Tag: appeals

Weird but True (and Important)

Steven  |  Ask
Strange but true.

Here’s something weird but true:

Your Staff and Board receive more of your fundraising communications than your donors do.

That might not seem possible, but here’s how it works:

The Staff and Board of a nonprofit tend to open and read everything the organization sends out… but donors don’t. 

Let me give you an example, and then I’ll share why this is so important.

For example, if you send out a fundraising email, almost everyone on your Staff and Board notice and look at it.  But if your email open rate is 30%, then 70% of the people on your email list did not see the email.

So your Staff and Board received an email, but effectively 70% of your donors did not.

And if you send out an appeal letter, everyone on your staff and Board will notice and take look at it.  But maybe 50%* of donors opened the letter.

So your Staff and Board received an appeal letter, but about half of your donors didn’t.

Play this out over the course of a year and your Staff and Board have received a lot more of your fundraising than your donors have.  Put another way, the Staff and Board understand how many pieces the organization is sending to donors, but they don’t understand how few pieces the donors are receiving.

Consequently, most nonprofits have an over-inflated sense of how much they are communicating with their donors. 

The Consequence

When Staff and Board don’t know this truth, they often inadvertently keep an organization smaller than it could be.

The Staff and Board base their advice on “how much communication is enough” on their own inflated perception, NOT on their donors’ lived experience.

Consequently, nonprofit Staff and Boards consistantly advocate for less communication than the organization could be sending out, which results in less money raised from individual donors.

At Better Fundraising, our general rule of thumb is that most individual donors see a little less than half of the fundraising an organization sends out.  Keep that in mind as you build annual plans and campaigns, and you’ll communicate more effectively and raise more money.

And if you’re at a smaller nonprofit where your Staff or Board are handicapping your fundraising because of a mistaken understanding of “how much we’re communicating with our donors,” please share this post with them.

Getting Staff and Board to recognize the situation, and then moving past the stage where “my Board/boss won’t let us send out any more fundraising because s/he thinks we send too much,” is a step made by every organization with a thriving individual donor fundraising program.

***

* This is an educated guess.  The published data on direct mail open rates is self-reported data, which is notoriously inaccurate.    

***

Hey, I’m giving a free webinar next Wednesday on how to make your most effective annual plan ever.

There are two main things I’m going to teach:

  1. How to know the times when your donors are most likely to give you a gift, so that you can plan your asks during those times
  2. How to tweak your “communication mix” so that you get more response from the same number of letters and emails

The free webinar is next Wednesday, January 29, at 2pm Eastern/11am Pacific.

There’s limited availability so that we can have a conversation.  This is NOT me talking for 55 minutes.  There will be lots of time for questions.

For more info, here’s the link:

https://betterfundraising.com/annual-planning-webinar/

I hope to see you next Wednesday!

Need an emergency fundraising email because of the LA fires?

Steven  |  Ask
Fires.

We’re replacing today’s blog post with a special announcement:

If you’re at a small nonprofit, and the fires in LA have caused you to need extra/emergency funds, we’d like to help: we will write an emergency fundraising email for you.

<< If you don’t work in/around LA, but know someone who does, please feel free to forward this post to them. >>

Watching the fires unfold this week has been heartbreaking.  We work with people who have lost their homes. 

Knowing how the nonprofit community jumps into action at times like this, there are hundreds (thousands?) of smaller nonprofits in LA who could use some emergency cash.  And they don’t have the time or expertise or budget to get out an emergency email. 

So we’d like to help.

If you’re at a small nonprofit and would like us to write a free emergency fundraising email for you, here’s what to do:

  1. Send an email to info@betterfundraising.com
  2. Give us a brief snapshot of what’s happening for your beneficiaries or organization
  3. Tell us if your organization is too small to afford to do this on your own, or if you’ve just never really known how

We’ll reply with a few detail questions about your exact situation so we know what to say in the email.  Once you send us the answers, we’ll write an emergency email for you within a day or two.  We’ll also send a handful of tips that will help you with emergency fundraising in general.

We made this offer after hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall, and it was a joy to meaningfully help the organizations who took us up on our offer. 

