donor-centered

How Your Nonprofit Can Stand Out in a Sea of Information

Ann Green Communications, direct mail, donor-centered, email, multichannel, planning, writing , , , , ,

Our world is packed with information, too much at times. When I was growing up, we just had a few TV channels to choose from. Now there are countless streaming options. We also have email, the internet, and social media, just to name a few. It’s a lot!

How does your nonprofit organization compete with all this? You need to communicate regularly with your donors and you need to do it well. But in this sea of information, they might miss your messages. 

Here are a few ways you can make your messages stand out and get noticed. 

What’s your intention?

What’s the purpose of your message? What do you want your reader to do? Are you asking for a donation? Maybe you’re thanking your donor or sharing an update.

Think from your reader’s perspective. What would she be interested in or what would make him take action?

Don’t muddle your messages with too much information. Keep it simple and stick to one call to action or type of message. If you ask someone to make a donation, volunteer, and contact their legislators in the same message, they may not do any of that.

Choose the right channels

Most likely you’ll use more than one channel to communicate. Pay attention to the channels your donors are using and focus your efforts there.

Email may be your primary mode of communication and there’s a reason for that. It’s fast, easy, relatively inexpensive, and almost everyone has an email address. You can quickly get a message out to a lot of people. Also, unlike social media, it’s something you can control. You don’t have to rely on a social media algorithm to hope your message ends up in your donor’s feed.

The downside is people get an enormous amount of email from a variety of different sources. Political organizations and candidates here in the U.S. send a ton of email messages and it’s only going to get worse as the 2024 election approaches. I tend to ignore a lot of those emails and then end up missing something important. Plan a strategy to help you break through the noise. 

Plus, the average email open rate is around 20%. And, social media is often just a lot of a lot.  

You can see how easy it is for your electronic messages to get lost in the shuffle. Your donors may just tune things out, even if you have something engaging to share. 

While you’ll likely use electronic communication pretty regularly, don’t discount direct mail. Your donors are more likely to see these messages. We get far less postal mail than electronic communication. Also, someone can put a piece of mail aside and look at it later. Don’t count on that happening with any type of electronic communication. You can also communicate by phone. This is a great way to thank your donors.

Going multichannel is usually your best bet. This is very common for fundraising campaigns and inviting people to events, as well as including a link to your email newsletter on your social media platforms. This way if people miss your initial message on one platform, they may see it on a different one. You’ll also want to send regular reminders for fundraising appeals and event invitations.

Get noticed right away

Your donors have a lot going on and you need to capture their attention right away.

Your fundraising letters and anything else you send by mail need to look appealing enough to open. You could put a tagline on the envelope. That doesn’t mean something like It’s Our Annual Appeal. Try something like – How you can help families move into their own homes. or THANK YOU!

Your envelope should look personal and not resemble a bill or junk mail. A few ways to make your mail stand out are to use something other than the usual white business envelope, hand address your envelope, and use stamps.

Once your donor opens your fundraising appeal, lead with a story followed by a clear, prominent ask. When they open your thank you letter, they should be greeted with gratitude.

A good subject line is the key to getting someone to open your email message. Keep in mind that your donor’s inbox is bursting with messages. Don’t use something boring like April e-newsletter or Donation Received. Entice them with Learn how you helped the Stevens family find their own home or You just did something amazing today! Putting someone’s first name in the subject line can also help with open rates.

Keep them engaged once they open your message.

Keep it short

In many cases, a shorter message is best. You want a good balance between saying too much and saying too little. All your words should count, so be careful about adding too much filler. That often includes bragging about your organization and explaining what you do.

Keep in mind the average human attention span is about eight seconds.

Your goal is to get your donors to read your messages. If it looks long and boring, they probably won’t bother.

Make it easy to read and scan

Besides sending a short message, use short paragraphs and lots of white space, too. Your messages need to be easy to read and scan in an instant. Most people aren’t going to read something word for word. Be sure they can quickly get the gist of what you want to say. Don’t use microscopic font either – use 12 point or higher.

Be personal and conversational

Write directly to your reader using clear, conversational language – no jargon. Don’t confuse your donors with generic messages.

Don’t cast a wide net

It’s important to send your messages to the right audience and your audience isn’t everyone.

You’ll have more luck with a fundraising appeal when you send it to past donors or people who have a connection to your cause. The same is true for event invitations or recruiting volunteers.

You may want to reach out to as many people as possible, but that won’t guarantee you’ll get more donations or event attendees. Segmenting and engaging with the right audience will bring you better results.

Be a welcome visitor

If you communicate regularly and do it well, your donors should recognize you as a reputable source and are more likely to read your messages. If all you do is send them generic fundraising appeals, prepare to be disappointed.

When you send email, make sure people know it’s coming from your organization. In the from field, put DoGood Nonprofit or Nancy (Jackson), DoGood Nonprofit. If you just put a person’s name, people may not know who it’s from and ignore your message, unless that person is well known to your readers.

Only send email to people who have opted into your list. Otherwise, you’re spamming them. Some people will choose not to receive email from you and that’s okay. The ones who do are interested in hearing from you. Give people the option to unsubscribe, too. Measuring your email metrics will help you communicate more effectively. 

When you send email, it’s important to strike a balance between being known and being annoying. Unlike the political organizations I mentioned above, many nonprofits don’t communicate enough. Be sure to reach out anywhere between once a week and once a month.

Even though people only get a few pieces of mail a day, most of it’s junk mail. You never want any of your letters, newsletters, or postcards to be perceived as junk mail (see above).

By putting in a little time and effort, you can help ensure that your messages stand out in a sea of information.

How to Improve Your Communication for Better Donor Engagement

Ann Green appeal letters, Communications, donor engagement, donor-centered, planning, stories, thank you letters, writing , , , , , , , ,

In my last post, I wrote about potential missed opportunities for donor engagement. You may think you’re practicing donor engagement by sending thank you letters and an e-newsletter, but is the content actually engaging? It’s often formulaic and just downright dull.

