donor-centered

Improving Donor Communication: A Q&A Guide for Nonprofits

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, website , , ,

 

Snowball_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Improving-Donor-Communication-A-Q&A_Feature

By John Killoran

One of the most important assets of a nonprofit is its donors. Donors are crucial to the growth of your nonprofit, so it is key to both attract new donors while also keeping up relationships with previous donors. Nonprofits are constantly looking for new ways to raise money and having a wide network of donors and supporters can help create sustainable fundraising revenue.

In the end, nonprofits should have an effective and organized platform to attract new donors, and a qualified communications and research team to support relationships with existing donors. 

With this in mind, there are certain questions that nonprofits should ask themselves in order to strengthen relationships and improve communication with their donors:

  1. What kind of fundraising software should I choose?
  2. What kind of communication team do I need?
  3. How can I learn more about my donors?
  4. How can I create the perfect donation page?
  5. How can I keep up with donor communication?

Ready to improve your donor communication? Let’s dive into the answers to these top questions. 

Snowball_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Improving-Donor-Communication-A-Q&A_Header-1

1. What kind of software should I choose?

In this day and age, it makes sense to assume that most of your donors are going to be coming from the same place—the internet. That is why it is extremely important for your nonprofit to have the most effective software tools at your disposal. The donor’s interaction with your online presence is crucial.

Having effective software for your nonprofit can make your interactions with donors more streamlined and efficient. It makes things both easier for the donor and yourself, leading the way to stronger communication and a more positive relationship. Having the perfect software should be one of the first things you find when you are starting your nonprofit organization. 

With the right communication software, your nonprofit can:

  • Organize your donors. Some software helps compile a database for your donors so you have an easy way to find the information you need. It can look for key traits like donor location, donor amount, and more! This can help you communicate with your donors.
  • Have an easy payment experience. Certain software can improve the donation process, for both the donor and the nonprofit. They can provide options like online donation pages to text-to-give tools. 
  • Improve fundraising planning. Planning for a fundraiser is always hard, but with the right software, you can easily plan a walkathon or a t-shirt drive for your nonprofit.

For more information, check out Snowball’s extensive list of the best nonprofit software.

Snowball_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Improving-Donor-Communication-A-Q&A_Header-2

2. What kind of communication team do I need?

While having the right software in order to keep up your online presence is important, you shouldn’t be reluctant to do things like sending letters or meeting your donors in person.

Having the right communication strategy and team is important because different methods work with different types of people. Your grandpa probably wouldn’t respond to a text asking him to donate, but a millennial donor might.

It’s important to make your message stand out. The more effectively you communicate with your donors, the more likely they will donate. And then donate again.

Depending on your nonprofit’s goals, different strategies will work best. Make sure you focus on one main need in your message so you don’t bombard possible donors with too much information. No one wants to read about a fundraising event, volunteering, and donating all in one email.

The right medium will help. Often people will let unread emails pile up in their inbox, so it’s good to consider what kind of donor you are dealing with. Also, don’t forget about direct mail! You might think it outdated, but most people at least look at their physical mail as opposed to clearing unread email and phone notifications.

You can hire a nonprofit fundraising consultant. If you want some outside help or just a professional’s opinion, it makes sense to talk to a fundraising consultant. Make sure to look at consultants whose focus lines up with your nonprofit’s. For help picking the right consultant, Averill Fundraising Solutions has a guide of the top nonprofit fundraising consultants.

Having the right strategy will be a big help with your donor communication. The wrong type of communication can end even the strongest donor relationship. For more on common donor communication problems check out this list. 

Snowball_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Improving-Donor-Communication-A-Q&A_Header-3

3. How can I learn more about my donors?

Having the right communications strategy all depends on how much we know our donors. Gaining a few pieces of information about them can help you improve our relationship with them. 

Why do they want to donate? This can vary from having a personal connection to just wanting to contribute to any good cause. Knowing why they want to donate can help you count on them for future donations. One way you can find this out is with surveys. Keep these short and to the point. Many people won’t fill these out if they take up more than 5 minutes of their time.

