Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

The One Way to Get Donors to Give Again and Again

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59% of donors don't repeatDoes your nonprofit live and die by donations? Chances are you’re dying.

You work so hard to get a donation, especially at the end of the year. By next year, however, more than half those donors–59%–will disappear. You will never hear from them again.

It’s even worse with new donors. Three-quarters of them never repeat.

This is a race nonprofits can’t win.  That’s why your nonprofit will die, maybe even in 2015…unless you find a way to make donors want to give to you again and again.

Fortunately, there is a way.

Giving donors the stories they want to hear can mean life or death for your organization. Share on X

How can you increase the chance that a person who gave once will give again?

People give their first gift to your organization for a variety of quirky reasons. When they  continue to give, it’s for one reason: because they have come to know, like, and trust you.

People give when you build a relationship with them, and the key to that relationship is great communication.

Great communication begins with the thank-you letter, but it doesn’t end there. A newsletter is a good thing, too, but a newsletter full of what’s happening inside your organization will do nothing to keep your donors.

So what kind of communication does work? A June 2014 survey by nonprofit technology research firm Software Advice found that sixty percent of donors want impact stories to see how their first donation is making a difference.”You must find, recognize, collect, and share those stories in all your communications.

Become a storytelling nonprofit

It takes a team of people to collect and tell your stories.

  1. People with day-to-day experience. They could be your direct service staff or volunteers, your Board members, your customers or clients. Develop them as sources, so they look out for stories you can tell.
  2. Writers. Someone who can take other people’s words and make them sing in print is essential to your team.
  3. Photographers/videographers. A picture may not be worth a thousand words. It may, however, make all the words you write more meaningful and memorable.
  4. Artists. Sometimes a good graphic is more powerful than a photo (and often, easier to produce when you need it).
  5. Tech people. Because your newsletter, blog, email, Facebook post, or video is no good if nobody sees it! Someone has to keep the system up and running and figure out the glitches as they occur.
  6. Editor. You need a consistent tone to your communications, and they must appear regularly so your audience expects them. Put one person in charge.

Get expert help

Most of all, what you need is someone who will look at your organization with the eyes of a donor. It’s all too easy to fall back into “We held this event” or “We hired this new person”–but that’s not what your donors want!

A communications consultant can help you recognize and shape the stories your donors want to hear. There are ways your organization can afford a consultant, even if you don’t have one in the budget yet. And the investment is worth it.

Your donors are waiting to hear what difference their donations are making. They won’t wait forever. Get the help you need to make sure they give again and again.

 

 

 

An Open Letter to Nonprofits from Your Donor

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Dear nonprofit, Can we talk?

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,

Dennis

 

 

 

20 Ways to Thank Your Donors Throughout the Year

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thanksgivingIf you’re a nonprofit, every day is Thanksgiving…or should be.

Yes, I know it’s been months since your last appeal.  You sent a thank-you letter to each donor back then.  (In fact, maybe you sent the ideal thank-you letter.)  But have you been ignoring them since then?

You neglect donors at your peril.  Donors notice when and how often you’re in touch.  If they say, “That organization only writes me when they want money!”, how likely are they to respond the next time?

Have you heard the rule that you should thank a donor seven times before asking him or her for money again?  Maybe you wondered how in the world you’re supposed to do that.  How many ways can you say thank you?

Here are 20 creative ideas for showing your gratitude, courtesy of our friends at Lifehack.

  1. Make a gift bag. It doesn’t have to be expensive–just personal.
  2. Give a toast. You don’t need a special event–you could do this over lunch. Make a video and send it to the donor.  Picture the smile when they see it!
  3. Write a poem. Say why they deserve your thanks.
  4. Send them custom gift labels.
  5. Give a gift card. (Get the gift card donated, too.)
  6. Send a hand-written letter.
  7. Use social media to give thanks in public.
  8. Make your own digital greeting card.
  9. Make a Youtube video.
  10. Bake cookies.
  11. Make surprise gifts for guests at your events.
  12. Put together a flower basket.
  13. Take a picture. Again, it doesn’t have to be professional, just unique.  The camera on your phone can capture priceless moments!
  14. Pay it forward.  Show them you care about what they care about too.
  15. Do something special for them.
  16. Help them when they’re the ones who need help.
  17. Be there for them.
  18. Listen to them.
  19. Say it another language…especially if they speak it.
  20. Show them some #donorlove, without being asked.

You can’t do all twenty for all your donors. Fine.  But which ones can you do?  Make a plan to say thank you to as many of your donors as you can, each month.  When annual appeal time comes around again, they’ll think of you as a friend.

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