Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Fundraising Tuesday: In the Mood, with Social Media

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Giving to charity, word cloudOnce your appeal letter is in the mail, what can you do to help donors decide to give?

Reaching out directly through the phone or by email is a good idea… especially if you make your calls and emails warm and personal.

The Wrong Way to Use Social Media

For most organizations, asking directly for money through social media is not a good idea. Here’s why.

Picture yourself on Facebook. What are you doing there? You went online to catch up with your friends, and perhaps to see a meme that would amuse or outrage you.

You didn’t go to Facebook to do business. And that includes giving away money.

There are exceptions. If you’ve tried asking online before and it worked for you, congratulations! If you want to experiment with fundraising via social media, ask for donations for a specific cause, with an immediate impact. Think of it as crowdfunding.

In general, though, “making the ask” is the wrong way to use social media to back up your end-of-year appeal. There is a better way.

Put Your Donors in the Mood for Giving

in a giving moodA donation is an act of love…and like other acts of love, it goes better if you set the mood. Too bad you can’t offer your donors a glass of wine, a fireplace, and romantic music on social media!

But here is what you can do to make them feel like giving:

    1. Give their pleasure your full attention. Between now and December 31, post pieces that will make donors feel good about themselves when they give.
    2. Tell stories. Create good memories that you and your donors share. It will bring you closer.
    3. Share the love. Post stories–or even better, videos–of donors like them saying why they love giving to your organization and how it makes them feel.

It Takes Two to Tango

For the donor to feel the love, you have to be feeling it too. And that’s difficult in December. You’re watching the numbers on the end-of-year appeal and worrying about what happens if you don’t meet your fundraising goal. Performance anxiety is making you tense.

May I make a suggestion? Before you write for social media this month, slow it down. Breathe. Think about why you care so much: the good results your organization bring about that makes you want it to succeed.

Now, think about the donor.  She cares about those good results too. You’re together in this. That’s what brought you together in the first place.

You just have to speak the language of love with your donors, and watch them respond.

TY Thursday: Are You Leaving Out the Actual Thanks?

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Do you follow @DennisFischman on Twitter? If so, I’ve thanked you–I hope. (Did I forget? I apologize!)

But if you’re a nonprofit and you forget to say thank you, then you owe an apology to your donor and to yourself.

Twitter thank youHow I forgot to say thanks

Whenever anybody follows me on Twitter, I make a point of saying thanks.

I don’t always follow back. That depends on what you usually tweet about and whether it’s interesting to me. But I do say “thanks”–because, out of the gazillion people on the web, you chose to spend some attention on me.

So how could I ever forget to say thanks?

Sarah Gallo, who’s on Twitter as @5foottraveler, followed me one Sunday. I wanted to tweet back at her, “TY to @5foottraveler for following!” I copied and pasted her Twitter handle and added the “for following” part, and I was just about to schedule the tweet when I noticed something was missing.

That’s right. The “TY” part.

Fortunately, I caught it in time. But because I even came close to leaving out the thanks, I want to say to Sarah publicly, “Thanks, and safe travels!”

thank you signs

Nonprofits, Don’t Forget to Thank Donors

At your nonprofit, when you acknowledge donations, are you making the same mistake as I did? Are you leaving out the actual thanks?

You could be, if:

  • Your letter reads like a tax receipt instead of a personal note.
  • You’re talking about what a great organization you are, instead of what great things the donor’s gift is going to accomplish.
  • You’re congratulating the donor on helping you achieve your mission, instead of showing how you are going to help the donor realize his or her goals.
  • When you receive an online gift, you send out an auto-response but never follow it up with an individualized letter or email.
  • You send out the ideal thank-you letter but then don’t communicate again with the donor until it’s time to ask again for money.

Donor love means never having to say you’re sorry. Don’t forget to thank your donors in a way that’s clear, timely, ample, honest, and ongoing. You won’t regret it.

TY Thursday: Your Donor Told Me You Should Hear This

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Your donor has a message for you. Please read it BEFORE you send out your year-end appeal.

Dear nonprofit, woman donor writing letter

Thanks for the amazing work you do. I mean it. And you know I mean it–because I sent you a donation. But maybe I made a mistake.

I’ve been giving to you for years, always at the same time of year. You send me a thank-you note whenever you get around to it…if at all. Sometimes the thank-you note arrives after the next time you ask for money. (Tacky, my friends, tacky.)

Between my gifts, you send me newsletters that do nothing but pat yourself on the back. I don’t want to know how great you are, even if you can prove it with statistics. I want to know what difference it makes to the cause I care about when I give. You’re not telling me that.

You asked me to follow you on Facebook. I did. But all I see there is the exact same articles you included in your newsletter, in the exact same format. I know that’s easier for you, but it does nothing for me.

Let me tell you a secret: I have a little list.

It’s the list of organizations I give to every year. You’re on that list because of the work you do–but there are other groups that do equally good work. I can’t give to all of them, and with the way you treat me, I wonder if I should drop you and add one of them to the list instead.

Now, here’s another secret: you could get me to keep you on the list and maybe even give to you more than once a year. But you’d have to change your ways.  How?

Thank me early and often. Write personally to me and tell me a story I haven’t heard yet that will convince me I gave to the right group.

Write newsletters I’ll want to read. If it’s only in there to make the Executive Director look good or the Board feel good, leave it out! Help me understand the real-world problems that my donation empowered you to solve.

Be social on social media. Don’t just post: ask questions and invite me to answer them. Reply to my answers. Comment on my posts. Let’s have a conversation, and it’s on you to inform me, entertain me, and make me glad I talked with you.

That sounds like a lot of work? Well, I’m worth it.  I and all the other donors who feel the same way.  We’re on your list…but make your communications as impressive as the program work you do if you want to stay on our list this year.

Sincerely,

Your donor

( You know who I am!)

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