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TY Thursday: Nonprofits, Thank by Offering Help

March 31, 2016 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Help from my friendsIn the nonprofit world, we talk about our donors as “friends of” our organization. But when they hit a rough patch, do we act like friends to them?

Think about what you do for your personal friends when they fall sick, or lose their jobs, or have a death in the family. Do you:

  • Send a card, or flowers?
  • Cook a meal and drop it by?
  • Do something nice for their kids?
  • Refer them to good doctors, or employers, or other helping professionals?

There’s no reason our nonprofits can’t do that too.

How Nonprofits Can Offer Help

Sending a get-well card to a donor who is seriously ill is a gesture that’s always appreciated. Make sure to have people sign it personally–as many people who know the donor as possible!

Sending a sympathy card also matters, a lot. I can tell you that from personal experience. When my brother died in October 2014, clients and colleagues reached out to my wife and me, and every one of them made us feel surrounded by love.

(Be careful with flowers, however. Some people are allergic, and it’s not a Jewish custom. Sending a food tray might be better. Ask someone who knows the mourners well–and find out if they keep kosher, or halal, or eat only vegetarian or vegan food, too. You want to give them something that actually helps!)

If you have a program for children, then it’s a natural to offer the children of the donor’s family a free pass, or transportation, to do something fun for them. Adults need time to themselves sometimes, and that’s a gift you can give the whole family.

And you or a partner organization may be able to give your donor legal advice, or healthcare, or assistance accessing the legal, health, housing, or food benefits they need. The anti-poverty agency where I used to work did just that for a longtime donor and for a friend of a Board member.

What Not to Do

When a longtime friend of your organization is having a hard time, that’s the wrong time to ask them for money. If common decency isn’t enough reason for you to check your campaign calendars and take people recovering from surgery or people in mourning off your list for once, think of this: do you want people to think of their loved one’s death every time they think of you?

If the donor is really a “friend of” your organization, then treat him or her like a friend.

 

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TY Thursday: Nonprofits, Who Do You Love?

March 24, 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: 3 Generations Nonprofits Want to Reach

March 22, 2016 by Dennis Fischman 1 Comment

father daughter granddaughter

How does your nonprofit engage with all three?

I don’t go to many nonprofit events. I get invited to too many: I can’t attend all of them.

So, this spring I chose to go to The Welcome Project’s Yum: A Taste of Immigrant City and skip half a dozen other events held by groups I care about. I’m a Baby Boomer.

Lauren doesn’t go to many nonprofit events either. But she doesn’t pick and choose. She just doesn’t go. She’s a member of Generation X.

And meet Katie, a Millennial. She doesn’t go to galas…and “what’s a check?” But Katie will volunteer (especially along with her friends), and she will raise money for you online (by asking her friends).

How do you get all three generations to feel engaged and excited about your cause, and support your organization? Here’s how:

Approach us as we’d like to be approached.

For the details, read my guest post on Tripp Braden’s blog, The Three Generations Nonprofits Want to Reach!

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