Category: Repeat

Time-Sensitive Reminder: Donors Aren’t Thinking About Your Cause

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
reminder

I wrote last Thursday about how donors put themselves on the hook.

Donors have chosen to take some responsibility for what is happening in the world, and to do something about it through their giving.

But that doesn’t mean donors always remember that they care, or even think about your organization.

Personally, I don’t remember very often that there’s a lack of affordable housing in the Seattle area. It’s just not something I think about. But I’m thankful that a couple organizations regularly remind me, because it’s an issue I care about.

I think most donors are in a similar situation: donors aren’t inclined to think about your cause or beneficiaries often, but it’s in their values to do something about it.

At Better Fundraising, we think that one of the functions of fundraising is “to remind people who care that there is work that needs to be done.”

I say all this because Fundraisers and organizations are often uncomfortable sending out fundraising that reminds donors of the work that needs to be done. It can feel awkward.

So I want all Fundraisers to remember that your donors chose to be responsible. They know that work needs to be done. They care. But they probably don’t remember right now.

Your fundraising provides the invaluable function of reminding them and giving them a chance to do something about it.

Happy Fourth!

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
fourth

This Independence Day we’re reminded of the line, “toward a more perfect union.”

Not perfect, but trying to get better every year.

Just like fundraising.

Happy Fourth!

What to Do When Things are Uncertain and Donors Aren’t Giving as Much

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
wait

My colleague Steven Screen said something profound recently:

“When times are good, donors give. When times are bad, donors give. When times are uncertain… donors wait.”

This spring your organization may have experienced donors waiting. Your fundraising results may have been lower than normal, and you may feel a little panicked.

You are NOT alone!

There are times when some donors wait to give, for reasons we can’t control.

This spring there was scary messaging in the US news around the debt ceiling.

We (mostly) suspected it would turn out okay, but if it didn’t, then… Catastrophic global economic consequences! Immediate recession! THINGS WILL BE TERRIBLE!

Those were the types of headlines we were seeing in the US. (Okay, I made up the last one, but that’s what it FELT like…)

I suspect there were donors waiting to see how the debt ceiling situation played out.

When your job is fundraising and donor giving dips, whether that’s major donor fundraising, direct response fundraising, event fundraising – any area, really – here are three things you should do:

  1. Glance at a few headlines. Do your best to understand what your donors might be thinking about, fearing, or uncertain about.

  2. Review your strategy. Are you asking donors to give in a clear, confident, emotional way that has worked in the past? Are you thanking your donors when they give and reporting back on what their gift did?

  3. If the answer to #2 is YES, you may be in a time where donors are waiting. Keep being faithful with the things you can control and don’t stop fundraising. We’ve seen time and time again that donors resume giving after periods of uncertainty. Make sure you are in front of your donors with strong fundraising offers so they resume their giving to YOUR organization.

By the way, if the answer to #2 is NO, the lack of giving may have more to do with your Asks than your donors. Review your communications with a more critical eye. Sometimes in the day-to-day shuffle – especially when times are weird – messages that are off-topic to donors creep in and cause fundraising to underperform.

Whether times are good or times are bad, donors want to help a cause they care about. Keep asking! Keep thanking! Keep reporting back so they see the good they’re doing!

By the way, once the uncertainty has passed you may have a gap in funding. Tell your donors about it and ask them to help!

Once upon a time… a (fun!) direct mail fundraising fable

Sarah Lundberg  |  Repeat
small

Once upon a time…

There was a small organization in a town near you.

The staff sat in a room one day and asked, “How can we show our donors that we know what we’re doing and that we should be taken seriously?  How can we make our fundraising more professional?”

So they hired a graphic designer, who made their next mailing look like a shiny brochure. They began to print out mailing labels instead of handwriting donor addresses on envelopes. And they stopped calling their donors because nobody uses the phone anymore.

The staff was excited because these improvements would also free up their time to get more done!

Meanwhile, in that same town… there was a large organization.

Their leadership team sat in their conference room and asked, “How can we let our donors know they matter and that we care about them? How can we be more personal with our donors?”

They decided to make their next mailing feel like a personal letter from the executive director to the donor. They decided to handwrite some of the addresses on the next mailing, and even put a real stamp on the envelope. And they started to call some of their donors three days a week.

They knew these efforts would add time to their work. But they also knew these personal touches would help their donors feel more connected to the organization.

***

Okay, I get it. This… little fable could only EVER be interesting to fundraisers.

But hear me on this. If you are a small organization you have a superpower that large organizations are trying their best to imitate. You are personal.

Please DON’T give up that superpower!

Your donors want to know there are living, breathing humans behind the letter they are reading.

So embrace the gift of being a small organization!

Be real. Be quirky. Be creative. Be… YOU!

Sarah

PS — Click here for Steven Screen’s amazing tips for HOW to provide the human touch to your direct mail fundraising – whether you are a small organization or a large organization.

Two Groups of Fundraisers

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Two groups.