Many nonprofits send all their donors the same appeal and thank you letters. In these letters, they never thank a donor for their past support or acknowledge they’re a monthly donor.

If that’s not bad enough, many of these letters use vague and impersonal language and even worse, jargon.

It sounds obvious, but your donor engagement should be engaging. If it’s not, it’s time to move away from generic and impersonal communication. Your donors deserve better. Here are a few suggestions to help you improve your donor communication.

Segment your donors

Your donors aren’t the same, so they shouldn’t all get the same letter or other types of communication. Segment your donors into different groups as much as you can. At the very least, create different letters for new donors, repeat donors, and monthly donors. You can also personalize letters to lapsed donors, event attendees, volunteers, etc.

I emphasize segmenting your donors a lot in my posts because it’s so important. Both because it allows you to send your messages to the right audience and you can personalize those messages. Donors like it if you recognize their past giving or anything that shows them this is more than a generic, one-size-fits-all message. 

Also, please stop sending Dear Friend letters. You’re not being a good friend if you don’t even use your donors’ names.

I know this will take more time, but it’s worth the investment. So is a good CRM/database to help you with this. Your donors will feel appreciated and are more likely to give again, possibly at a higher level.

Use language your donors will understand

If you use vague, generic language and jargon, you’re going to instantly bore and/or confuse your donors. Most of your donors don’t have a medical or social services background. They don’t use terms like food insecurity, at-risk populations, and underserved communities – and neither should you. Stay away from insider language. 

Connect with your donors by using language they’ll understand. Instead of writing about food insecurity, give an example of a single mother choosing between buying groceries and paying the heating bill.

What do you mean by at-risk or underserved? Are high school students less likely to graduate on time? Do residents of a certain community not have good health care nearby? Is housing too expensive? Get specific, but at the same time, keep it simple. Also, terms like at-risk and underserved undermine your clients/community. Remember, these are human beings you’re writing about.

A great way to break free from generic language and jargon is to tell stories. Most people respond better to a human-interest story than a bunch of boring statistics.

Make time for improvement

You may be between fundraising campaigns right now and have a little more time (or maybe not). If so, work on segmenting the donors in your database, if you haven’t already done that. Segment your donors on an ongoing basis. For example, some of your single-gift donors may have upgraded to monthly. If you can do this after every campaign, you should have fairly up-to-date information on your donors.

In addition, dust off those templates and freshen up your appeal letters and thank you letters. Situations throughout the world keep changing and your communication needs to be relevant. Create letter templates for different donor groups and replace your vague, generic language with something clear, conversational, and specific.

You can also use this time to add new stories to your story bank or start putting one together, if you don’t already have one.

Have someone outside of your organization, a friend or family member, look at your messages. Something that’s clear to you may confuse others.

Create communication that shows your donors how much you appreciate them by recognizing who they are and giving them engaging content they can relate to.

Are You Missing Out On Opportunities To Engage With Your Donors?

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor relations, donor-centered, monthly donors, thank you letters , , , , ,

I recently finished tallying last year’s donations for our taxes. Always a fun task. Going through all the donation letters and emails triggered a few insights I’d like to share. Chances are, you’re missing out on opportunities to engage with your donors.

Sending a yearly donation summary is very helpful

Most of the gifts I make are monthly donations and organizations that sent a summary of all those gifts made it so much easier for me. I also made additional contributions to some of those organizations.  

You may not need to send a summary if someone just made one gift. Your thank you letter can include the important tax information, but there’s no guarantee your donors will keep that.

My suggestion is to send all your donors a yearly summary of their gifts the following January. Send it by mail, if you can. This is also an opportunity to reach out. Make it more than just a receipt. Thank your donors and let them know how their gift(s) helped your clients/community during the past year. Some organizations send two pages – one is a thank you letter and the other is a list of all the donations.

If you don’t send a summary, donors have to go through their donation records and credit card statements and that’s just tedious. 

The Case of the Missing Monthly Donations

One organization mailed me a yearly summary letter that included a short handwritten note and a list of my monthly donations from last year, which was good. What wasn’t so good was it didn’t include any donations from November and December. When I went online to check my credit card records, I discovered I wasn’t charged for January and February either.

I’m not sure why that happened. I set up the monthly donation in November 2022, so maybe it expired after a year. My credit card is good for a few more years. Maybe they changed their payment processor. Sometimes monthly gifts mysteriously stop.

I wonder why someone from the organization didn’t notice this and contact me about it. 

The lesson here is to pay attention to what’s going on with your monthly donors. Put a system in place where you can flag expiring credit cards. Better yet, invest in a payment processor that automatically updates credit cards. And, if you do change your payment processor, make it easy for donors to switch to the new one.

You don’t want any of these donations to slip through the cracks. Even though many monthly donations are $5.00 or $10.00 a month, these small donations make a difference. The organization I mentioned above missed out on four months of revenue from me. Most likely I wasn’t the only one.

Monthly donors are some of your most valuable donors. Ignore them at your peril.

Donor communication is a mixed bag

My folder of donation acknowledgment letters was bursting from the seams, so I recycled ones that were a few years old. I also keep thank you cards and print pieces I like to use as examples of good donor engagement. I recycled some of those too, although there weren’t as many of them (read on). 

It shouldn’t surprise you that some organizations do a better job of communicating with their donors than others. A few knock it out of the park, but most range from okay to nonexistent.  

Some examples of good print communication from my folder include postcards, handwritten thank you notes, short impact reports, a welcome package, holiday cards, and a note from a child with cancer. You’ll notice most of these are relatively short pieces. There’s no need to create something long (and often boring).

If you’re not communicating by mail, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to engage with your donors. Mail is more personal and your donors are more likely to see it. Good communication also includes content that focuses on how your donors helped you make a difference and not on your organization. Try to mail something besides fundraising appeals at least three or four times a year.

