Ask Archives | The Better Fundraising Company

Matte, Not Glossy

Steven | December 19, 2024December 13, 2024Ask

In the midst of the holiday hubbub, here’s a tactical tip for you…

I was once part of a test to see if using matte paper, as opposed to glossy paper, would change fundraising results.

Here’s how the test worked:

We took the organization’s active donors (about 80,000) and randomly split them into two equal groups.
After writing and designing their newsletter, we printed half of the newsletters on matte paper and half of the newsletters on glossy paper.
- Just to be super clear, the design and content of the newsletter was exactly the same. The only difference was the finish of paper.
One of the groups of donors received the matte version, and the other group received the glossy version.

The matte version of the newsletter raised more money. Both the Average Gift and the Response Rate were slightly higher.

I’ve replicated these results in other tests, and so have lots of other Fundraisers.

The general understanding for why this happens is that glossy paper reflects more light than matte paper, and the reflections make anything printed on glossy paper a little harder to read. This is especially true for older donors whose eyes don’t adjust between bright and dark as well as they used to.

And as you already know, when your fundraising is harder to read, fewer people read your fundraising. And when fewer people read your fundraising, fewer people give.

The difference in money raised was not astronomical, but it was significant enough that the organization started using matte paper for almost everything (even over the objections of somebody in leadership who thought glossy paper was “more professional.”)

Using matte instead of glossy doesn’t apply to everything. Does the outside of your holiday card to donors need to be matte? No. Can your annual report be on glossy stock? Sure.

But when you desire a response from the piece, and therefore readability matters more, go matte.

5 Tips For Your Most Successful Digital Year-End Campaign

Steven | December 3, 2024November 12, 2024Ask

Are you ready?

According to Network for Good, most nonprofits raise about 1/3 of their revenue in December. And 11% of their annual total during the last three days of the year.

Year-end is the easiest time to raise more money online! Think about it this way:

Your donors are more likely to give during the last weeks of the year than any other time of the entire year.

And because year-end is such an important time for digital fundraising, we want to give you 5 tips that will ensure a successful year-end for your fundraising.

# 1: Use the same message in every channel

Some of your donors are online, some aren’t. Pick your strongest message, then repeat it through direct mail, email, your website, and social media. It’s more powerful for your donors to see the same message in different media channels than it is for them to see two different messages. Repetition is your friend!

# 2: Ask early and often

You’ve been talking to your donors all year about what your organization does, you’ve told them how they can help. So this time of year, don’t Thank them. Or Report to them. It might feel counterintuitive, but our testing showed that Thanking and Reporting this time of year will cause you to raise less money than you could. Follow the advice below and just Ask well!

# 3: Emphasize the deadline

A deadline communicates urgency. December 31 is a natural deadline — for the tax year and for your organization. Tell donors your deadline and repeat it multiple times in your messages.

# 4: Set a goal

How much do you want or need to raise? What would it take for you to meet your budget? Feed everyone you want to feed by year-end? Shelter abandoned pets through the end of the year? Overcome a financial shortfall? Tell your donors the goal.

We need to raise $XX,XXX by midnight, December 31.

# 5: Communicate consequences

What will happen if you don’t meet the goal? Connect the donor right to the heart of your work.

We need to raise $XX,XXX by midnight, December 31 or we will have to cut back on the number of pets in our shelter in the coming year.

We need to raise $XX,XXX by midnight, December 31 or we will not be able to advocate for the arts as effectively next year.

Whatever your organization does, if having less money means you would be able to do less next year, say so!

Most important tip? Start now!

This post was originally published on October 26, 2023.

The Lesson

Steven | November 26, 2024November 19, 2024Ask

Years ago I served an organization that was raising about $350,000 per year from their individual donors.

They had a belief that they needed to share all of their programs, and show how those programs worked together to “solve the whole problem,” in order for donors to give gifts. Their belief resulted in fundraising that spent significant time describing their programs and how their programs worked together.

I advised them that they needed to keep things simpler. I suggested that they focus an e-appeal on one specific program.

They pushed back:

“We’re not a simple organization like one of those big national organizations you work with. What we do is complex.”

I explained to them the lesson I had learned over the years: that the big national organizations have sophisticated approaches and programs, but that they purposefully keep their fundraising simple and emotional in order to make their organization more accessible to more people.

Those big organizations want everybody to be able to donate, not just the people who are interested enough to learn about their programs.

The organization I was working with had assumed that because the fundraising to individual donors was simple, the organization and its programs must be simple.

