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Donor Communications Training: Speaking with One Voice

October 13, 2020 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

choir in one voice

You know a great chorus when you hear it. Just think of the background chorus of your favorite musical group, or the power of a well-practiced holiday chorale.

You even know a great chorus when you see it – live, on television, or YouTube – even when the sound is turned off.

A great chorus sounds like one voice. A great chorus looks like a single organism, swaying with the music. If you look closely, even their mouths look synchronized!

You know so much about what a great chorus looks like that when you hear a bad one, it stands out! Uncoordinated. Off-key. Ill-timed. What if the chorus and the lead singer were singing different songs? Disaster!

What if you rated your nonprofit communications like a chorus?

Would the chorus be fully in sync with the lead, providing the perfect backup and coordination of movement?

Or would the lead and the chorus be uncoordinated, enough for the audience to notice, where they would say “nice, but not really professional”?

Or would it be a communications collision, with each member of the chorus singing a different tune, and the lead trying to shout over the cacophony in a hopeless effort to be heard?

Why should you care? Here are two important reasons that nonprofits can’t afford to forget to sing with a single voice: Money and Mission.

Communication Leads to Money

Businesses know this intuitively: Communicating well with customers in advertising, whether it’s in print, social media, email, radio, television, or wherever they deliver their “buy now” message, leads to money.

In nonprofits, it’s not so straightforward.

In business, the consumer of the goods or services is usually the same one who provides the money to buy the goods or services. For nonprofits, this one “customer” becomes two.

In a typical nonprofit, the people served are different than those who pay. In most nonprofits, a “mission recipient,” whether you call that person a client, student, patient, or constituent, will not pay the full price of goods or services received.

Instead, the cost of your mission delivery is supplemented in whole or part by the second “customer” in the equation. The second entity is the one with the money, whether that’s a donor, a government source, an insurance company, or a grant-giving foundation.

If your message isn’t clear and straightforward, speaking to the needs of your funders, you won’t get the money you need to serve your mission.

This isn’t just your fundraiser’s job.

Whether they’re people, foundations, businesses, or government entities, they have connections into your organization. A foundation director might hear from their neighbor about how well their gift was received. However, perhaps a business owner never got a thank you note for donated products solicited by one of your program directors. These scenarios can play a huge role in the success of your fundraising efforts.

Well-coordinated communication puts your best foot forward, regardless of whether you’re there or not.

Communication Leads to Clients

As a nonprofit, you exist to solve a problem in your community, region, or world. If nobody thinks you can solve the problem, you fail, regardless of your balance sheet.

It starts with trust. People show up to use the services of organizations they trust. The key to trust is consistency – in actions and in words. It’s simple: does your program staff do what your communications say they do?

If you promise childcare from 7 AM to 7 PM, but the staff never gets to the work until 7:30, it doesn’t matter what your social media advertising says: you broke their trust.

If the executive director promises a pregnant mother that your newborn infant program will be ready by the time she delivers, and it doesn’t materialize for another year, you broke her trust.

All this brings us back to money and mission.

Money leads to mission. Without funding, you can’t have a mission. The mission leads to money. Without delivering a mission that people want, you’ll never get funded.

Donor Communications Training

Where does nonprofit training come in? Here are five suggestions:

  1. Start with addressing a common fear. In How to Blow Your Credibility as a Presenter, Guila Muir gives great advice on how to start a presentation and build confidence – so the audience can focus on the important message.
  2. Don’t forget about the design. From ideation to sketching and final product, Symone Fogg will guide you through her process of how ideas are brought to life in Strategy of Design.
  3. Your website counts, a lot. Check out 5 Facts: What Constituents Want from Nonprofit Websites.
  4. Humans learn from stories. Make sure you see 3 Ways to Get Better Results from Your Stories.
  5. And how about some humor? See these great nonprofit humor videos as examples of consistent, and inconsistent, communications.

You Can Learn to Sing with One Voice

Getting your nonprofit to sing with a single voice isn’t optional if you want to be a well-funded nonprofit with a popular mission.