Of course, you’ll use email and social media more often. Unfortunately, a lot of electronic communication is not inspiring. I noticed that when I was going through my email gift acknowledgments. 

If you use PayPal for your monthly donations, they send a receipt each month, and all it is is a receipt. In some cases, that’s the only time I hear about that gift. Are you letting PayPal do your work for you?

Other organizations do send their own automated monthly gift acknowledgments/receipts and that’s about it. I’ve mentioned before that these can be helpful, but don’t count as a legitimate thank you or any type of donor communication.

Here’s another missed opportunity. There’s no reason your automatic thank you email, whether it’s for a monthly or one-time gift, can’t be warm and personal. If you send monthly gift acknowledgments, update the content periodically. Kelly McLaughlin of From Scratch Fundraising recommends blind copying a staff person on those automatically generated emails and having that person send an additional more personal email. At the very least, you can differentiate between new gifts and repeat gifts. 

And while you’re at it, make your email subject line more engaging. Say something like Thank you, Julie! or Look at the difference you made and not Donation Received or anything that includes the word transaction.

I’ve found it’s often the same few organizations that go the extra mile, so the rest of you need to step up. Don’t miss out on these opportunities to engage with your donors. Always remember that better donor communication will help you raise more money.

Image Credit: www.epictop10.com

Spring Into Action by Paying Attention to Your Donor Retention

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor relations, donor retention, donor-centered, planning , , , , ,

Donor retention is a perennial problem for nonprofit organizations. Many organizations spend all this time and energy on acquiring donors, concentrating more on volume and don’t seem to be concerned that they’re churning through different donors year after year. Just like the flowers and plants in your garden, you need to give them care and attention. 

You should be keeping track of your retention rate. If you’re losing donors, it could be because you’re either not communicating enough or communicating poorly. Fortunately, this is something you can fix, but donors don’t magically donate, or more important, keep donating to your organization.

You need more than luck to keep your donors

Building relationships with your donors is one of the most important components of fundraising.

Donor relations should be easier than raising money and it can be fun, too. Make it a priority, as well as something you do throughout the year.

But it will take more than leprechauns granting wishes. If you want to keep reaching for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, you’ll need to work at it. If you ignore your donors or communicate poorly, they’re unlikely to donate again.

One-and-done fundraising is just March Madness

In NCCA men’s college basketball, players are eligible for the NBA draft after playing one season. This is known as one-and-done. If you watch the men’s tournament, it’s likely many of the players won’t be around next year. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments are also referred to as March Madness, although the one-and-done policy doesn’t apply to women’s basketball.

Another place you’ll find one-and-done is in nonprofit fundraising. The donor retention rate for first-time donors is around 25%. Obviously, we can do better.

If you can get your first-time donors to give again, it’s much more likely they’ll keep giving. That second donation is known as the golden donation (that pot of gold?). This is why it’s important to engage with your new donors and send them a welcome package right after their first gift. But don’t neglect your longer-term donors. You also want to make them feel special.

A time for new beginnings

Spring is just around the corner (hopefully) and it’s a time for new beginnings. Maybe you can share a new initiative that you were able to launch with your donors’ help.

Speaking of new beginnings, how are you engaging with your first-time donors?  That welcome package, which I hope you sent, is just the first step. Keep letting them know how much you appreciate this new relationship. If you don’t, it’s likely to be a short relationship. 

A consistent stream of donor communication is crucial

Here in the Boston area where I live, we have the most inconsistent weather. Not that long ago it was almost 60 one day and it struggled to stay in the 30’s the next, although we’ve had very little snow this winter.

Inconsistent levels of donor communication should have no place in the nonprofit world. You don’t want to barrage donors with appeals and then go silent for a while.

Ideally, you want to reach out somewhere between once a week and once a month. And not just with appeals. You need to thank donors and share updates.  Follow the ask, thank, report, repeat formula. This is essential for good donor retention.

A communications calendar will help. So will sending shorter, more frequent updates.

Spring forward to reach out to your donors

March may be a slower time for you. Maybe you have a fundraising campaign or event planned this spring. If so, you definitely want to engage with your donors first. If you don’t have anything scheduled for a while, these in-between times are just important. 

As you’ll notice, I’ve made references to a bunch of March themes – St. Patrick’s Day, daylight saving time (going back on daylight saving time is one of my favorite times of the year), March Madness, and spring. But you don’t need a holiday, special occasion, or a theme as a reason to reach out to your donors. Do it just because they’re great and you can’t do your work without them.

Keep focusing on better donor retention. You should be more successful if you do.

5 Creative Donor Appreciation Ideas for Small Nonprofits

Ann Green donor engagement, donor relations, donor-centered, events, gratitude, planning, video , , , , , ,

Thanking donors is crucial for securing gifts—especially for small nonprofits trying to build a support base. Show your gratitude with these creative ideas.

By Logan Foote

Building relationships is crucial for nonprofits to grow their impact. For small nonprofits in particular, these relationships are critical to growing and scaling your work to drive additional impact. A big part of such relationships is thanking donors and partners for their continued support and generosity. Truly, every donor deserves a heartfelt thank-you message for their contributions and gifts, but you can take it to the next level and make a lasting impression with an appreciation event or customized outreach.

Fun, memorable donor appreciation events and initiatives function to build a sustainable support network for your small nonprofit. Consider these appreciation ideas to thank your donors in a new and memorable way.

  1. Exclusive Events & Activities

An event designed exclusively for donors shows how much you value their support and your relationship with them. These can be tacked on to an existing event, such as your charity golf tournament, annual conference, or gala. The point is to limit it to “donors only” to reward them for their generosity. 

For instance, let’s say you’re organizing a charity golf tournament to raise money for your work. You might invite donors to an exclusive reception the day or evening before the tournament, complete with refreshments, tee times, access to the driving range, and branded merchandise as a thank you for their donations. Another idea is to have a specific flight (a series of smaller competitions within a golf tournament) or round of the tournament that’s just for donors, with special prizes for the flight’s winners.

