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6 Reasons Your Fundraisers May Be Underperforming

October 4, 2022 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post by Bonnie Meyer of Meyer Partners

If you’re pouring your heart and soul into raising money for your nonprofit’s cause, it can be frustrating when the amount of effort you put in doesn’t quite match the money raised. Fundraisers underperform from time to time, but sometimes trial and error through testing is the best way to learn what works for your nonprofit.

Keeping up with fundraising trends can be hard to manage, but it can also keep your fundraisers fresh and make sure they appeal to donors. In this article, we’ll cover some of the marketing faux pas that can keep your fundraisers from reaching their full potential, and how to alter your nonprofit marketing strategy to best suit your fundraiser and create a lucrative campaign.

Follow along to learn some of the most common reasons fundraisers underperform, and how to fix them!

1. You don’t have a compelling story

Your organization was founded to support a cause using your core values along the way. According to 360 MatchPro, 90% of millennial donors are motivated to give because of  a compelling mission rather than wanting to support a specific organization. People want to hear your “why” and learn about the driving force behind your organization and fundraisers.

If your fundraiser isn’t tied to a specific project or doesn’t incorporate your core values, then you could be missing out on engaging a crucial audience. Your audience wants to learn about your cause, the work you’re doing, and the people you’re helping. Without those details, your donation requests will feel much less urgent and compelling.

Each fundraiser should have a story to engage your audience and inspire donors to give to your cause. Here are some ways to incorporate storytelling into your fundraising:

  • Include imagery of your volunteers in your promotional materials.
  • Create a fundraiser tagline that highlights your mission.
  • Show the people or places you’ll be helping.
  • Explain how your nonprofit was inspired to aid your cause.

Tie your fundraiser to a concrete project or initiative to give supporters a better understanding of who or what they’re contributions will go toward. If your next fundraiser is just a general fundraiser for your organization, consider planning it around a holiday, giving day, or a themed day related to your cause. This can help you create a message for your campaign that is tied to a story rather than just your nonprofit. Look for days of celebration that could be related to your cause, such as Mother’s Day for a women’s shelter or Earth Day for a climate change nonprofit.

Whether you’re fundraising broadly for your nonprofit or creating a short-term campaign, it is critical to weave storytelling into your strategy. This can help inspire donors and relieve any questions they may have about where your funding goes.

2. Donors don’t understand where their contribution is going

People donate to feel like they are a part of supporting the cause they care about. If they can’t figure out exactly how your organization will use their gift, they may feel less motivated to contribute.

Be specific about current initiatives or projects that your donors’ contributions will go toward. This will give your donors confidence to give and make them feel like your nonprofit is efficient and capable. Follow up with donors after their contribution about how the fundraiser went and the next steps in your project to grow this confidence in your organization and inspire them to stay involved.

3. You don’t show appreciation

Fundraisers without subsequent appreciation campaigns can be discouraging for donors. Without showing how meaningful your donors are to you and your organization, donors may just feel like a cog in the wheel.

Reach out to them with personalized messages to make them feel seen and appreciated. Avoid sending robotic automated messages, as this can make donors feel less valued. Here are some ways to connect with donors on a human level:

  • Include donor names in the communications you send them.
  • Have leadership call mid-size and major donors to personally thank them.
  • Remind donors of how they’re helping your cause and initiatives.
  • Tell them a story about someone who was helped because of their contribution.
  • Follow up quickly after their first donation.
  • Send branded merchandise gifts.
  • Send annual report newsletters highlighting their contributions.

You can also show appreciation for your donors on your website and social media platforms by spotlighting specific donors or providing updates on your projects and programs.

Donors want to feel like they’re making a difference, so be sure to keep them updated on the outcome of the fundraisers they participated in, where the money went, and how it was used. Then, they’ll feel like an important part of the community and will be more likely to give again.

4. Your fundraiser isn’t easily shareable

When potential donors can’t share your campaign or don’t have enough information to spread the word about your fundraiser, your audience may shrink. Reaching out to current and recurring donors can be a great place to start, but if they can’t share their involvement, their networks will be slow to catch on.

People are often excited to share with friends and family about their donation and how they are helping a cause they care about. Think about reaching donors where they are. Try to use communication channels that naturally encourage sharing when promoting your fundraiser, like social media, email, and text messaging.

You can still use traditional communication channels like direct mail and phone calls, but make sure the cost of these methods doesn’t outweigh the funds raised from them.

