Steven, Author at The Better Fundraising Company

Guest Post Commentary

Steven | August 10, 2018Repeat

Tuesday we featured a guest post from @BradyJosephson with two proven tactics for how to raise more money using “vertical Integration.”

On the surface, Brady’s advice appears to go counter to my normal advice. Because when I’m asked, “How many times a year should I mail our donors?” I usually respond, “Two more times than you did last year.”

I know that sounds glib – but in my experience, it’s true for about 90% of nonprofits.

But go read the post if you haven’t, and here are my takeaways…

“Vertical Integration” is really, really smart

This is especially important for smaller nonprofits without big communications departments.

It’s the idea that you can communicate the same thing to your donors in multiple channels to take advantage of the power of each channel.

And I’ll add “take advantage of the different portions of your audience” that each channel reaches.

But the key here is to be repeating the same message across all the channels – just executing it differently depending on the channel.

Note to astute readers: vertical integration is the proven idea of repetition (repeating the same powerful message multiple times) updated for the modern era. In the past, not every org could use the mail, radio and TV. And that’s still true today. But every org can use the mail, the web, email and social. And they need to be integrated!

“Direct mail isn’t dead, and it won’t be for a while, but its upside is limited.”

This is both true and not true.

It’s true that, for all nonprofits across north America, direct mail response rates and donor acquisition is down.

But for smaller orgs who aren’t experts at direct mail, there is a massive opportunity for you. The organizations we work with are all seeing very large gains in revenue and donor retention from our work in the mail. It’s why we developed “Instant Appeals & Reports.”

Maybe I’ll put it this way: for most smaller nonprofits, direct mail is still the best investment for communicating with your current donors. You just have to do it well – which is something that’s generally not taught.

Facebook is a Thing

Facebook is becoming a big deal for many organizations.

The most effective way we’re seeing it used, without going into the data-nerd details, is to present your most powerful message to your existing donors again, about the same time they are seeing that message in the mail and in your email.

That’s the “repetition” thing again. That’s the “vertical integration” Brady is talking about.

Thanks, Brady

Brady and Next After, thanks for sharing your knowledge. I love how you’re constantly testing, looking at the results, and making all of us better at online fundraising.

It’s both the present and the future of fundraising. Just don’t forget the entire generation of donors that are plugged in online!

The Power of Donor Love: Interview with Jen Love & John Lepp

Steven | August 8, 2018June 10, 2020Podcast

You’ll be equipped and inspired by this interview with Jen Love and John Lepp of Agents of Good in Toronto. They are powerful spokespersons for the idea and practical expression of loving donors. You’ll learn how Courier font is a practical tool for donor love, why innovation in fundraising so often doesn’t work, why ugly powers great fundraising, and how fundraisers can take care of themselves in our sometimes emotionally draining work.

Click here to listen

How To Raise More Money Without Sending More Mail

Steven | August 7, 2018Ask

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from Brady Josephson (@bradyjosephson) from Next After. Brady and Next After are the main people I pay attention to in digital fundraising. They are scientists, creating hypothesis and then rigorously testing to see what works in fundraising today. I love their approach, and I’ve witnessed it work for a nonprofit that we both serve.

Direct mail isn’t dead, and it won’t be for a while; but its upside is limited, and there is a general decline. That doesn’t mean you need to stop what you’re doing and invest in a Snapchat strategy – please don’t.

It does mean that you should be looking at ways to use online communications and cheaper, digital strategies to get the best return from your direct mail spending. That’s integrated fundraising, and it can be quite valuable.

Our data — from our client benchmark group — shows that offline donors who simply receive email communication give 90% more than offline donors who don’t get emails.

And if those offline donors give online as well, then their giving is over 3x more than people who only give online or offline.

It’s these numbers and data points that show the need to integrate your fundraising, or send the same or similar message to donors both online and offline. There may be a fear that it’ll be overly expensive or they will cannibalize each other, but that’s just not true. They help one another.

We call this multichannel fundraising strategy “horizontal integration,” as you are trying to do the same thing across channels:

Now that’s great – and you should be doing this – but today I want to talk about a new strategy for you to try: vertical integration.

This is where you can leverage the unique benefits of each channel to add to the value of the other channels and, in the end (or later on in another channel), total revenue overall. So with that, here are…

Two Proven Strategies to Raise More Money Without Sending More Mail

1. Show Facebook Ads to Your Direct Mail Donors

In this experiment, we spent just under $1,000 on Facebook ads and targeted half of the direct mail file. As long as you have an email and/or phone number, you can create a pretty targeted audience in Facebook to show ads to. This is one reason why I’m a big fan of Facebook ads.

Anyways, these ads were shown two weeks before the direct mail piece dropped, and for two weeks after. The ads weren’t focused on donations but focused on other benefits like a free online course.

Here were the results:

Those that saw the ads gave 154.5% more than those that did not.

