Tag: repetition

It Can Be Hard to Change Your Ideas about Fundraising

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Self-reflection.

I wrote a couple days ago about how smaller nonprofits must often create fundraising messages that they don’t prefer for their fundraising to be more successful.

Today, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that changing your ideas about fundraising can be emotionally difficult. 

For a Founder, or for someone who is passionate about their fundraising, it can be a very real struggle to try a fundraising message or strategy that doesn’t personally resonate. 

Let me share my own experience with this, in hopes that it’s helpful. 

Here’s the thing to know about me: I strongly prefer not to make mistakes.  In fact, I hate mistakes.  I fear being wrong.  I fear being judged.

My fear around avoidable mistakes has positive consequences – for instance, it made me a fantastic student.

But it also has negative consequences.  For instance, I’m occasionally a pain in the neck to work with.

So it was challenging for me when I learned that the easiest way for smaller nonprofits to raise more money is to send out more fundraising.

Wait, I thought, wouldn’t the best way be to make each piece of fundraising more perfect?  We’ll eliminate all the mistakes, get everything up to best-practices… wouldn’t that bring all the money in?

Nope.  I saw again and again that the nonprofits that grew their individual donor fundraising the fastest were seeing that “showing up regularly in donors’ lives” is more important than “showing up perfectly in donors’ lives.”

It didn’t seem possible that “sending more fundraising” could work.  It didn’t seem possible that the occasional typo or “wrong thing showing through the envelope window” could work.

But if I’m honest, the real conflict was with my personal preferences and fears.  I was thinking, If we have to move faster we’re going to make mistakes.  I don’t want to focus on the total number of pieces, I want each piece to be an un-critique-able jewel box of fundraising brilliance.  <<pounds podium>>  I’m a copywriter and a storyteller, dammit, not some cheap content machine! 

I’m poking fun at myself here, but my feelings of discomfort were real.

And you’ll smile at why my thinking on this issue eventually changed; I saw the strategy of “showing up regularly is more important than showing up perfectly” succeed so many times for so many organizations that eventually I realized I would be making a mistake if I didn’t change my thinking.  And you know I don’t like to make mistakes.  Sheesh.

Anyway.  I still don’t prefer the “showing up regularly is more important than showing up perfectly” approach to mass donor fundraising.  But I embrace it because it so obviously helps small nonprofits raise more money and increase donor retention rates.  And because making the world a better place is more important than my own personal preferences and fears.

So… acknowledging that we all have preferences and fears… and acknowledging that doing things in a non-preferred way can be difficult… is there anything about your organization’s fundraising that should be changed in order to raise more money and fund more work, even if you don’t prefer the change?

The Habit

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Habits

There’s a habit your organization can develop that will result in raising more money and keeping more of your donors each year.

It’s the habit of regularly using the mail and email to stay in relationship with your donors.

Here’s why the habit of regularly sending mail and email to your donors is so powerful…

The habit of regularly Asking your donors to do meaningful, powerful things with a gift through your organization results in more gifts. Donors in motion tend to stay in motion. Donors at rest tend to stay at rest.

The habit of regularly Reporting to your donors shows and tells them that their gifts make a difference. Donors who know their previous gift made a meaningful difference are more likely to give to you again than donors who don’t.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors always works better than “going dark” for weeks or months at a time.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors via letters and emails is more effective than Social.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors always works better than sending nothing.

Getting in the habit of regularly sending out mail and email, paying attention to the results, always works better than any other approach.

It’s a habit you must develop

First, you must get past the idea that mailing your donors more than a couple times a year will somehow result in the mythical “donor fatigue.” If you need help with that, look here. Or here.

Then you have to realize that each piece you send out is not precious. Each piece you send out is an overwhelmingly positive incident that raises money, keeps you in touch with your donors, and is a learning opportunity.

Then you just have to practice. You need repetition. Sending out mail and email is like any other skill; you get better with practice.

Show me an organization that has developed a habit of regularly mailing and emailing its donors and I’ll show you an organization that has deeper relationships with its donors and keeps more of its donors every year.

This post was originally published on January 7, 2021.

Take More Steps

Steven Screen  |  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.

Inconvenient and Inefficient

Steven Screen  |  Report
Inconvenient.

We all want more people to just show up at our nonprofit, love what we do, and become donors for life. 

Yet we all have “the donors who need to be convinced.”  The donor with a complaint who, after a real conversation, gives their biggest gift ever. The Foundation that just doesn’t get it… but once convinced, becomes your biggest fan.

And we know those donors make a huge difference to the bottom line.

It’s nicer when it’s easy.  It’s not convenient to stop what you’re doing to talk to someone with a complaint or questions.  It’s not efficient to email the foundation for the eighth time.

