I apologize for my absence last week. I couldn't find it in me to discuss trivial matters of donors and money when what happened here in the US was all around me and impacted me so deeply. I'm back, but my thoughts are still with my country.
How many of you in your lifetime working at a nonprofit have done a gift announcement? You know, when a company or individual gives you a large amount of money and you rush to have a big Styrofoam foamcore check created, you iron out your photo background filled with your logo and you gather all of the key stakeholders so they can be in the photo. This is great, this is good, your donor is happy, you've served punch and pie and you've attempted to get some earned media in the local press out of it and goodwill everywhere. It looks a little something like this:
Not bad, right? But boy it sure is filled with sameness. I call these the Happy Gilmore check moments. In the classic movie Happy Gilmore wants all of his earnings paid to him in giant checks he keeps in the back of his car. They become a novelty item. Is that what they are to our donors as well? Do they have a collection of big checks somewhere? Is this the best way to recognize our donors' generosity? But wait, there's something else bothering me.
How many of you know the donor who has given the MOST amount of money? I'm sure most of you. How many of you know the donor who has given the longest consecutively to your organization? These loyal donors, this few, these generous souls they are the bedrock of your organization. For me, names like Hal, Eugenia, Bert and Tillie and Clifford come to mind. they give small amounts but they give year after year so I decided to search for the gift announcements for them. I looked for stories of big signs celebrating their loyalty and photos in newspapers and the like. Lo and behold, images of these donors began to appear as well here are their photos:
That's not a mistake. I couldn't find a single presentation of an organization with a big foamcore sign and tons of fancy looking happy officials memorializing 50 consecutive years of giving by a donor or the like. I liken myself to be an expert Googler so this isn't an error of the interwebs, it's OUR error. We are not always valuing the right thing. We're valuing the easy thing, the thing we believe others will follow. If we show other donors someone who has given a big amount, they will too, right? NO. It may have the exact opposite effect. Not everyone can write a big check, but everyone can be loyal. We need to change our worldview about what we value and start making these donors our heroes. I challenge each and every one of you to create at least one of these public celebrations of loyalty in the next year. Show our generous populations that loyalty matters, and that we are willing to reward it right alongside big amounts of money.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this and what you and your organization are doing to value and announce that loyalty matters, not just big gifts. Let's send a new message to our supporters, not just the ones that write the big checks about the value that every gift provides. Post a link below of your loyal gift announcement or your stories of your loyal donors, these folks are my donor heroes. I look forward to hearing your commentary and opinions on this topic.
Cheers,
Lynne
I love this article and the idea of having a public celebration of our most loyal supporters. Last year, we ran a consistent givers report and created a target list of donors who have consistently given 15+ years. We personally called on these donors and asked for a face-to-face visit where we thanked them for their unwavering commitment and presented them with a small token of our appreciation. They were usually surprised that we would want to see them and usually stressed that they wish they could do more. I can't wait to see the wonderful ideas that will be generated by this post. -- CC, Corpus Christi, TX
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea. What was your small token of appreciation? We always struggle as to what is appropriate. Thanks.
DeleteWe have a graduate that is an accomplished artist. We have notecards that have been created from her works and we present them during the visit. Like I said it's a small token but they appreciate the visit and the recognition.
DeleteThis year, my goal is to put together a legacy society of some sort that recognizes these donors. The timing of this article is perfect. I look forward to the feedback.
We have found that many of these donors don't want to be recognized like our big donors do. Instead, I regularly acknowledge how long they have been giving through hand-notes, and we are planning a special long-time donor recognition event this fall.
ReplyDeleteWKU has a program to recognize these very folks: https://www.wku.edu/dar/ag/agrec.php
ReplyDeleteCal Poly Pomona is now tracking loyal donors and will recognize the most loyal donor each year. It's a basic business concept that gets lost in a lot of development shops. Your repeat or most loyal donors are the ones who anchor your program and have the bequest potential. Kudos to all who get this reality.
ReplyDeleteWe are focusing on this group of donors more than ever and were shocked when we starting pulling reports that showed just how many of our donors have been giving annually for decades! For the week leading up to the release of last years donor report, we tweeted daily shout outs to our every day annual donors. On the Tuesday we tweeted this with a link the full report. "Thanks to @derekmcallister for giving faithfully to #Queensu for more than 25 years! #gratituesday
ReplyDeleteSee Donor Report http://bit.ly/1uS9rlC "
When I launched the Houston Pacesetters loyalty gift club at UH back in 2011-ish, the first fall we were live we brought all of the donors who had given 25 years plus out to a football game and they were each presented with a large fleece university-logo blanket by our president on field at half-time. Some brought their children or grandchildren out with them. Some cried. One of those blankets being held open wide with the group and our dynamic president amongst them all made for fantastic photo opportunity. Simple. Touching. Low cost. Great press. I hope I can be part of another amazing stewardship innovation like that again someday.
ReplyDeleteWe had some beautiful wood memo boxes designed and are hand delivering them to our 20+ year donors. For a few donors that have given 50+ years we have delivered gift baskets filled with 50 thank you notes from all over campus (Chancellor, provost, deans, executive staff, students etc.).
ReplyDeleteAt WPUNJ, we have a Heritage Society that recognizes giving at any level for 20 years or more. Anybody who reaches that milestone is automatically a member, but we "officially induct" people throughout the year by recognizing them and presenting them with a special pin if they attend an event like our scholarship dinner or a reunion. They also receive special invitations to certain events, have priority seating at graduation if they'd like to attend, and our donor relations office is their "concierge line" (though no one's ever taken advantage of that).
ReplyDeleteThese are still great ideas and a "touch" that they will remember - whether they attend or not.
DeleteWe will be starting a "loyals" society this year and are excited to hear some of the great things you all are doing. Any feedback on these questions would be so helpful: How do you measure loyal giving? Is it just to the Annual Fund or does it include gifts of any kind? Do you stick EXACTLY to the consecutive years of giving or are they given a grace year or two (i.e. 10 out of 12 years of giving)? And if you do it this latter way, how do you generate a report for this? We have not been able to figure out how to do this through Raisers Edge.
ReplyDeleteIn a perfect world I would just stick with Annual Fund gifts but I don't think it is realistic. It is very also dependent on how you are asking your donors for their support. Did you have a push one year for creating scholarship funds that didn't fall under the AF? Do you have a Annual Giving Day that is coded as a capital campaign? Those gifts should be included.
DeleteAlso my experience with doing this in RE is that it is a pain though it maybe a function of us having converted data that we needed to deal with. We ended up pulling reports and then adding and attribute of # of years given on to peoples records (that then have to get updated yearly...). It was/is a pain but it does allow for us to then pull people out of system so there is that.
My family and I have donated scholarships and large sums for an extended period of time. I am not in need of some sort of recognition. However, when after 26 years of our biggest scholarship, and after 5 thank you notes and/or reports from the students while at school or in the legal profession the other 21 have been as silent as the tomb. That really is annoying, I would prefer to meet the students have lunch with them and see what they are contributing to the World. As far as I am concerned they are dead to me (thank you Kevin O'Leary). This a waste of money and effort.
ReplyDelete