Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Fundraising Tuesday: Listen First, Ask Later

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bait and switchHave you ever joined a professional organization because of the opportunities it offered–and then find out your first opportunity was to be asked for more money?

This is exactly what happened to my wife, Rona. She didn’t like being treated that way…and neither do people who want to know more about your nonprofit.

Nice to Meet You. Please Give Now!

Rona joined the “Local First” organization in the city where her real estate office is based. Let’s be fair: the Shop Local First movement does many good things for the community and the environment.

For her membership dues, though, Rona was promised tangible benefits like business improvement seminars, inclusion in a local business directory, marketing opportunities, and advisories about local policy changes that might affect her business.

She was not promised that local charities would call her for money–before she got any of the benefits of membership!

Yet within a week, she got several calls asking for $100 or more. Here’s how one of those nonprofits followed up that fundraising phone call by email:

Dear Rona,

Following up on our brief conversation this morning, please see the attached e-packet about the “100 by 100” [city name] Business Community Scholarship Fund.  The “100 by 100” is a way for 4Buyers Real Estate to be engaged with the community, receive some recognition as a business that cares about the betterment of [the city], and support the students and faculty of the city’s only public high school….

It wasn’t the Local First group asking Rona for more money a week after she’d paid her membership dues. It was a nonprofit with access to their membership list. But how do you think Rona felt about her decision to join when, before she even received a membership card, she received a solicitation?

What to Do When a Person Gives You Contact Info

We are deluged these days with phone calls and emails. Go on vacation, come back, and check your voicemail and email. You’ll see what I mean.

When a person asks for more information about your nonprofit and gives you a phone number or an email address, she is taking a big step, like Rona did when she joined the Local First organization. That person is trusting you to use her contact information the way she agreed to have it used. You must show her she put her trust in the right place.

If she asked for more information, give her more information. If she signed up to attend an event, make sure she’s invited.

You can also start building a relationship by asking her more about her interests…and listening to and making a note of the answers.

What you can’t do is turn around and ask her for money right away.

Don’t Play the Numbers Game

playing the numbers Now wait, you say. I receive multiple “asks” from many well-known national organizations–even some I’ve never given to before.

They must know what they’re doing! Why shouldn’t my community-based organization do the same?

You can certainly do that…IF:

  • You have a huge mailing list. The national organizations are playing a numbers game. They’re calculating that if even 2% of the people they’re mailing to will donate, they’ll make a lot of money. If you have a list of 1,000 names, though, and only 20 of them donate, you may not even make back the cost of doing the mailing.
  • You’re willing to see those donors make a one-time gift and then walk away. Fewer than 30% of donors who gave to an organization for the first time in 2014 gave again in 2015. You may get a few donations by asking right away. You’ll get a lot more, over a lot more years, by creating loyal donors.

At Communicate! Consulting, we specialize in helping you make loyal friends. For a free 15-minute consultation, email [email protected]

 

Personalized Fundraising: The Right Tools Help

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Feel like a numberYour supporters aren’t numbers. Why are you keeping track of them with a spreadsheet?

A recent study by Software Advice, a consultancy that helps nonprofits find software, found that 52% of the organizations they studied currently use general-purpose software, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Drive, to manage data. That includes all the data on their donors and prospects.

I feel your pain, nonprofits. You’re strapped for time and short on money. That makes you use the tools you already have–especially if they’re free.

But free is not always the best price.

What it Costs You to Use Free Tools

Using Excel or Google for your fundraising database may be fine if all you want to do is look up what you know about one person. Suppose, however, that you want to:

  • Send a carefully crafted email to only those people who have given more than $100 as a donation and who live in the zip codes closest to your office.
  • Keep track of registration for a gala or other event.
  • Print call sheets for a phone-a-thon.
  • Automatically send a welcome message and a series of follow-ups to new members.

You can’t do any of those directly from free tools.