No more mail. Very little cost. Pretty big lift.

And then someone who saw this experiment at our Nonprofit Innovation and Optimization Summit decided to run this experiment for themselves.

They spent just under $700 Canadian — so, practically nothing — and showed video ads 1 week before the drop date and 3 weeks after. Again, the focus of the ads was not donations.

Here were the results:

Those that saw the ads gave 25.4% more than those who did not.

The $690 investment in Facebook ads resulted in about $10,000 more revenue. Not bad.

2. Create ‘Priming’ Content Leading Up To Your Ask

Great stewardship and year-round communications are important, but using focused content in closer proximity to your drop date and key asks can help boost results. This concept is called ‘priming,’ and it can be very effective.

Take this experiment, where we send out a personalized postcard to half of the donor file with a link to a custom thank you video two weeks before they were to receive an appeal. The result?

Those that received the postcard were three times more likely to give, with a 204.09% increase in conversion/donation rate.

Postcards are pretty cheap, and if they can help you get that type of lift it could be well worth it. Well worth testing, at the very least.

In another experiment, we tried something similar but used digital content to ‘prime’ donors. Over a few weeks leading up to year-end, articles focused on the need for funds, the impact they’ll have, and how generosity is good and useful were created and published on the organization’s blog.

It’s key to note that those articles did not have a link to a donation page or any ask in them at all. And here were the results:

Those that saw the priming content gave 185.3% more than those who did not.

So even if you don’t have the budget to send a personalized postcard, you can certainly publish an article or content that shows the need, impact, and generosity.

It’s key to note that in each experiment, the content was created/sent two weeks before the key ask date. If you prime too early, it can lose its effect as donors won’t remember (subconsciously); and if you don’t do it soon enough, then you may not have enough time to expose the donor to your content.

So…

Absolutely you should be looking at how you can horizontally integrate your fundraising with a big emphasis on email (getting and sending). But you should also explore vertically integrating your fundraising to make the most of cost-effective digital tools and channels to boost offline and total revenue.

Good luck!

— Brady Josephson (@bradyjosephson)

What To Do When Your Organization Feels Like “The Best Kept Secret in Town”

Steven | August 1, 2018Ask

A lot of small nonprofits feel like they’re “the best-kept secret in town.”

They’re established. They do good work. But they’ve never experienced real growth.

This post is about a big idea for those small nonprofits.

I’m going to start out with some strong – maybe even bitter – medicine. And I’m not going to sugar-coat it. Because in my experience, all the tactics and best practices in the world won’t help much until a small nonprofit learns this lesson.

So here it is…

If you feel like the best-kept secret in town, it’s usually your organization’s own fault.

Specifically, it’s your communications that are causing your organization to remain secret.

Something about your communications is not resonating with anyone outside your core group of donors. Or outside of the people you can personally reach.

So you need to change what your organization communicates to donors and to potential donors.

In my experience, there are four main ideas that small organizations have that ensure they remain “the best kept secret in town”:

The reason that the Founder/Board/ED/Staff love the organization is the same reason that donors support the organization. This results in donor communications that are organizationally-focused. Effective donor communications – the kind that helps your organization grow so that it’s not a secret anymore – are focused on what donors care about. And donors are not experts like you are. They tend to care about and be motivated by different things than core stakeholders.
Your communications need to be professional and you need to sound like experts. This results in complex communications that only a subject-matter expert would read. These are the organizations that send letters and emails written in perfect grammar, by PhDs, that a donor needs extensive experience in your field to really understand. To have a broad appeal, you want to get good at talking to donors, about things donors care about, in language that donors use.
You can’t “bother” your donors very often. This results in not enough direct communication with donors about what their gifts can do and have done. I’m talking to you, Mr. Organization-That-Sends-Two-Appeals-A-Year. For people outside your core, you need to communicate with them more often than you think, in order to keep their attention.
Your organization should not stand out too much, or say things that get attention. This results in not being willing to fight for attention. It is a crowded fundraising marketplace! All those donors you’d like to have? They are busy doing other things and you have to work get their attention! Use drama. Use bold colors. Use emotion. Use matching grants. Use multipliers.

These four ideas, taken together, result in a lot of deserving organizations staying a secret. All of these ideas are held by organizations for rational reasons. But these four, in particular, do not stand up to rigorous examination or testing.

In fact, they have been proven NOT to work.

My encouragement to you is that you jettison these ideas and replace them with proven ideas. Like donor-centeredness. And repetition. And vulnerability.

Those ideas free you up to fundraise with confidence. They free you up to communicate more with your donors – and love it. Because you remember that when you fundraise, you’re adding value to your donors’ lives, not taking it away, right?

Then you’ll no longer be a secret. And then you’ll raise more money and do more good!

If you’d like help gently showing the ineffective ideas the door, and help building a real culture of philanthropy (and starting to raise more money right away), get in touch!

