Don't judge a donor by their cover

When you're planning your next fundraising effort, donor relations engagement or communication, does the audience you're targeting play into your method of communication? Do your coworkers always say, "well this is targeted to our planned giving audience so we have to do print."? Not so fast my friend! 

Check out these wonderful statistics, knowing that data should inform our decisions:

 Woah, wait a minute you mean older folks actually give online? Hmm, this sounds like something we've been saying for a while. We can't plan our behavior based on stereotypes. The stereotype that older donors only want print is just as dangerous as other stereotypes that exist.


And older donors also can be driven print to digital, you don't always have to include an envelope and assume they will mail you a check.

Look at those numbers! And how does this relate to planned giving? Well, the opposite is true. 

The average age of a planned giving donor is 49. My friend Michael Rosen has a great blog about 20 surprising planned giving facts. He gives credence to the fact that once a planned gift is made, most people never remove it, making donor relations more important than ever. 

What are some of the other stereotypes that we must dismiss in order to be more effective in our work? Do these numbers surprise you? I'd love to hear from you.

Cheers,
Lynne