How do they donate? Knowing their preferred method of donation is helpful. This way you won’t pester donors by email if you know they like doing donations over text instead. Various nonprofit software can help you track this information.

How much do they donate? If your donor gives a huge amount, you will be more inclined to see if they want to give in the future. Look into your CRM to review their donor history. This way, you’ll pose the right asks to the right donors.

Using these methods you can improve communication with your donors as well as make your organization’s marketing more efficient and effective. Once you have the right information on your donors, you can segment them into different groups with their own marketing strategy. This personalization will definitely improve donor communication.

Snowball_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Improving-Donor-Communication-A-Q&A_Header-4

4. How to create the perfect donation page?

Now is when you should start thinking about the page that donors are most often at⁠—your donation page. Your donation page is the beginning of your relationship with your donors. 

There are two things that your donation page should do, avoid incomplete donations and encourage future donations.

Avoid incomplete donations

Often, when potential donors attempt to start a transaction they give up. They don’t finish the donation, much like a trend among online shoppers called shopping cart abandonment. This could be for many reasons, but having the right donation page can help prevent it. Make sure that your page is: 

  • Customized to your cause. When a donation page looks and feels like a seamless part of your brand, donors are more likely to feel inspired to complete their gift.
  • Easy to use. Your donation page is navigable and not too complicated. The harder it is to donate the less likely someone will.
  • Make it fast. Don’t have a string of links for the donor to press. The longer the process takes the more time the donor has to change their mind.
  • It has to work. In the end, the most important thing about your donation page is that it actually works. If your page is broken or takes forever to load, it signals to your possible donors that this isn’t an established nonprofit. 

Encourage future donations

We all want that golden donation. Golden donations are the second donation that a donor can make. This is what your donor page should encourage. And when a donor gives twice, there is a 63% chance that they will do it again!

To help retain more donors and get that golden donation you can:

  • Have a recurring donations option. This makes it an easy option for your donor when they make that first contribution!
  • Establish a personalized relationship with the donor. Make your donor feel special, like their donation is essential. And their donation is essential! You just have to let them know that. More on this later on in the next section.

Having the perfect donation page is important because this is where your donor ultimately decides if contributing is worth their time. This can improve donor communication because it simplifies the process of donating and encourages future donations.

For more tips on creating a donation page, click here.

Snowball_Ann-Green-Nonprofit_Improving-Donor-Communication-A-Q&A_Header-5

5. How can I keep up with donor communication?

In the end, it seems that one of the most important, if not the most important, goals for your nonprofit is to retain your donors. You want to keep them! You want them to keep coming back to you! It makes sense that when you have an established relationship with a donor, it will take less time (and effort) to steward them for another contribution. 

So you have the right software, communications strategy, donation page, and vital information on your donors. How do we strive for that golden donation? 

It all comes back to your communication with your donors. You need to keep this relationship strong no matter what. If you don’t, your donor may think their contribution is not important and ultimately forget about you.

Don’t ignore your donors! Remember to keep up donor communication throughout the year with updates or newsletters. Tie in current events to make them feel connected. 

Remember to thank them! Give them some love. Whether it is with a simple card or a more elaborate gift for a larger donation. Show them how their past contribution made a difference. Make sure they know that their donation is appreciated. 

Relationship building should be a part of your fundraising campaign. Donors will be more likely to respond to a fundraising campaign if they have a personal connection to it. Ann Green has some great tips on how to build relationships with your donors. 

Building the right relationship with your donors is key to improving communication! We all have questions about how to go about this, but with this guide, your team should feel confident enough to move forward. Good luck!

John KilloranJohn Killoran is an inventor, entrepreneur, and the Chairman of Clover Leaf Solutions, a national lab services company. He currently leads Clover Leaf’s investment in Snowball Fundraising, an online fundraising platform for nonprofit organizations. 