But the lesson is that those big organizations appear simple because of a conscious messaging choice. In their fundraising to individual donors, they choose to focus on single programs or simple outcomes because doing so is proven to help them attract more new donors and raise more money from current donors.

Sophisticated fundraising looks simple on purpose.

Lessons from 31 Year-End Fundraising Seasons

Steven | November 12, 2024November 11, 2024Ask

This year will be my 31st year-end fundraising season. (In related news, I have a lot of grey hair.)

That means I’ve been a part of about 300 separate year-end campaigns for different nonprofits around North America.

Let me share with you what I’ve learned. Because we do lots of testing, pay close attention to what works, and have a pretty good handle on what works the best.

Today, I want to share how to think about year-end fundraising. It’s a short set of ideas that put you on the path to happy donors and full bank accounts.

Idea #1 – Your donors love to give, but they are busy

Before you do anything, just think about this for a moment. Your donors love to give! Share this idea with your staff and board. If you want to have a great year, you must remember that your donors love to give, but they are busy!

Most nonprofits think two unhelpful things:

Our fundraising makes people give gifts they don’t really want to give.
Every donor receives every message we send.

Neither of those things are true. And if you think those two things, you will only communicate with your donors a couple times in December. That’s a HUGE mistake.

Instead, remember that your donors love to give, but they are busy. They need to be over-communicated with during this busy season. (And if there’s a donor or board member who has already given their year-end gift, by all means remove them from the mailing list!) But for everyone else, you need to communicate to them often enough to break through all the noise, get their attention, and remind them to give you a gift.

Idea #2 – Think of your year-end fundraising as a service

That’s right. Not as fundraising, but as a service to your busy donors who love to give.

You are reminding them to do something they would love to do.

So what makes a good reminder?

A clear focus on the action you want them to take. In all your communications (letters, emails, your website, social) get to the point very quickly. Ask them to give a special year-end gift before the end of the year.
A clear focus on the deadline. Remind donors, again and again, that their special year-end gift is needed before the end of the year. Deadlines are magic in fundraising, and this is the best deadline you’ll ever have. Mention it early and often!
Remind them what their gift does. This is NOT a reminder of what your organization does with their gift. For instance, if you’re an Arts organization, don’t remind them that their gift ‘supports our programs to promote the arts…” Instead, remind your donors that their gift ‘supports the arts so that our community has a thriving arts scene and culture.’

Idea #3 – The only other ideas to add are reasons to give now

Resist the urge to talk about your upcoming capital campaign, or tell a story about somebody you’ve already helped.

The only other ideas to add are reasons your donor should give a gift right now. Things like:

Their gift will be doubled by a matching grant
Your organization has a shortfall and you need to ‘close the gap’ as quickly as possible
You have a big need for funds early next year and the donor’s gift will help

The Main Point

You can do these things and still write a warm, personal letter or email. Really, it’s a matter of focus. Make sure you communicate the main things in a way that donors who just briefly glance at your letter will still get the point.

So of course you can talk about how it’s been a good year. And you can thank your donor for their previous generosity. You can even talk about how pretty the snow is.

But those should not be the main, most noticeable parts of your letter. If you write and design you year-end fundraising following the principles above, you’ll raise a lot more money!

This post was originally published on November 13, 2017.

Who Are You Writing To?

Steven | November 7, 2024November 6, 2024Ask

Quick post today.

When you write, if you don’t have a picture in mind of what the person reading your writing is like, you tend to write for yourself.

I can speak from experience on this – the first posts from this blog are… not interesting. I was writing to myself. It took me months to develop a good picture of who I was writing to and for. And that’s when this blog started to be helpful to people and our number of subscribers started to grow.

“Writing for yourself” happens all the time in nonprofit fundraising. And it results in fundraising that’s not interesting or effective.

Contrast that to a nonprofit that has a good picture of what their donors know, care about, and the language their donors use. When the nonprofit writes to and for those donors (instead of themselves) they create fundraising that connects more and raises more money.

***

If you’re like me, you want to know why “writing to and for your donors” works so much better. So even though I said this would be a short post, here’s a longer explanation if you’re interested. 🙂

When a nonprofit writes to itself: they base their fundraising on what the organization knows, what the organization cares about, and uses the words the organization uses.

This results in fundraising that:

Tries to teach the recipient things, instead of tapping into what the recipient already knows. This is “13% of people in our county have experienced homelessness” compared to “You know that no one should have to be homeless.”
Tries to make the recipient care about new things, instead of tapping into what the recipient already cares about. This is “Our program is one of the most effective literacy programs” compared to “You know the immediate difference knowing how to read makes on a person’s life.”
Tries to teach the recipient new words and phrases, instead of using words and phrases the recipient already knows. This is “They are what we call a UETA – Under Exposed to The Arts” compared to “They haven’t been exposed to the Arts enough, and you can change that.”