  1. Behind the Scenes Tours

Your donors care about your mission’s progress and are investing in your daily operations by donating. Give them a new perspective on the work they’re supporting with a behind-the-scenes tour. Continuing with the golf tournament example, you might invite donors to visit while you’re prepping player gift bags or auction items. Or perhaps ask them to participate in a tour of your facility to see how your programs operate and even interact with some beneficiaries (with their permission). 

  1. Storytelling Events

Storytelling is the linchpin of your nonprofit’s case for support, so holding an event centered around that is a way to share your mission’s impact in a social setting. Invite donors to an event with a meal or refreshments and a series of stories shared by your nonprofit’s beneficiaries. Donors will have the chance to network with other donors and make connections with beneficiaries. Consider premiering any new videos or unveiling new initiatives at such an event, not only to give donors a sneak peek, but to help them want to have a stake in your organization’s future. 

Another idea is to tie storytelling into your nonprofit’s charity auction. After you’ve completed reporting from the auction and determined who made the largest contributions by purchasing the big ticket items, invite them to a storytelling event. Share in-depth insights into the impact of the money raised and how it plays into your overall mission. Donors will love the chance to meet and get to know other supporters while learning more about your organization’s future.

  1. Donor Appreciation Wall

A donor appreciation wall immortalizes your nonprofit’s most impactful donors. It’s a meaningful way to add these donors to your organization’s collective history. Place such a wall in a high visibility location, such as the entrance to your office or other facility. You can add your nonprofit’s own twist to this classic appreciation idea by determining how you’ll segment out donors on the wall and how each should be recognized. Consider these ideas:

  • Giving Tiers. Tailor these to your nonprofit to recognize major contributors to your fundraising efforts. According to Double the Donation, a common tier structure used by many organizations is bronze, silver, gold, and platinum donors and sponsors.
  • Legacy Leaders. This idea works well for younger nonprofits that are in growth mode and relied on these gifts to get their work off the ground. More established nonprofits can retroactively add donors who have significantly contributed to your growth over time. 
  • Community Champions. You might recognize donors who also volunteer their time and advocate for your nonprofit to their networks to this group. 

Other categories could include donors who contributed to fundraising events, funded a specific project or program, or contributed to a capital campaign. As your nonprofit grows, add more tiers to your appreciation walls. Be sure to plan your design with future growth and recognition in mind. You might even ask donors for their feedback on the new groupings before you finalize your thank you plan.

  1. Customized Videos

Video is an incredibly powerful tool that nonprofits should leverage whenever possible. Creating customized videos expressing your gratitude to donors is yet another way to build and strengthen relationships with your organization. These types of thank you videos don’t have to be complicated or expensive—in fact, anyone with a laptop or smartphone can make one!

Work with your organization’s president, executive director, or even a beneficiary to assist you in creating the content. Ask them to create video snippets that address each donor by name and reference the specific fund, campaign, or event they’ve contributed to. For instance, if a donor who attended your charity golf tournament excelled at one of your on-course games, won the tournament, or got a hole-in-one, be sure to mention their involvement and thank them for their participation.

In terms of logistics, batching out this personalized content will streamline the production process and the customized portion can be added to video clips that provide additional context about your work. 

Wrapping Up

Thanking donors is crucial to retaining them over time. It does add another step to the process and potentially some expense, but it should be factored into your budgets and fundraising plans whenever possible. You might think that cutting down on thank you efforts is an option to improve fundraising efficiency, but it would be at the expense of donor stewardship and relationship development. The donor appreciation ideas outlined in this post can help your nonprofit strengthen your donor relationships to keep their support well into the future.

Logan Foote, Sales and Education Manager at GolfStatus, has been around the game of golf nearly his entire life. He first picked up a club at the age of four, and despite thousands of attempts, he’s never had a hole-in-one. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and pursued a career in sales. Logan came to GolfStatus in 2017, where he channels his passion for golf to help nonprofits raise money through the game. As Sales and Education Manager, Logan oversees a team that works with thousands of nonprofit clients to maximize their golf fundraisers with the GolfStatus platform, and shares his golf fundraising expertise through GolfStatus’s free educational webinars. He lives and golfs in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife and three sons.

Sharing Donor Stories on Your Nonprofit Website: 4 Tips

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor relations, donor-centered, stories, website, writing , , , , , ,

Donor stories and testimonials help show appreciation for supporters and encourage others to get involved. Use these tips to write better donor stories. 

By Anne Stefanyk 

Donors want to know that their contributions matter to your nonprofit. According to Double the Donation’s donor retention guide, not receiving a proper thank-you is one of the top reasons donors stop giving. One way to effectively thank supporters while encouraging others to get involved is to incorporate donor stories and testimonials into your website. 

Often, nonprofits share donor stories to promote participation in planned and legacy giving programs. However, you can incorporate donor stories on other fundraising pages too, like peer-to-peer fundraising information pages or your ways to support page. You can even create a dedicated donor stories page to highlight a variety of supporters.

With that being said, here are a few tips to create better online donor stories: 

  1. Include rich details
  2. Show impact
  3. Ensure stories are engaging
  4. Include a call to action

Throughout this post, we’ll highlight examples of effective donor stories from the best nonprofit websites, including some best practices used and ways to emulate each example in your content strategy.  

1. Include rich details

Your donor stories should paint a detailed picture of who donors are, how they became involved with your cause, and what motivates them to continue participating. Use the following strategies to infuse your donor stories with informative detail: 

  • Incorporate facts about your donors’ lives. Help website visitors understand your donors on a personal level by including information about their interests and backgrounds in addition to their giving motivations. For instance, you could mention their hobbies, job histories, or family information. This helps potential donors find more in common with your current supporters, generating a stronger sense of community. 
  • Make the stories relatable. Choose a wide array of diverse stories that resonate with different audience segments. For example, The Michael J. Fox Foundation website includes donor stories that cover all types of giving, including supporters who participated in peer-to-peer fundraising, donated through their estates, gave in tribute to their loved ones, and more. 
  • Use donor-focused language. Make sure the text on your donor stories page uses supporter-focused language. For example, the CARE donor stories page includes a “Supporters Like You” title to inspire a sense of belonging to a community. 

