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Fundraising Tuesday: What Donors Think When You Mess Up their Name

November 24, 2020 by Dennis Fischman 1 Comment

Does it really matter when you get a donor’s name wrong? Just ask the donors.

I did.

On my personal Facebook page, I put up last week’s Communicate! blog post, Fundraising Tuesday: Using Your Database to Get the Name Right. And then I asked, “I’m just curious: have YOU ever been asked for money by a group that couldn’t get your name right?”

The answers

“All the time,” said Rabab. “All the time,” said Dmitry.

“Oh yes, all the time. Mr. Lee,” said Ms. Lee.

Lauren told me, “Yep. I’ve gotten ‘Laura,’ I’ve gotten my last name spelled wrong… From people asking for money, and scams too.”

Meg said firmly, “*All* the time. I get mashups of my mother’s name (Mary Kay) and mine now too.”

Doug said, “For some reason, the DNC thinks my name is Cecil.”

From a friend whose last name is Crary: “Happens to me all the time. For some reason, my last name defies logic or something. I particularly love when it autocorrects to ‘crazy’.”

From a friend whose first name is Pam: “I get a fair number of things addressed to “Vam,” which I finally realized is what “P” looks like when I’m writing quickly.”

Marla tells me her name is now Maria. “Say it soft, and it’s almost…🙏”

Lois says, “😂 All the time. I keep an envelope of misspelled names.”

Helene says, “I’m actually amazed when they get it right.”

How does it make donors feel to be misnamed?

I said to my Facebook friends, “Thank you all!” (Because thank-you’s are almost as important as getting names right.) And I asked,  “Here’s a follow-up question for you: what would you like the organization that sent you that piece of mail to know about how you react when you see it?”

Meg: That they should hire enough staff that they have time to get things right – and pay enough to get good people.

Sandy: That I feel disrespected and treated like a commodity in such circumstances. (Especially the spelling… I don’t feel disrespected re the gender issue.)

Lois: I probably wouldn’t say it 🙂. Meg: And they’d probably attribute your opinion to Louis  anyway. Lois: If I were lucky!

Why would you ever make donors feel dissed?

wrong nameYou are out there asking donors to give you their money, in a year when many of them either lost their jobs, made a lot less, or helped their families and friends in need.

You are asking at a time when every other nonprofit in the country, and sometimes, other countries, is asking for them to give as well.

If you have done a good job up to this point, the donor understands why giving to you might make a difference toward a result they care about a lot.

Why would you spoil all that by being inattentive to their names?

Now, you might get lucky. One of my friends, Jerry, told me:

So we just received a double first name solicitation envelope [like the “Mr. Rona Dennis” envelope I received!] from a national org that we have supported for years. I decided to write to them just to see what would happen. We received an emailed apology within the hour, and they said that a data input error was the reason, and promised to fix it. I thanked them and asked if there was a way to reduce the frequency for paper mailings. They do good work, so we will still support them.

Jerry and his wife are forbearing and forgiving. Not everyone is equally kind, or patient. Do you really want to test your donor’s capacity to put up with insults? Do you really want to push good donors away from you like that, or wouldn’t you rather bring them closer?

It’s not so hard. Just be sure to get the names right. Jerry, Meg, Lois, Sandy, Helene, Marla, Pam, Laura, Doug, Lauren, Lee, Rabab, Dmitry, and I are all here to tell you: it makes all the difference in the world.

 

 

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Fundraising Tuesday: How to Ensure Donors Read Your Letter

June 23, 2020 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Yes, you can raise funds this summer.

I’ve been showing you how asking for donations in the middle of a pandemic and an uprising against racism is actually doing your donors a favor. One of the things donors want most in times like these is the feeling of making a difference, and you can give that to them! (If you don’t, other nonprofits will.)

I’ve also been explaining how to raise funds even if your nonprofit works on issues that have very little relation to Covid-19 or to murders of Black people and other people of color by police. Take the A-B-C approach to fundraising: Acknowledge the crises. Be responsive. Continue to pursue your mission.

 

 

 

 

Direct mail works–better than asking by email, and much better than fundraising online. Sure, the best approach is a multichannel fundraising campaign. But it all comes back to the letter. And job #1 is to make sure the donor actually reads it!

So, how do you give the donor everything she needs to want to open and read your fundraising appeal?

Here’s how to make sure that letter you worked so hard to write gets read:

Envelopes Make Donors Want to Open Your Mail.

Once your donor opens the envelope, the postscript is the most important part of your appeal letter. (So important that here are four more ways to use postscripts!)

If you want a donor to read your letter, “Dear Friend” won’t cut it. Get their name right.

“But how do I know what the donor likes to be called?” Ask their name.

Use photos that tell the story.

Ms. Marvel hero

How your donor should see herself

Tell stories in words, too! And be sure to make the donor the hero of the story.

Follow these six steps and donors will be intrigued by the envelope, attracted by the letter, moved by the story, and motivated to give.

 

 

 

 

 

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Fundraising Tuesday: Ask My Name

February 25, 2020 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Hello my name is what?People’s names matter. Donors’ names matter to them. So, their names should matter to you too–especially when you are asking them for money!

But how do you know what to call them? Last week, I suggested that the simplest and most effective way to get the names right is just 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.

Keshet, the organization for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life, found another good way to ask which names to use. They checked how my wife and I would like to be listed in their annual report. Here’s the email:


Action Requested: How should we list you in our Annual Report?

Keshet banner

 

Dear Rona,

Thank you for being a supporter of our work for LGBTQ equality in Jewish life. In the next few months, we will be sharing Keshet’s 2019 Annual Report.

As a valued and appreciated donor, your name(s) will be listed in our Annual Report and will appear as: Dennis and Rona Fischman.

If you would like to request an edit or correction in how your name is listed, please click here.

L’Shalom,

James Cohen

Chief Development and Communications Officer

 

Pronouns: he/him/his


Notice how many things Keshet did right!

  1. The subject line told the donors why we should open the message–why it mattered to us.
  2. The name in the salutation matched the name in the email address.
  3. The closing was in Hebrew (“for peace”), affirming the Jewish connection.
  4. The signature included the name of a real person plus preferred pronouns–useful for all, but particularly important to the LGBTQ+ community.

Most important, however, was that Keshet asked what we wanted to be called. They saw the way the names were listed on the check we’d sent them, but they didn’t assume that was exactly how we wanted our names to appear.

They asked. You should too.

Because donors’ names matter to them. So, their names should matter to you too–especially when you are asking them for money!

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