Category: Repeat

How a Strong Fundraising Offer Changes Everything

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
Can you help?

I used to be a Director of Marketing and Communications for a nonprofit where I had minimal involvement with fundraising.

But then the nonprofit I was working at needed me to start writing their direct response fundraising, and I discovered a whole new world of expertise. This experience challenged the beliefs that my nonprofit and I had for how fundraising worked. But we started raising a LOT more money.  Let me share my journey…

The first thing that made an impact was developing strong fundraising offers for our direct mail appeals.

This meant we started being clearer about what the donor’s gift would do or promising what would happen when they made a gift, like “your gift of $50 will provide a food basket for a child while they are on school break.”

For years, we had been sending out appeals asking people to give but we weren’t that specific about what their gift would do. We asked people to give to help children in a certain country get an education. Or give to help support a church planter.

It sort of worked. The donors who were close to the organization and the mission would respond. But people who didn’t know the organization as well just didn’t seem to respond to our direct mail appeals.

“If they understood how important this is, they would give,” was a common phrase.

But how to get donors to understand?

When I started to learn more about fundraising offers, I brought back some new ideas, and we started approaching our appeals differently.

We started digging into the line items of budgets.

We started asking our program team detailed questions about how many people were participating in different programs, and every last detail they could give us.

This research meant we could put a dollar amount to doing a specific thing. And we could ask the donor to give to do that thing.

Instead of “give to help children in (country name)” we now had “give $35 to provide a backpack full of school supplies for one child in (country name).”

Instead of “give to support a church planter” we now had “give $5 so a church planter can reach one person.”

And suddenly our appeals started to raise more money.

The main change was that we were showing donors the difference they could make for one person with a specific gift.

I remember the first appeal we sent out with one of our newly developed offers. It was year-end — not a time of year you want to fumble things. I was… worried.

I remember saying to my boss, “What if this doesn’t work?”

“You know… it’s possible it won’t work,” he said. “But let’s still try it.”

Having a boss who was open to trying things differently was a gift. (I know bosses don’t always respond like that!)

But what it came down to was this… we could keep doing things the way we had always done them and get similar results. Or we could take a calculated risk based on best practice recommendations from an expert and raise more money for our mission.

And when things are only “sort-of” working, taking a calculated risk based on expert recommendations is a smart thing to do.

My organization went from raising around $10,000 from our direct mail fundraising appeals to raising $30,000, 40,000, and even $50,000 from our direct mail fundraising appeals.

Change can be scary, especially when you’ve been doing something the same way for years. But if you can work through the fear with your team, Better Fundraising can happen for your organization as well (see what I did there?).

The Habit

Steven  |  Repeat
Habits

There’s a habit your organization can develop that will result in raising more money and keeping more of your donors each year.

It’s the habit of regularly using the mail and email to stay in relationship with your donors.

Here’s why the habit of regularly sending mail and email to your donors is so powerful…

The habit of regularly Asking your donors to do meaningful, powerful things with a gift through your organization results in more gifts. Donors in motion tend to stay in motion. Donors at rest tend to stay at rest.

The habit of regularly Reporting to your donors shows and tells them that their gifts make a difference. Donors who know their previous gift made a meaningful difference are more likely to give to you again than donors who don’t.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors always works better than “going dark” for weeks or months at a time.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors via letters and emails is more effective than Social.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors always works better than sending nothing.

Getting in the habit of regularly sending out mail and email, paying attention to the results, always works better than any other approach.

It’s a habit you must develop

First, you must get past the idea that mailing your donors more than a couple times a year will somehow result in the mythical “donor fatigue.” If you need help with that, look here. Or here.

Then you have to realize that each piece you send out is not precious. Each piece you send out is an overwhelmingly positive incident that raises money, keeps you in touch with your donors, and is a learning opportunity.

Then you just have to practice. You need repetition. Sending out mail and email is like any other skill; you get better with practice.

Show me an organization that has developed a habit of regularly mailing and emailing its donors and I’ll show you an organization that has deeper relationships with its donors and keeps more of its donors every year.

This post was originally published on January 7, 2021.

Little Jolts of Joy

Steven  |  Repeat
Jolts of joy.

Here’s a challenge for you:

Just for a moment, for every single gift your organization received last year, envision a person writing out a check, or their finger clicking your “donate” button.

And because “every gift” is too many to visualize, just take a moment and visualize five people making gifts.

Do it.  One after another, visualize five people writing checks and clicking donate buttons.  They can be donors you know, or they can be “generic.”  I’ll wait while you do it.

 . . .

I suspect you’ll find that, if you really visualized five people making gifts, you just received 5 little jolts of joy and amazement and gratitude.

And I suspect the joy and gratitude you just received will “charge up your fundraising battery” a bit.  If you think about it, you’re probably just a little more willing to do the emotionally hard work of fundraising than you were a few minutes ago.

I asked you to visualize that here, at the beginning of the year, because fundraising can be tiring.  Asking for gifts can be hard.  What’s more, we Fundraisers usually don’t feel gifts because all we experience are numbers on a spreadsheet or in your CRM.

