Tag: Partners

Treat Your Donors Like Partners (don’t just call them that)

Steven Screen  |  Thank
Partners.

Donor-centrism gets a lot of bad press these days.  (I even stay away from using the term sometimes because it can cause people to throw babies out with the bathwater.)

However, as Fundraisers and nonprofits, it’s still ethical and smart to honor an individual donor’s involvement in the work of a nonprofit.  And there are two main ways to do that:

  1. Write directly and clearly about their involvement.  In other words, don’t write only about the organization, the beneficiary, or the community.  Include the donor!  When you’re asking for support, tell the donor “your gift will help pay for _______.”  We’ve not inflated the donor into a “savior,” we’ve accurately described their involvement.
  2. Report back in a way the donor understands.  A person helping to fund your mission deserves to hear, in language and concepts that they don’t need a Master’s degree to understand quickly, how their gift made a difference.

If your donors really are your partners, treat them like partners. 

Because in any partner relationship – spouse, business partner, co-worker, whatever – sometimes you briefly put your partner’s needs above your own.  That’s all you’re doing here.

There’s no getting around the idea that from the standpoint of an individual donor, they aren’t “one of your donors,” you are one of their nonprofits.

When you talk to individual donors about their involvement, they are more likely to remain involved.

Your Nonprofit Is a Gift to Your Donors

Steven Screen  |  Thank
Thank

Your organization is a gift to your donors.

You help each donor to do good that they could not do by themselves.

Because your donor doesn’t have programs. She doesn’t have program staff. She can’t do all the things that you do.

Your donor has not organized her life – as your organization has – to help people as powerfully as you do. What a gift that you’ve created this organization for your donor to tap into!

You help each donor experience the joy of giving.

Remember, your donors LOVES giving. Gets a real joy from it. So when she makes a donation to your organization, she benefits, too!

Off the top of my head, remembered from peer-reviewed research I’ve read:

  1. Donors are physically healthier than non-donors.
  2. Donors feel more connected than non-donors.
  3. People who donate are more likely to earn more the following year than non-donors.

(I wish that more Fundraisers – and their bosses – remembered this more often. When you own the idea that donors love giving, it makes you approach fundraising differently, and causes you to raise more money.)

You are her partner.

As much as I rant against using the word “partner” … I think that most donors, if they really sat down and thought about it, would think of the charities they give to as their “partners.”

(But always remember, from her perspective, who is partnering with whom.)

And you know what? You are her partner. She’s able to do far more to make the world a better place with your organization in her life.

She’s on a quest to make the world a little better, and you are her needed partner on her quest.

So in the craziness of year-end fundraising, remember that your organization is a gift to each of your donors.

You’re helping each donor make the world a better place – and helping each donor be happier and healthier – one gift at a time.