Snowball was one of John’s first public innovations; it’s a fundraising platform that offers text-to-give, online giving, events, and peer-to-peer fundraising tools for nonprofits. By making giving simple, Snowball increases the donations that these organizations can raise online. The Snowball effect is real! John founded Snowball in 2011. Now, it serves over 7,000 nonprofits and is the #1 nonprofit fundraising platform.

 

Entice Your Donors With Visual Stories

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, stories , , , ,

46728822135_8c5d713f5b_mIn these days of information overload, it can be hard to get your donors’ attention. In my last post, I wrote about the importance of telling stories. Written stories are great, but since donors get so many messages from different sources they may not want to read another word. 

This is why you also need to use visual stories. Some people respond better to visual stimuli, anyway. Here are a few ways to tell visual stories.

Tell a story in an instant with a photo

You can capture your donors’ attention in an instant with a great photo. That doesn’t mean a one of your executive director receiving an award. Use photos of your programs in action.

Print newsletters and annual reports tend to be dominated by long-winded text. Most of your donors won’t have time to read the whole thing. But if you share some engaging photos, your donors can get a quick glance of the impact of their gift without having to muddle through a bunch of tedious text.

You may want to try a Postcard Annual Report instead of the usual boring booklet. Postcards with an engaging photo are also great for thank you cards and updates. I’m a big fan of postcards because they’re a quick, less expensive way to communicate by mail.

If you use social media, you need to communicate several times a week. As your donors scroll through an endless amount of Facebook and Twitter posts, an engaging photo can pop out and get their attention.

Use photos everywhere – appeal letters, thank you letters/cards, newsletters, annual reports, updates, your website, and social media. Create a photo bank to help you with this. It’s fine to use the same photos in different channels. It can help with your brand identity. Be sure to use high-quality pictures. Hire a professional photographer or find one to work pro bono.

Work with your program staff to get photos and videos (more on videos below). Confidentiality issues may come up and you’ll need to get permission to use pictures of kids.

5 Killer Photography Tips for Nonprofit Brands

6 Steps to Establishing a Photo Policy that Boosts Giving & Shows Respect

5 Photo Tips For World-Changing Nonprofits

Highlight your work with a video

Create a video to show your programs in action, share an interview, give a behind the scenes look at your organization, or my favorite – thanking your donors. Make your videos short and high quality. If you’re interviewing someone, make sure that person is good on camera.

You can use videos on your website, in an email message, on social media, and at an event.

Nonprofits should Use Video Storytelling to Create Impact!

TIPS FOR CREATING A NONPROFIT VIDEO MARKETING STRATEGY

5 Steps to Successful Video Storytelling

Liven up your statistics by using infographics

A typical annual report is loaded with statistics. You want to share these, as well as your accomplishments, but you don’t want to overwhelm your donors with a lot of text.

Why not use an infographic instead of the usual laundry list of statistics and accomplishments?  

Here are some examples. A Great Nonprofit Annual Report in a Fabulous Infographic

Brochures are becoming a relic of the past, but what if you want an informational print piece to give to potential donors or volunteers?  An oversized infographic postcard should do the trick.

5 Must-Have Nonprofit Infographic Templates to Supercharge Your Campaigns

Infographics for Nonprofits: How to Create One and Why They’re Effective

10 Nonprofit Infographics That Inspire and Inform

Good visuals will enhance both your print and electronic communication. Keep your donors engaged with all types of stories.

Using Visual Storytelling in Your Nonprofit for Greater Impact

 

Tell the Stories Your Donors Want to Hear

Ann Green Communications, donor-centered, fundraising, stories, writing , , , ,

7803683540_76d8f5f45d_zHow often do you use stories when you communicate with your donors? Most likely, not enough. That’s a mistake because people respond better to stories. 

Imagine your donors opening an appeal letter or newsletter and glossing over a bunch of mind-numbing statistics as opposed to being captivated by a story about how the Mason family moved out of a shelter and into a home of their own.

