Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: Honor Your Donors

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thanks in actionI recently received a thank-you that reminded me of what I’d given, warmed my heart, and made it clear that the people saying “thanks” really knew me. When was the last time you made your donors feel that way?

My day job, of course, is consulting to nonprofit organizations to help them win the loyalty of their donors.

But my longest-running job (although just a few hours each week) is tutoring Jewish students for their bar or bat mitzvah.

It’s an intense relationship. The students, usually at a tender time in their lives, take on a complex task: reading from the Torah and prophets, and leading services, in Hebrew. They study for eight months to a year, and at the beginning, they’re not really sure they will succeed.

Bar mitzvah studyI get the joy of coaching them along and instilling confidence. On the day they actually celebrate becoming full-fledged members of the Jewish community, I’m there to prompt, but mostly to kvell (beam with pride).

Just a week ago–months after they had originally sent me a thank-you note–the family of one my students made a donation in my honor to RAICES, an organization that supports asylum seekers at the southwest border of the U.S.

They knew that I consider the way the U.S. treats these would-be legal immigrants shameful, and that my car wears the bumper sticker Never Again Means Close the Camps.

They made me smile, and they nearly made me cry. And they made me wonder: how many nonprofits are doing as well at saying “thank you” as the Newman/Nedell family?

  • Are you saying “thank you” just once, in a formal letter after receiving a gift? Or do you have a plan for thanking your donors throughout the year?
  • Is your thank-you impersonal, the same for every donor except for name and address? Or does your thank-you tell your donor you know what they care about (which is probably the reason they gave to you in the first place)?
  • Does your thank-you tell your donor, “I see you, and we are on the same side”?
You want to build a relationship of loyalty with your donors. Are you honoring them with your loyalty first? Share on X

The Heroic Work of Maintaining What We Have

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Ms. MarvelWe live in a world where innovation and disruption are considered heroic.

That’s certainly the culture of corporate enterprise. Nonprofits talk the talk, too. Even those nonprofits that warn against Bright Shiny Object Syndrome worry that if they miss the next new trend–whether it’s recurring giving or artificial intelligence–someday, they’ll regret it.

But are we worried about the right things?

Should we first be worried about making sure that we are doing, is working? (And perhaps, making it work a little better?) Share on X

Scheduled maintenance for your nonprofit

looking at websiteI recently reviewed the website of a nonprofit organization. In some ways, it was gorgeous. The photos were attractive. The design performed just as well on a mobile device as on a desktop computer.

But–all the external links were broken.

The program descriptions were two years out of date.

And the financial report (which is crucial for closing the deal with institutional funders and sophisticated donors) was a PDF dating back to 2014!

Innovation and disruption are not going to help this nonprofit.

This organization should not be launching a new crowdfunding campaign, or adding a chatbot to its Facebook page. It should be focusing on its website–which has been a basic tool for nonprofit communications and fundraising since the turn of this century.

It should also be coming up with a system for making sure its website stays useful to donors and prospects. Whose responsibility will that be? How often must they check links and update documents? When will the nonprofit plan to redesign the site?

You wouldn’t wait to take your car into the shop until the engine seized up. You take it in for regularly scheduled maintenance and checkups. Please, do the same with your nonprofit. Like Ms. Marvel or Superman, your quiet work will hide your real identity. You’re a hero.

Where to improve first

John Haydon

John Haydon

Just like your website, in 2019 a Facebook page is a basic tool of your organization. But even in 2019, I stand by what I wrote on John Haydon’s blog in 2013: there are lots of things even more basic than Facebook.

Your nonprofit should not be using Facebook. Here are ten reasons why.

1. Your website sucks

A Facebook page should make people head to your website to see more about you. But if your website is unattractive, hard to read or navigate, and impossible to view on a mobile device, then you don’t want to send people there.

2. You don’t have a blog

So they came to your website once. Why should they come back? A blog gives people a different reason to visit, each time you post. If you’re not blogging, why are you bothering with Facebook?