When you provide plenty of details and relatable information about your current donors, you’ll make it easier for prospects to envision themselves becoming part of your donor community. For example, if a wealthy prospect feels connected to a donor testimonial because of a shared interest in your volunteer program, they might feel inspired to leave your organization a bequest in their will. 

2. Show impact

Another common reason donors stop supporting nonprofits is because they didn’t receive any information about how their gift was used. Ensure your donor stories include information about the impact of your donors’ gifts to show supporters that your nonprofit uses donations effectively. 

The Santa Clara University “Why We Give”page offers a few helpful examples of ways to show impact. For example, a story about a recent grad details the positive impact of receiving an endowed scholarship. The story includes direct quotes from the grad about how the support allowed her to become the first member of her family to graduate from college. 

Showcase your donors’ impact on your website by including:

  • Direct quotes or audio clips from beneficiaries
  • Statistics, charts, graphs, or maps that demonstrate the extent of your donors’ impact
  • Before and after comparisons via images or videos that visually demonstrate the power of donations

Impact updates give current donors a greater sense of fulfillment from their involvement. Meanwhile, prospective supporters will be able to see how your organization has put past donations to good use, reassuring them that you’ll also make the most of their gift. 

3. Ensure stories are engaging

By making your donor stories interesting and fun to read, you’ll encourage more website visitors to engage with them. This can increase the chances that they’ll connect with your mission and be inspired to give. 

Write interactive and intriguing stories by taking these steps: 

  • Include multimedia elements. Photos, videos, audio clips, infographics, and other multimedia content help break up text blocks and add more visual intrigue to your donor stories. Check out the University of Georgia’s donor recognition stories for some examples. These gratitude stories feature photos, videos of donor interviews, information about donors’ impact, and more. 
  • Naturally incorporate stories throughout your web design. Your donor stories don’t have to be limited to a page of links to testimonials. You can incorporate shorter snippets or features on pages like your online donation page or ways to give page. For example, look at how the Girls Who Code Ways to Support page features a short donor story and image seamlessly incorporated into the page’s layout. 

An example of a donor story on the Girls Who Code website, with a short text description and image

  • Keep your stories fresh and up to date with a regular posting schedule. Maintaining content freshness shows potential supporters that your organization is successful at continually bringing new donors on board. Freshness is also one of many factors that can help your content rank higher on search engines. Create a schedule for your content team to follow that provides deadlines for writing new donor stories, gathering images and other visuals, publishing the stories, and promoting them on social media and other marketing channels. Assign clear task owners to each step of the process to promote accountability. 

Kanopi’s WordPress for Nonprofits guide recommends writing for the web as you develop your content to make your testimonials more readable and accessible to all. Avoid jargon, use simple language, and incorporate more “you” pronouns rather than “I or “our.” Keeping the focus on the reader helps promote donor-centricity, making supporters and constituents the heroes of your stories.  

4. Include a call to action

Your donor stories should end on an inspiring, uplifting note that encourages readers to take action immediately. 

For example, the American Heart Association offers an effective example of useful calls to action (CTAs) for healthcare websites. Their donor stories end with CTAs that help visitors open a charitable giving account or reach out to a local representative with any questions. 

American Heart Association CTAs for opening a charitable giving account or contacting a representative

Welcome new donors with clear CTAs that allow website visitors to take the next step that aligns with their interests and needs. For example, your CTAs could say:

  • Support our scholarship fund today to help other students in need.
  • Leave a positive legacy with a planned gift.
  • Contact a local representative for more information about the impact of your gift.
  • Find the giving opportunity that works for you.

Your CTAs should be specific and welcoming, and they should lead to a user-friendly form or information page where supporters can take the next steps toward becoming donors or getting more involved in your cause. 

After optimizing your donor stories, promote them across multiple channels, including social media, email, and your printed newsletter. This will help reach a wider potential donor audience and ensure as many current donors as possible see your gratitude efforts. 

As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne Stefanyk helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions.

Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boarding, kayaking, and hanging with her nephew.

How Your Nonprofit Can Ensure Success in 2024

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor relations, donor retention, donor-centered, gratitude, monthly donors, planning , , , , , , ,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice holiday. My vacation went by way too quickly.

I also hope 2023 was a successful year for your nonprofit organization. If it wasn’t, you can work to make 2024 a better year. As with personal New Year’s resolutions, you want your goals to be realistic and attainable. If you’re a small organization, you may not have much luck pulling off a huge gala.

Here are a few ways to help you ensure a more successful year.

Have a plan in place

You must have fundraising and communications/marketing plans. If you haven’t put together these plans yet, do that now! 

You know from past experience that you may need to make changes to your plans. In 2020, organizations that were able to make changes to a plan already in place were most successful.

Take a look back at 2023 to see what worked and what didn’t in your fundraising and communications/marketing. Incorporate what you’ve learned into your 2024 plans. 

Be sure your fundraising plan includes a diverse stream of revenue. Individual giving has proven to be successful. A lot of small donations can add up! Start or grow your monthly giving program (more on that below). Also, look into major and legacy giving. 

You can apply for grants and hold events, but those sometimes require more effort than it’s worth. Invest in strategies that make sense for your organization.

Revisit your fundraising and communications/marketing plans regularly and make changes as needed. Do this at least every two to three months.

Make sure that donor relations and donor retention are part of your fundraising plan. Those are key to your success.

Pay attention to your donor retention

Many donors have stepped up over the past few years to support nonprofit organizations. You don’t want to lose these valuable donors.