But both are worth it.  Because what we’re really here for are the long-term results of the “easy & fun” and the “inconvenient & inefficient.”  Both are part of the deal for organizations that want to maximize their impact.

Making Fundraising is Like Making Pancakes

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Pancakes.

You know how when you start making pancakes, the first couple of ‘em aren’t quite right?

Either the batter’s too thick, or the pan isn’t hot enough, or that little brown ring around the edge of the pancake that you like doesn’t happen.

The point is, you need to make a couple before you get everything dialed in, and then pancakes come out the way you want.

Your fundraising is the same way.

If you’re only sending a couple pieces of fundraising a year, there’s almost no chance they come out the way you want them to.  It’s been so long since you made the last one that you just don’t have everything dialed in. It’d be like making one pancake every week.

Contrast that to the rhythm of consistently making & sending fundraising.  Plus looking at the results to see what’s working best. And then getting that “sense” of what’s going to work and what isn’t.

Just like with making pancakes, it’s when you get in a rhythm that the magic happens.

Fundraising to Individual Donors at Its Simplest

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Keep it simple.

In our experience, effective fundraising to individual donors comes down to two things:

#1 — Sharing why the work of your organization is needed.  What is it that’s going on in the world today that needs to be fixed?  Who is hurting that needs help?  What could we be doing better if only there were more support?

Share this and donors remember why your work is so important.

#2 — Sharing with donors the impact of their previous giving.  What change did the donor help make?  What’s better now because of their giving?

Do this and donors feel like their gift to your organization made a difference.

When an E.D. wonders why the fundraising isn’t working so well, the first thing to do is look to see whether the fundraising comms are effectively communicating these two ideas.

When a fundraising plan or fundraising communications are not working well, it’s usually because these two ideas have been crowded out by information about the organization itself.

But if you build your communications plan to share these ideas, multiple times per year, you’ll raise more money than you would ever expect.

The success of the simplicity will astound you.

The Habit

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Habits

There’s a habit your organization can develop that will result in raising more money and keeping more of your donors each year.

It’s the habit of regularly using the mail and email to stay in relationship with your donors.

Here’s why the habit of regularly sending mail and email to your donors is so powerful…

The habit of regularly Asking your donors to do meaningful, powerful things with a gift through your organization results in more gifts. Donors in motion tend to stay in motion. Donors at rest tend to stay at rest.

The habit of regularly Reporting to your donors shows and tells them that their gifts make a difference. Donors who know their previous gift made a meaningful difference are more likely to give to you again than donors who don’t.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors always works better than “going dark” for weeks or months at a time.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors via letters and emails is more effective than Social.

The habit of regularly contacting your donors always works better than sending nothing.

Getting in the habit of regularly sending out mail and email, paying attention to the results, always works better than any other approach.

It’s a habit you must develop

First, you must get past the idea that mailing your donors more than a couple times a year will somehow result in the mythical “donor fatigue.” If you need help with that, look here. Or here.

Then you have to realize that each piece you send out is not precious. Each piece you send out is an overwhelmingly positive incident that raises money, keeps you in touch with your donors, and is a learning opportunity.

Then you just have to practice. You need repetition. Sending out mail and email is like any other skill; you get better with practice.

Show me an organization that has developed a habit of regularly mailing and emailing its donors and I’ll show you an organization that has deeper relationships with its donors and keeps more of its donors every year.

This post was originally published on January 7, 2021.

Less is Less

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
Less is Less

Most organizations would agree that “Less is less” when it comes to fundraising.

If you ask less, you’ll raise less.

But the converse is also true: if you ask more, you’ll raise more.

If your organization believes that “less is less,” but doesn’t believe that “more is more,” you’ve placed a boundary around the generosity of your donors.

It’s worth asking how that boundary came to be.

Most organizations (and the people working in them) are afraid of being rejected when asking for money. So they set the boundary out of fear.

But like most boundaries that are placed out of fear, they are pretty limiting. The boundary around your donors’ generosity limits how much they will give to your organization, and how much money you can raise.

If you can remove your boundary – and embrace the truth of “more is more” – you’ll unlock your donors’ generosity and you’ll do more good.

The Long Cut

Steven Screen  |  Repeat
improve

“Ship your work. Get feedback. Improve it. Repeat.”

This lesson comes from the Tech and Art worlds, but it applies perfectly to fundraising.

Every time you send out a piece of fundraising, you’ve shipped your work. Celebrate it.

Then you get feedback in opens, click-throughs, # of gifts, response rate, etc. Measure it.

Then you ask, “What could we do to get more opens, click-throughs, etc.?” Improve it.

Then you keep it up. Because when you repeat the cycle, you get the “compound interest” of ever-improving results.

Ship your work. Get feedback. Improve it. Repeat.

It’s not sexy. But it’s a priceless way to serve your beneficiaries or cause.