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You can raise more money right away just by learning how to ask well.

The fundraising pros know that every time you Ask your donors you should have an “offer” – a summary of the need and how the donor can meet with with a gift.

Here are the 4 elements your offer(s) need to be most successful:

1. A problem that is easy to understand
2. A solution that is easy to understand
3. The cost of the solution seems like a good deal
4. Urgency or deadline to solving the problem

Every time you send out a letter, or have an event, or send an email, be sure those four elements are present and you’ll raise more money.

And remember, your fundraising offer will likely talk about only part of what your organization does, not everything you do or every program you run. If you find yourself adding lists of programs or explaining services or listing partner organizations, you’ll reducing your results.  Keep it simple!

Most organizations tend to think that ‘if donors know everything we do then they will be more likely to donate.’  It’s a mistake to think that way!  Countless tests have proven that you’ll raise less money if you constantly explain all that your organization does.

Here’s how to think about it; donors who understand one powerful part of what you do – and how their gift helps – will be more likely to donate.

The power of a good fundraising offer is that it asks your donors to focus on “one powerful part” instead of on everything that you do.  Plus, a good offer makes it clear what their gift does.

Create or refine your offer!  You’ll start raising more money immediately.  If you’d like help, get in touch with me @jimshapiro.

Have you built your fundraising plan for 2016 yet?

If not, now is the time. And the best place to start is to look back over 2015 and evaluate your fundraising effort. What worked and what didn’t?  Why or why not?

If you want more help building your 2016 fundraising plan, go watch this video right now. It short and will give you a simple approach to building an annual fundraising plan that raises more money every single year.

The video will also share with you one of the big secrets that most small- to medium-sized nonprofits don’t know; if you did something that worked really well last year, do it twice or three times this year.  It may feel to you like you can only do it once.  But if donors liked and contributed to it that’s a great sign that you can do more of it.

Here’s a suggestion to simplify your fundraising in 2016 . . .

Make sure every piece of donor communication is either an Ask, a Thank You, or a Report.

If the piece doesn’t do one of those things really well it probably isn’t worth sending. In fact, it’s most likely a waste of money because in fundraising if you’re trying to do two things at once you’re not doing either of them well.

Remember: donors are moving really fast, it’s rare that they give you more than a few seconds of their attention. So pick your ONE message for each piece. Make it big and prominent.

If you’re telling the donor that her gift had an amazing impact, start out with that and tell her why.

If you’re telling your donor that your beneficiaries need her help, start out with that and tell her why (and how her gift will help).

We’ve worked with hundreds of organizations and it really is that simple: the organizations that do the work to make each piece of donor communication an Ask, Thank, or Report raise far more money.

* Of course there are exceptions, like an invitation to an event. But the exceptions should be 10% or less of the total number of communications for most organizations.

This video will help you review your fundraising in 2015, then use the findings to raise more money in 2016. It’ll also share one of the secrets that the great big fundraising organizations know that you can use for your organization to raise more money this year – and save yourself a LOT of time.

Click here to watch the video.

Do you want to learn how to raise more money in 2016? The answer is pretty simple; Ask your donors to help your beneficiaries more often, and ask them for higher amounts than they gave last time.

I know you see every appeal letter, newsletter, receipt letter. So it FEELS like you are communicating a lot. But it’s not a lot to most donors who receive maybe 1 out of every 2 messages you send.

Consider this; not every email you send is opened, not every appeal letter you mail gets read. Even if you, your staff and your Board feel like you’re communicating too often, that doesn’t mean you are.

Many of your donors gave a gift in December, so they are primed and ready to help again right now! Give them a chance to help by either Reporting back to them what happened in the life of a beneficiary because of their gift, or Ask them to help again!

 

The more you communicate the more money you will raise.

If you want to be successful in 2016 you need to look in the rearview mirror.

After all, if you don’t know what worked for your organization in 2015 how will you know what to do this year?

One thing all nonprofits that grow year-over-year tend to have in common is that the track results. For every mailing they know how many were sent, what the cost was, how many gifts came back, what the net revenue was.

For every event they know the cost of the event, then number of people who attended, the amount raised, the average gift size, the number of new donors acquired.

Then they review the results, figure out where they could do better, and spend their fundraising budget accordingly. Fundraising data is the lifeblood of your future fundraising success.

If you didn’t track data in 2015, then now is the time to create systems for tracking your fundraising data in 2016. To see an example of a pro forma for tracking direct mail or email data, click here. Feel free to use this document or create something similar to meet all of your data tracking needs.

But the most important thing; track your results. Start as soon as you can.

 

As the year starts, we talked around the office about what our most successful clients had in common.

Of course, they took care of the basics by Asking, Thanking, and Reporting well. This helped them keep their donors and increased the amount of money they raised.

But the best-performing organizations also did something else; they focused on improving one or two big things throughout the year. This is a proven practice for any organization looking to raise more money year after year.

So here’s our question for you: what will you and your organization focus on improving? Here are a list of things we’ve seen really move the fundraising needle for organizations.

• Major donor retention and revenue
• Track fundraising results so you know what worked and what didn’t
• Increasing donor communications so that your organization is in front of your donors often enough
• Focusing on making your communications more donor-centric
• Reporting; really showing your donors what their gift accomplished
• Asking their donors more often; giving your donors more chances to help in specific ways.

We suggest you pick one or two of the above and develop a plan to be measurably better at them by the end of 2016.

If you really want to move your fundraising needle in 2016, we can help. Just email me at jim@betterfundraising.com.

Thank you. Thank you for your work this year to raise more money and to make the world a better place. You’ve helped your organization, and you’ve helped your donors live out their values and beliefs through their donations.

As the year ends, Ask with boldness and clarity. Then take a breather. Then get ready to Thank and Report your way to satisfied donors in 2016. They’re going to LOVE hearing what their gifts did!

It’s a gift to be a fundraiser. Good luck these next few days, and we’ll see you in 2016!

Jim & Steven