A simple recipe for sucessful fundraising

Key ingredients:

Reduce the amounts of what your fundraising team finds fascinating
Add a dollop of listening to your donors
Add large amounts of donor input from observing and understanding your donors
Mix it well for breakthrough fundraising inovations

Here is a basic explanations for those looking to make the most of this basic recipe.

Reduce the amounts of what your fundraising team finds fascinating
Having attended my fair share of fundraising team meetings I have come to realise that the most dangerous words in fundraising are: 'Here is something interesting we can use for our next appeal.' Interesting to whom? To us or to donors?

Many of us in fundraising somehow get locked in our charity's world and slowly become fascinated with our charity's work. And we wrongly assume that donors will find a charity's programmes fascinating too.

When we take a long hard look at why so many donors are not responding to our appeals you might be forced to accept the fact that we have not made that leap from thinking like we do to thinking like the donors do.

Add a dollop of listening to your donors
How can we think like a donor? Well, first of all by listening to donors to discover what motivates them and what makes them tick.

I am not talking here simply about data analysis or evaluation of different campaigns and appeal packages. But, about stepping out of our world to connect with real donors... to do interviews with major donors and regular givers alike asking them why do they support our cause? what prompted them to support our work in the first place? why do they keep giving to us? ....what are they trying to acomplish with their gifts to our work?

Listening to donors can help us focus our fundraising messages to what they find interesting and fascinating about our charity's work.

Add large amounts of donor input from observing and understanding your donors Listening to donors is jut not enough to help you do sucessful fundraising .... An excellent fundraiser does more than listening ... he or she tries to understand the core needs, motivations and desires of our donors.

Such understanding according to an excellent blog entry by Bruce Temkin (http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/dont-listen-to-customers-understand-them/) can be achieved by engaging donors in conversations with charities and by observing the current trends that might impact a charity's future fundraising offerings...

In short a recipe for sucessful fundraising requires us to step out of our world of charity employees and step into the shoes of our donors; to engage donors in conversations leaving our assumptions about them at the door of the focus group meeting room and to tap into donors interest and desires giving them a chance to do something they have not dreamt about doing before...

Creating compelling donor experiences ...

When was the last time that you as a fundraiser or marketing director took some time to listen to your charity's donors, to their views of how your charity is doing and their discriptions of how your charity goes about its business of changing the world?

The simple truth is that if you are not listening to what your donors are saying and belive me, they are saying something, then you will not be able to build relationships with them.

Think about it - endless surveys from different quarters of our sector indicate that the typical donor today is likely to have a University degree and a healthy distrust in institutions be it political or charitable. He or she are likely to be individuals who are looking to bond with - not simply support, organisations or people groups (causes) that exhibit similar values to their own.

If this typical donor is your charity's donor or, if these kind of donor is the one you are trying to attract what kind of compelling donor experience does your charity offer to them?

More to the point what kind of marketing strategy provide such experience and what would that look like?

Here are a couple of examples:

Bonding with new donors
When you become a new donor to Evergreen Family Friendship Services - a charity promoting family values in China in addition to the standard welcome/ thank you letter you receive a beautifully crafted card with a personalised message of gratitude for the new donor's partnership with Evergreen. Just a simple personal touch that makes the donor feel valued rather than another number in the database.

Welcoming donors and enquirers to the hub of the charity
Self-guided tours are now possible at the headquarters of a large international development charity. State of the art displays and kiosks mark different stages of this charity's development and enable the visitor to get a clear picture of the charity's achievements in the last 30 years. Add to this a lovely cafe and an interesting challenge issued by various charity staff members or volunteers inviting the visitor to get involved in different aspects of this charity's work and you have a wonderful experience of the heart of the charity that can satisfy even the most curious of donors or enquirers.

What about your charity?

If you too have created some compelling experiences for your donors and volunteers please feel free to share in the space below.