Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: What Your Nonprofit Can Learn from My Guest Bloggers

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How is your nonprofit like a guest blogger on Communicate?

Answer: You both have to put your audience before yourself.

How Guest Bloggers Succeed on Communicate

Amy Hufford

Amy Hufford

Laura Rhodes

Laura Rhodes

Tripp Braden

Tripp Braden

 

 

 

 

I don’t let just anybody post on the Communicate blog. It doesn’t matter how big a name they are or how long they’ve been in the field. What matters is that they serve readers like you: small- to medium-sized nonprofits that want loyal friends and donors.

Amy Hufford, Laura Rhodes, Tripp Braden, Brock Klinger, James Gilmer, Sybil Stershic, Tripp Braden, Rebecca Thompson, Lisa Dunn…all of these writers took the time and effort to do three things:

  1. Send tailored posts. Guest bloggers didn’t just grab something they’d written and chuck it my way. They came up with a topic and an approach that would interest my readers.
  2. Do the homework. They looked at other posts on the blog, figured out what you, the readers, like to see, and they wrote something like that.
  3. Be unselfish. Yes, of course we all know that the guest bloggers would like you to look at their websites too, and possibly to buy their products or services. But they thought about you first.

This Thank-You Thursday, I want to thank my guest bloggers. But more than that, I want to suggest you, the nonprofit organization, can follow their example.

Write For Your Donors, Not Just Yourself

This sounds obvious, but too often we forget: your donor has something valuable to give you.

I can only give space on this blog. Your donors give your nonprofit its lifeblood, the money it needs to keep running.

Or they don’t. Your donors can say no.

What do you need to do in order for them to say yes? The same things that bloggers do when they want me to say yes to their guest posts!

  1. Send tailored communications to your donors. Write first and most often about what they want to know–not what you want to tell them.
  2. Know your audience. Do research to find out who they are and what they care about. Segment your list so that you’re sending messages about housing to people who care about homelessness and messages about food banks to people who care about hunger.
  3. Make the donor the hero.
    • “We do great work” is selfish.
    • “We do great work with your help” is selfishness in a thin disguise.
    • “You do great work. Keep on doing it with your donation” is putting your audience before yourself–and paradoxically, that is what will benefit your nonprofit the most!

Learn from my guest bloggers: what they say, but more important, what they do. Put others first if you want them to help you.

TY Thursday: How to Find AND KEEP Major Donors

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A guest post by Laura Rhodes of Third Sector Consulting

Laura Rhodes

Laura Rhodes

Major gift donors.

Every nonprofit wants them. But only the big nonprofits have them, right? Wrong!

I hear you saying, “We’re a small nonprofit. We don’t have big donors.” But you do.

Every Nonprofit Has Major Donors

When you hear the words “major gift,” what comes to mind? Six- or seven-figure donations?

Guess what? There’s not an industry-defined dollar amount for a major gift or a major donor. Instead, YOUR major donors are the individuals who give the most to your organization each year.

That means, for some organizations, a major donor might be someone who gives $500. Or $5,000. Or $50,000. Maybe even more.

MarketSmart did research on this very topic, asking How Big Is the Average Major Gift?  They found that most nonprofits define a major gift as one between $1,000 and $2,500. For some nonprofits in the study, the average major gift was less than $1,000. And for a very few, fortunate ones, the average major gift exceeded $1 million.

While the dollar amount of a “major gift” will vary from organization to organization, every nonprofit has them.

And that means YOU have major donors, too.

How Can You Identify Your Major Donors?

One size doesn’t fit all, when it comes to identifying a major gift or major donor.

Recently, an organization told me, “Any gift above $250 gets our attention.” For them, donors who give $250 and above are their major donors.

There are a few good ways to identify YOUR major donors. Start by thinking about your current donors and their past giving history.

  • What’s your highest gift to date? Clearly, that’s a major donor. Other high-dollar gifts? Yes, those are your major donors, too.
  • Another way to identify your top donors is to print a list of your donors and gift amounts. Look for natural clusters of gift amounts. Gifts in those top tier(s) are from your major donors.
  • Or, here’s a simple, more analytical approach. Print out your donor list, in descending order by gift size. Count the number of donors, then draw a line to mark the top 10%. Those are your major donors.

Why Do Major Donors Matter to Your Nonprofit?

I love nonprofitsYour major donors are the people who love you and your organization. And they show it by making larger than average donations.

You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule. It says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your activities.  In fundraising, it’s really a 90/10 rule. Studies show that 90% of your revenue comes from just 10% of your donors.

Let me say that again: 10% of your donors are responsible for 90% of your funding!

That’s why you need to know who your major donors are. Your top 10%.
You want to treat your major donors like the VIPs they are, so they’ll keep giving to your organization.

How Can You Keep Your Major Donors?

One way you can keep your major donors is by thanking this special group of donors very personally.

In a previous post for Thank You Thursday, I shared how A Personal Letter is Better Than a Personalized One.  In that post, I also encouraged you to handwrite as many personal notes as possible.

So start now. Grab a stack of note cards. Get your list of major donors. And get ready to write.

Start at the top of your major donor list. Handwrite one or two thank you notes a day, until you’ve written each of your major donors.

In each personal note, tell your donor how much her gift was appreciated. Tell her what her gift has accomplished. Tell her what meaningful changes have occurred as a result of her past support.

Follow this thank-and-report formula, and you’ll be well on your way to keeping more of your donors.

And when you keep more of your donors, you’ll raise more money for your nonprofit.