If you want to send a targeted email message, for example, you might have to create a distribution list in Outlook, export it to Excel, import that to an email marketing system like MailChimp or Constant Contact, compose and schedule the email, and then enter the results back in Outlook–all by hand. What a waste of time! Don’t you have better things to do?

Better Tools for the Personal Touch

“Nonprofits have always tracked donors and contributions, but increasingly, buyers are requesting robust constituent relationship management (CRM) systems and outreach tools,” says Janna Finch of Software Advice, the author of the study.

Why invest in that kind of tool? The paradox is that the more high-tech systems let you keep in touch with your donors and supporters in a more personal way. As Finch explains:

CRMs let nonprofit staff track information beyond a supporter’s name, address and contribution amount, including specific interests, professional experience, relationships, participation in activities, and more. Leveraging this knowledge, fundraisers can create a personalized message that targets a group of supporters that is more likely to turn a fence-sitter into an active donor, advocate or volunteer.

The Power of Personalized Asks

It’s a sad truth that big corporations like pharmacy chains and health insurance companies treat me more personally than the causes I support. Part of the answer is to invest in tools that will let you, the nonprofit, track your relationship with me, the donor, and let me know you care.

Quoting Janna Finch of Software Advice again:

“Here’s a comparison to illustrate the power of personalization. The first is a sample of a generic ask letter sent to all supporters; the second is personalized and targeted to past donors who are also teachers working in a school district the organization serves.”

Generic: Once again, we’re holding our annual drive to collect contributions to supply underprivileged students with school supplies for the upcoming school year. Since our organization relies on the generosity of individuals such as yourself, would you consider a donation to our cause?

Personalized: As a teacher, you are undoubtedly aware of how having the necessary school supplies impacts a student’s educational experience. Thanks to your $100.00 donation last year, 23 underprivileged students in your school district started the year fully-stocked with supplies. Would you consider another donation this year to ensure every student has all the supplies he or she needs?

Neither of these is the ideal appeal letter–but the personalized one will win every time. And you can only write the personalized letter if the data are ready to hand. A CRM tool will help you let the donor know he or she is not just a number to you.

What a Seal of Approval Says about Your Nonprofit

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“There are about a dozen charity evaluation and watchdog organizations that offer seals of approval” to nonprofit organizations, according to Janna Finch of nonprofit fundraising software evaluation company Software Advice. But do they mean anything?

Yes–to your supporters.

giving-increase

Donors look for ratings seals

Finch’s survey found:

  • 55% of respondents “always” or “sometimes” check for ratings seals on your website.
  • 32% say the seal would “greatly” raise the chance they would make a donation.
  • 40% say the seal would “moderately” or “slightly” increase their chance of giving.

Why it’s too bad

There are lots and lots of nonprofits.  As a donor myself, I understand why people want better information about what they’re giving to.  But I think the focus on ratings and seals of approval is misguided.

First: ratings are based way too heavily on financials, and specifically, on overhead ratios.  But the overhead myth is holding nonprofits back.  For every charity that spends too much on administration and infrastructure, there are probably ten who spend too little–especially compared with the for-profit world.

Second: the ratings system costs money that small nonprofits can’t spare.  To display the seal of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, your nonprofit would have to come up with $1,000-$15,000 every year.  This “pay to play” system discriminates against small-budget organizations.

Third: it’s hard to measure the “program impact” of a social movement.  What was the impact of all that marching and praying, Dr. King?  Where are your measurable outcomes for the last six months?  When seals of approval are awarded like Boy Scout badges, they may trivialize real, important, even historic work that donors should want to support.

What you should do

In the end, though, it doesn’t matter what I think of seals of approval.  It matters what your donors think.  They like them.  So if you can afford the time and the money it takes to win them, you should have them and display them on your website.

Really, though, you should communicate well enough, and often enough, with your supporters that they don’t need the Better Business Bureau or Charity Navigator to tell them how good you are. What a seal of approval is less important than what you say…and what your supporters say about you.

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