Some people think all fundraising looks and sounds the same.

You’ve met and worked with these folks. They get kind of annoyed with fundraising materials because – to them – the letters and emails all seem to blend together. Ugh.

On the other hand…

There’s a second group of people who see and appreciate the differences in each piece of fundraising. They appreciate that no two pieces of fundraising are the same.

The people in the second group enjoy the details. The people in the second group have more fun.

By the way, it’s people in that second group who you want creating and evaluating your fundraising.

ABCD

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
data

Always Be Collecting Data.

On your journey as a fundraiser, always be on the lookout for little bits of data to save.

Here are just a handful of data points I’ve collected over the years, all a result of head-to-head tests…

  • Thanking donors at the beginning of an e-appeal caused fewer of them to give.
  • Putting gift ask amounts in ascending order caused people to give more.
  • Removing distractions from a giving page caused increased conversion.
  • Adding a “faux reply card” to the back of a printed newsletter caused a 15% increase in net revenue.

Collect a bunch of little data points like these and you’ll develop what I’d call “fundraising intuition.” But it’s intuition trained with data, not personal opinions.

It helps you make decisions with high likelihood of success.

It makes you valuable because when people ask for your opinion they’ll receive evidence-based answers, not feelings.

Always Be Collecting Data.

Nobody

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
first

I have a message for all the young Fundraisers and smaller organizations out there.

Nobody gets their fundraising right the first time.

I say that because it’s easy to get discouraged.

As you start – as an organization starts – there is SO MUCH that you’re having to figure out. Not to mention, nobody got into this business because they desperately wanted to send letters and emails to people. 🙂

So, please know three powerful things…

  1. You’ve begun! That’s a LOT farther than most people get. Maybe they look the other way. Maybe they refuse. Who knows. But you started. From my perspective 30 years in, that’s a bigger deal than you think it is.
  2. Becoming effective is an iterative process. You start. You pay attention. You add another skill. You get better. You notice something else. You get a little better every month. That too is a bigger deal than you think it is.
  3. The whole way, you’re helping your cause and you’re helping your donors. You’re helping the cause by raising awareness, and raising money, so that more good gets done. You’re helping donors because they care – but they don’t have programs like you do, so they can’t do much by themselves.

That’s a lot of good. You could be spending your time marketing bags of chips. Instead you’re helping make change.

It’s not easy. (If it were easy, we’d all be raising tens of millions of dollars and have six-pack abs.)

So keep going. Keep iterating. Keep practicing.

And thanks for being a Fundraiser!

Feedback Loops

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
experiment

Every time you send out of piece of fundraising, you’ve sent out a little experiment into the world.

Is your organization reviewing the results of your experiments?

For instance, your organization has done a lot of experimenting with email subject lines (whether you’ve thought about it that way or not). Have you looked at your open rates to see what types of subject lines generate the highest open rates? After all, the more people who open your email, the more people who read your email, the more people who are likely to give to your email.

Bigger picture – every time your organization completes a year’s worth of fundraising, that’s like sending out a slightly larger experiment into the world.

Are you measuring your “overall donor retention rate”? How about your “major donor retention rate”? Or – I love this one – your “major donor revenue retention rate”? (That one tells you whether your major donor management system is keeping and lifting your current major donors, or if you’re reliant on new major donors to hit your goal each year. Big difference.)

So… you’ve done a lot of experiments.

Is your organization looking at the results of your experiments? Is your organization learning from them? Is your organization getting better with each email, each letter, and each year?

Your Organization’s Habits – Are They Good?

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
habit

Every nonprofit’s fundraising plan is a bundle of habits.

  • Some organizations habitually send out 4 appeals, 1 per quarter.
  • Some organizations habitually call all new donors.
  • Some organizations habitually send out a Christmas card to all donors. 

Think for a second about your organization’s habits. 

The big question is whether an organization has data to tell them whether their habits are helpful… or not.

Quick example.  I once served an organization that habitually sent Christmas cards to all their donors.  They were certain the cards helped with their year-end fundraising, but they had no data to back that up.  And they’d done it for so many years that no one around the table remembered a time when they didn’t send the cards.

So we divided their donors into two random-but-equal groups.  One group received the Christmas cards and the year-end campaign.  The other group did not receive cards, and only received the year-end campaign. 

In January we looked at the results.  The response rate, average gift size, and net revenue from each group was essentially the same. 

They discovered that their habit of sending Christmas cards did not increase how much money they raised.  But it did increase expenses. 

So the following year they dropped the habit. 

Please take a quick look at your organization’s habits.  Make a list of habits that have been directed by data.  By that I mean you’ve tried at least one alternative and the alternative was measurably worse. 

Then make a list of the habits where your organization has little to no information about how an alternate approach might work.  These are the habits that are likely to be personal preferences, or passion projects of an important stakeholder, or traditions that have been handed down from the past. 

The longer the list of habits without information, the more fundraising opportunity you have.