Think about that for a second; look at all the extra work a donor has to do before they can give! The reader of the email or letter:

Has to learn new things
Has to care about things they didn’t care about before
Has to learn new vocabulary (and sometimes whole new concepts)

This puts what we call an “education barrier” between the organization and its donors.

Organizations using this approach tend to stay small because their fundraising materials ensure that only the “true believers” will give; because only the “true believers” will spend the time and effort to be educated.

The more effective approach is to build a picture of what individual donors who care about your beneficiaries or cause tend to know, care about, and read.

Then write your fundraising to and for the people who fit that picture.

You’ll make your organization more accessible to more people, raise more money, and achieve more of your mission.

The Messaging Tactic You Can Learn from Political Fundraising

Steven | October 31, 2024October 31, 2024Ask

There’s a messaging tactic that small nonprofits can learn from the political fundraising this election season.

(And by the way, you’re probably as tired of political fundraising as I am. But let’s separate our tiredness from a tactic we can learn from.)

The tactic is telling your donors what their gift will stop from happening.

You see this in political fundraising when you’re told that “a gift will stop the other party from gaining power.” Or “you’ll stop some bad thing from happening.” You get it.

This is a message that most small nonprofits don’t take advantage of enough. We constantly talk about the things that the donor’s gift will make possible. But we forget to say the things that the gift stops from happening.

Take child sponsorship for example. Classic child sponsorship marketing tells people that their gift will provide an education for the child, provide food for the child, provide access to medical care for the child. All of those things are outcomes that the gift will make possible.

But that misses a whole slew of things that the gift stops from happening that are powerful and motivating!

For instance, when a young girl is sponsored and stays in school, she doesn’t become a child bride. Sponsoring a boy means he stays in school and doesn’t enter the drug trade. Sponsoring any child means they stay under the eyes of loving adults and don’t get caught up in sexual trafficking.

Each of those is highly motivating to donors. And I think you can see how using this messaging tactic would make for fundraising that more people would respond to.

So I ask you, in addition to telling donors what their gift to your organization will make happen, do you tell your donors the negative things that their gift stops from happening?

When you do, you will have given your donors additional powerful reasons to give a gift today. And in my experience, that has two powerful results:

Donors have a better picture of your organization’s work and what their gift accomplishes.
You raise more money.

Beliefs, and Their Effects on Annual Plans

Steven | October 29, 2024October 21, 2024Ask

An organization’s beliefs about fundraising will shape their fundraising plans.

For instance…

If you Believe

that a large percentage
of your individual
donors would love to
make multiple gifts
each year…

Then you create

an annual plan that
regularly asks donors
to give…

Which results in

a large percentage
of donors making
multiple gifts.

How are your organization’s beliefs shaping your annual plan?

Shortfall Story

Steven | October 24, 2024October 24, 2024Ask

My last post was about why sharing a shortfall with your donors is good for revenue and your relationships with donors.

That’s a challenging, counter-intuitive idea. So because we humans learn through stories, let me share the story of how one nonprofit navigated their shortfall situation.

Here’s how it went…

Opening Up to a New Idea

Years ago, a nonprofit we were serving let us know that they had a $500,000 shortfall as they approached the end of their fiscal year.

We recommended that they share the shortfall with their donors by running a shortfall campaign.

The conversation that followed went through the standard steps that most of these conversations go through…

First, they told us that sharing their shortfall was a ridiculous idea. They shared that their organization is a pillar in their community. They were worried that making the shortfall public would negatively affect their brand. They were worried that donors would think the organization was a bad steward of their gifts. They were worried that – even if some donors gave a gift to help – that overall it would cause more donors to stop giving to the organization.

We listened. And then we shared that we knew from experience, having run 60 to 70 successful shortfall campaigns, that their donors would give generously if the organization included the shortfall in their messaging. And we shared that, in our experience, the organization would not suffer any of the negative consequences that they feared.

Feeling slightly warmer to the idea but still unconvinced, they said what most organizations say at this point, which is, “Well, there’s no way that will work with our donors because [REASONS].” The reasons tend to be things like, “Our donors are different than other donors” or “this won’t work because all our donors know our founder” or “our donors are professionals and won’t fall for this” (as if there’s something to fall for?!?) and, my personal favorite, “all our donors are from [location] and people from [location] don’t like things like this.”

