Does Your Charity Appreciate Its Volunteers? ‪

Sometimes budget-conscious charity leaders think that spending time or money to show appreciation to volunteers is a frivolous activity.

But, I beg to disagree. In my opinion, doing small things regularly to show volunteers how much you appreciate their time and commitment to you cause is a great way to build a stronger volunteer community.

Thanking and appreciating volunteers is key, especially in today’s society, where most people seem to be incredibly busy and time has become their most valuable resource.

Here are a few things you can do to thank and appreciate your charity’s volunteers:

1. Send them a nice thank you card hand signed by members of your staff team;

2. Do something special for volunteers who have been serving with your charity for 5 years or more. You might consider purchasing some small gifts like mugs, pens, tie pins, etc and brand them with your charity’s logo. Send them a nice letter and a special gift on their 5 or 10 anniversary of serving with you to show them how much you appreciate their efforts and support;

3. Organise annual volunteer appreciation events – inviting volunteers to an afternoon tea or a buffet dinner in a local church. Get your mission workers to share their stories at these events and to thank volunteers directly;

4. Organise special appreciation events for people who do sponsored fundraising activities for your cause – they might not be volunteering regularly but they just run a marathon, or did a walk or a bike ride, etc.

Make sure you show appreciation to them by sending them a thank you note, interviewing them for your magazine or newsletter, doing something special with them on the day of the event they did. Whatever you do make sure you show your gratitude for their time, efforts and financial support;

5. Host any other fun activities for volunteers that you consider appropriate for your charity, its mission and geographical location.

My point is that by adding an appreciation element to your charity’s volunteer programme you will be standing apart from the crowd.

What’s more you will be ministering to your volunteers and helping to build a stronger sense of community and above all you will be encouraging them to continue to serve joyfully.

Three keys to successful direct mail campaigns - Part One

Did you know that the success of a fundraising appeal is decided before you sit down to write your letter? -  In fact, it is decided during the crucial planning phase when you and your team determine the target audience/s, the fundraising proposition and the creative direction of the appeal.

Regardless of how compelling your stories are or how innovative your project may be, writing a good letter is not likely to bring in the money without proper planning.

The first key to success: Getting your audience/s right!

Selecting the right audience, or in other words, the right segments of the database you are mailing your letter to, is critical to fundraising success.

You can write an average fundraising appeal but if you select the right audience/s then you have a fighting chance at reaching your appeal goals.

But, get the audience/s wrong, and even if you send them the most beautifully written and designed letter, you are likely to fail.

Come along to our Hitting the Spot with Direct Mail workshop to find out how to identify the database segments or audience/s that are most likely to respond to your fundraising appeals, as well as those who are less likely to do so.

At our upcoming fundraising workshop on the 23rd February 2015 we will share some simple steps for doing effective audience segmentation and show you how to improve the ROI's of your fundraising appeal.

Book your place at our Hitting the Spot with Direct Mail Workshop today. 

How to raise less money through your fundraising appeals

Here are some common pitfalls to avoid if you want to raise more money, not less, through your fundraising appeals:

Don't ask. The truth is if you don't ask you don't get. However, many appeals fail to ask donors to give in compelling and inspiring ways. Some charities seem eager to talk about their needs or share stories and only ask once, rather sheepishly, in the final paragraph of the second page - saying something like: ' We need your support to do all this so please give generously.'

If you want to fundraise successfully make sure you position the ask strategically in various places of your appeal, in the response tool and outer envelope. Ask in a warm and enthusiastic manner, show donors what their gifts will accomplish and thank them in advance for their generous contributions.

Talk a lot about your charity's needs. I am sure donors love your charity but at the end of the day they give for their own reasons not yours. So, stop telling them about your organisational needs (e.g. we must meet our budgets, pay our bills, etc) and don't hog all achievements.  Make an effort to understand what motivates your donors to give (and no, it is not because they think you are the best!).

And, start talking about donors as members of your wider team, talk about how they are changing the world and impacting lives through your charity's work.

Don't convey a sense of urgency. The donor might have thought your appeal was good but they filed it away to deal with it some other day. The problem is that one or two weeks later they forgot what moved them about the appeal and threw it away.

To avoid this make sure you communicate to the donor the reasons why they should respond quickly. You can do this by adding a deadline to the letter or by incorporating various reasons as to why the donor should respond with a gift right now.

