The Two Times Smaller Orgs Get More Complaints

There are two times smaller organizations get more complaints:

• When they start to send out more fundraising. For instance, the organization sends out 4 appeals instead of their usual 2.
• When their fundraising starts to include more details about what life is like for the people they serve. For instance, the organization includes a description of how a person suffers before the organization helps them.

What makes this situation emotionally complex is that – in both these cases – the organization also raises more money.

When organizations send out more fundraising, they receive more complaints and they raise more money.

When organizations send out fundraising that clearly shares the “need” that the organization serves, they receive more complaints and they raise more money.

This is when organizations realize that “receiving more complaints” and “raising more money” are correlated. They almost always happen at the same time. There’s something about powerful fundraising that causes both more complaints and more gifts.

Then the organization realizes it has a choice. It can raise a lot more money (and do more of its mission work) and, in return, handle a complaint now and again.

Or it can change its fundraising so that no complaints are generated, and raise less money (and do less of its mission work).

Each organization gets to make its own choice.

Read the series:

1. Getting Used to Complaints
2. Outline for How to Respond to a Complaint
3. Not All Complaints are Equal
4. Natural, But Not Productive
5. The Two Times Smaller Orgs Get More Complaints (this post)
6. So. Many. Reasons. To. Complain.
7. The Harmful Big Assumption
8. Turning Complaints into Gifts
9. “Friendly Fire” — Complaints from Internal Audiences
10. Our Final Thoughts on Complaints