It’s also not easy. Just like a chorus, you need regular practice and training on voicing your message and coordinating everyone’s moves. But there’s good news. It’s totally possible for you to do this, especially with the number of available resources made to help organizations just like yours.

 


Matt Hugg is an author and instructor in nonprofit management in the US and abroad. He is president and founder of Nonprofit.Courses (https://nonprofit.courses), an on-demand, eLearning educational resource for nonprofit leaders, staff, board members and volunteers, with hundreds of courses in nearly every aspect of nonprofit work. He’s the author of The Guide to Nonprofit Consulting, and Philanders Family Values, Fun Scenarios for Practical Fundraising Education for Boards, Staff and Volunteers, and a contributing author to The Healthcare Nonprofit: Keys to Effective Management.Matt Hugg is an author and instructor in nonprofit management in the US and abroad. He is president and founder of Nonprofit.Courses (https://nonprofit.courses), an on-demand, eLearning educational resource for nonprofit leaders, staff, board members and volunteers, with hundreds of courses in nearly every aspect of nonprofit work.

He’s the author of The Guide to Nonprofit Consulting, and Philanders Family Values, Fun Scenarios for Practical Fundraising Education for Boards, Staff and Volunteers, and a contributing author to The Healthcare Nonprofit: Keys to Effective Management.

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Donor Stewardship from a Distance: 3 Tips for Communicating

September 29, 2020 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Carl Diesling of DNL OmniMedia

How are you doing stewardship for your donors during Covid-19?

Loyal, supportive donors can see your organization through even the bleakest of crises. However, many nonprofits were simply not prepared with enough loyal donors to outlast the fundraising challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thankfully, it’s not too late to build those strong connections with your nonprofit’s donors. But, to do so, you’ll have to optimize your communications strategy.

At DNL OmniMedia, our team specializes in nonprofit marketing and technology consulting. From our experience working with nonprofits throughout this year, we’ve collected three tips that we’ve found valuable for mid-sized nonprofits looking to continue stewarding donors while social distancing:

  1. Communicate Regularly
  2. Use Multiple Channels
  3. Emphasize Impact

During times of uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to have strong donor stewardship tactics in place. Read on for our top three tips to stay in touch with your supporters.

1. Communicate Regularly

Take a close look at your nonprofit’s current communications strategy. Which dates do you have highlighted as key times to communicate? You likely highlighted the time leading up to key giving days, leading up to fundraising events, and the end of the year.

As a nonprofit communications director, you send out fundraising letters, coordinate event marketing, and follow up with thank-yous. However, if you’re only communicating around the dates when you have a big event going on, you’re missing out on key opportunities to connect!

Our first tip for stewarding donors from a distance is to communicate regularly throughout the crisis. Your donors shouldn’t just hear from you when you’re seeking something from them.

During times of crisis, the needs of your nonprofit and your response to the crisis change every day. Staying in touch during this fluidity is key to drawing supporters closer to your organization.

According to Dennis Fischman of Communicate! Consulting, some tips to stay in touch are:

  • Post regularly to your website and social media profiles.
  • Align your communications with the current events that your donors are interested in.
  • Tie your communications to direct action.

A few additional communications in the time between your main outreach efforts can go a long way.

2. Use Multiple Channels

In recent years, we’ve seen the fundraising landscape diversify. There is a decent chance your nonprofit is now seeking donations from five unique generations of givers— all the way from the Matures to Gen Z. Just as each may have different giving preferences, they will have unique communication preferences as well.

Our second tip is to use multiple communication channels to reach all of your donors.

By leveraging a variety of platforms, you’re more likely to reach a representative sample of your entire donor base. Consider using the following channels:

  • Website: This is often the first place a supporter seeks information about your nonprofit. In addition to providing giving information, share updates about your crisis response efforts and ways to connect (such as links to follow your organization on social media).
  • Direct Mail: Don’t discount the power of direct mail to reach supporters. According to Fundraising Letters, this is one of the most consistently effective ways to connect with a donor.
  • Social Networks: There’s a decent chance you have a wide age range of supporters connecting via social networks. This channel is particularly valuable for creating a two-way conversation with donors.
  • Mobile Apps: There are now mobile apps created to meet specific nonprofit needs, such as mobile advocacy apps. When it comes to communicating with convenience, mobile apps are a great tool to engage tech-savvy supporters.