3. You post stuff that nobody wants to see

Who cares how many people your nonprofit served or what awards your Executive Director won? If you’re not telling people how their donations made a tangible difference in one person’s life, you’re talking to yourself.

4. You don’t capture people’s email addresses

Remember, you don’t own Facebook. Zuckerberg does. You own the email addresses that people have given you permission to use. First, make sure that you have ways to get that permission.

5. You don’t have something concrete to offer

Why would people give you their email addresses when they get so much email already? Only because you give them something even more valuable in exchange: information they’re eager to have. What can you offer?

6. Your contact management system is broken

When you get those emails, are you still storing them in Excel? Or are you recording them in a database that lets you send each person the message that matters to them, and keep track of your relationship with them?

7. Your customer service sends the wrong message

What you do speaks louder than what you post. Do you answer the phone, respond to voicemail and email, and greet walk-ins with courtesy and professionalism? Do they get the help they are seeking?

8. You don’t want to devote enough time

Heather Mansfield estimates that to participate effectively in just one social medium like Facebook, it takes seven hours a week. Are you trying to do it in an hour a week? Then you’re wasting that hour. Don’t bother.

9. You don’t want to spend any money

Facebook is making it harder and harder to reach even the people who already know you and like you without paying for the privilege. You don’t need megabucks, but have a budget for boosting your Page and your posts.

10. You don’t have a communications strategy

“Outreach,” “visibility,” and “awareness” are not good reasons to be on Facebook. Do you know who you’re trying to reach, for what purpose, and what they would do if you engaged with them successfully?

Small improvements, large results

Do these ten points sound like you? The good news is that with a little help, you can fix each and every one of them… and raise a lot of money as a result. Including on Facebook.

But see, these improvements are not bright shiny objects. They’re not innovation, and forget about disruption.

Old and improved beats new and improved nine times out of ten. Make sure you maintain and improve what your nonprofit does already. Share on X

Fundraising Tuesday: Can Your Nonprofit Do Better than a Drug Store?

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Pharmacy counterThe drug store where Rona and I get our prescriptions has terrible marketing. But is your nonprofit doing any better?

Our pharmacy gets all these things wrong:

  1. It keeps trying to get me to renew prescriptions long before I need them–when I still have weeks’ worth of pills on the shelf.
  2. It refuses to renew the prescription that Rona needs every day, for her health, until she’s almost out of pills.
  3. It ignores our dissatisfaction with the service we’re getting. Instead, it offers us the “opportunity” to order three months’ worth at a time.
  4. It prints out cash register receipts three feet long, with coupons for items we’ve just used and are unlikely to buy again before the coupon expires.

Rona and I are stuck with this pharmacy. Our health plan makes us use it. But your donors are not stuck with you!

Is Your Nonprofit Making the Same Mistakes?

Does your nonprofit ask me for another donation as soon as I’ve given you the first one? That’s like pushing me to order more pills than I need.

Sure, some people will give again within the first month or two. It’s worth asking once. But how hard would it be to find out–and remember–how often I give? (Especially if I’m a loyal donor who’s been giving for years!)

Does your nonprofit put your needs before your donors’ needs? Donors must know that their gift made a difference–and feel pride at identifying with your organization–if they’re going to give again.

If you only communicate with them when you’re asking them for money, you’re telling them “On our schedule, not yours. For our needs, not yours.”

Does your nonprofit ignore how satisfied or dissatisfied your donors are? (Do you even know?)

Every nonprofit should be trying to attract monthly donations–but every donor is not a monthly donor. The ones who are are not the biggest givers but the most regular. Don’t ask the person who’s decided to stop giving at all if they’re ready to give monthly!

Does your nonprofit send out too much paper, or too little?

Some donors want as many pages of news as my pharmacy prints coupons. Some toss the newsletters (and the coupons) in the recycling bin before reading them. Find out what your donors want.

 

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