of your programs and often a description of how you do your work. That’s super helpful for a foundation that requires that information, but harder work for a donor who’s giving your letter only a few seconds of attention.
Instead, they ask the donor to do something small and meaningful, often just to support one part of one program. Look through your programs to find powerful moments – places where one small action creates an outsized impact. Then ask your donor to fund that small action.
They don’t ask donors to do something grand (or even impossible). This happens all the time when organizations ask donors to do things like “Help us end poverty” or “Send your gift to feed 47,000 people this fall!” Those are big, hard things to do. Asking donors to do them doesn’t work as well. *
Instead, they ask donors to achieve small, believable outcomes. They work hard to create compelling and believable fundraising offers – that are absolutely aligned with those grand goals – but are packaged into smaller, bite-sized chunkslike “End poverty for a family by sending a young mother to school for a year for $48” or “Feed one person this entire fall for just $58.”
Most smaller nonprofits raise less money than they could because they ask their donors to do things that are hard to do and hard to understand.
Make it easy for your donor to understand and say “yes” and you’ll raise more money.
The thing to remember – and to remind your bosses of often – is that when you’re sending letters and emails to your donors, you’re doing direct response fundraising. You only have your donor’s attention for a few seconds.
When you only have a few seconds, you don’t have time for complicated, complex arguments. You have time for small, easy-to-understand Asks.
(This is why good fundraising offers work so well, by the way. They keep it simple.)
When you have time, say at a 1-to-1 coffee with a donor, then you can go deeper into your mission and how all of your programs work together.
Or when you’re talking to a potential grantor, who requires knowing everything about your organization before they’ll make a grant.
But when you’re doing direct response fundraising and you have only a few seconds, keep it simple. It’s a proven way to raise more money.
* In my experience, grand statements like “End poverty in our lifetime” or “Eliminate malaria from Uganda” can be great taglines and vision statements. Used as taglines or to set vision, they can help your fundraising. But they tend to reduce results when they’re used as the specific Ask. For instance, an Ask like “Will you help eliminate malaria from Uganda with a gift today?” will raise less money than “Will you help eliminate malaria from Uganda by providing a bed net for one family today?”
This year I 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…
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.
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.
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.
The things that are holding back small- to medium-sized nonprofits are almost always fear-based barriers:
If you’re willing to do things differently, an experienced fundraiser can help you start raising more money immediately.
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.
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.
Your brand is what your donors consistently experience.
Your brand is also your logo and your colors and how you describe your work. Those things matter.
But in my experience, they don’t matter as much as what your donors experience during and after they give a gift to you.
There’s a big difference between a nonprofit brand and a product-based brand. When you purchase a product, you get to experience the product. You know if it’s well-made or not. You know if you feel good or look good with it.
But when your donor makes a gift to your organization, she doesn’t receive any product. The only thing your donor receives are your ongoing donor communications.
So it’s your donor’s experience of seeing, reading, and then feeling emotions caused by your communications that are your brand to her.
You might think it’s your logo and colors. But that’s a small part of the experience for her.
Here are the three things that I see – the “brand elements” if you will – that make the most difference in small- to medium-sized nonprofit branding.
If your fundraising doesn’t have these elements, you can start raising more money immediately by adding them in the right places.
I know most nonprofits don’t think about their brand in this way. But in my experience, these three elements, far more than elements like “your organization’s competency” or a tagline, are the active ingredients of a nonprofit brand that engages donors and keeps them giving.
So focus on these three elements. They move the needle more.
Add them to your brand and you’ll start raising more money immediately. And you’ll raise more money in the long term because you’ll keep more of your donors.
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:
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
As far as I can tell, there’s only one thing that sets successful fundraisers apart from unsuccessful fundraisers. And that thing is…
The people who are successful don’t care whether they like the fundraising or not.
I’m serious. They just don’t care whether they like it. Or don’t like it.
They just care if it works.
They understand that they are doing direct response fundraising. And that some tactics and messages work better than others. And that the goal of fundraising is to send messages that donors respond to, not the messages the organization prefers to send.
If there are voices in your organization saying “I don’t like that” or “I wouldn’t give to that,” you should know that you could be raising more money.
Because basing fundraising decisions on what you like or don’t like stops your organization from discovering what donors like.
And it stops your organization from using best practices discovered by direct response fundraisers who have gone before us.
Here are some examples of things that people don’t like but are proven to work well:
We have a client that’s facing this very issue as I write this.
They are doing their first ever Fiscal Year End campaign. They are a little behind budget for the fiscal year, and their letter asks donors to help erase the shortfall with a special gift.
They were a little nervous about doing it. But I convinced them by sharing results from other organizations that had run similar campaigns.
The campaign is working great. It’s one of their most successful appeals of the year. We’re already above goal and the campaign isn’t over yet.
But a couple of board members and major donors have been upset by the campaign. From my experience, I suspect they were upset because they fear that the “shortfall” messaging puts the organization in a bad light, and it will cause donors to give less or stop giving altogether.
My counsel to this organization is based on all sorts of case studies on this exact subject:
In other words, the organization might not like this messaging. And there are occasional issues and personal reactions to discuss. But this messaging works great.