Structuring your communications in this way is called multichannel marketing. When it comes to multichannel communications, be sure to create a comprehensive strategy where the channels work in sync, to structure messages to best fit the communication channel, and focus on the channels most popular with your audience.

With a multichannel communication strategy, you’re more likely to make multiple impressions on your supporters. As it can take up to 18-20 impressions to connect with a first-time supporter, multichannel efforts can be instrumental to successful stewardship during times of separation!

3. Emphasize Impact

When so much of the future feels out of anyone’s control, what your donors seek most is validation that the efforts they are taking are having a positive impact.

Our final tip is to emphasize your donors’ impact.

Donors give, both their time and resources, because they want to make a difference. This means that the best thank you, the one that will continue stewarding donors, will showcase donor impact.

Consider the following ways you can emphasize donor impact in your communications:

  • Sharing photos of volunteers giving their time on social media
  • Sending nonprofit email marketing communications with specific impact data
  • Sharing testimonials from constituents in blog posts on your website

The list can go on! But the key in each communication is to get specific. Let’s look at an example:

“In this year’s technology drive, you raised $500,000 to benefit elementary education. With this, X tablets were purchased for kindergarteners participating in distance learning this year.”

This isn’t a time to brag on the impact of your nonprofit! Highlight the direct correlation between the donors’ support and the impact toward your cause to make the message more personal and persuasive.

When you’re unable to host in-person events or meetings with major donors, you may struggle to steward donors into impactful, long-term support of your organization. With these tips, you’ll be communicating successfully despite the challenging circumstances.


Carl Diesing DNLCarl Diesing, Managing Director – Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with on-going web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals.

As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.

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TY Thursday: Thank Your Donors By Staying in Touch

August 6, 2020 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Which nonprofits are building stronger relationships with their donors during the coronavirus pandemic? I asked my Facebook friends for their opinions, and more than one mentioned Artisan’s Asylum.

artisan's asylum logo

A Website that Speaks to the Urgency of Now

Artisan’s Asylum is a non-profit makerspace devoted to the teaching, learning and practice of fabrication. That sounds like an in-group doesn’t it? But when you go to their website, the first thing you see is a pop-up that says:

Join Us On A 14-month Journey to #Amazing

Over the next fourteen months, Artisan’s Asylum will undergo a remarkable transformation. We invite you to join as we reflect on 10 years of service in Somerville, and look ahead to 25 years of service to the greater Boston region. Artisan’s will continue to produce PPE as long as our regional health care workers ask for them. We’ll redouble our effort to advance racial equity and diversity within the Asylum and the communities we serve. And we’ll complete a move to Allston-Brighton that will expand our physical presence and transform the way we work. Welcome to our journey.

Learn more…

That paragraph draws me right in. The language could be improved: it’s a little too much “we” and “us” for my taste, and not enough you. But look at those third and fourth sentences. If anyone is wondering how Artisan’s Asylum is responding to our twin crises of Covid-19 and racism, it’s right there.

And it takes a little more work, but you can find the details of how they are addressing them in the tabs at the top of the page, the ones marked with hashtags: #Refuge and #Covid-19.

Continue looking at the page and you see they are conducting online classes this summer–and using their blog to keep readers up to date on when and whether it will be safe to go back to the physical space again.

Social Media

The Artisans Asylum Twitter feed puts it verbal commitments into action. It shows members “making PPE [personal protective equipment] — and lots of it.”

On Twitter, the Asylum also shares resources for learning about antiracism. Its Facebook feed showcases the ways that computers can help people with autism become powerful contributors to society.

And on Instagram, besides its own classes, it advertises what some of its participants produce, like these t-shirts:

Uhuru t-shirts, Artisan's Asylum

What can you learn from Artisan’s Asylum?

  1. Post regularly.
  2. Post about what matters to people right now.
  3. Show how they can do something that matters by being a part of your organization.
  4. Be safe out there!

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