So we said, “We hear you and acknowledge that these are real concerns. Could we share an example of a shortfall campaign from an organization similar to yours? It worked well for them and we think it would work well for you.”

They replied, “Yes we’d love to see the example… but we have to tell you that our boss isn’t going to like it.”

So, I had a warm conversation with the Director of Donor Development. She was open to the idea, found our experience persuading, and decided it was worth talking about.

This leads to the final step, which is moving up the chain of command to have a conversation with the VP or ED/CEO who can make the final decision. In this case, I spent an hour on the phone with the VP of Philanthropy. She’s a brilliant woman and had all the concerns mentioned earlier – in part because she was very good at fundraising and had never experienced a shortfall before.

I talked her through several shortfall campaigns I’d been through. I shared all the positive reasons that donors respond to shortfalls. I shared results of previous shortfall campaigns compared to standard results.

It was basically an hour-long counselling session. People in Fundraising tend to have deeply held beliefs about what their donors will and will not respond to. And I was warmly sharing some data that challenged this person’s beliefs. There were hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, and relationships with very large donors, so we talked it all the way through.

The VP of Philanthropy bought in, and then met with the Board to get approval. After much discussion, the Board nervously decided to try it.

The Campaign

It was time to get to work. Here’s what we did:

We planned out a 6-week campaign that ended when their fiscal year ended.
The campaign had two direct mail letters, 8 emails, and phone calls to major donors.
I wrote up talking points about the shortfall. These included how the shortfall happened, what the consequences would be if it wasn’t erased, and what the organization was doing about it.
The talking points were distributed to the Board, to Major Gifts Officers who were calling major donors, and to the people answering the phones.
I wrote the direct mail appeal letter that kicked off the campaign. We used the thinking and messaging in the letter to craft the follow-up letter, the emails, website copy, and giving page copy.
The messaging was clear and to the point: through no fault of their own, the organization was facing a $500,000 shortfall. We shared what would happen if they couldn’t erase the shortfall. We shared the good work the donor’s gift would help make possible. Then we asked the donor to send in a special gift to help erase the shortfall.

The people were prepped. The letters were mailed. The emails were sent. It was time to see what happened…

The Results

Their fiscal year-end campaign normally raised about $150,000, and our campaign raised about $650,000. That’s an “extra” $500,000 that effectively erased the shortfall.

It doesn’t always work out that perfectly, but it does more often than you’d expect. The major donors who get involved often want to know how much is needed to reach the goal. They will often stretch their giving to help you reach the target number.

In addition to the overall success, there are few numbers I’d like to highlight:

The response rates to the direct mail and emails were notably higher than average.
Their average gift sizes were higher than normal.
The organization had about 100,000 donors at the time, and they had a total of five donors reach out to them to ask about the shortfall. Five!
- Two of the five people who reached out were Board members who had already been briefed on the shortfall. (Yes, that is as ridiculous as it sounds.)
- In the five conversations, after hearing more details about what was going on, two of the five people gave a gift on the spot.

In addition, none of the feared negative consequences came to pass. This shortfall was a few years ago, and the organization now has about 25% more donors than they used to. Their major gifts program is going great. They’ve also successfully funded a significant capital campaign.

Their brand was not tarnished. Their standing the community remains strong. Their donors did not leave in a thundering herd.

The Lesson

This whole thing is a lesson in the power of vulnerability.

The organization was vulnerable and courageous enough to share the shortfall with their donors. Their donors responded generously, and were pleased to help the organization in their time of need. There were no negative consequences to speak of.

The organization has a deeper appreciation of their donors than ever before; the organization needed help, and their donors answered the call.

All of this is to say, if you have a shortfall don’t be afraid to share it with your donors.

Share Your Shortfall

Steven | October 22, 2024October 14, 2024Ask

Here’s a “hot take” for you:

If your organization has a shortfall, I encourage you to share it with your donors. Sharing it will be good for your fundraising and donor relationships, both in the short term and the long term.

I know that sounds absurd to many people. But this is a data-driven position.

Sharing a shortfall with your donors is a scary idea for many nonprofits. Doing it usually requires a big shift in thinking. So this is a longer post than normal. I’m going to explain what we’ve noticed about three things:

Why sharing a shortfall seems like an obvious bad idea
The results when nonprofits run shortfall campaigns
Why we think shortfall campaigns work so well

We want you to get past the fear because of what’s on the other side…

“There’s no way this is a good idea”

Let’s start by talking for a moment about why sharing a shortfall feels somewhere between dangerous and dumb. Here’s what “common sense” tells you about sharing a shortfall with your donors:

It would reflect poorly on your organization and your brand.
It will look like you’re bad at managing money.
People won’t give. (After all, if they think you are bad at managing money, why would they give you another gift?!?)
Even if sharing a shortfall somehow brought in a bunch of money, there will be negative consequences in the future that will far overshadow any revenue that comes in now.