And to bring things full circle, the most successful fundraisers don’t care whether they like the fundraising or not.
They only care whether it works.
Every time you send a piece of fundraising to your donors, you’ll have more success if you envision your donor going through these steps…
Maybe, just maybe, your donor will open the letter.
And maybe, just maybe, your donor will start to scan your letter.
And maybe, just maybe, your donor will read a little of your letter.
And maybe, just maybe, your letter’s design will make sure your donor reads the most important part of your letter (why the donor is needed, and what you want them to do today).
And maybe, just maybe, your donor will think about taking action and look at your reply device.
And finally, maybe, just maybe, your reply device will reinforce what your donor read in the letter – and your donor will send you a gift.
The reason most professionally-produced direct response fundraising (appeals, e-appeals, newsletters, TV shows, etc.) looks and sounds the way it does is because the pros making it are aware of each step and work to maximize the number of people who take each step.
They think like crazy about what should be on the outer envelope. Why? To make as many people as possible open the letter.
They think like crazy about the first words or images a donor’s eye will be drawn to when they look at the letter. Why? To make sure as many people as possible scan the letter.
They think like crazy about what content will be big, bolded, or underlined. Why? To convert as many of the “scanners” into “readers” as possible.
Contrast the ‘every step matters’ approach with how most nonprofits think about their fundraising.
In my experience, most nonprofits make the following assumptions:
Those three assumptions could not be farther from the truth.
To make successful direct response Fundraising, you need to embrace the truth that there are a ton of “maybe, just maybe’s” between your sending out a piece of fundraising and getting a gift in return.
Every step matters.
And there’s one more “maybe, just maybe”…
Maybe, just maybe, you and your organization’s approach to fundraising are being changed by this post and our blog. That’s our fervent hope and the reason we write!
My last post talked about how when you’re sending appeals, e-appeals, newsletters, etc. you’re doing direct response fundraising.
As you create your direct response fundraising, here’s one rule that has helped me a lot over the years…
Quick reminder: the “offer” is the promise an appeal makes for what will happen when a donor gives a gift today. (You can learn more about offers here in our free eBook.)
Here’s what this means…
Say your letter is asking donors to fund one particular program. Don’t mention your other programs. You’ve just distracted them from why this particular program should be supported today.
Say your e-appeal is asking donors to give to provide aid to a beneficiary group you help. Don’t talk about how your organization is already helping that beneficiary group. You’ve just told your donor that you’re currently helping those people. This means they don’t really need help today (because you’re already doing it!). And that means your donor doesn’t really need to send in a gift today.
Say your appeal letter is asking donors to give a gift to help people in need. Take out any photos that don’t show people in need. By showing images of happy, healthy people you’ve just contradicted your letter that says they need help.
Say your letter is trying to get donors to give a gift today. Don’t spend part of your letter talking about your monthly giving program. You’ve just distracted them from your purpose of getting a single gift.
Finally, a more complex thing to take out. Say you’re telling a story to illustrate why the donor’s gift is needed today. Only tell the part of the story that relates to the offer. You’ll get what I’m talking about from an example that happens all the time in fundraising for refugees. The organization will share a story about a man who lost his wife in a bombing, had to flee the country, endured tons of hardships, became really sick… and then ask the donor to provide “food and aid with a gift today.” The “food and aid” do not solve the problem that the story sets up.
The organization would be better served by telling the part of the story that the offer can help with. They’d raise more money if they shared something like, “He’s a refugee who has endured tremendous hardship. Now he’s in a refugee camp and he doesn’t have enough food for himself or his children. The children are losing weight and having trouble concentrating. He’s getting thinner by the week. Please send food and aid with a gift today.”
Much of that part of the story is a problem that can be perfectly solved by the offer. When you use stories, only tell the part of the story that relates to the offer.
Keep your letter (or e-appeal, or event script, etc.) about your offer.
Make sure every single bit of content in your letter is there to make your donor see the need for and power of your offer.
Not your organization, your offer.
Take out anything that doesn’t directly lead your donor to say “yes” to your offer.
You’ll start raising more money in your very next piece of fundraising!
This is for all the smaller nonprofits out there.
When you’re sending letters and emails to your donors, you’re doing something called “direct response” fundraising.
It is fundraising, but it’s a very specific type of fundraising.
It’s not 1-to-1 major donor fundraising.
It’s not grant writing.
And to be effective with your appeals, e-appeals, newsletters, radiothons, etc. – it’s actually more important to understand “direct response” than it is to understand fundraising.
Direct Response is a discipline where the inputs and outputs are rigorously measured. It became a discipline in marketing long before nonprofits started using it to raise money.
The reason I mention this is because I’m convinced that most nonprofits would immediately start getting more effective at fundraising as soon as they realize they’re doing direct response marketing. And that direct response marketing has a bunch of proven rules and best practices.
Two relatively easy ways to raise more money:
Nobody talks about this at smaller nonprofits. But once your organization knows it’s doing direct response fundraising, you have a much better chance at being successful at it!