We are inspired by all that nonprofits in the LA area are doing right now.  This is the way we can help, and just like you, we’ll help as much as we can.

If you or your organization need an email, please get in touch!

Approach to Appeals

Steven  |  Ask
Appeal.

This month we’re sharing the ideas and strategies that had an outsized positive impact on the nonprofits we serve. 

Today’s idea is that there’s an approach to appeals (appeal letters and e-appeals) that, in our experience, tend to work the best.

Here’s the simplest summary of what the performance data leads us to believe:

  • The most successful appeals tend to be about the help that your beneficiaries or cause needs now, and how the donor’s gift will provide that help.
  • The less successful appeals tend to be about help that the organization has already provided, and request support for the organization.

When organizations change their appeals to be about the help that’s needed, and how the donor’s gift will help provide it, two things happen.  First, each appeal raises more money.  Second, the organization retains more donors year-over year.

Put another way, they start raising more money in the short term and in the long term.

Of course, appeals like this are only one element in an effective donor communications plan.  And they take a lot of thought to create.  For instance, appeals like this only describe part of an organization’s work.  You have to choose which part of your work to talk about, and you have to talk about it in an accessible way.

But if you create appeals that follow this approach, you’ll start raising more money immediately.

***

If you’re interested in what it would look like to have Better Fundraising write and design your fundraising, fill out the “get in touch” form on this page.  We’ll reach out to schedule a chat. 

And if you fill out the form before the end of the month, we’ll give you our 2024 pricing for all of 2025, a savings of $3,500.

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.

Matte, Not Glossy

Steven  |  Ask
Paper choices.

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.

A Procrastinator’s Guide to Year-End Fundraising

Steven  |  Year-End

Just getting started with your year-end fundraising?

Here’s a quick list – my best tips – for what to do with your remaining weeks before the end of the year.

Make a Plan to Start Earlier Next year

First, the hard news: if you’re just starting now, you’ve left money on the table.  You could have raised more.

That is a harsh truth.  Many people won’t like to hear it.  But it’s true.  And for the moment, don’t worry about it.  But right now, go set a calendar reminder to start earlier next year.

Seriously, set a reminder.

I’ll wait.

It’s that important.

The organizations that start their year-end fundraising earlier tend to raise more money.

What to Do Now

Do as many of the following things if you can.  And here’s the order I’d prioritize them in:

Identify and contact your major donors who have not yet given a gift this year.

Don’t do what most nonprofits do, which is hope that their majors give a gift before the end of the year.

If you haven’t already, identify exactly which of your major donors have not given gifts.  Then reach out to each of them to ask for a special year-end gift to help your beneficiaries (not to help your organization).  Do it in person if you can; phone is the next best way.  Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

Write and send your year-end letter.

Send out a direct letter that powerfully asks donors to give a special gift before the end of the year.  Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

If you use a mail house and it’s going to take too long to get a letter produced, here’s what to do:

Write and prep your year-end emails.

Be sure to have at least three emails prepped for the last three days of the year.  Remember that you do not have to reinvent the wheel: the emails should be VERY similar to your letter, and the emails should be very similar to each other.  Repetition is the most effective tool you didn’t know you have!

Tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference!

Update your website to ask for a year-end gift.

Make an update so that the first thing users see on your home page is a clear call-to-action and a large “donate” button.

And…  wait for it…  tell them their gift is needed now, and tell them their gift will make a difference.  You will raise more money than you expect.

That’s it! Do as many of those as you can, starting from the top of the list.

Do a great job on each one before doing anything else.

And if you can only do three things, do the top three.  If you can only do two, do the top two.  You get it.

Remember: year-end is the easiest time of the year to raise more money than you expect!

This post was originally published on December 4, 2018.

Who Are You Writing To?

Steven  |  Ask
Who writing to

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.

Shortfall Story

Steven  |  Ask
Shortall story.

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  |  Ask
Share shortfall.

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:

  1. Why sharing a shortfall seems like an obvious bad idea
  2. The results when nonprofits run shortfall campaigns
  3. 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.