Donor retention should be a priority. You’ll have more success if you work to keep the donors you already have instead of focusing on getting new ones.

First, if you don’t already know it, figure out your retention rate. Do this after every fundraising campaign.

If it’s low, it’s something you can fix, usually with better communication. Donor retention is a huge problem for nonprofits. Your goal should be to have donors who support you for a long time.

It’s easier and less expensive to keep your current donors than to find new ones so once again, make donor retention a priority.

That said, you may have some new donors who saw a need and felt a connection to your cause. Don’t let these donors slip away either.

Go all in on monthly giving 

Speaking of retention, the retention rate for monthly donors is 90%. These donors are dedicated to your nonprofit. 

I’m a huge fan of monthly giving. It’s always made sense, but it’s been especially crucial over the last few years. Organizations that have monthly giving programs receive a steady stream of revenue throughout the year. Donors who opt for monthly giving find it’s easier on their finances. Even gifts of $5.00 or $10.00 a month can make a difference for your organization. Dedicated monthly donors have also stepped up and have given additional donations.

Work on starting or growing your monthly giving program so you can have a bunch of highly committed donors. A good way to start is to invite your current donors to become monthly donors.

Monthly donors are also potential major and legacy donors. Remember the importance of individual giving.

Do a better job of communicating with your donors 

There are many ways to do a better job of communicating with your donors. First, make this the year you say goodbye to boring, generic communication. Stop using jargon, such as at-risk and underserved. Tell more stories and go easy on the statistics. It makes a difference if you can put things in human terms, so you can do a better job of connecting with your donors.

Better communication also means more frequent communication. Donors want to  feel appreciated and know how they are helping you make a difference. Be sure to implement the ask, thank, report, repeat formula. 

You want to segment and personalize your communication, too. Address your donors by name (not Dear Friend) and recognize their past giving or if they’re a monthly donor.

Better, more frequent communication will help you raise more money. Having a communications calendar will help you with this. 

Work on building relationships

You may think the most important component of fundraising is raising money. While that’s important, so is building relationships with your donors. 

It’s hard to raise money year after year if you don’t build a good relationship with your donors. Every single interaction with your donors needs to focus on building relationships. That includes fundraising appeals. It’s possible to raise money and build relationships at the same time. 

Stop thinking of the donations you receive as a transaction and instead think of them as the start or continuation of a relationship. 

Good relationships with your donors will help you with retention.

Create an attitude of gratitude

A big part of building relationships is showing gratitude to your donors. Many nonprofits do a poor job of this. 

You need to start by sending a heartfelt thank you immediately after you receive a donation and then find ways to thank your donors throughout the year. Put together a thank you plan to help you with this.

Start the New Year off by making fundraising and communications/marketing plans, if you haven’t already done so. Prioritize donor retention, monthly giving, showing gratitude, and building relationships with your donors. This will help bring you more success in 2024.

Photo by Marco Verch

Don’t Wait Too Long to Start Planning Your Year-End Fundraising Campaign

Ann Green appeal letters, Communications, database, direct mail, donor-centered, fundraising, planning, stories, thank you letters, writing , , , , , , ,

It’s hard to think about fall when it’s been so hot in many parts of the United States and Europe, but September will be here before you know it.

Even though it might be sweltering outside, now is a good time to start planning your year-end fundraising campaign, hopefully in an air-conditioned space. If you’re behind in your revenue goals, you may want to launch it earlier than you have in the past. 

I’ve put together a checklist to help you get started. You can also use this for fundraising campaigns at other times of the year.

How much money do you need to raise?

You may have already set a goal for your year-end campaign in your 2023 fundraising plan (at least I hope you did) and maybe that has changed. 

You must determine how much money you need to raise before you start your campaign and raising as much as we can is not a goal.

Do you have a campaign plan?

Put together a plan for your campaign that includes a timeline, task list, and the different channels you’ll use. Make it as detailed as possible.

When do you want to launch your appeal? Plan on everything taking longer than you think it will, so earlier is better. Keep in mind you’ll be competing with many other organizations who are doing appeals. 

I strongly encourage you to mail an appeal letter. Direct mail appeals are more successful. You can also send an email appeal and follow up with email, as well. 

Maybe you want to send your appeal letters the first week in November. Maybe it’s better to send them in October. Whenever it is, make your goal to have the letters done at least a week before that. Work backwards to figure out how you can get to your proposed send date.

Also, how are you mailing your appeal? Do you use a mail house or get staff and volunteers together to stuff envelopes? Either way, plan ahead, so you’re not scrambling at the last minute.

Do you have a good story and photo to share?

If you’ve been using the same boring, generic appeal letter template for the last few years, it’s time for a refresh. It’s a good idea to revise your templates at least once a year. Our world has changed a lot in the last three years and you need to take that into account.

A good way to start is to create an engaging story for your appeal. Even though the public health emergency is over, COVID is still a part of our lives. Are your clients/community feeling the aftereffects of the pandemic? Are they facing economic challenges? Focus on them, not your organization. Each year is different and this is why you need new stories.  

You’ll want some good photos for your letter and donation page, too. Quotes from clients will also enhance your appeal.

How can your donors help you make a difference?

Your appeal letter should focus on a need and let your donors know how they can help you make a difference. You might want to start by creating a brief and an outline.

You may be seeing more people at your food pantry because of rising food costs and cuts in benefits. Maybe your clients are struggling to find affordable housing.

You can also highlight some of the accomplishments you’ve made recently and state what you would like to do in the coming year, although these are usually more appropriate for a newsletter or impact report. 

One way to frame this is to describe a situation such as this. You run a tutoring program in your community and work with students who are falling behind in school. You can describe how thanks to your generous donors, your one-to-one tutoring program has helped students get better grades and are now less likely to be held back a year. You want to keep that going and serve more students.

Remember to focus on your clients/community and don’t brag about your organization.

Are your mailing lists in good shape?