Donors want to hear your stories

You may be reluctant to use stories because it’s more work for your organization, but that shouldn’t stop you. Keep in mind that donors want to hear your stories. Stories bring the work you do to life by using everyday language to create a scene. Here’s an example.

The past several months have been tough for Janet and her three young kids. After losing her job and being evicted from her apartment, she moved between her sister’s house, motels, and shelters. It was taking a toll on her family. Everyone was stressed out and her kids were falling behind in school.

That was about to change because thanks to donors like you, Janet and her family will be moving into a home of their own.

Can you tell a story like that? If you’re making a difference, you can. Stories should show your donors how they’re helping you make a difference for the people/community you serve.

Create a culture of storytelling

If you create a storytelling culture in your organization, you can make storytelling the norm instead of the exception.

Work with your program staff to create stories that will help you connect with your donors. Everyone needs to understand how important this is. Share stories at staff meetings and/or set up regular meetings with program staff to gather stories.

When you put together a story, ask.

  • Why would your donors be interested in this story?
  • Why is this important?
  • Who are you helping?
  • Are you using clear, everyday language (no jargon) to make sure your donors understand your story?
  • How are your donors helping you make a difference or How can your donors help you make a difference?

Client or program recipient stories are best. You can also share profiles of volunteers, board members, and donors. Many organizations profile new board members in their newsletters. Instead of emphasizing their professional background, concentrate on what drew them to your organization. Perhaps she has a brother with autism or he knows what it’s like to arrive in the United States as an immigrant.

Another way to find stories is to put a Share Your Story page on your website. 

4 INSPIRATIONAL “SHARE YOUR STORY” PAGES THAT WILL KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF

Create a story bank to help you organize all your stories. Take advantage of slower times of the year to gather stories. You want to use stories often. Use them in your appeal letters, thank you letters, newsletters, annual reports, website, blog, and other types of social media. You can use the same stories in different channels.

Give your stories the personal touch

Use people’s names to make your stories more personal. I realize you might run into confidentiality issues, but you can change names to protect someone’s privacy. You could also do a composite story, but don’t make up anything.

 Fundraising with Names Have Been Changed Disclaimers

Your stories aren’t about your organization

Let your donors know how with their help, Brenda doesn’t have to choose between buying groceries and paying the heating bill. Your organization stays in the background. And remember, Your Mission Statement is NOT Your Story

Tell your donors the stories they want to hear. In my next post, I’ll write about sharing visual stories.

Here are some great resources to help you tell your stories.

The Storytelling Nonprofit

INFOGRAPHIC: A Nonprofit Storytelling How-To

The Ultimate Guide to Nonprofit Storytelling (30+ Tips)

How To Create A Culture of Storytelling in Your Nonprofit

 

How to Stay on Track for the Rest of the Year

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

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERACan you believe we’re already halfway through the year? I hope your fundraising and communications are going well so far. If not, you’re not alone. According to the 2019 Giving USA report, overall giving is down 1.7%.

5 Key Takeaways from the 2019 Giving USA Report

The mid-point of the year is always a good time to see if you’re meeting your fundraising and communications goals. If your fundraising is down, you’ll need to make some smart choices for the rest of the year. This often includes better donor communication.

If you never made a fundraising plan for 2019, stop right there and put one together now and use it for the remainder of the year.

Nonprofit Fundraising Plan: 6 Must-Do Steps For Success

No need to panic yet. There are ways you can stay on track and raise more money in the second half of the year. Here’s how.

Ask your donors for an upgrade

An obvious, but overlooked, way to raise more money is to ask your donors to upgrade their gifts. Even if you’re a smaller organization, it’s not too much to ask $25 donors to give $50, $50 donors to give $75, and so on.

Make a point to do this in your next fundraising campaign. If you don’t, you’re leaving money on the table.

How to Get Your Donors to Give More this Year than Last Year

Start or enhance your monthly giving program

I’m a big fan of monthly or recurring giving. It’s a great way to raise more money, as well as your donor retention rate. Retention rates for monthly donors are 90%, much much better than other retention rates.