5. You don’t steward all levels of donors

If your fundraisers are focused on too narrow of an audience, you’re likely missing out on reaching potential donors. Your fundraisers should appeal to a multifaceted audience of donors at every stage of the donor pyramid.

According to Meyer Partners, the donor pyramid has nine levels, ranging from prospective donors to lead donors at the top. To be sure your fundraisers are lucrative, you’ll need to steward donors at each level of the pyramid. This involves the process of recruiting donors, upselling them, and fostering major donor relationships.

Here are some benefits of stewarding different levels of the donor pyramid:

  • Prospective donors. Recruiting new donors means expanding your network of supporters and reaching new individuals who are energized about your cause.
  • Recurring donors. Encouraging existing donors to increase their gifts helps your organization grow financially and increase your donor engagement.
  • Major donors. Creating a healthy dialogue with major donors shows that you value their involvement and want to maintain a strong relationship.

You won’t know when donors may be ready to make the leap to the next level of the donor pyramid if you don’t reach out to them. Whether this is because they’ve developed a stronger affinity for your cause or because of a change in their circumstances that increased their giving capacity, be sure to steward at all levels.

6. You don’t stay up-to-date with trends

Picking arbitrary dates and seasons to host your fundraisers is ultimately a missed opportunity for an otherwise successful fundraiser. Because nonprofits are always in the midst of an active fundraiser or the planning stages of one, you have ample opportunity to learn from each fundraiser. Record and track data about donor engagement, recruitment, retention, and communication. Leverage this valuable information by creating reports and analyzing the data to find donor trends.

Here are some trends to look for in your donor data:

  • Times of the year when donors are more willing to give.
  • Events dates that had more guests attend.
  • Donor response rates on communication channels.
  • Donor retention and donor upsell rates.

In addition to donor trends, be sure to pay attention to the latest nonprofit fundraising trends. Some of the tried and true methods of fundraising have started to fall by the wayside to make room for more convenient or cost-effective methods like online fundraising and corporate gift matching. Make sure your fundraising platforms are efficient and cost effective to truly maximize the potential of your fundraiser.

Regardless of how much time you take to plan your fundraiser, nothing beats knowledge of the industry. Train your fundraising team to ensure they are adequately prepared to speak authoritatively on behalf of your organization and identify the best avenues for fundraising.


Bonnie Meyer head shotBonnie Meyer

Bonnie brings to her role at Meyer Partners more than 30 years of fundraising experience, with a special emphasis in multimedia approaches to new donor acquisition and development. Her expertise encompasses several facets of direct response fundraising, including copy writing and creative direction, market research, strategic planning, and comprehensive results analysis.

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A Nonprofit Doing Donor Communication Right

October 15, 2018 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

My wife and I have been proud of supporting MassCOSH for many years because they keep workers safe on the job. Now, I am proud of them because they’ve sent me two shining examples of how to do donor communication the right way.

Inform first, ask later. Click To Tweet

The Nonprofit, in the News

MassCOSH has a great program called Teens Lead @ Work. If an adult tells a state legislator that a workplace is unsafe, sometimes the legislator wonders if that adult has a hidden agenda.

Teens are straightforward and believable. When they speak up, their voices carry a lot of weight. Especially when they combine research with personal experience and make a passionate presentation, they can be the best advocates for a cause.

MassCOSH mailed me an article showing how fifteen-year-old Josh Ramirez and his fellow Teens Lead advocates are spreading the word at their schools and preventing teens from being killed at work. Attached to the article was a sticky note, saying simply, “We wanted to share this with you!”

No request for donations. Not even a reply envelope. This time, they’re giving something to me.

The Summer Intern, in the Story

Abigail Barton came to MassCOSH as an intern at the beginning of the summer. I know because she wrote and told me so.

Throughout the summer, I heard from Abigail in the mail: about the skills she was learning and about the values that working at the organization was solidifying within her.

I am so excited to see what the future holds, but I also know that I have a responsibility to fight for a future that’s fair and just. I don’t take that responsibility lightly.

Again, no “ask.” No appeal letter. But when MassCOSH sends its year-end appeal, I will remember Abigail. Wouldn’t you?

In fact, if the organization doesn’t mention her in its appeal letter, I’ll be very much surprised!

Donor Communication Done Right

Before you ask your donors for any money, first ask yourself: what have I shared with them? Did I let them know the impact of their gift? Did I make the donor the hero of the story?

