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 evaluate your charity's communications

Before designing the communications strategy for next year take some time to evaluate the marketing and fundraising communications your charity sent out this year. Here is a hands-on, simple evaluation framework that can reap great dividends.
 
Step One: Gather the various mailing packages, and other related online fundraising and marketing materials that your charity has prepared and sent to donors and contacts on the last 18 months. What you have in front of you and on your computer screen is likely to represent the sum total of intentional messages received by your charity's constituents.

 

Step Two: Take a highlighter and mark every purpose statement, expression of your charity's mission and fundraising asks you find embedded in your communications pieces.
 
What do you think? Can you see message consistency? Clearly stated fundraising asks?
 
Are you speechless? Stunned? Pleased? Alarmed?

 

Step Three: Ask yourself and - get your colleagues to ask themselves too - the following questions as you evaluate your charity's communications. Remember to be honest, otherwise there is no point in undertaking this exercise.
 
1. Does every communications' piece contain a clear statement of your charity's vision and mission? - Your goal should be to have bite-size version of our mission and vision in all communications so that donors are reminded of what you do and why their participation in your wok is important.

2. Do your printed and online materials communicate your charity’s brand? - Examine the language, style, design, use of images, headlines, colour schemes - do they adhere to your charity's style guide? Do they express your charity's unique personality and style? - Donors should be able to recongnise your materials and your messages in a crowded marketplace.  

If a donor visits your website, facebook page, or reads one of your promotional mailings, they should be able to easily identify elements (both copy and design) that set your charity apart from others involved in similar work.  

3. How are you telling your charity's stories? - People connect with a cause through compelling stories. How are you telling your stories in words and images? Are they inspiring? Memorable? Captured in headlines, copy as well as powerful authentic images?

4. How are you communicating the impact that the donors are making through their giving? - Today's donors want to know how the money they give is being spent. Openness and transparency helps to build donor trust in charities. So, have a look at your communications? How often do you let donors know how the money is being used? Do you report back on how much was raised through various appeals? Do you let them know what your administration costs are and how much money goes to the project in the field? Is there consistency in these messages or do they contradict each other?

5. How do you thank your donors? - Saying 'thank you' is a way of strengthening relationships with donors and assuring them that their gifts will be used as intended. It is also a way of securing future gifts. How do you say 'thank you'? Are there any thank you messages incorporated in your newsletters, emails, etc as well as personalised letters? Are the thank you messages dry and formal or warm and encouraging?

6. Do you encourage donors to engage with your charity? - How many of your charity's communications give donors opportunities to offer feedback, ask questions, share their views about your work, or even tell you why they support your charity? Do you give donor's a voice through your printed materials, your website or online forums? Do you act on their suggestions and offer them feedback? - In a connected world one way communications are becoming extinct and collaboration is the name of the game. 

These might seem like simple questions but you would be surprised as to how many time charities get them wrong .... so take your time with this exercise, evaluate the findings and improve the effectiveness of your communications in 2012.

 

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...