Furthermore, no one likes how it feels to send out a shortfall message. Everyone working at the nonprofit, or leading the nonprofit, or on the Board will feel like the shortfall reflects poorly on them.

All of this makes sense.

And let’s add one more layer: no one ever talks about the results of their shortfall campaign. Have you ever been to a conference where a fundraising professional was up on stage talking about how well their shortfall campaign went? Nope.

There’s so much shame around this that no one talks about it.

Then we add the branding and marketing folks who don’t really understand how vulnerability is such a big part of fundraising success, and they actively push back on mentioning that the organization has a shortfall.

So we’re in a situation where people think shortfall campaigns are a bad idea, no one likes them, and no one talks about the results.

But in my experience, the vast majority of people have never seen the results of a shortfall campaign. They just aren’t aware that…

Shortfall Campaigns Work Great & Don’t Have Negative Consequences

This idea is so counter-intuitive that, until you have experience with multiple shortfall campaigns, there’s almost no way you’ll believe it.

But it’s true; fundraising campaigns that focus on helping an organization overcome a shortfall work great. And they do not cause the negative consequences that people fear.

I estimate that I’ve helped on between 60 to 70 shortfall campaigns. They’ve been for organizations of all different sizes and in all different sectors. Here’s what happens:

Donors respond in droves. The letter / email / campaign is usually the second-highest fundraising campaign of the year, behind only the year-end campaign. Often it’s the best campaign of the year, or the best campaign the organization has ever run.
- The response rates are higher than average, the size of gifts are higher than average.
The feared negative consequences do not happen, either in the short term or long term. I’ve measured; they don’t happen.
- I can’t emphasize this enough: in 30+ years of fundraising and measuring results, I have never seen a reduction in long-term giving or retention rates as a result of letting donors know you have a shortfall. All of the things we fear – donors leaving in a thundering herd, donors complaining to the Chamber of Commerce, donors telling all their friends not to give – just don’t happen.
There will be five or fewer conversations with concerned donors or Board members. And when the situation is explained to them, about half of them will give you a gift on the spot and be happy they did.

Notice I’m not saying, “shortfall campaigns always raise enough to erase the shortfall.” I’m saying that they always raise quite a bit more than an organization’s “standard” fundraising, and don’t have the negative consequences that people fear. And the campaign will erase the entire shortfall more often than you think.

Those are the numbers. Water is wet, the world is round, shortfall campaigns work great.

“I still don’t believe you… but if I did, how is this possible?”

I’ve thought about this a lot. Here’s my take on the powerful mix of reasons shortfall campaigns raise so much more money than an organization’s “regular” fundraising. And I suspect that, even though you might not totally believe my main thesis yet, you’ll look at this list and see how it makes sense:

Your donors care about your organization, and about your beneficiaries or cause.
Donors do not want your organization to be forced to reduce services. And they know that’s what can happen when there’s a shortfall – you’ll have to cut programs or staff.
Donors quickly understand the problem you’re having – all of us have had a “shortfall” of our own at some point in our lives.
Humans respond to clear needs. Witness the recent giving to help the victims of Helene and Milton. And a shortfall is a clear need.
Your donors know you’re a nonprofit. They know you don’t have all the money, and they know that funding can be hard to come by sometimes.
Oftentimes, when an organization shares a shortfall, it’s the first time they’ve Asked their donors in a way that makes it very clear that help is needed now. The contrast between the urgent ask and the regular fundraising (“Things are going great, we’ve helped so many people, it would be lovely if you considered partnering with us”) makes donors see and feel that their help is needed now.
Humans love to help, and helping feels good.

All of those ring true, right?

Put all of them together and you can begin to see why donors respond so generously when an organization shares that they have a shortfall.

Should you go looking for a shortfall? No. Should you share a shortfall four times a year? No again.

But when you have a shortfall, trust that your donors care, and share it with them. You’ll be so glad you did. Your donors will be glad you did, too, because they love helping you.

In my next post, I’ll share a story of an organization that had a shortfall, had all of the perfectly normal concerns about sharing that shortfall with their donors, and decided to run a shortfall campaign.