Make sure your mailing lists are up-to-date. Check for duplicate addresses and typos. Your donors don’t want to receive three letters at the same time or have their names misspelled. Take a little time to do some data hygiene. Give your email list some attention, too.

Also, now is a good time to segment your mailing lists – current donors, monthly donors, lapsed donors, event attendees, etc. This is so important. Your current donors are your best source of donations. You should have more success if you can personalize your appeal letters. Acknowledge if someone has donated in the past or is a monthly donor. Donors like it when you recognize them for who they are.

Do you have enough letterhead, envelopes, and stamps?

Don’t wait until September or October to check your supply of letterhead and envelopes. Make sure you have enough. 

Speaking of envelopes, something besides the standard white business envelope can improve your response rate. Think about using an oversized, colored, or embellished envelope. If that’s not possible, don’t use a window envelope because it resembles a bill. A general rule is you don’t want any of your direct mail pieces to look like a bill or junk mail.

Even though many people donate online, you want to make it easy for donors who prefer to mail a check. Include a pledge envelope or a return envelope and a preprinted form with the donor’s contact information and the amount of their last gift.

Stamps are more personal, so you might want to find some nice ones to use. 

Is it easy to donate online?

Be sure your donation page is user-friendly and consistent with your other fundraising materials. Using a branded donation page and not a third-party site is best. Highlight your year-end appeal on your homepage and include a prominent Donate Now button.

One way to ensure a good experience is to have someone on your staff or, even better, someone outside of your organization make a donation on your website. If they want to tear their hair out, you have some work to do.

Do you offer a monthly or recurring giving option?

I’m a huge fan of monthly giving. It’s a win-win for your organization. You can raise more money, boost your retention rate, receive a steady stream of revenue, and allow your donors to spread out their gifts.

If you don’t have a monthly giving program or have a small one, don’t wait any longer to start one or grow the one you have. Be sure to highlight it as a giving option.

Do you want to find a major funder who will give a matching gift?

One way to raise additional revenue is to find a major funder to match a portion or all of what you raise in your year-end appeal. If you want to go down this route, now would be a good time to reach out to these potential funders.

How will you thank your donors?

Spend as much time on your thank you letter/note as you do on your appeal letter and write them at the same time. And if it’s been a while since you’ve freshened up your thank you templates, you know what you need to do. It’s so important to thank your donors, and thank them well, as soon as you receive their gifts, so have a thank you letter/note ready to go.

Handwritten notes and phone calls are much better than a preprinted letter. Create or buy some thank you cards and start recruiting board members and volunteers to make thank you calls or write notes. 

You’ll want to put together a welcome plan for your new donors and that also needs to be ready to roll after the donations come in.

How will you keep up with your donor communication?

Even though you’ll be busy with your appeal, you want to ramp up your donor communication this fall. Keep engaging your donors and other supporters (who may become donors) by sharing updates and gratitude. Pour on the appreciation! 

Send at least one warm-up letter or email. You could create a thank you video or a video that gives a behind-the-scenes look at your organization. Maybe you could hold an open house or offer tours. Just don’t disappear until appeal time.

Yes, we’re still in a period of economic uncertainty. Some donors may not give as much or at all, but others will give more. They won’t give anything if you don’t ask.

There’s still plenty of time to go to the beach and get ice cream, but right now find that air-conditioned space and start planning your year-end campaign.

Best of luck!

Photo by CreditDebitPro

How to Make Your Messages Stand Out in a World of Information Overload

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor-centered, email, fundraising, gratitude, planning, writing , , , , , , ,

Our world is chock full of information, too much at times. When I was growing up, we just had a few TV channels to choose from. Now there are countless streaming options. We also have email, the internet, and social media, just to name a few. It’s a lot

How does your nonprofit organization compete with all this? You need to communicate regularly with your donors and you need to do it well. But in the land of information overload, it’s possible they’ll miss your messages. 

Here are a few ways you can make your messages stand out. 

What’s your intention?

What’s the purpose of your message? What do you want your reader to do? Are you asking for a donation? Maybe you’re thanking your donor or sharing an update.

Think from your reader’s perspective. What would she be interested in or what would make him take action?

Don’t muddle your messages with too much information. Keep it simple and stick to one call to action or type of message. 

Choose the right channels

Most likely you’ll use more than one channel to communicate. Pay attention to the channels your donors are using and focus your efforts there.

Email may be your primary mode of communication and there’s a reason for that. It’s fast, easy, relatively inexpensive, and almost everyone has an email address. You can quickly get a message out to a lot of people. Also, unlike social media, it’s something you can control. You don’t have to rely on a social media algorithm to hope your message ends up in your donor’s feed.

The downside is people get a huge amount of email from a variety of different sources. Plus, the average open rate is around 20%. I don’t know what’s going on in the conservative world, but some liberal political organizations send an enormous amount of email, which I pretty much ignore. And, social media is often just a lot of a lot.  

It’s easy for your electronic messages to get lost in the shuffle. Your donors may just tune things out, even if you have something engaging to share. 

While you’ll likely use electronic communication pretty regularly, don’t discount direct mail. Your donors are more likely to see these messages. We get far less postal mail than electronic communication. Also, someone can put a piece of mail aside and look at it later. Don’t count on that happening with any type of electronic communication. You can also communicate by phone. This is a great way to thank your donors.

Going multichannel is usually your best bet. This is very common for fundraising campaigns and inviting people to events, as well as including a link to your email newsletter on your social media platforms. This way if people miss your initial message on one platform, they may see it on a different one. You’ll also want to send regular reminders for fundraising appeals and event invitations.

Get noticed right away

Your donors have a lot going on and you need to capture their attention right away.

Your fundraising letters and anything else you send by mail needs to look appealing enough to open. You could put a tagline on the envelope. That doesn’t mean something like It’s Our Annual Appeal. Try something like – How you can help families put food on the table. I just received a mailing with an outer envelope that said THANK YOU! Your Monthly Pledge Statement Enclosed And the latest story showing your gift’s impact. The part about the monthly pledge statement isn’t so interesting, but the rest of it is spot on.

