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TY Thursday: Post-Donation Thank-You–on Your Website!

March 15, 2018 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

post-donation TY pageCongratulations! You’ve cultivated your donor, and she has just gone online and made a generous gift. Now, post-donation, you want to thank her as personally as possible, as soon as possible.

But how?

Your First Chance to Show the Love

Just because a donor has made a gift to your organization, it doesn’t mean you have won their heart. Not forever. Maybe not even for today.

You’ve heard of “buyer’s remorse”? That feeling  you get when you’ve finally plunked down your credit card or signed on the dotted line and agreed to a purchase…and then you say, “Wait a minute, did I just make a big mistake?”

Donors to nonprofits go through that too. They give on impulse, and then they wonder, “Did I really do the right thing? Is that nonprofit really what I want to be supporting with my hard-earned money?”

The moment they give, you want to send them a message that says, “Yes! You did the right thing.”

Your Website Can Be Your Thank-You

All online fundraising tools will let you send a receipt to your donor automatically, to let them know their donation actually went through. But that’s the equivalent of the cashier handing you a receipt after a purchase. It’s minimal and impersonal. Your nonprofit can do better than that!

Some tools will let you customize the receipt. If yours allows you, definitely say “Thank you, Dennis, for giving $100 to Social Justice Organization. You’re already helping to save the world in this way!”

Some tools, like PayPal, won’t.

But–PayPal will let you return the donor to your website after he or she makes a donation. So, why not set up a post-donation thank-you page that shares all the love with the donor, right there on your website?

11 Things You Can Do on Your Post-Donation Thank-You Page

The thank-you page on your website can give your donors more than just a verbal “thank-you.” Here are 11 things you can do there to give the donor the feeling, “I made the right choice when I gave to this organization.” (The first nine are from Joanne Fritz  and the last two from Tina Jepson of Causevox.)

  1. Invite donors to follow you on social media. 
  2. Invite donors to watch a video.
  3. Invite donors to volunteer.
  4. Gather info with a little survey.  Ask just two or three questions on the thank you page, such as how they found out about your charity, why they donated, and how they want you to communicate with them.
  5. Connect your donor with resources.
  6. Gather feedback.  Explain to your donor that you always want to improve your service and ask her to help by leaving feedback about the donation process itself.
  7. Provide testimonials from the people you serve.  There’s no better way to reassure the donor that his decision to give was a good one than by listing a couple of testimonials from the people you help.
  8. Invite donors to something special.
  9. Remind your donor of an additional way to give (as charity: water does in the thank-you page pictured above).
  10. Add an email newsletter subscription option.
  11. Highlight impact.  By closing the loop on the donation, you ensure that your donor knows that your organization is making a difference because of their investment in your cause.

It doesn’t take any more technical knowledge to set up a post-donation thank-you page than to add any other page to your website. So, why not give it a try? See if your donors appreciate it!

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“What does your nonprofit do?”

June 26, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

“So, what does your nonprofit do?”

Picture this: you’re having a conversation (at a party or business networking event), and you mention that you work at your nonprofit organization, Good Cause Inc.

“Oh, that’s interesting,” someone in the room says. “What is Good Cause Inc.? What does your organization do?”

This is a golden opportunity, and you know it. How often do we all struggle to get new people interested in our organization and its work? And here is someone spontaneously asking, “So, what do you do?”

How to waste your golden opportunity

Just for a moment, you have the other person’s attention. Even if they’re just being polite, they have offered to listen. But not for long. If you don’t tell them something that interests them right away, they’ll discover they have to go refill their plate–preferably in another room!

Here’s how NOT to answer “What do you do?”

Don’t recite your mission statement. Even the best mission statement (like the one that Joanne Fritz teaches you to write) has two drawbacks.

  1. It’s written mainly to guide people inside the organization, and…
  2. It’s a “statement.” That makes it a conversation-stopper–when a conversation is exactly what you want to start.

Don’t try to give an all-inclusive definition. No one is taking notes so they can complain later that the way you explained it didn’t fit the whole picture. (Honestly, at first they’re not paying that much attention!)

If you get the person who asked you the question interested, then you can go on and expand on what you said to catch their interest.

Don’t give a list of your programs. Your programs are not what you do–they are how you do it. That’s not what the person asked you.

If you want their interest, you will tell them what you do…and why they should care.

So, when you’re asked about your nonprofit organization, what should you say instead?

The Nonprofit Elevator Pitch

elevator pitchAn “elevator pitch” is a short summary of what’s attractive about your organization.

It’s brief enough that you could share all of it with someone you just met in the time you’d spend riding together in an elevator. But in just a couple of sentences, it makes the person you’re talking to say, “Tell me more!”

What can you say that will provoke that kind of interest? You can focus on results. Not “measurable outcomes” (the way you would for a grant proposal), but clear benefits you provide to real people, described in ordinary language.

Let me share a couple of examples with you.

Example #1: Communicate! Consulting

It’s true, Communicate! Consulting is a small business and not a nonprofit. But I face the same challenge that you do when people ask me what I do. I have to find a way to win people’s interest, quickly.

Imagine you’re in a room with me when somebody asks me what I do. I could say, “I’m a donor communications consultant.” And then we’d both watch their eyes glaze over.

