Steven Screen

So if a donor doesn’t get anything in return for her gift, what do you need to do?

You need to close the loop.  In the extraordinarily helpful book Getting Things Done, author David Allen introduces the concept of “open loops.”  In short, these are:

Commitments or arrangements that are made but not yet completed. 

Now, he’s not talking about fundraising here, he’s talking about life.  But he’s absolutely talking about fundraising.

When a donor makes a gift, she makes a commitment to your organization in the form of money.  She knows she may never find out what happened because she took action and gave a gift.  But imagine her delight when an organization gets in touch with her and shares a story of a life changed because of her action!

And, at the moment she knows she made a difference, you can almost hear the loop snap shut with the satisfying sound of trust being formed.  She’s now far more likely to give that organization another gift.

But most donors are never given that delight by the organizations they donate to.  So their donors feels good for giving the gift . . . but in the back of their minds they are wondering if they really made a difference.  So – at this moment — they don’t know if giving the gift to you was a good idea.  The loop is open.

If you never tell her what she’s accomplished, that loop will always remain open.  She will likely not give another gift to your organization.

If you tell her what your organization has accomplished, maybe she’ll realize she was part of that.  And maybe it will feel to her like the loop is closed.  And maybe she’ll give you another gift.

But you can do better than that.  Tell her what she accomplished!  Close the loop with your donors!

With Major Donors, you should be able to close every single loop.  They are worth the time and attention.  For Mass donors, you need to be sending a regular stream of communications, some of which need to Report back to donors and close their loops.

And remember, each time you complete the Ask, Thank, Report cycle you close the loop, earn trust, and earn the right to Ask them again.

NEWSFLASH: When your donor gives you a gift she doesn’t get anything in return. 

Now, that isn’t entirely true.  She gets that warm feeling we all experience when helping someone.  That comes from the little squirt of dopamine her brain rewards her with when she gives her donation.

But that warm glow soon fades and she’s left with . . . nothing.

She doesn’t know what happened to her money.  She doesn’t know if it really helped somebody or if you went out to a nice lunch.

But you have one powerful thing going for you at this point; your donor communications.  Your communications are where you can show your donor that her gift made a difference.  Your communications are where you can turn her faith in your organization into passion by showing her a person she helped or an outcome she helped achieve.

Think of it this way; one of the main jobs of your donor communications (your newsletter in particular) is to show and tell your donor that her gift was worthwhile.  Are your communications doing their job?  Is your newsletter doing its job?

But for now, all you need to remember is that after your donor has given you a gift she doesn’t know what happened.  But donor communications that Report will solve that problem, build loyalty, and help you raise more money.

You only need three blocks to build a successful fundraising program:

At its essence, good fundraising is:

• Asking a person to help your beneficiaries
• Thanking them when they give a gift
• Reporting back to them on the impact of their gift

Look at your organization and your fundraising materials.  Are you great at Asking donors to help your beneficiaries?*  Do you Thank donors promptly and emotionally?  Do you tell donors what their gift accomplished?

If not, you could be raising more money.

The great news is that there are best practices for each function.  They are learnable and repeatable and are in the very book that you’re holding.  You can do it if you’re a one-woman development shop, you can do it if you have a twenty-person development team.

Let me repeat something important; you can learn how to be a great fundraiser.  Being great at fundraising is a knowledge issue, not a talent issue.

This blog will teach you how to be GREAT at Asking, Thanking and Reporting.   Master each of those three skills and you’ll be on your way to being a successful fundraiser and helping your organization raise a ton of money.

It’s that simple.  It’s radical.  It’s radically effective.

I heard it again today on a call with a client; “We’re losing our donors!  What can we do to stop it, and what can we do to get them all back?”

The first thing is to know that you can’t stop it.  The second thing to know is that you can’t get them all back.

All organizations are losing their donors at a regular rate.  Always-helpful nonprofit blogger Tom Ahern recently addressed a simple question; how long does the average donor stay with a charity?  The answer may surprise you . . .

If you’re like most charities, over half of your active donors will give you a one-time donation and then never give you another gift.  Amazing and sad, isn’t it?  50% of your donors will not continue to give to the amazing work you do and the people you serve.

There’s lots to discuss here, but there’s one surefire thing you can do to keep as many of your donors as you can; treat them like you respect and care for them.  First, Thank them promptly and emotionally.  Do that within 48 hours of their gift.  Second, Report back to them with a story of a person whose life was changed.  Do that in a printed newsletter at least once a quarter.

Those are the simplest, most powerful steps you can take to keep your donors.

This venn diagram perfectly illustrates why most nonprofits have low donor retention rates.  There is a clear miss between what most nonprofit organizations talk about what their donors care about.

Here it is in a nutshell.  Here’s a list of things, in order of importance, that your donors care about:

1. The people or cause you help. The reason your organization exists.
2. The change that takes place in the people or cause you help. In other words, the difference that your organization makes – that your donors cause with their gift.
3. The programs and processes of how your organization helps your beneficiaries.

In our experience, most organizations default to talking about #3; their programs and their organization.  And that’s why donor retention in the nonprofit sector is in the tank.

Instead, talk more about the people who need help, and how the donor’s gift will help them.  These are the things that most of your donors care about most – it makes sense to talk about them the most.  And when you do, you’ll raise more money.

Your brochure is a lousy fundraising tool and should probably be put out to pasture immediately.

Strong statement, I know.  But in my experience, brochures suck up a lot of time and money – and very little results are ever tied to your brochure.  Here’s why:

• Your brochure is all about your organization. Great fundraising materials are about your beneficiaries and what your donor can do to help one of them.  Most brochures are about what the organization does, not what a donor can do.  There’s a big difference.
• Your brochure has too much content. Most brochures try to share everything about the organization.  The result for most readers is information overload.
• Your brochure doesn’t have a clear call to action. Most brochures include contact information for the organization, but don’t give the reader a good reason why they should contact the organization. (And, “If you’d like to help, call 800-555…” is not a good reason why they should contact you.)

We advise clients to spend almost no time or money on their brochure.  Instead, replace your brochure (or its content) with something that explains the most compelling, easy-to-understand thing that a donor’s gift will do.  Then have the brochure ask the donor to give a gift to do that one thing. If they do that and like it, THEN they’ll want to know more about your org.