If not, take a leaf from MassCOSH. Send your donors something they’ll value right now.

See how much of a difference it makes in December!

 

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How Fundraising Systems Can Help Small Non-Profits Do More with Less

February 5, 2018 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

We will get back to our series on great appeal letters next Tuesday. Today, think about fundraising systems with guest blogger Joe Garecht.

bandwidthWorking in development for a small non-profit can be tough.  Your organization is doing great work, and you’ve got lots of great ideas for raising more money… but there’s never enough time, staff, or money in the budget to do all of those things.

As a small non-profit, it is important that you honor the bandwidth of your organization.

“Bandwidth” is my term for the limited amount of time, money, and energy that your non-profit has to offer for development.  Every organization has a limited bandwidth… even large, national organizations that have 35 fundraisers on staff can’t focus on a plan that would require 50 fundraisers to implement.

Your non-profit has a limited amount of time and money to spend on fundraising, and that’s okay.  If you consistently try to spend more time, money, and energy on fundraising than what you have available, it will lead to burnout, excessive staff turnover, and a budget that is stretched razor thin.  So, honor your bandwidth.  Know what your resources are and develop a plan that can operate within the constraints of those resources.

There are lots of great ways to get more bang for your buck when it comes to those resources.  It is possible, with the right strategy, to get a higher return on investment for the time and money you spend on your fundraising programs.  In my experience, the best way to be able to do more with your limited resources is by building strong fundraising systems at your non-profit.

What is a Fundraising System?

When I talk about “fundraising systems” for your non-profit, I’m not talking about your donor database or any other technology that you use in fundraising.  Those systems can play a vital role in your fundraising program, but they’re not the type of systems we are talking about here.

Instead, I’m talking about donor fundraising systems: step-by-step processes for interacting with donors, building relationships with them, and asking them for money through things like personal meetings, appeal letters, events, and more.

Fundraising systems will help you do more, with less, because they help you avoid reinventing the wheel every time you deal with a new donor.  Instead of wondering how to cultivate a new prospect or follow-up from a stewardship event, you will have a system in place that you can use, with materials and scripts already prepared in advance.

While there are lots of different types of fundraising systems you can build at your non-profit, the most important are those that related directly to the donor life cycle: prospecting, cultivation, asking, and stewardship.  The systems you build should fit within the constraints of your non-profit’s fundraising bandwidth… meaning that you shouldn’t plan to do more than you really can in terms of budget, staff, time, and energy.

What Does a Good Fundraising System Look Like?

You may be wondering what a good fundraising system looks like.  Simply put, a good fundraising system is a path for your donors, based on where they are in the donor life cycle.  Your systems answer questions like:

  • What 2-4 ways are we going to find new prospects this year?
  • What 2-4 ways are we going to cultivate our prospects this year?
  • How are we going to ask donors for money this year?
  • What 2-4 ways are we going to steward our donors this year?

Notice that in the list above, you keep seeing the numbers “2-4.”  That’s important, because most small non-profits are trying to do too much when it comes to individual donor fundraising… and as a result, they aren’t doing any of those things well.

Instead of constantly adding new strategies for finding donors, cultivating, and asking them for money, focus on 2-4 ways to do each.  Then, commit your organization to executing on those 2-4 strategies to the best of your abilities this coming year.

Different Paths for Different Donors

In developing your fundraising systems, you’ll want to be sure to include different paths for your different donor segments.  For example, in your donor cultivation system, you may say that low-dollar donors will receive an e-mail newsletter once per month, and an invitation to your large summer cultivation picnic every year.

For mid-level donors, you may add a personal call from your staff twice per year and free tickets to annual holiday party.  For major donors, you may decide to add two in-person meetings per year plus a handwritten note during the holiday season.

Whatever systems you design, keep them simple, and then focus on implementing them.  After the year is over, go back and review those systems with your team.  What worked?  What didn’t?

If certain things aren’t working, cut them out of next year’s plan, and replace them with something new.  Keep testing, iterating, and improving, and your systems will get better and better every year.

About the Author

Joe Garecht is the President of Garecht Fundraising Associates, and the Editor of The Non-Profit Fundraising Digest.  He has almost twenty years’ experience in non-profit fundraising, and focuses his consulting work on helping small and mid-sized organizations build sustainable fundraising systems.

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