But when you remember that behind every single check or click is an act of generosity… and a vote of confidence in you… and the funds needed for your organization’s work… then every gift should bring a little jolt of joy and amazement.

***

Hey, if you’re considering hiring Better Fundraising to create your email & direct mail fundraising, keep reading.

We have a special going: if you fill out the form on the bottom of this page, you’ll save $3,500 because we’ll give you last year’s prices for all of this year.

Here’s an example of a nonprofit’s experience hiring us about 3 years ago: they report a 36% increase in revenue and a 17% decrease in expenses.  The increase comes from fundraising messaging & storytelling that connects with their donors better than ever before.  And the decrease comes from eliminating projects and practices that weren’t helping the bottom line.

So if you’re interested in chatting, click here because the form is at the bottom of the page.  You’ll be eligible for the discount, you’re not committed to anything, and we’ll set up a call to see if we can help you.

Cheers!

You Optimize What You Measure

Steven  |  Repeat
Measure.

What you decide to measure is important, because it determines what you tend to optimize.

Take email fundraising.  One of the metrics that small- to medium-sized nonprofits tend to obsess over is how many unsubscribes they get.  For organizations like this, one of the core principles of their email strategy becomes “minimize unsubscribes.”

That’s absolutely fine IF the nonprofit is also measuring and prioritizing “the number of new donors acquired via our email list” and “revenue from fundraising emails.”

All three of those metrics work in concert to produce an effective email fundraising program.

But if the main operating principle is to minimize unsubscribes, you end up with an email program that asks for support less often than it could, raises less money than it could, yet is pleased with its performance because of how few unsubscribes they have.  Ouch.

Situations where organizations over-prioritize one metric happen all the time in fundraising:

  • Nonprofits that are constantly Asking for support raise lots of money in the short term… but have lousy donor retention rates
  • Nonprofits that relentlessly focus on ROI will see their ROI increase… and watch their impact shrink
  • Nonprofits who over-steward their donors out of fears around asking “too much”… will raise far less money than they could be raising

It’s easy to come up with a fundraising platform or strategy that just prioritizes one metric… but it never works in the long term. 

Sustainable, growing fundraising is all about getting your mix right: Asking and Reporting, high-ROI major donor relationships and low-ROI donor acquisition, a few more unsubscribes and more email revenue.

So the next time you’re in a conversation that’s focused on just one metric, ask yourself and your colleagues what other metrics you should be considering. 

Because if you’re optimizing for just one metric, there’s usually a dark side that’s being missed.

***

Related note: experienced Fundraisers are so valuable because they have the knowledge to help nonprofits “get their mix right” for short-term revenue and long-term growth. 

So we’re excited to share that if you’d like one of Better Fundraising’s experienced experts to help you “get the mix right” for your donor communications strategy and messaging this year, get in touch before this Friday night.

This page will show you how, for less than the price of an employee, Better Fundraising can write & design your print & email fundraising for you.  (We’ll get your mix right, I promise.)  🙂

And if you fill out the form on the bottom of the page before Friday night, we’ll honor last year’s pricing if you decide to hire us.  That’s a savings of $3,500.

Filling out the form by this Friday doesn’t commit you to anything.  But we love fundraising, and we’d love to help you!

Foundations

Steven  |  Repeat
Back to basics.

There are some core, basic principles in fundraising.  (As an industry, we tend to not talk about them enough because we silly humans like shiny things.)

But these core principles are part of every successful, national organization I know of.  They should be the roadmap for the fundraising programs that small and medium-sized nonprofits are building.

Principles like:

  • Communicate with your donors regularly.
  • Focus more on improving the metrics that matter most, like “net revenue” and “retention rate,” and focus less on metrics like “likes” and “awareness.”
  • Infuse your individual donor communications with emotion.
  • You have to Ask, you have to Thank, and you have to Report.
  • Create as many fundraising assets as you can, and fewer fundraising art projects.
  • Use language your donors understand immediately. 
  • Major Donor Management systems work better than ad-hoc approaches.
  • Build a donor pipeline.  Have steps and benchmarks for everyone from “email list subscribers” to legacy givers.

The surest path to success is to build your fundraising program on and toward these principles.

Then, defend them and enshrine them. Make sure they don’t leave when your current staff do. 

You could say these principles are boring, in the same way you could say that a foundation for a building is boring.  But you cannot build a reliable, ever-expanding organization without a good foundation.

Take More Steps

Steven  |  Repeat
Steps progress.

This post is the first in a series of special posts for January.  Last year we kept track of the ideas that had outsized impact on the small and medium-sized nonprofits we serve.  Each of the posts this month is about one of those big ideas.

I hope they are helpful as you think about your fundraising this year.

***

Every piece of fundraising you make & send is a step on your journey to raising more money.

Here’s the simple truth: the more steps you take each year, the closer you are to raising more money, because you get better when you practice.

You know those organizations that send out 10 appeal letters, 6 printed newsletters, and 50 fundraising emails?  They can do that because they’ve practiced so much that their fundraising works great.

They don’t have different donors than you.  They don’t have a better cause than you.  They’ve just practiced more.