Your envelope should look personal and not resemble a bill or junk mail. A few ways to make your mail stand out are to use something other than the usual white business envelope, hand address your envelope, and use stamps.

Once your donor opens your fundraising appeal, lead with a story followed by a clear, prominent ask. When they open your thank you letter, they should be greeted with gratitude.

A good subject line is the key to getting someone to open your email message. Keep in mind that your donor’s inbox is bursting with messages. Don’t use something boring like April e-newsletter or Donation Received. Entice them with Find out how you helped families put food on the table or You just did something amazing today!  

Keep them engaged once they open your message.

Keep it short

In many cases, a shorter message is best. You want a good balance between saying too much and saying too little. All your words should count, so be careful about adding too much filler. That often includes bragging about your organization and explaining what you do.

Keep in mind the average human attention span is a mere eight seconds.

Your goal is to get your donors to read your messages. If it looks long and boring, they probably won’t bother.

Make it easy to read and scan

Besides sending a short message, use short paragraphs and lots of white space, too. Your messages need to be easy to read and scan in an instant. Most people aren’t going to read something word for word. Be sure they can quickly get the gist of what you want to say. Don’t use microscopic font either – use 12 point or higher.

Be personal and conversational

Write directly to your reader using clear, conversational language – no jargon. Don’t confuse your donors with generic messages.

Don’t cast a wide net

It’s important that you send your messages to the right audience and your audience isn’t everyone.

You’ll have more luck with a fundraising appeal when you send it to past donors or people who have a connection to your cause. The same is true for event invitations or recruiting volunteers.

You may want to reach out to as many people as possible, but that won’t guarantee you’ll get more donations or event attendees. Segmenting and engaging with the right audience will bring you better results.

Be a welcome visitor

If you communicate regularly and do it well, your donors should recognize you as a reputable source and are more likely to read your messages. If all you do is send them generic fundraising appeals, then it’s time for a change.

When you send email, make sure people know it’s coming from your organization. In the from field, put DoGood Nonprofit or Sheila (Kramer), DoGood Nonprofit. If you just put a person’s name, people may not know who it’s from and ignore your message, unless that person is well known to your readers.

Only send email to people who have opted into your list. Otherwise, you’re spamming them. Some people will choose not to receive email from you and that’s okay. The ones who do are interested in hearing from you. Give people the option to unsubscribe, too. Measuring your email metrics will help you communicate more effectively. 

When you send email, it’s important to strike a balance between being known and being annoying. Unlike the political organizations I mentioned above, many nonprofits don’t communicate enough. Be sure to reach out anywhere between once a week and once a month.

Even though people only get a few pieces of mail a day, most of it’s junk mail. You never want any of your letters, newsletters, or postcards to be perceived as junk mail (see above).

By putting in a little time and effort, you can help ensure that your messages stand out, even in a world of information overload.

Your Donors Deserve Better Communication

Ann Green Communications, donor engagement, donor relations, donor-centered, writing , , ,

Are you still sending all your donors the same appeal and thank you letters? In these letters, you never thank a donor for their past support or acknowledge they’re a monthly donor.

If that’s not bad enough, many of these letters use vague and impersonal language and even worse, jargon.

Since the pandemic started, some nonprofits have done better and have created more nuanced, personal communication. Let’s keep this up and all do better. Your donors deserve that.

It’s time to move away from generic and impersonal communication. Here’s what you can do.

Segment your donors

Your donors aren’t the same, so they shouldn’t all get the same letter or other types of communication. Segment your donors into different groups as much as you can. At the very least, create different letters for new donors, repeat donors, and monthly donors. You can also personalize letters to lapsed donors, event attendees, volunteers, etc.

I emphasize segmenting your donors a lot in my posts because it’s so important. Donors like it if you recognize their past giving or anything that shows them this is more than a generic, one-size-fits-all message.

Also, please stop sending Dear Friend letters. You’re not being a good friend if you don’t even use your donors’ names.

I know this will take more time, but it’s worth the investment. So is a good CRM/database to help you with this. Your donors will feel appreciated and are more likely to give again, possibly at a higher level.

Use language your donors will understand

If you use vague, generic language and jargon, you’re going to instantly bore and/or confuse your donors. Most of your donors don’t have a medical or social services background. They don’t use terms like food insecurity, at-risk populations, and underserved communities – and neither should you.

Connect with your donors by using language they’ll understand. Instead of writing about food insecurity, give an example of a single mother choosing between buying groceries and paying the heating bill.

What do you mean by at-risk or underserved? Are high school students less likely to graduate on time? Do residents of a certain community not have good health care nearby? Is housing too expensive? Get specific, but at the same time, keep it simple. Also, terms like at-risk and underserved undermine your clients/community. After all, these are human beings you’re writing about.

A great way to break free from generic language and jargon is to tell stories. Most people respond better to a human-interest story than a bunch of boring statistics.

Make time for improvement

You may be between fundraising campaigns right now and have a little more time (or maybe not). If so, work on segmenting the donors in your database, if you haven’t already done that. Segment your donors on an ongoing basis. For example, some of your single-gift donors may have upgraded to monthly. If you can do this after every campaign, you should have fairly up-to-date information on your donors.

In addition, dust off those templates and freshen up your appeal letters and thank you letters. We’re still living in an ever-changing world and your communication needs to be relevant. Create letter templates for different donor groups and replace your vague, generic language with something clear, conversational, and specific.

You can also use this time to add new stories to your story bank or start putting one together, if you don’t already have one

Have someone outside of your organization, a friend or family member, look at your messages. Something that’s clear to you may completely baffle others.

Create communication that shows your donors how much you appreciate them by recognizing who they are and giving them engaging content they can relate to. Don’t they deserve that?