Don't get donor's attention. According to direct marketing guru Siegfried Vögele you have up to 20 seconds to hook the donor into reading the appeal! During that time they are likely to - open the envelope, examine the contents and decide whether to read on or not.  

Are your stories compelling? Is your ask clear? Is the design of the letter clean and simple? Do your photos tell a story? - All the elements of the package need to work together for fundraising success.

Try to convince the head, not move the heart. Cerebral descriptions of your charity's programmes and lots of statistics are great for training your staff team. But, they are not the stuff fundraising letters are made off. Big picture statistics or statements rarely stir someone's heart but good stories do.

Sound too clever. Successful fundraising copy is simple copy that a 'distracted' donor can read with ease. This means using short paragraphs, short sentences and everyday English.  Remember that the donor wasn't expecting a letter from you and they probably get a lot of stuff in the mail from other charities too. After a long day the last thing a donor wants to do is read a letter filled with run-on sentences, acronyms and big words.

Send fewer appeals. Often donors are likely to support charities that continue to keep them involved through a variety of communications. And, donors who feel appreciated and true partners in your work are likely to give again and again, when presented with new opportunities to make a difference. 

Eight helpful tips for improving direct mail fundraising

• Direct mail fundraising is often counter-intuitive and the chances are that your CEO, trustees or staff will have plenty of opinions about it. But, the reality is that some of their opinions might do more harm than good to your fundraising appeals. So, here is a rule of thumb for dealing with people who mean well but who aren't trained fundraisers or marketers - don't change your appeals simply because one of them 'has a feeling that this will not work'.

• The best way to improve the performance of your fundraising appeals is to do some testing. So go ahead and test cause concepts, creative approaches, donor motivations, giving handles - then adjust your future appeals based on what you discover.

• Focus on Audience and Cause Concept first then on the Creative. When developing a direct mail campaign some clients want to focus their time and effort on getting the Creative right. Although the Creative matters, because donors are visual, understanding what motivates your audience and speaking to their needs is the most critical element of the planning process. After that, the focus should be on the Cause Concept (why the donor should give, and why now). Remember that Audience and Cause Concept account for up to 80% of the success of fundraising mailings.

• Are you hiding your ask deep in the middle of your appeal? If you are spending time and money to send out fundraising letters, be bold! Make your ask prominent and repeat it throughout the letter. And, while you are at it, make sure you are asking for a specific gift based on donors' past giving history.

• Did you know that matching gifts challenges are likely to increase direct mail response rates and total income? That's because donors love leverage. So, if you get one or more gifts from a grant making trust for a project you can follow that up with a direct appeal asking your donors to match the gifts you have received from the trust/s.

• Most people love handwritten notes, so you might not be surprised to hear that including a handwritten PS in your appeals can help to increase their effectiveness. Use handwritten notes on major donor appeals to make them more authentic and see your response rates and average gifts go up.

• Don't use generic thank you letters for your fundraising appeals - make sure you write a tailored thank you letter for each appeal instead. Use the thank you letter as a powerful tool to enable donors to experience how their gift made a difference and to show appreciation for their support.

• Stop treating direct mail fundraising as a selection of random appeals and think of it as an intentional programme for converting prospects into donors and for growing their engagement with your cause. Take time to plan your direct mail programme - jot down some key themes, provide continuity of stories and images, build upon previous appeals and take the donor on an exciting journey of changing the world through your charity. 

Insights on improving conversations with your charity's donors

The most common way of measuring donor response is by looking at the outcomes of fundraising appeals, online campaigns, newsletter response slips, etc. How many donors said 'Yes’ with their gifts and how many said ‘No’ by ignoring your request for support.

But, is this really all that is being said in the conversation between your charity and your donors? It seems to me that there is a lot more to be gleaned from donor’s responses to your appeals and other communications.

For example, consider these responses from your charity's donors:

·       Yes, I’ll support your cause, but not by taking on a direct debit.

·       Yes, I’ll give you more than what you are asking for by filling in the blank space you’ve provided.

·       Yes, I’ll give something even when you are not asking because I am really inspired by your newsletters.

·       No, not now, but I will give at a different time of the year.

·       No, I will not give to your cause just yet.

