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Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: Stop Annoying Donors. They’ll Thank You!

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pet peevesWhen people find out I consult to nonprofits, they tell me their pet peeves. Most of what’s annoying them is how we ask for money.

Thanking and Asking Again in the Same Letter

More than one friend has complained to me about the dreaded “thask”: the thank-you note combined with a new ask. “I just sent a donation, and here they are asking for more. It’s like they’re trying to tell me I gave too little the first time!”

I tell them that the numbers show a certain number of donors will give right away if you ask them again. That doesn’t impress my friends. They want nonprofits to know that a certain number of donors will get that “thank-you, now give more” message and never give again.

You know we have a tremendous problem with donor renewal in our sector. The chances are that two of three people who gave to you for the first time in 2015 won’t give again this year. Could the “thask” have something to do with it?

Claire Axelrad tells us:

An Abila Donor Engagement Study found that 21% of donors say they were never thanked for their gift. Some weren’t, but my hunch is that a lot were. They just didn’t perceive what you sent them to be a thank you. Too often thank you letters sound exactly like fundraising letters.

What Donors Want You to Do Instead

Now, when you thank donors, you do want to ask them to take a next step. The “call to action” can be to join your email list, or follow you on Facebook, or even come to an event.

And you do want to give them more evidence that they made a good decision when they made their first donation. Show the impact they made.

But what you don’t want to do is ask right away for more money.  And what you really don’t want to do is what my friend who tweets under the name @thewhinydonor describes as her pet peeve:

The first thank you letter arrived today. And it contained an enormous reply envelope, bigger than the letter. COMPLETE TURNOFF.

When the first thing I see when I open your acknowledgement is a big reply envelope asking for more, my warm glow of giving is obliterated.

How are your favorite charities annoying you (and probably not even realizing it)? What’s your pet peeve?

Fundraising Tuesday: Your Appeal Letter is a Joke

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telling a jokeCan you tell a joke?  Then you can write a fundraising appeal.

I don’t mean to say that what you write has to be funny.  Although, God knows we could use some humor sometimes!  But jokes have the basic ingredients you need to make people want to read what you write, and then, to remember what they’ve read.

Jokes invite the audience in. 

Whether it’s “knock-knock,” or “What did the one say to the other?”, or “A priest, a minister, and rabbi walk into a bar,” jokes get the listeners involved. You can see them lean forward, wondering what comes next.

The next time you write a fundraising appeal, look for the opening line that makes your reader want to read the next line.

Jokes have a structure.

Human beings like to know where they’re going and how long it’s going to take to get there.  People waiting for a bus or subway are much more content to wait if they see a sign that says “Next train to Alewife Station, 10 minutes.”  When they’re listening to a joke and they hear that something happens three times, for instance, they know something unusual is about to occur and they’re waiting to find out what it is.

The next time you write, look for the structure that tells your reader when the main idea is going to arrive.

Jokes have a punch line.

Sometimes people even forget how the story went, but they remember “That’s what she said,” or “I’ll have what she’s having.”  It’s the payoff.  It leads to a reaction: laughter, or a groan, or both…but an emotional response.

The next time you write, figure out the response you want to provoke first.  Then, tell the story that will elicit that response from your readers.

 

A priest, a minister, and a rabbi went into a bar, and the bartender said, “What is this, some kind of a joke?”

I’ll bet you remember that one.

TY Thursday: How to Turn a First-Time Gift into a Renewal

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For many nonprofit organizations, December is a time to worry. Will you see checks in the mail (or clicks on the Donate button) from the donors who gave last year? You have a right to worry. In the U.S., only 30% of first-time donors to nonprofit organizations renew their first-time gift the next year.

You read that right! If you’re like most nonprofit organizations, more than 2 out of every 3 new donors will give to you once and then forget all about you.

You can curse your fickle donors. You can rip the month of December out of your wall calendar, or scroll past it on your computer. Or…

You can turn that first-time gift into a renewal.  In one week. This week.

Here’s how.

The One-Week Impact Report

A massive earthquake killed thousands in Nepal and India on April 25, 2015. The massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal with devastating force less than 50 miles from the capital, Kathmandu.

Nepali girl near Kathmandu

Nepali girl near Kathmandu

My wife and I know people who come from Nepal, and the images of the devastation touched our hearts. So, within two days of the earthquake, we made a small donation of $50 through the international charity Global Giving.

We received a report from Global Giving about what they were doing with the donation and what difference it made.  Not in December. They emailed us on May 6–one week after our first-time gift!

Global Giving made a convincing case that they knew the organizations on the ground that could use the money well. They told us what those organizations were doing. For instance:

The Nepal Youth Foundation is providing emergency supplies to hospitals, sheltering and caring for people discharged from hospitals who cannot return home, particularly women and children.

Global Giving didn’t stop there. “You can click on the link to any of the individual projects to see the updates they’ll post about how they are using the funds,” they told us. “We have also posted a link to frequently asked questions on the page.”

All this for a $50 donation. All this, in the first week.

When Rona and I give again to Nepali relief, why wouldn’t we channel our donation through Global Giving?

A First-Time Gift Deserves More Than a Thank You

Now, I know a lot of nonprofit organizations are still struggling to send a timely, personal thank-you letter. And if you’re one of them, absolutely, do all you can to make that happen. But that’s the minimum that donors expect.

As fundraising consultant Alan Sharpe says:

The secret to getting donations for your non-profit is to give donors what they want. People give to causes to make a difference in others’ lives. And what donors really want to know is how their donation will help people.

Are you telling donors the impact of their first-time gift? Start! Do it this week…and continue throughout 2017, to make next December even better.

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