from Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog: 'Old' donors give more - so do we stick to the same ‘old’ fundraising? ... focusing only the oldest donors is short-sighted, and we definitely can’t assume what has worked in the past will work in the future. The fact that “older” donors give more does not mean we should do the same old fundraising. Even the crowd here agrees on that: Boomers (who are not so ‘old’ for goodness sake) - and everyone younger - have a whole new set of expectations from their charities, from greater tranparency and accountability to a greater sense of engagement. We have to start changing how we fundraise now or we’re going to be irrelevant very soon - and for generations to come. … Continue Reading
Offer or Sell?
by Tamsen McMahon Let me ask you a question: Are you offering what you sell, or selling what you offer? One is about relationships, the other transactions. One is about pull, the other push. One is about permission, the other interruption. One is about engagement, the other broadcast. One is about conviction, the other convincing. One is about giving, the other taking. One is long-term, the other short. One is about value, the other cost. One is about relevance, the other utility. One is about service, the other commodity. One is about finding opportunity, the other filling holes. One is about them, the other…you. Do you see a difference? What are you doing? Tamsen McMahon is the Director of Digital and Strategic Initiatives at Sametz Blackstone Associates. Offer or … Continue Reading
Thanking Donors Properly
from Sharpe Tips: Eight Mistakes to Avoid in Donation Thank You Letters for a Fundraising Gift or Contribution The easiest way to encourage a donor to mail you another donation is to thank her properly for her last gift. There are right ways and wrong ways to thank your donor. Avoid these mistakes when mailing your donation thank-you letters, notes and cards. … Continue Reading
Beware the Lapsed Donor
So when is a lapsed donor not a lapsed donor? John Grain says they may not be who you think they are. I have been thinking a lot about lapsed donors lately. In particular about the way we define them and the way we try to ‘reactivate’ them. Three things struck me. First, it is dangerous to simply assume a supporter is lapsed (horrible term that) if they haven’t given for a while. Second, perhaps they were never truly a donor in the first place. And third, how carefully are we thinking about what we ‘reactivate’ donors with? In part this is because I recently received a letter from a charity asking me to renew my support for the organization. This gave me pause for thought - the thought being if I needed to ‘renew’ my support, presumably I was now considered a lapsed … Continue Reading
Five Steps Toward Better Engagement
There are key lessons in the success of new programs aimed at building community, fostering engagement, and deepening a sense of peoplehood: Lower Barriers , says Pippi Kessler of the Mothers Circle. “We always offer our programs for free, and let them know they don’t have to be a member of anything.” Personalize, says PJ Library’s Marcie Greenfield-Simons. “Each family is unique. Organizations that adopt the concierge model, where outreach to families happens almost one-on-one, will have the biggest impact.” Welcome, advises Arielle Morrison of San Diego’s YAD. "If you don’t help someone new feel welcome, they won’t come back. We have 12 volunteers solely dedicated to newcomers at events." Wait, cautions Jewish Gateway’s Bridget Wynne. “If the mentality is, … Continue Reading
Preparing for and Predicting the Future of Giving
Can We Be Proactive and Keep Support from Going Elsewhere?” by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin As the story of the exodus of Jews from Egypt lingers in our minds, we can’t help but think about current Jewish migration patterns and how this affects today’s Jewish non-profit organizations. Demographic shifts bring changes in personal giving priorities: donors form new bonds and old ties diminish as people traverse the country and the globe. Where does that leave Jewish non-profits that position themselves to obtain and retain support? This set of questions prompted us to contact two respected researchers and experts on charitable giving at the Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, Paul Schervish, director, and John Havens, associate director and senior research associate. … Continue Reading
Where Are Your Supporters?
from NetWit's Think Tank: Do You Know Your Supporters? Nonprofits have an interesting challenge facing them. The ever growing social networking landscape makes it difficult to know if an existing or new supporter of yours is active on any of the current social networks (let alone the ones that haven’t been dreamed up yet). How do you figure out if someone who volunteers for you is using Facebook or if a donor is active on Twitter? How do you know if an advocate is using YouTube to promote your case or Blogging to increase the public’s awareness of a topic you support? This isn’t a new challenge by any means, but it is one that’s becoming more complicated to solve. It’s sort of like going from basic math to solving Trigonometric Theorems. Remember Ptolemy's Theorem? Yea, me … Continue Reading
The Starting Point for Change
In the UK we seem to have little curiosity about how fundraising colleagues in the rest of the English speaking world of fundraising go about meeting the challenges they face. This is all the more curious as the challenges are, by and large, the same as we face in the UK. They have the same need for core funding; they need to raise funds for specific projects and larger capital developments. And they need to raise funds in order to develop the long term organisational strength of their institutions. The challenges are the same, but the solutions they have developed are often very different to those developed here. And one of the most striking differences is the emphasis on major gifts. For reasons which are difficult to understand, in the UK we seem to have developed a “bottom up” approach to … Continue Reading
Wake-Up Call: Your Supporters Expect More
by Katya Andresen Dear Nonprofit Marketing Friends, The biggest thing that needs to change this year is how we think about our donors. We are in the midst of an enormous generational shift that has major implications for our work. The Greatest Generation of older, civic-minded Americans who wrote checks out of a sense of duty and expected little more than a tax receipt in return is passing the torch to a far more demanding series of predecessors. Boomers expect a sense of impact, and younger donors expect engagement and involvement. They are anything but passive. Think of it this way. Just as in marketing we have left the broadcast era where consumers passively take in promotional messages, we have left the low-expectation donor era. That means it’s not enough to declare a need … Continue Reading
Breaking the Ice: Cold Calling Does Not Do It!
In working with one of my clients over the last few weeks an issue was raised about how to reach out to potential donors. There was a discussion about 1) what strategy should be used when reaching out to these people to approach them for a donation, and 2) who should make the first contact? I would like to explore these questions and provide some suggestions for reaching out to people who do not have a relationship with the organization. Often the executive, the financial resource development professional or a volunteer fundraiser in an organization will receive the name of a person and be told that he/she is interested in the population that the agency serves. It will be suggested that one of these people call the potential donor and speak to them about a donation. Another well known scenario … Continue Reading
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