Everyone Must Believe

“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

I'm here in Anaheim California and I thought that this quote would be a great beginning to a post about how donor relations truly works best in an organization. I think it is essential, inextricable, vital that the donor focus start at the top. Not at the top of the donor pyramid, but at the top of the leadership pyramid of your organization. In order to revolutionize your organization's relationship with donors, the top must believe, and then you can fly. 

I often come into organizations where someone along the great food chain has bought into the idea of donor relations and realizes the success they can have by forming proper donor relationships and putting donors at the center of what they do. The crucial point of the visit usually occurs when I meet the person in charge of the organization and ask their opinion on what it would be like to have ideal donor relations. If their eyes twinkle and the words, "it's not just the right thing to do, it's a privilege" come flowing freely, then I know we can go far. If they hesitate and hem and haw about process and procedure and the importance of "getting dollars in the door" then I know we have a bumpy road to travel. 

You see,  the mindset must be part of a culture. And more than a culture of philanthropy, a wonderful organization must have what I call an "attitude of gratitude". And folks, that starts at the top. Leaders who are willing to throw themselves into thanking donors, even those who haven't given millions, inspire me. And what they get out of it is multiplied, they see first hand that the simple act of gratitude can change their outlook, inspire good will and give them a glimpse into a philanthropist's heart. I am thrilled to say that these leaders far outnumber those who say, "I'll hire someone to do that touchy feely stuff."

So what's your goal in 2015? Maybe one of them should be to assess the culture of gratitude at your organization. Find out if people begrudgingly write thank you notes or if it's something they enjoy. It will tell you a great deal about where you're headed and how. I look to partner with people who "get it" and understand that gratitude is one of the best parts of our job. People often ask me how to know if someone will be a good fit for donor relations if they have no prior experience. I tell them easily, if the person has gratitude in their heart and is quick to express it, that's someone I want talking to donors. That's someone who believes. 

Who believes at your organization? How do they allow you to fly? I look forward to hearing from you on how you assess the culture where you are. Happy new year and here's to a great 2015 in flight!

Cheers,
Lynne 

Naughty and Nice List

I've never been one to hold my tongue and at this time of Hannukah, Christmas and other holidays, I can't make an exception here. I've recently received some communications that make my heart sing and others that truly deserve a lump of coal. Many of you always ask me for examples of nonprofits that are nailing donor relations, and I love exposing others who are far from best practice. So here you go, ho ho ho! My Naughty and Nice list this 2014 season! I'll be back blogging after the holidays and a much needed break, until then may your season be merry and bright.

Sugarplums and Delights Go to:

Charity: Water for this amazing email about why they give and also these social media posts telling donor stories click on the image to lead you to the magic:

 

Candy Canes as well to Kalamazoo College, I received a great email from them with an impact report that was simply phenomenal, check it out:

 Then, it links to an amazing piece called "The Journey of a Gift" WOW. Absolutely Phenomenal. I will be continuing my giving to Kalamazoo. Kudos and Light to them!

 

Finally on my Nice list is Whitworth University, who I've been humbled enough to work with for the past two years. Their donor relations and fundraising program is inspired and gratitude centered. From their "Gratituesdays" on Social Media to the President and his Cabinet spending part of their retreat calling donors to say thank you to the amazing message below, they're doing it right folks. Not just good, but great and inspired! Their attitude of gratitude is infectious and positively radient!

My Naughty List and Lumps of Coal to the Following:

St. Jude's Children's Hospital: For offering a Christmas ornament for a monthly gift. We all know that tchotckes decrease giving, also, what if I'm not Christian? Do I have this from my menorah? Come on, we can do better, can't we? Stale, Chewy year old candy canes to them for this

Heifer International: for the worst and most solicitations humanly possible:

I gave a gift to them online as a part of #GivingTuesday, as a result since December 2nd, I have received more than 11 solicitations. 11 solicitations and one thank you email that also had an ask in it- THIS IS NO GOOD FOLKS! In addition, this email sent me over the edge: The subject line was the word "done"

 

Wait, Jinny, this email is completely about YOU and not ME. It's selfish and horrible and just all out wrong. I don't think I've ever been so insulted by an email before. I think Tom Ahern would be boiling and the number of times that Jinny talks about herself and shames me for not having finished my holiday shopping yet. SIGH. This is all about shopping and not about their mission, about the impact of my gift or anything relevant to me. Kudos to you Heifer International for having the ABSOLUTE worst, most GRINCH-LIKE solicitation ever. Two lumps of coal for you (or maybe it should be bunny poop).