LIKE WHAT YOU READ HERE?

Check out these posts from the Let’s Talk Nonprofit blog:

How Your Thank You Letters Can Put More Money in the Bank

3 P’s of Better Thank Yous

3 Easy Ways to Show #DonorLove

P.S. If you liked this article, you can receive posts like these each month in your email. Topics include fundraising, grant writing, board development, and best practices.
Sign up today, join the conversation, and Let’s Talk Nonprofit.

 

Fundraising Tuesday: Should Your Nonprofit Have Members?

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Amy Hufford

Amy Hufford

A guest post by Amy Hufford of MembershipWorks

In a time where people spend more time isolated in front of a screen than interacting with other humans, isn’t the idea of membership a more interesting and compelling proposition?

Just about every type of nonprofit can have members. Think about public radio and television stations. You might consider their contributors to be donors, but calling them members adds meaning.

Memberships add value for donors

Some public television and radio stations have made donors feel more like members by holding events.

  • KLRU, Austin’s public television station, has created premium member events such as Downton Abbey watch parties.
  • They also offer member only access to PBS’s Passport product, which is essentially Netflix for public television programming.
  • NPR affiliate KUT has created a leadership circle sustaining membership that offers members special event invitations, tours and the opportunity to meet famous personalities.

But even if a nonprofit does not host in-person gatherings of members, the suggestion of community is psychologically attractive. It’s a benefit to the member!

What’s in it for you: increased revenue, stable budget

There are real financial reasons for your nonprofit to have members. Membership is understood to be something that is renewed on a regular basis, implying more of an ongoing relationship than a donation suggests.

Consider a donor inspired by your mission who wants to donate $50. But what if you presented an ongoing option, such as a $10 per month sustaining membership that is promoted as “the cost of one lunch each month.” That offer will collect $120 over the course of a year (and even more, if the member doesn’t disable their monthly auto-recurring credit card payments the next year).

This is also a win for budgeting, as these types of memberships can help the organization better predict monthly fundraising income.

How to move toward memberships

  • Be sure your donation platform offers membership management software.
    Why do you need specific software to handle memberships? You’ll need the ability to:

      • Automatically bill members on an recurring basis
      • Classify members in different ways to keep track of their involvement
      • Set up multiple past due notices and failed payment reminders in your member CRM, to account for today’s distracted members. (The notices should mention the things that the members will miss out on if they don’t renew!)
  • Check to be sure your payment gateway is set up to accept auto-recurring payments.
    For example, PayPal Pro requires an add on to handle automated member billing. Stripe handles recurring payments by default.
  • Create membership levels or add-ons.
    You may be surprised by the number of people who pick a higher level, given the chance! Consider how you are going to create value for each level of membership. The benefits package should justify the increased cost of higher priced memberships.
  • Promote your new membership levels
    To help them feel special, your current donors and volunteers should be offered the opportunity to join as a member before you promote membership to others.

      • You can even offer a discount code to encourage them to join.
      • Spread the word about memberships on your website, enewsletter and social media.
      • Consider holding an event to either kickoff your membership drive or to reward those who join by a certain date.

The magic of membership

magicHere’s a success story that might encourage you to invite donors to become members.

One neighborhood association had a PayPal button for dues payments on their website, but no one was automatically reminded to renew. The association was running out of money. After they set up membership software with automatic recurring credit card payments, the association quickly doubled its renewal rate.

The board of directors were also shocked to see that many members opted to make significant additional recurring donations beyond their dues payment. These donations made it possible for the group to prevent commercial development from negatively impacting the neighborhood. Making the shift from single donations to membership payments with add-ons possibly saved the association from extinction.

More ways to create value for members

We’ve already talked about member events, but some donors may not enjoy the crowds. They may want another way to feel like they belong. Here are six ways you can give them that happy feeling.

  1. Member only content – Your membership plugin can help you restrict content to pages that only members have access to. For instance: create a list of businesses that offer discounts to your members–and only members get to see the list.
  2. Member directory – Offer your business members the chance to be listed in a member directory that is promoted to non-business members or available to the public on your website.
  3. Member event discounts – Tying your events calendar to your membership database through your membership software will allow you to offer special ticket prices just for members.
  4. Early event registration – Many event registration systems will allow you to have a private event page that isn’t listed on your main calendar until you activate it. Use this private link within an email message to your members. Tell them that registration is only open to them until a certain date when it becomes available to the general public.
  5. Member only emails or data – MLS systems and Realtor associations often send out or make available valuable statistics about market trends to their members. Consider if you have data that would be attractive for your members to receive regularly. If you don’t have stats to share, consider conducting a survey of members or those you serve, so that you do have information to share. Or perhaps there is a thought leader in your space who would be willing to write a guest blog post or newsletter column that is only available for your members?
  6. Member only listserves or social media groups – Popular platforms for groups include LinkedIn and Facebook. Trade associations have used listserves to share information between members about job openings and best practices. But first consider:
    • What type of information will be meaningful to share among members in this group? Will it support your mission or feel like a stretch in terms of relating to your nonprofit’s goals?
    • Are you on a solid footing with your members and donors before starting a group? (It could unintentionally become a platform for members to complain about you.)
    • How much staff time will be spent moderating such a group?

Do you have other ideas about creating value for your members or reasons to offer memberships? Let us know in the comments.

Amy Hufford is a Technologist at MembershipWorks. She has worked in membership technology for more than 20 years and has experience building membership websites with a variety of membership software platforms.

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