Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: Thank Your Donors by Showing What You Share

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cycling togetherWhen you think about creative ways of thanking your donors, take a lesson from my wife. Rona runs a real estate company, not a nonprofit–but she understands how to make friends for her organization. She stresses what they share.

A lot of Rona’s home buyers care about housing for all. That means Rona supports groups like the Somerville Homeless Coalition. She truly cares, but her gift lets her clients know she cares, as they do.

A large number of Rona’s clients are cyclists. That means Rona posts news about bike trails and biking to work on her company’s Facebook page. It’s not strictly about real estate? That doesn’t matter. It shows clients that she understands them and appreciates the things they appreciate.

Your nonprofit can do this too. And you should.

What Your Donors Love, Besides You

There’s a saying, “People give to people.” That can mean they give to help people (not organizations). True. It can mean they give because a person they know asks them to give. Also true.

But the most important thing it means is that your donors have to know, like, and trust you if they are ever going to become to your loyal supporters.

They have to think, “That organization includes a lot of people like me.”

So, your job is to find out what counts as “people like me”–and show that they are right. Your organization does include people who care about more than just one thing. You and the donors have a lot in common. Share that!

Get to Know and Love Your Donors

How do you actually find out what your donors care about? A few good ways:

  1. Asking them. You can do this whenever you have a conversation with a donor and make a note of it in your files. Or, you can make a more organized effort, using surveys and focus groups. Do it gradually if you have to, but keep on asking.
  2. Social listening. Set up Google alerts for the internet, and set up lists and use tools on social media, to find out what your donors talk about a lot, and what they love and hate.
  3. Analytics. You can use the built-in tools on Facebook or Twitter to learn a lot about your audience in general, and that will give you some clues about your prospects and current donors, too.

Once You Know Your Donors, Share that You Care

With the results of your conversations, surveys, focus groups, searches, social listening, and analytics in hand, you probably know a lot about your donors! And now you can do what Rona does.

Example: Are you a healthcare organization with a lot of supporters who care about the environment?

  • Put an ad in the program of the local environmental group’s event.
  • Find ways of working together to make the community a healthier place to live.
  • Let your donors know you did, because it matters to you too.

And in your newsletter, email, blog, and/or social media, you can not only publicize your donations to and collaborations with environmental groups. You can regularly include articles about environment and health.

Showing your donors what you share is another way of thanking them for their gift…and making it more likely that they will give again.

TY Thursday: I Thought You’d Be Interested in This

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being interested

One of the best ways you can thank a donor is to show them you know what they’re interested in–and talk about their interests.

How do you do that? Here’s a good example.

A Personal Email to a Donor: Me!

My wife Rona and I are longtime supporters of RESPOND, the Somerville, MA based organization working to end domestic violence. Their Chief Development Director, Danielle Kempe, knows that. So, look at the personal email she sent me just this week:

Good morning Dennis,

Hope all is well!

I just heard a client success story for our programs office that I thought you’d be interested in too.

This August, we moved a resident into her own apartment/independent living. She was excited to have her own space in her own name. As we did her exit interview, she said what she was most grateful for and would remember was RESPOND being there for her as she went through the immigration process.

In these times when immigration reform is at the center of every discussion, families are in fear, and it is one of the reason why people are afraid to report domestic violence, RESPOND was more than just a roof over her head. While at RESPOND, she was able to get a green card, take ESL classes, obtain gainful employment, and is set to start college classes. The safety planning tools will help her keep safe from her abuser, and the empowerment RESPOND provided will keep her strengthened for her future.

All the best,

Danielle Kempe

P.S. Hope to see you at our open house! Details below.

Why This Email Interested the Donor

As Development Director, Danielle has RESPOND’s database at her fingertips. She knows the recency, frequency, and monetary value of the gifts that Rona and I have made over the years: not that large, but consistent.

Danielle also knows we care about the safety and dignity of immigrants. How does she know that? I suspect it’s because she made a point of meeting with me after a a few months on the job, and we discussed it then. She probably went back to the office and made a note in the database of the donor’s interests. That’s what I would do in her place.

interested in immigrants

You can tell Rona and I are interested in immigrants!

Danielle and I have followed each other on social media for a while, too, and she’s seen some of the posts I’ve put up, and my photo with the words “#HeretoStay-I Support DACA” on my personal Facebook page. If she’s really good, and her database allows it, she has my feed at her fingertips too.

Show Your Interest to the Donor by Recognizing Theirs

Can you do as well as Danielle at RESPOND did? Ask yourself:

  • Do you know the names of your loyal donors?
  • Do you understand what they’re interested in, besides your organization?
  • Are you taking steps to find out? And,
  • Are you unselfishly giving them information they will enjoy that makes them say, “That organization really knows me”?

The more the donor believes you are paying attention to them as a person, the more they will feel you’re not just looking at them as a wallet. You have a relationship.

Now, that’s interesting!

TY Thursday: Let Your Actions Say Thank You

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Action speaks louderAre you trying to come up with more and better ways to thank your donors? Sometimes, what you need is not a new and improved thank-you letter, video, gift, or donor appreciation event.

Sometimes you just have to give the donors what they want.

What do the donors want?

Tom Ahern, the dean of donor communications, says the content donors want is the answers to the questions, “What did you do with the money I gave you? What difference did it make?” And they want the joy of feeling they have helped make the world a better place.

Take Tom’s advice and you’ll know what to put in your newsletter (and on your website, and on your social media)–and what to leave out. Put in stories about real people whose lives are better “because you helped.”

Everything else–the grant you got, the award your Executive Director won, the amount of money you have to raise before your fiscal year end–is what you should leave out. Unless you can find a way to present it so that your donors feel great about themselves! Then, include it. But check with some actual donors first!

Kivi Leroux Miller, who’s always both practical and inspiring, says donors want giving to be easy–and after they give, they want you to know who they are.

Take Kivi’s advice. Giving can be easy if your website has a good landing page and if once they give, you immediately acknowledge the gift (so they know “it worked!”)

Knowing who your donors are is so vital, and yet so neglected! “It’s amazing how little many nonprofits can tell you about their donors beyond their giving history, and that makes good marketing and fundraising tough,” Kivi says. If you know what your donors care about–including interests that don’t seem at first to touch on your mission–you can send communications that make them feel “This was written just for me.”

Joe Garecht, The Fundraising Authority, says donors want non-reciprocated value. In other words, be generous to them, too! Don’t just trade return address labels for a donation.

Take Joe’s advice. Find ways to be helpful to your donors, without expecting anything in return, “such as when you come across two donors who might find value in working together in their businesses, and offer to set up and attend a lunch meeting to introduce them.”

Customer service is the best thank you.

People in business know that their customers’ experience with them is reason those customers come back–or don’t. No amount of advertising can overcome a customer’s interaction with an employee who is rude, inattentive, poorly informed, or just plain unhelpful.

For nonprofit organizations, donors are our customers. Yes, they are “buying” services for other people–our clients! But customer service is still the key to seeing those donors again. Let’s put it in terms that fit the nonprofit sector:

The best way to thank your donors: think about what matters to the donor--and give it to them. Share on X

What have you done for your donors that they will remember with a smile?

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