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Over my 20 years of fundraising I have come to understand that fundraising is NOT a talent issue it is a knowledge issue. Fundraising best practices are learnable and repeatable.

Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat was born out of this fundraising truth. You can learn what the experts know. You can borrow better fundraising truths from organizations that have spent millions of dollars and thousands of days uncovering these truths. All you need to do is become a student of fundraising by learning from the experts.

Continue to read this blog, watch our videos and consume our content. When you learn how to honor your donors through clear and simple communication you will raise more money year after year.

If you want to keep your donors year after year you must thank them immediately and emotionally for their donation. Here’s how to make your thank you notes and receipts great.

1. Get in the minds of your donors and ask yourself the three questions they are asking when they hear from you. They are thinking, “Did they get my gift? Did they appreciate my gift? What is my gift going to accomplish?”
2. Thank them emotionally for their gift. Don’t use dry, CFO-language. Really emotionally tell them how grateful you are.
3. Tell them how much their gift was and that you’ve received it.
4. Tell them what their gift is going to do. Don’t give them a generic ‘thank you for supporting our mission and programs,’ tell them the exact same thing you said their gift was going to do when you asked them for it.

So, send thank you notes and receipts to your donors to let them know you received their gift, you’re grateful for their gift, and you’re doing what you said you would do with it. Send great thank you notes and receipts because you appreciate them and their sacrificial giving. Send great thank you notes and receipts because if you do you’ll raise FAR more money in the long run.

If you missed it from the last blog post, click here to see a 2-minute video that outlines how to make your thank you notes and receipt letters raise more money.

Want to raise more money with your website this December – or any time this year?  Steven was recently a featured guest on the Driving Participation podcast.  He talks about how to make your website raise the most money this year — and because it’s Steven – it’s also a wide-ranging conversation about fundraising.  Take a listen!

Fall fundraising is important because it’s the most fruitful time of year for nonprofits. In this video, we tackle the most important big-picture questions about fundraising. Watch now and follow these instructions to raise more money this fall – and during the life of your organization.

Raise more money by telling donors what they want to hear. Your donors don’t care how special your organization is, and telling your donors your organization is unique doesn’t help you raise money. In fact, it usually causes you to raise less money.

That’s because most donors care more about 1) who needs help, and 2) the improvement in the beneficiary’s life if the donor gives a gift.

How you make that improvement happen just doesn’t matter to most donors. We’ve done test after test and they all come back basically the same:

• If you talk about the Need and the improvement that will be caused by the donor’s gift, lots of money pours in.
• If you highlight your uniqueness by talking about how your organization serves it’s beneficiaries . . . a little money drips in.

Most donors are simply much more interested in the who their gift helps and the improvement that happens when they give. Yes, a few major donors (and your Staff and Board) are very interested in how your organization does its thing. Save your talk about uniqueness for them.

Don’t include “uniqueness” in your messaging to donors. Focus on what the donor can do with their gift, not how you make it happen.

Take a good, hard look at what you and your organization think your donors are thinking when they make a gift.

Do you think they are supporting your organization, or do you think they are trying to help one of your beneficiaries?

Most organizations misinterpret a donation to mean that they have a “supporter.” But most donors think of their gift as ‘helping someone’ much more than they think of it as ‘supporting’ your organization.

Here’s where the rubber meets – or doesn’t meet – the road. If you think you have a “supporter” then your donor communications will probably tell the person more about the organization they are supporting. However, your donor is FAR more likely to be interested in knowing how a beneficiary’s life is better today because they made a gift.

You will raise more money – and keep your donors for longer – if you think of your donors as people who are helping your beneficiaries. This means that your donor communications should be all about your donors and your beneficiaries, and very little about your organization.

 

Work at most nonprofits slows down a bit during the summer. Here’s how to use your time to Thank and Report to Major Donors, as well as work in advance on your fall fundraising impacts, so that you can raise the most money this fall.

Each time you sit down to communicate with your donors ask yourself this question:

“What is the 1 Thing I want to have happen when they read/hear/see this?”

Pick your 1 Thing. Then do only that Thing.

We talk all the time about the three building blocks of successful fundraising: Asking, Thanking and Reporting. Our suggestion is to pick which one of the three you’re doing and then focus relentlessly on that for whatever communication piece you’re working on.

If you’re Reporting back to donors on the impact of their gift, don’t also spend a bunch of time/space asking them to give again. Doing that is what makes donors complain that nonprofits are always asking for money.

If you’re Asking, just make a great case and Ask. Don’t spend 1/3 of your letter Thanking them, 1/3 telling them what you’ve been busy doing, and then tack on a request to send in a gift hidden at the end of your letter for the 20% of donors who read that far to find. Ask them to give a gift, make a great case for why they should, and then Ask them again!

Your donors are wonderful, compassionate, busy people. Make each communication about 1 thing. The clearer your message, the more people will understand and appreciate it.

Don’t let your nonprofit be “that guy” at a party – the one who just talks about himself. Most nonprofits don’t talk to their donors often enough. And when they do, they tend to talk more about themselves than talking about the donor or the beneficiaries. Here’s what you need to do if you really want to build better relationships with your donors:

1. Communicate frequently. Most donors read half or less of the communications you send.
2. Talk to your donors about things they care about. Your donor tends to care more about the beneficiaries and what her gift will do to help them than she cares about your organization and your methods.
3. Be sure to show your donors how their gifts made a difference. Don’t tell them that your program was successful, or how many people you helped, show them one person and tell them how their gift helped that person.

Do these three things and not only will you have better relationships with your donors, you’ll also have higher retention rates and you’ll raise more money.