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Fundraising Tuesday: If You Do Only One Thing in 2021…

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do one thing

Back when I was in college, a professor told our class, “If you read only one thing this semester, read this….”

He said it every week–about a different book!

Here's the one thing your nonprofit should do in 2021 to raise more money. Click To Tweet

If You Do Only One Thing, Record Donations

I hope you had a great month of December, and the end-of-year donations poured in day after day. But…

Did you just deposit those checks in the bank and forget about them?

Did you just mark those online gifts in your bookkeeping system, so your accountant knows who gave what, but nobody else does?

Aha. Perhaps you made a list of donations, or even put them into a spreadsheet. Congratulations! Except–how easy will it be for you to find out:

  • who gave money in 2019 and not in 2020?
  • who gave more this year and who gave less?
  • who gave once a year, once a quarter, once a month?
  • who moved (or changed their email address) since the last time they made a donation?

Knowing these data will allow you to figure out which lapsed donors you need to try to win back, and which current donors might be candidates to give major gifts (or leave you money in their wills). It will keep you from sending out communications that never reach the people you want to feel appreciated and important.

Knowing these data will make more money for your nonprofit.

If you only do one thing in 2021, start recording your donor information in a donor database or CRM. Find one that works like you think, then use your new technology to make your relationship with your donors more personal. And by the way…

If You Do Only One Thing, Get to Know Your Donors

Good fundraising is relationship fundraising.

Yes, you might occasionally have a windfall. Your issue moves to the center of public attention and a bunch of people give money to you in the heat of the moment.

But for the long term, those people need to feel seen.

Donors don’t want to be the ATM on the wall you hit up when you’re short of cash. They don’t want to be one “dear friend” out of hundreds or thousands you address exactly the same way.

Donors want to know that you know them and value them. They are giving because they want to think of themselves as good people–and you can help them see themselves that way.

If you only do one thing in 2021, find out as much as you can about your donors. Don’t just send them a thank-you note–not even the ideal thank-you letter. That’s a one-way communication. Beyond the letter:

  1. Pick up the phone and call them. Ask them: what are they interested in? Why did they choose to give? What would they like to see happen as a result? (And record all that in your database!)
  2. Send them surveys, a couple of questions at a time, by email.
  3. Research your donors online. Find out what you can about their lives and interests outside of your organization.
  4. Take a look at your followers on social media. Which of them resemble your donors the most? (Those are your best prospects to become new donors!)

Getting to know your donors will let you segment your list into different audiences who care about different things. Recognizing your different audiences will let you send the right messages to the right people at the right time. And that means…

If You Do Only One Thing, Communicate!

Maybe you have a friend or a family member like this: you never see them. You never hear from them. Then one day, your phone rings, or your doorbell, and it’s them. You groan inside, because the only reason they ever show up is to ask for money.

You don’t want to be “that guy” to your donors. You need to show up for them between the times you ask.

If you have them in your database, you can be sure to send the mail or the email to the right address. And if you know which of your audiences they belong to, you can send them content that matters to them personally.

But even in a more broadcast format, like a newsletter or a social media platform, you can share stories, photos, facts, how-to’s, and other content that makes your donors (and prospective donors) glad to hear from you, every time.

If you only do one thing in 2021, communicate more often with your supporters. Aim for a newsletter every month, an email every week, a Facebook post every day, a tweet multiple times a day.

Does that sound like a lot of work? Yes, it is. But:

a) I can find out who your audiences are and what they want, by doing the research for you.

b) I can help you make the right decision about a database that will work for you and make your communications more powerful.

c) I can teach you to turn one story, photo, news article, or quotable quote into multiple ways to reach out and touch your donors.

d) I can show you ways to get the right kind of content delivered to your email inbox every day, so you can re-package it for your audiences.

If you do only one thing different in 2021, make that 'one thing' getting the help you deserve. Click To Tweet

 

 

Fundraising Tuesday: The Money is in the Mail

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Cat waiting for mailAre you thinking of giving up on fundraising by mail? Don’t.

Direct mail is still the most productive way of asking for donations to your nonprofit organization. If you give up on direct mail, it’s like throwing money in the trash.

Sending a good fundraising appeal by mail beats asking for money by email, by text, or by social media. In fact, a lot of the time, when a generous donor gives to your organization online, they saw your appeal letter first!

Why wouldn’t you send your appeal by mail?

