Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: Thank Your Donors by Showing What You Share

by Leave a Comment

cycling togetherWhen you think about creative ways of thanking your donors, take a lesson from my wife. Rona runs a real estate company, not a nonprofit–but she understands how to make friends for her organization. She stresses what they share.

A lot of Rona’s home buyers care about housing for all. That means Rona supports groups like the Somerville Homeless Coalition. She truly cares, but her gift lets her clients know she cares, as they do.

A large number of Rona’s clients are cyclists. That means Rona posts news about bike trails and biking to work on her company’s Facebook page. It’s not strictly about real estate? That doesn’t matter. It shows clients that she understands them and appreciates the things they appreciate.

Your nonprofit can do this too. And you should.

What Your Donors Love, Besides You

There’s a saying, “People give to people.” That can mean they give to help people (not organizations). True. It can mean they give because a person they know asks them to give. Also true.

But the most important thing it means is that your donors have to know, like, and trust you if they are ever going to become to your loyal supporters.

They have to think, “That organization includes a lot of people like me.”

So, your job is to find out what counts as “people like me”–and show that they are right. Your organization does include people who care about more than just one thing. You and the donors have a lot in common. Share that!

Get to Know and Love Your Donors

How do you actually find out what your donors care about? A few good ways:

  1. Asking them. You can do this whenever you have a conversation with a donor and make a note of it in your files. Or, you can make a more organized effort, using surveys and focus groups. Do it gradually if you have to, but keep on asking.
  2. Social listening. Set up Google alerts for the internet, and set up lists and use tools on social media, to find out what your donors talk about a lot, and what they love and hate.
  3. Analytics. You can use the built-in tools on Facebook or Twitter to learn a lot about your audience in general, and that will give you some clues about your prospects and current donors, too.

Once You Know Your Donors, Share that You Care

With the results of your conversations, surveys, focus groups, searches, social listening, and analytics in hand, you probably know a lot about your donors! And now you can do what Rona does.

Example: Are you a healthcare organization with a lot of supporters who care about the environment?

  • Put an ad in the program of the local environmental group’s event.
  • Find ways of working together to make the community a healthier place to live.
  • Let your donors know you did, because it matters to you too.

And in your newsletter, email, blog, and/or social media, you can not only publicize your donations to and collaborations with environmental groups. You can regularly include articles about environment and health.

Showing your donors what you share is another way of thanking them for their gift…and making it more likely that they will give again.

Fundraising Tuesday: A Well Crafted Email Raises Money

by Leave a Comment

Greater Boston Food BankYou’ve seen a lot of tips about writing the ideal appeal letter on this blog. That’s because direct mail still works. Even when donors go online to give, often what moved them to make that donation was a letter in the mail. But what about email?

Email works too: if you craft it with the same care you’d give to a letter.

Here’s a great example from the Greater Boston Food Bank. This is the website version, but I received it, addressed to me personally, in my inbox. What makes this message work?

  • The subject line grabs you from the start. “Who is Ashley,” you want to know, “and what is her story?”
  • The graphic gives you the reason for giving and the call to action–even if you never read any further.
  • The content turns a statistic into a story. You get the gist of the tale and its emotional impact in the brief amount of time you’re likely to spend on any single email.
  • The “Give Now” button and links in the text make it easy for you to give–and the landing page uses the identical graphic so you’re sure you’re in the right place to make your donation.

What’s the best fundraising email you’ve written? Send me a copy–I may feature it on Communicate!

TY Thursday: Your Board Will Thank You for Doing This

by Leave a Comment

ty-quote1

Over here, you’ve got a pile of donations. You sent each of these donors a thank-you letter, on letterhead, signed by your Executive Director, within a week of when you received their gift. But you haven’t been in touch with any of them personally since then.

And over there, you have your Board of Directors. Several of them have said, “I love this organization. I’ll do anything for this organization–except ask for money. I’m just no good at asking.”

Do you want to make your donors feel flattered and your directors feel useful, all at the same time? Then ask your Board of Directors to start saying thanks.

Donors and Your Board, A Match Made in Heaven

Every thank-you matters, but an expression of gratitude from a Board member to a donor matters more. No matter how sincere you are, when you, a staff person at a nonprofit, says thanks, the thought crosses the donor’s mind: “I’m paying your salary.” When a member of your Board of Directors is the one thanking the donor, they have these advantages:

  • They are volunteers. They’re regular people who care about the organization enough to give their precious time.
  • They are donors themselves. When Board members make a monetary contribution, of whatever size is significant for them, they can talk with fellow donors about why the organization matters “to both of us.”
  • They are leaders. It’s impressive when someone who holds a position of authority is the one making the call. It makes the donor feel valued and honored.

Getting thanked by a Board member helps donors think, “I made a good decision when I gave.” But it helps your Board of Directors, too. It confirms their own commitment to the organization…and it gives them valuable firsthand information about how their organization is perceived.

5 Ways a Board Member Can Say “Thank You!”

Thanks in many languages

  1. Add a personal note to a thank-you letter. Especially if the donor knows the Board member, but even if they haven’t met…yet!
  2. Follow up with a phone call. Penelope Burk found that donors who got a call within 24 hours gave 39% more than those who simply received a thank-you letter…and check out Gail Perry’s story of how a thank-you call made her boyfriend a major donor for life.
  3. Throw a party. Maybe one of your Board members loves to entertain. Your staff have been meaning to hold a donor appreciation event for ages but never find the time. Ask the happy host or hostess to have the party at their place. (They will still need help inviting the donors to come, but it’s less work, for more return, than if staff do it.)
  4. Send a gift. Who’s the shop-a-holic on your Board? Ask her to pick out a small but thoughtful gift personalized to your donor, wrap it, and mail it with a note. Your donor will be surprised (and maybe make a new friend for life).
  5. Tell the world. Someone on your Board is on social media all day. Chances are you can figure out who it is–if you don’t know already! Ask that Facebook fanatic to “friend” a donor and then sing his or her praises online. Not only will you be thanking the donor all over again, you’ll be making the donor’s friends ask, “What’s that organization that loves my friend like that?”

If you ask a member of your Board of Directors to thank donors by doing something he or she likes to do anyway, you will have a happy Board, a happy donor base…and a happy result the next time you ask for money!

Yes, I’d like weekly email from Communicate!

Get more advice

Yes! Please send me tips from Communicate! Consulting.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.