At some point in the past, someone at those organizations said, “Let’s figure out a way to make and send more fundraising.”

If your organization needs someone to say that, you can be that someone.

Don’t be afraid of making & sending more fundraising.  The more steps you take, the better you get at taking steps.

Fundraising Portfolio

Steven  |  Repeat
Diversification.

When investing, one of the first principles is to have a diversified portfolio. 

  • You want to have some bonds because they are incredibly stable, which insulates you from risk if something bad happens in the stock market.
  • You want to have some stocks so that if the economy takes off, you can make serious money.
  • You want to have some international investments so that, if things go sideways in your country, you’re insulated.

You get the idea.

Now, have you ever thought that your fundraising program is essentially your “fundraising portfolio”?  Because the same principle is true in fundraising – you want to be diversified:

  • You want to have a good in-person relationships with major donors because that’s where most of the money is.
  • You also want to be good at direct response fundraising (mail, email and phone) because not every major donor will want to meet with you, and because you can inexpensively talk to lots of donors at the same time. 
  • You want to be good at events because there are some donors who will only go to events.

So, now that you’re thinking of your fundraising program as your “fundraising portfolio,” I have three questions for you today:

  1. What’s in your fundraising portfolio?
  2. Is your portfolio diversified?  Does it both insulate you from risk and give you a great chance at growth?
  3. Is your portfolio appropriate for your size?  (For instance, spending money on “awareness” is appropriate for a $25m organization, but ill-advised for a $1m organization.)

Two Quick Stories

Here are two real-life examples of how a lack of diversification can be harmful…

Example #1 — Five months into the pandemic, a large national organization called us.  They were already $20,000,000 behind budget for the year because they primarily raised money at events… but couldn’t do events because of the pandemic.  Their organization didn’t know how to raise money through the mail and email, and were hair-on-fire-scrambling to learn how.    

Example #2 — Up in Canada right now, because of the Canadian Post strike, it’s tough for nonprofits who rely on the mail because they can’t send letters to their donors!  So the organizations who don’t have strong relationships with individual major donors, and/or strong email fundraising, are in real trouble. 

Now, if you’re a smaller nonprofit, most of us don’t have large enough budgets to just say “Let’s diversify our revenue streams” and go do it the next year.  Diversifications takes both time and money. 

But as you plot your growth, diversification of revenue streams should absolutely be a goal.

Nelson Mandela

Steven  |  Repeat
Nelson Mandela.

When Nelson Mandela was in prison (for 27 years!) he studied the language of the Afrikaner people who put him in prison.  

Mandela shared that “the way to understand people is speak and understand their language.”

Mandela credited his understanding the Afrikaans language with his ability to establish good relationships first with the prison wardens, and later with the Afrikaners who ran South Africa.

Mandela understood the language of the Afrikaners, spoke the language of the Afrikaners, yet advocated for his people.

The same principle is true for highly effective Fundraisers: they understand the language of their donors, speak the language of their donors, yet advocate for the organization’s beneficiaries or cause.

Any time you’re responsible for bridging a gap – whether it’s between different races or between nonprofits and donors – the bridge is more likely to get built if you understand and use the language of the person you’re trying to build it with.

Why your direct response fundraising should be like a Hallmark Christmas movie

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
Hallmark

Something strange happens to me at the end of October.

I’m a smart, logical, educated person who appreciates arts and culture.

But at the end of October when Hallmark Christmas movies start playing 24/7, I turn into… someone else. Someone who will watch movie after movie with essentially the same characters and the same plot. Someone who tears up at the end of the movie when the lovers FINALLY kiss and then a gentle snow begins to fall.

Sigh. It’s so sappy.

But I’m a direct response fundraiser, so I notice something else.

A Hallmark Christmas movie reminds me of effective direct response fundraising. It’s formulaic. You know what’s coming next. The plot is easy to follow. And you may tear up because, gosh dang it, it’s emotional!

And it works.

Every year, the Hallmark Channel makes more of these movies because people – like me – are watching them!

Sometimes we try to make our direct mail fundraising appeals into something more like a Cannes Film Festival entry. Complex. Ironic. Edgy. Different.

But that just doesn’t work as well.

If you want to appeal to the highest number of donors, your direct mail fundraising should be more like a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

Here’s the basic formula:

  • Tell them why you are writing to them
  • Share the problem that needs to be solved
  • Tell how the problem could be solved
  • Ask the donor to give a gift to solve the problem
  • Go into more detail about the problem and solution
  • Include a story that illustrates the problem (optional)
  • Ask them to give again
  • Signature and title
  • P.S. Ask them to give again and include the deadline.

Listen. I get it. Near the end of every single Hallmark Christmas movie, I grumble and complain and wonder why I watch these sappy movies.

Then the snow starts to fall and there’s a magical kiss and I’m dabbing my eyes with a tissue.

There’s something about that feeling…

The direct response formula isn’t a secret. Simple. Easy to follow. Emotional. Maybe a little bit of magic… These things help donors get to the point where they will write a check to make something good happen.

Follow the formula with your next direct response fundraising appeal or email and see how it goes!