 

So what do you think?
I hope you all have seen something this holiday season that has inspired you, I'm so happy to report that my list of additional nice organizations includes many many more. But the ones that are naughty are so close to Veruca Salt it's not funny anymore. Send me your holiday greetings, appeals and let's discuss how and why these things happen, nominate an organization below and send me a sample of their work and let's keep the discussion moving. 
Cheers,
Lynne

WADITWA Disease- "We've Always Done It That Way"

Nonprofit organizations seem to be diametrically opposed to change. My friend Mary always says that one of our greatest problems we face as a profession is overcoming the resistance of our organizations to change.

 Let's face it, many of us are solidly stuck in the 1980s when it comes to change management. I've written about my change management theory called shaking the snowglobe before here.

But how do we overcome the obstacle of tradition in our profession and allow for progress? We ourselves must be fearless in the pursuit of evaluating what is currently working, pushing for best in class programs and making a future for ourselves and our donors. Let's face it, most of our donors work in industries that have fully embraced the new millennium and beyond. Yet when they interact with us, they are driven back into the stone age by being respectful to our "traditions". To this I say, there has to be a better way.

One challenge is that being a risk taker in a traditional environment isn't always rewarded or applauded, but when it happens and when we embrace calculated risk and change, the results can be remarkable. Charity:Water is a great example of a non profit that embraces the new, different and challenges the status quo and they've been very successful doing it.

I find it ironic that nonprofit organizations' missions are tied directly to changing the world they're in, yet they resist change at every turn (cue Alanis Morrisette here). Is it because we lack the resources to affect change? Nope, not a good excuse. Is it because our leadership is risk adverse? Not necessarily, when I come in as a consultant I find leadership most welcoming to new ideas have sound reasoning behind them. So what is it that gives us the WADITWA disease?   

Is a cultural shift in nonprofits that difficult? I don't think so. Is now not the right time? Nope, carpe diem! Let's together stop making, accepting and allowing excuses to get in the way of fantastic progress. I'm here to help, provide resources and challenge your status quo. Join me as we venture forth bravely to banish WADITWA and all that comes with it. We must be the torchbearers for change from within our organizations.

What are your thoughts? What challenges do you face?

Cheers,
Lynne

The 2014 #GivingTuesday Challenge

Once again, I decided to challenge my self to stretch my philanthropic potential and to give to different organizations on #GivingTuesday. I have tracked my online giving experiences with 28 organizations here in this spreadsheet for you all to see. I tracked things like frustration level, online receipts, mobile compatibility and other factors and I have to tell you that while the results are better than 2012 and 2013, the world of online giving can be a scary place. There are some organizations that have clearly invested in their online giving sites and others in which the experience was like being teleported back to 1994.  It looks like we still have a long way to go. But the interactions on Twitter were much better this year. 

A word of note here, I was INUNDATED with  solicitations yesterday. And sadly, mere hours after I gave to Oxfam, SOME in DC and Heifer International, they RE-SOLICITED me on the same day. I am completely offended and turned off by this behavior, especially since I received 3 solicitations from Heifer urging me to give before the day was over when I had given at 7am that morning. Someone needs to do a better job of pulling their data. It will be next to impossible for me to give to those organizations again since obviously my first contribution wasn't enough for them.


I received 56 solicitations via email in one day. One of them was from 20/20/20, a non profit that promised me that when I responded to their solicitation and gave, I would NEVER BE ASKED AGAIN. Broken Promise. SMH.

The GREAT:

The SOLID:

The TRAGIC:

November Gratitude Resources

Hello Everyone! I'm having a tough time with gratitude today, so I thought instead I would bring you  wonderful resources.