If you want to engage donors in a meaningful conversation with your charity you need to recognise that they are not just saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and be ready to address a wider range of more subtle responses.

For example, suppose a donor sends a gift that is significantly larger than the suggested amounts on the response form. How should you respond?

You will say ‘Thank you’ of course, like you always do. But, should that be all? – How about telling them that you have noticed the gift is more generous than usual.

But, what else is the donor trying to tell you? You can find some clues in their giving patterns. How large is the gift compared to the donor’s lifetime giving value? Did they make this gift at a special time of the year, or at a time when they usually give?

If the gift is a significant increase, and especially if it is offered at a time of the year when they don’t usually give, they might be telling you they have received a windfall or money from a legacy.

Now, you can start into a new conversation with this donor by drawing them into a deeper relationship with your charity. If the donor is saying that they are happy to give more to your cause then change the money handles in their appeal next time you ask for a gift or consider moving them into a new donor group.

However, most fundraisers do not carry out such conversations with individual donors. They communicate with thousands of people at the same time through appeals, or email campaigns.

And, this is where the donor conversations get both interesting and challenging. If you are communicating or talking to thousands of donors at a time how can you treat them as individuals? – The answer is through rigorous database analysis.

Just think about the results of your recent fundraising campaigns. If each one of your donors is trying to tell you something what useful information can you glean from their responses?

What about the donor segments with the highest response and low average gifts? Are they looking for the right reasons to make larger gifts?

And, what about record numbers of lapsed donors who were reactivated through the Christmas appeal? Should you be using this appeal package to reactivate other lapsed donors in the future?

What are the donors who seem to respond to regular giving asks in relation to one aspect of your work trying to tell you?

The answers you are looking for are in your response slips and in your database. You just need a good way of discovering them. This is where we can help. 

Take our Fundraising Fitness Test to find out what donors are saying to your charity and to develop segmentation plans that can increase your appeal ROIs.

How to use email effectively in fundraising

Email is one of the most cost-effective ways to stay in touch with supporters and to keep them involved with your cause. Yes, many charities tend to exploit this communication tool effectively to increase donor engagement and to fundraise online. 

Have a look below and see how you can improve the effectiveness of your charity's emails: 

Start segmenting your email list. If you are running a robust direct mail programme you are probably segmenting your database and sending different asks to different donor groups. So, why send everyone in your email list the same fundraising ask? Now is the time to customise your email campaigns based on how you acquired the email addresses and the relationship you have with them. 

A good place to start is to divide your list into some broad segments and determine some source codes for future email segmentation.

 Integrate your direct mail appeals with your email appeals. Follow up your direct mail letters with email appeals a few weeks after sending out the paper appeal. Share the appeal stories and fundraising asks in these special emails and encourage the supporter to give online. Send a second round of emails to past donors who have not responded to the appeal or the previous email.  

Test the marketing mix of your emails frequently. You can take advantage of the simplicity of A/B tests and the low cost of email testing to test the creative mix, the key messages, the fundraising offers etc with different email audiences. You can see very quickly how donors respond and then re-launch the emails that have performed better than others. 

Create easy and simple to navigate landing pages. You can send out some great emails and link them to your website but if donors have to click three or four times to get to the donation page then you would have lost most of them.  So link your emails to landing pages that tell your charity impact story, ask for a donation and allow the donor to complete the giving transaction without clicking through to another page. 

Add links to podcasts or videos  in your emails. Many donors want to experience your charity's work in one way or another and videos or podcasts can help them to see your work for themselves and to meet the people whose lives them are impacting with their gifts. 

Make it easy for readers to share your messages on social media sites.  Place social media buttons prominently within your e-mails and encourage your readers to share the stories or photos.

Become more intentional in gathering email addresses. Incorporate a request for email address in various printed communications, if you are offering resources etc make special offers available online, think of something of value that you can offer to supporters in return for their email address. 

Make your emails mobile friendly. These days probably half of your donors are checking and reading their emails on their mobile phones. So keep your content short and the design of your emails simple. 

Use email to turn contacts and one-ff donors into regular givers. Design a set of three emails that focus on converting non-donors or one-off donors into regular givers. Share a strong impact story and emphasise why and how regular gifts can change lives. Use these emails at regular intervals with different segments of your email list. 

Please feel free to suggest other ways of using email effectively for fundraising and marketing your charity's cause.