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Fundraising Tuesday: Introducing Your Nonprofit Organization

October 18, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

meetingnewpeopleYou’re at a party, and the host introduces you to someone you’ve never met  before. You smile. You say hello. Then comes the inevitable question,”So, what do you do?”

Cadence Turpin thinks that’s the wrong question. People are more than–and some times, very different from–what they do for a living.

For instance, her best friend Carolyn is a meeting planner. “Not many people understand meeting planning, nor do they know what to ask next when the ever so common ‘so what do you do?’ is posed.” So, the conversation stops. It’s awkward, isn’t it?

People at nonprofits feel the same way.

Not that many people understand the ins and outs of running a preschool program. Or helping borrowers work out bad credit, or providing scholarships to young artists…or the millions of other things that nonprofits “do.”

Honestly, not that many people want to know.

So, like Carolyn, we end up feeling stuck. “If they don’t find her work interesting enough, then she must not be very interesting.”

If people don’t want to hear about the nuts and bolts of our nonprofit work, we have nothing to talk about? We know that can’t be true. But what can we do about it?

A Better Way to Introduce Your Nonprofit

Cadence has found a better way. Instead of telling what her friends do, she tells why they matter to her.

I want people to know my friend Carolyn is amazing at her job, but more than that, I want people to know the stuff inside her that makes her a great friend. The stuff that makes you want to stand by her at a party, in hopes that her thoughtful observations and quick wit might rub off on you.

So, here’s a challenge for you: Can you find ways to make the organization where you work matter to someone who has never heard of it before? Can you make that agency sound like the best friend you’d love to introduce, and that everybody would love to be introduced to?

If you can, you may have just found your next new donor!

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TY Thursday: Who Gets Your Special Thanks?

October 13, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Love triangle

Which should you love best?

If you’re going to go out of your way to thank a donor fabulously, creatively, as many times and as many ways as you can, which donor should it be?

Do you single out the person who gives you the most money, or the person who gives most loyally over the years?

Let me tell you two stories to help you decide.

The Sudden Passion

The receptionist at the anti-poverty agency where I worked brought me the day’s mail. I opened a handful of reply envelopes from our most recent fundraising appeal. Then I gasped. A woman who had never given us a penny before had sent in a check for $1,000!

For our little nonprofit, $1,000 was a fortune. It was ten times the amount of the average donor’s gift. And it was the first time that Jean had donated. We had great hopes for the future.

As far as I know, we did all the right things to let Jean feel the #donorlove. We

  • Sent her a thank-you letter with a personal note from the Executive Director, the same day we received her donation
  • Followed it up with a voicemail
  • Listed her in our newsletter and annual report
  • Invited her to special events

Yet we never heard from Jean again. I still don’t know why. Perhaps she meant to give to an organization in town with a similar name, and she was too embarrassed to tell us she’d made a mistake? Or perhaps we’d touched her heart just that one time, and the morning after, she realized she loved some other organization better?

I’m not sorry we had our brief moment of passion with Jean. But I’m glad we didn’t run away with her and forget about the donors waiting at home.

The Love of a Lifetime

John was a client of our agency. He couldn’t give much at a time–certainly not $1,000! But he had volunteered or served on the Board for twenty-five years.

Whenever we sent an appeal letter, he gave what he could. And when we had our twenty-fifth anniversary gala, John went around town (walking with a cane) and solicited gifts from local businesses. Back at his subsidized elderly housing, he went door to door and asked his neighbors to donate.

Over a lifetime, John raised $1,000 many times over.

Because John was shy, we couldn’t applaud him in public the way we would have liked. We sent him thank-yous and listed his donations, but we never toasted him or sent him gifts.

At Board meetings, however, we thanked him and held him up as an example. And our agency went above and beyond to make sure he  (and later, his daughter) would keep his housing and benefits, even when he was hospitalized for months at a time. That was another way of saying thanks.

Do You Have to Choose?

Ideally, of course, you’d thank every donor fervently and frequently. Aim to do that! If you have to choose, however, pick your most loyal donors at every level.

Don’t just thank your major donors. If your newsletters are full of pictures of people who pay for whole buildings or programs, then your average donor will think, “This organization doesn’t need people like me.”

Show the love to the people who, over time, show the most love to you.

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Fundraising Tuesday: What’s Your Campaign Story?

October 11, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

campaign biographyThere’s an election going on, and your nonprofit organization is one of the candidates.

You’re competing for volunteer time.  You’re competing for donor money.  Everyone in your community can choose from a slate of good causes and “cast their vote”–for you, for a similar organization, or for a completely different cause that also appeals to them.

You need name recognition to win.  No one will vote for you if they don’t know who you are.  But how do you make sure people hear about you, and remember your name?

Tell stories.

Tell stories that dramatize the problem you’re trying to solve.  Tell stories that give people hope that there are solutions.  Give them a chance to be the hero of the story by giving you their time or money.

When they choose between you and other organizations, make sure they know your name.  Then you’ll have a chance to get their vote.

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