My friend Pamela Grow has put together the November Nonprofit Blog Carnival and the theme this month is the Attitude of Gratitude!

Here is the link: http://www.pamelagrow.com/5162/november-nonprofit-blog-carnival-attitude-gratitude/

In addition, I have two free professional development opportunities upcoming for you:

Network for Good will be hosting a webinar that you can join without cost,

Here is the link for registration: http://learn.networkforgood.org/Nonprofit911-12-09-14TipsandTechniquestoRetainYearEndDonors_Registration.html

And Finally, Alan Sharpe is putting together an amazing event in January, the Fundraising Summit:

It has some amazing presenters and is completely FREE!! Use this link to register now for all of the online content. https://ov213.isrefer.com/go/funds/lwester17/

Enjoy and for those of you in the US, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, I am most grateful for your passion for our profession.

Cheers,

Lynne

Stop "Lettering" Donors Through Email

It's the most wonderful time of the year... for fundraisers we are entering the end of year solicitation cycle, when most of the gifts that support our organizations come in through a variety of channels. With the rise of online giving, we are seeing a rise in email solicitations. And boy, do we have some work to do in this department. 

Just like donor relations and stewardship are not synonyms, neither are letters and email. I become really frustrated every time I open a solicitation email on my mobile tablet or phone and have to scroll at least 10 times to get to the end of the message. I'm not alone. Remember, most email is read on a mobile device, it's 2014. You can't take your year end fundraising letter and cut and paste it into an email and think this is an amazing way to raise funds. 
Email is meant to be a short communication form, with dynamic images, great subject lines and a clear call to action. Keep it short, don't belabor me with having to read through hundreds of words of text.

Let's look at some examples of what works and what doesn't.
This epistle is over 400 words long. No, seriously. 

After I finish reading this thing, I'm exhausted, not inspired to give. 

But look here, look at these folks who are using email effectively- Great examples here:

 These folks are putting the donor at the center of their world, embracing mobile friendly design, and keeping it short and simple. If I'm interested, I'll click the link, but at least you haven't written a tome. Kudos!

 

This is another simple yet effective example- and for goodness sake, don't forget about the subject line- Peter Drury at Splash just sent a brilliant email solicitation and the subject line was "Do You Want to Do a Good Thing- with true impact?" YES I do. KUDOS to the folks at Splash!

Much better than the other one I received that week that read, "Give to the 2014 Annual Fund" Seriously? That's all you've got? zzzzzzz Come on, we can do better!

Planning a year end appeal? (of course you are) Think about the way it looks on your mobile device, think about the message it sends to donors. What are you saying and good grief why so many words? You will have much higher conversion rates if you put the donor at the center of your efforts and remember that mobile is king. Care to share your examples? email them to me (lynne@donorrelationsguru.com) and I can help you streamline them for success and help you raise more money! 

Cheers and happy asking!

Lynne

Survey Says: We're Driving Donors Away!

Every two years at about this time, The Lily School of Philanthropy and Bank of America through US trust issue an amazing report that is chock full of great data. I highly recommend we all read it in order to understand our donors and their motivations and activities. Here is the link to the 2014 US Trust Study of High net Worth Households. I am a huge fan of statistical data, rather than relying on anecdotes from folks, I prefer empirical evidence of nationwide trends. Donors are able to clearly express to us their needs and desires while also communicating why they believe they act the way they do. 

Key Findings:

AGAIN, #1 Reason Why Donors STOP Giving: OVER-SOLICITATION!

 

Remember, in order to solicit again, we have to THANK donors and then tell them the IMPACT of their giving, if we ask them for more money before we do those 2 things, we've over-solicited them. This data makes an even stronger case for donor relations- Ask yourself- What is our ask to thank ratio at our organization?

Another truth we know, if we get donors engaged as volunteers, in any capacity, they give MORE:

Another important factor to consider is that MOST donors make giving decisions together as partners:

What insights were you able to glean from the study? What numbers stood out to you? What would you like for them to have asked this donor population? I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,
Lynne