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Fundraising Tuesday: Donors Give for the Wrong Reasons

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Heart has its reasons

My friend fretted, her hand tapping the table. “I’m going out with this great guy, and he seems to really love me, but….”

“But what?” I asked.

“But I’m not sure he really knows me. What if he’s in love for the wrong reasons?”

I shook my head in disbelief. My friend is smart, attractive, accomplished, warm, and loving. Chances are, this guy knows very well who she is. But if he doesn’t yet, he will…and it would be a tragic mistake to turn him away.

A tragic mistake I see nonprofits making all too often! Share on X

How to Make Your Donors Think Twice

How do nonprofits tell donors, “Don’t love me for the wrong reasons”? Here’s how you do it:

  • Don’t show any emotion in your appeal letters.
  • Don’t tell any stories.
  • Don’t show any pictures–much less, pictures that touch the donors’ hearts.
  • Throw statistics at them at every opportunity.
  • Talk to living, breathing people the same way you’d answer questions in a grant proposal.
  • At all cost, avoid finding out who your donors are and what they really want, and giving it to them. That would just be leading them on.

Your Donors Have Their Own Reasons to Give

Deciding to donate to a cause is an affair of the heart, not just of the head. Honor your donors’ good hearts. Don’t second-guess their motives.

Yes, of course, you should make it possible for donors to find out all the details about you. Make your financial statements public. Give evidence of your impact. If you have a “theory of change,” put it out there, on a back page of your website.

But not in your newsletter, and not in your fundraising appeals!

When you communicate with your donors, it’s like going on a date with the one who loves you. Don’t worry about reasons. “The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing.” (Pascal)

 

5 Lessons You Can Learn from Children’s Books

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Books aimed at children have a lot to teach us too. It all depends who we are and what we wish to learn.

Are you a nonprofit organization? 

Find out what stories you should be telling. Can Your Nonprofit Tell a Story to Save Its Life? 

Learn how to tell those stories and suck the reader right in. What Nonprofits Can Learn from Peter Pan

Make sure your fundraising is not too hot, not too cold, just right. Goldilocks and the Three Nonprofits

Are you a marketer for either a business or a nonprofit?

Get inspired to make your audience feel the difference you can make in their lives. Putting On the Shoes: What Ray Bradbury Taught Me about Marketing

Are you a consultant, like me? Do you know what pleases your clients? Read:

What to Do When the Client Asks for the Moon

 

Now it’s your turn. What’s your favorite children’s book, and what have you learned from it about communicating?

 

 

TY Thursday: Thank Your Donors. You’ll Feel Better.

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grateful happyWe’ve been talking about the hows and whys of thanking your donors, every Thursday for three months. But we still haven’t mentioned the best reason to say “thank you.”

It will make you happy.

As reported in Inc. magazine, “A team of researchers out of Indiana University led by Prathik Kini recruited 43 subjects suffering from anxiety or depression. Half of this group were assigned a simple gratitude exercise — writing letters of thanks to people in their lives — and three months later all 43 underwent brain scans.”

The results?

The participants who’d completed the gratitude task months earlier not only reported feeling more gratefulness two weeks after the task than members of the control group, but also, months later, showed more gratitude-related brain activity in the scanner.

And their attitude of gratitude is linked with happiness, optimism, calmness, willpower, and other psychological benefits. Saying thank you is good for your mental health! Share on X

“Something as simple as writing down three things you’re grateful for every day for 21 days in a row significantly increases your level of optimism, and it holds for the next six months. The research is amazing,” Harvard researcher and author Shawn Achor told Inc.com.

Be good to yourself: say “thank you”

Writing thank-you letters is a way to express gratitude. We know donors want it. We know nonprofits benefitHappy grateful from it. And now, we know it’s a work task you can carry you that will actually be good for you.

So, why not try it? Write three thank-you letters every day for the next twenty-one days. You’ll be making your outlook brighter AND making donors feel appreciated!

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