So instead, I focus on results. I answer:

I help nonprofit organizations to make loyal friends.  We find the best ways to communicate with the donors who  will support them year in and year out, so the organizations can keep on doing their good work.

That gets my conversation partner thinking. And it usually leads to a discussion of why nonprofits need donations from individuals, and why loyalty matters…and yes, what services I offer.

But talking literally about “what I do”  comes later–once the person who’s asking me questions can imagine their favorite nonprofit being better off because they referred the organization to me.


Your nonprofit organization can do what my business does. You can introduce the people you meet to the great things that happen when they support your organization. You can get them to imagine those great results. And the conversation will go on from there.


Example #2: the networking nonprofit

I’d like to introduce you to Social Capital Inc., an organization that’s dedicated to strengthening the social fabric. SCI thinks building relationships and social networks is the key to making everything good happen: for a young person seeking a job, a nonprofit looking for donors, or a community trying to come together for the common good.

That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? The leaders of the organization realized they needed a better way of answering the “what do you do” question. They came to me for advice.

Here’s the elevator pitch I’ve suggested to them:

Did you know there’s one magic ingredient that makes communities, nonprofit organizations, AND young people stronger?

That key ingredient is the network of relationships that each of them can count on. Some people and some communities already have a strong set of relationships with people who can help. Others don’t, yet.

Social Capital Inc. stirs more of that magic ingredient—relationships—into the mix. Because all of us want to see young people become leaders, and good causes attract support, and whole communities bond together and achieve their goals. Right?

Pitch and catch: creating conversation

You may have noticed that the example above is a little longer than your standard “elevator pitch.” It also begins and ends with questions. That’s something I recommend.

Because having an elevator pitch is better than searching for words, but it’s not the best you can do. When someone asks you, “What does your nonprofit do?”, what you really want is not to “pitch” someone but have a conversation with them. It’s like pitch and catch. It goes both ways.

So, next Monday, in Part 2 of this three-part series, you’ll learn how to prepare a real dialogue. I’ll show you how you can ask questions, listen to answers, and tell stories–all the things that will make your conversation partner enjoy talking with you about your organization. (Wouldn’t that be fun?)

You don’t have to waste any more opportunities. You can turn them into gold, instead. Check back next Monday.

And in the meantime, I’d love to hear from you. Have you used an elevator pitch for your organization? Should you? What do you think?

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TY Thursday: How to Energize Your Donors

April 13, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

energizer

Energized donors keep on giving…and giving…

In Adam Grant’s book, Give and Take: How Helping Others Drive Our Success, he writes, “When people know how their work makes a difference, they feel energized to contribute more.”

The same applies to donors.

If you tell your donor how their gift changed someone’s life, they will be happy and proud, excited…and energized. They will want that feeling again. They will want to hear from you the next time you write. Chances are, they’ll give again, too.

Energize with a Sparkling Thank-You Letter

When it comes to exciting your donors, you have a golden opportunity, right after they give. Your first chance to make your one-time, impulse donor into a loyal Energizer Bunny of philanthropy is in your thank-you letter.

Joanne Fritz is a sage of the nonprofit world. In a recent article, she has given us all a great gift. She shared give examples of thank-you letters your donors will love. I call them:

  1. Painting the picture. (“Thanks to you, Michael and his sister, Janet, celebrated Michael’s 9th birthday with cake and balloons in a safe and loving place.”)
  2. Story anthology. (“Let me tell you what our services at Therapeutic Riding of Atlanta mean to some of the children who come to our classes.”)
  3. Instant impact report. (“No longer isolated in a hard-to-reach walk up in a high-rise building, Tom and Francis now have easy access to the services they need. Plus, they will receive two meals a day and participate in healthy and fun activities ranging from exercise classes to community field trips.”)
  4. Gusher of gratitude. (“The healing starts with a tiny spark … a glimmer of hope in soft, soulful eyes. And for homeless pets with serious injuries who come to Best Friends, the hope and the healing are all because of you.”)
  5. From general to personal. (Think an agency that does boring research can’t tell a great story? Think again!)
    “For the last forty years, research has shown that investing in women and girls has ripple effects through a community.Take Akina*, a young woman in Kenya who works for BURN, a clean cookstoves factory and social enterprise business supported by Acumen, a non-profit that invests in companies and ideas that aim to tackle poverty. Before BURN, Akina had never worked in a factory, but thanks to their investment in women, she has moved up to become a supervisor. Her wages pay for her younger sister’s education and the transportation costs for her brother to commute to his job.”

More TY Letters Your Donors Will Love

If you’re still looking for ways to make your thank-you letters sparkle, please take a look at this TY Thursday blog post you might have missed:
Write a Creative Thank-You Letter
In this post, you will find:

    • What You Need to Know Before You Thank
    • Great Advice on How to Start, from such luminaries of the nonprofit world as Beth Ann Locke, Gail Perry, and Pamela Grow
    • How to Write the Ideal Thank You Letter–advice from yours truly

Whether you follow the examples Joanne Fritz laid out or Write a Creative Thank-You Letter of your own, there’s no time like the present. If you want donors to keep on giving, you have to keep on thanking!

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