  • “It costs too much.” Not when the return on your investment is so great! Those stamps and envelopes will more than pay for themselves when a larger number of donors send you a larger amount of money.
  • “We don’t know how to write a good letter.” You can get all the advice you need to write the ideal appeal letter from this blog. Or, you can pay me to do it for you!
  • “Our mailing list is out of date.” No time like the present to update it! And if your list is on a database or constituent relationship management system (CRM), the tool may check the National Change of Address database for you.
  • “We don’t trust the post office.” In 2020, that is a real concern, but it’s all the more reason to send out your mail early.

The only real problem that might prevent you from using the mail is this: “We haven’t collected our supporters’ mailing addresses.” Now, there’s a problem, and one you can start to fix right away.

Ask yourself, What do we have to share, or what can we produce to share, that will be so valuable to the donors that they will be willing to give us their mailing addresses? Click To Tweet

Is it a fact sheet about the issue they care most about?

Is it a bumper sticker (design and printing donated by another of your supporters)?

Is it artwork by children in your program? Or free admission to an online program? Is it a gift certificate for a store that supports your mission and likes to make its support known, to reach potential customers?

Give the audience something that makes them glad to share their address. Then, send them a newsletter. Follow it up with an appeal letter, and follow that up by email, social media, and phone.

When they give, make sure you do more than send an auto-acknowledgment, more than an email welcome series.

Send them the ideal thank-you letter. In the mail.

Fundraising Tuesday: Get the Name Right

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keep calm what's my nameHow do you make sure a donor will actually read your appeal letter? You must get their name right.

After the envelope and the postscript–sometimes, even before the P.S.–the first thing the donor looks at is their name in the salutation. If the letter is sent to “Dear Friend,” that increases the chances that the donor will throw it away unread.

And if you get the name wrong, you may never get a gift from them again!

Over a lifetime, that could be hundreds or thousands of dollars that donor wanted to give your nonprofit–but ended up giving to some other organization. One that said I know you with the very first words of the appeal letter.

Why “Dear Friend” Loses Donors

Maybe the Southern Law Policy Center can get away with “Dear Friend.” They have a huge mailing list and an established brand.

Maybe the Arthritis Foundation can do it. They have a built-in constituency of people with arthritis pain.

But most organizations are not like those big national concerns. Some are national but very focused on one issue, like About Face: Veterans Against the War. Some are regional, like the Appalachian Community Fund. And many, many of us work at community-based organizations, focused on one city or town.

People who give to your smaller nonprofit identify with your work. They give because it’s their way of making a difference. In return, they expect you to know them and what they care about.

This chance to build a relationship with your donors is the superpower of the smaller nonprofit! But  if your small nonprofit goes with “Dear Friend,” you are giving away your biggest advantage in fundraising: your ability to add a personal touch. Make the size of your list work for you.

How Do You Know What to Call the Donor?

Spell the name rightYou might have chosen “Dear Friend” in the past because there are so many ways of calling the donor by the wrong name.

True, you don’t want to:

  • Mail to Dennis Fischman when you should be asking Rona and Dennis Fischman.
  • Call someone “Mary” when she only answers to “Mrs. Kimble.”
  • Call someone “Mrs. Kimble” when that person goes by Ms., or Mx., or Mary.
  • Mail to Chang Sho Huang and say “Dear Chang,” only to find out you’ve just called them by their family’s name (like writing to me, “Dear Fischman”!)

The solution to this in the short term might be to use the full name: “Dear Dennis and Rona Fischman.” As soon as you can, however, the best solution is to ask.

You could ask online donors immediately, on the post-donation page of your website that thanks them for their donations.

You could also ask them when you call them to thank them for their donations. Or in a donor survey.

The key is to ask–to record the answers–and then, to call them by the name they prefer.

How Do You Remember the Right Name?

Let’s face it, most of us are bad at remembering names.

On the personal level, there’s a theory that human beings are only capable of knowing 150 people and remembering how I know you and vice versa. On the organizational level, that’s the same number that’s recommended as the maximum a major gifts officer should have on their caseload.

Even if your Development Director has an exceptional memory for names, faces, and life stories, your organization will someday have the fortunate problem of getting too big for any one person to keep the data in their head.

That’s why you need a database.

Warning: Excel is not a database! 

Both my wife and I have received email from organizations we like and support that called us by the wrong name. In both cases, the “first name” data from one line of an Excel spreadsheet had been combined with the email address from another line.

There are many reasons why your nonprofit needs an actual database or constituency relationship management (CRM) system, but getting the names right is one of the most important.

If any of this sounds confusing, or if it sounds like too much work to do on your own, email me at [email protected] to set up a time to talk about whether you could use some consultant help. Because whatever else you do for donors, you must get the name right.

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