They Didn’t Believe It

I’ve written many times about how an organization’s beliefs about fundraising play a major role in how much money they can raise. 

Case in point:

“The ‘stories an organization tells itself’ about fundraising have a greater effect on how much money they raise than the stories they tell their donors.”

Well, I have a new one for you.

I just returned from the fantastic Elevate conference, which is focused on helping nonprofits use their events to raise more money and cause more connections. 

While at the conference, I had a conversation with a group of nonprofits who were extremely skeptical that they could raise money using the mail and email.  It was clear that these smaller, event-driven organizations did not believe that it was possible to communicate powerfully enough in a letter or email to inspire a person to give.

Here was my advice to them.  Don’t worry about the power of a letter or email to communicate your work.  Instead, believe in the power of how much a donor cares about what your organization is trying to accomplish. 

The donor’s desire to do something to help is so strong that a letter or email is all many donors need to send in a gift.

In the mail and email, you don’t need to convince donors.  You need to believe that they already care, then give them a timely invitation to help fund compelling work that’s happening soon.