Fundraising ADDS value to your donors’ lives

Steven | July 26, 2018July 25, 2018Report

A bit of encouragement to Fundraisers…

I hope you see your work as adding incredible value to the lives of your donors.

Too many people look at fundraising and think they are subtracting. They look at fundraising as ‘taking money from donors in order to do something worthy and great.’ They think they are bothering donors with mailings. Or twisting their donors’ arms to make donors give.

But from the donor’s point of view, it’s not subtraction. Great fundraising adds to a donor’s life by connecting their money to their good intentions. Fundraising helps donors put their values into action.

Over our two decades of fundraising, we’ve realized that our jobs are not that much about the money we help raise. It’s really about helping organizations translate how they talk about themselves into fundraising communications – letters and emails and calls that help donors see how a gift puts their values into actions.

Being a great fundraiser is not about being persuasive, or even persuading donors to support an organization.

Being a great fundraiser is really two things:

Knowing what donors value, and
Helping an organization communicate about itself in ways that help donors to see how a gift to the organization helps put the donors’ values into action.

For instance, most donors value ‘doing a lot for a little.’ Lo and behold, matching grants and offers with multipliers that allow donors to ‘do a lot for a little’ work like crazy.

Most donors value hearing about the impact their gift had. Lo and behold, when organizations Report back to their donors about the effects of their gifts, they keep their donors for longer, and they upgrade more of their donors.

So now it’s your turn. Take what you know about donors and use that to change the ways your organization currently talks about itself – translate that into fundraising communications that let donors see how their gifts put their values into action!

And don’t look at your work as subtraction. Look at it as adding real value to the lives of your donors. You’ll connect good people with your good work to make the world a better place for all of us!

The Fix for Broken Fundraising [VIDEO]

Steven | July 19, 2018July 17, 2018Videos

Sometimes fundraising feels broken.

It feels like you don’t have a relationship with your donors. Like you’re just Asking all the time. It feels like your nonprofit should be raising more money. Maybe fundraising doesn’t feel nearly as fulfilling as you expected.

Here’s a simple video that helps organizations (especially small ones) see why fundraising feels this way – and helps you learn what to do about it.

Warning: the solution is deceptively simple but deceptively hard to do.

Why? Because it requires your organization to think differently about fundraising. You have to talk to your donors more often than you think you do. You have to talk less about your organization. You have to be vulnerable. And you have to give credit away.

All hard things.

This video feels like the beginning of a longer conversation. If you’d like to talk more, get in touch. We’ve helped lots of organizations put their finger on what’s bothering them, and then fix their fundraising. It makes your work life so much more fulfilling, and you’ll raise more money.

For now, watch the video!

Four Simple Questions to Ask Your Organization [VIDEO]

Steven | July 17, 2018July 16, 2018Videos

Happy Summer!

This July we’re doing a mini-series of posts and videos about how to use your summer to prep for fall fundraising success.

Today we have a short (5-minute) video with Four Questions your organization should be asking itself this summer.

Your answers will tell you what to focus on this summer to have your best fall and year-end fundraising yet.

These questions are powerful.

They are designed to help organizations focus on the ‘easy wins’ – the simple fundamentals we often miss because we’re so busy – to help you spend your time and money on the things that create the biggest impact this fall.

Watch the video!

Then be honest with your answers. You’ll know what you need to focus on!

The type of story that raises the most money [VIDEO]

Steven | July 10, 2018July 10, 2018Videos

There’s a type of story that works incredibly well to raise money…

…an incomplete story with a current need.

Here’s a video I recorded last Friday with Chris Davenport from the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference that explains what I mean.

There are two reasons this video is helpful:

We talk about why telling “incomplete” stories is so successful when Asking your donors for gifts
I share how to tell an incomplete story, with a specific example. Chris posted the video just yesterday morning, and he’s already getting feedback on how helpful the example is.

Watch the video! It’s 11 minutes long, but it goes fast. And the ideas I share will jumpstart your fundraising this fall!

One final thing to mention: I’ll be speaking at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference this fall in Orlando (October 15 – 17). And you can save $400 if you take advantage of the Early Bird special going on for the next few days.

How to Prepare for Fall Fundraising Success [VIDEO]

Steven | July 5, 2018September 13, 2024Videos

Happy Summer!

For the next couple weeks, we’re doing a mini-series of posts and videos about how to use your summer to prep for fall fundraising success.

I hope that July is a slow month for you. In fact, I hope you’re on vacation as I write this!

But if you’re not, and you know you could be using some of this time to prep for the most important fundraising season of the year, here are our recommendations.

Watch this short video (less than 5 minutes) for the tips that we’ve seen help nonprofits the most.

After you watch the video, take a break. You’ve worked hard today! But then calendar sometime later this month to do a little prep work. You’ll be so glad you did!