If you don’t have a monthly giving program, plan to promote one in your next campaign. To get more monthly donors, send a special targeted letter to current donors inviting them to become monthly donors. This another good opportunity to upgrade smaller dollar donors, or any donors for that matter.

Also, do something special for your current monthly donors. Send them a thank you postcard or email. They’ve made a commitment to you, now make a commitment to them.

Get in touch with your lapsed donors

Reaching out to your lapsed donors could help you raise additional revenue. An organization I used to contribute to sent me a nice letter asking me to come back. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I stopped donating to them mainly because my giving priorities changed. 

I was impressed that they made a special attempt to reach out, because most organizations don’t do that. Yes, you might get the usual generic letter.

In your next fundraising campaign, send targeted letters to your lapsed donors telling them you miss them and want them back. After your campaign is over, make an attempt to reach out to any additional lapsed donors.

Do a better job of thanking your donors

Last week’s post was all about doing a better job of thanking your donors by creating a thank you plan. 

Creating a Thank You Plan Will Help You Stay Focused on Gratitude All Year Round

Showing gratitude is just one part of the donor communication mix. Stay in touch throughout the year with donor-centered updates. Show your donors how they’re helping you make a difference.

You still have time to stay on track

If you’re falling short of your goals, you still have time to do better, but you have to make an effort.

Giving USA 2019 | How to fundraise smarter, not harder

Be sure to keep evaluating your progress for the rest of the year to help ensure a successful 2019.

3 Ways to Stay Ahead of Giving Trends

 

Don’t Ignore Your Donors This Summer

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

37260748030_6285b8673f_mSummer is almost here, yea! This is often a quieter time for most nonprofits, but you don’t want to be too quiet and ignore your donors. In fact, this is a great time to do some relationship building.

You should be communicating with your donors at least once a month and that includes the summer months. Don’t make the mistake of taking a vacation from your donor communication – never a wise decision.

Here are a few ways you can connect with your donors this summer, as well as throughout the year, and build those important relationships.

Send an update

If you haven’t communicated with your donors much since your last appeal, send them an update to let them know how they’re helping you make a difference.

One of my favorite ways to connect is with a postcard. This is a donor communication win-win. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the importance of investing in direct mail.

I know mail is expensive, but a postcard shouldn’t cost too much. It’s also a quick way to share an update with busy donors. I recently received one that included a bunch of donor-centered phrases such as your support is helping and thanks to your support.

If it’s impossible to send something by mail right now, you can use email.

Show some #donorlove

You don’t need a reason to thank your donors. Just do it and do it often. Most organizations don’t do a good job of thanking their donors, so you’ll stand out if you do.

This is another situation where a postcard will work wonders. You can do a combo thank you and update. Go one step further and make your donor’s day with a handwritten thank you card. You could also create a thank you video.

There are so many ways to thank your donors. Have some fun and get creative.

15 Creative Ways to Thank Donors

Create a better newsletter

You may already keep in touch with your newsletter, whether it’s electronic, print, or both. In theory, newsletters can be a great way to engage, but in reality, most of them are boring bragfests.

For the summer, I would suggest a shorter newsletter to capture your donors’ attention. Also, can you jazz up your newsletter to create a better one going forward? Spend time this summer working on finding some engaging stories and photos.

How You Can Create a Better Nonprofit Newsletter

Tie in current events

There’s a lot going in the world right now. Will certain policies or budget cuts affect your organization? Many states are working on their budget for the next fiscal year.

Share ways your donors can help – perhaps by contacting their legislators, volunteering, or making a donation.

Advocacy alerts can be a great way for people to engage with your organization. Be sure to thank participants and keep them updated on any outcomes.

Focus more on relationship building in your fundraising appeals

A fundraising appeal can be a way to connect with your donors if you make relationship building the main focus. This rarely happens because most appeals are transactional and generic.

Whether you have an appeal planned soon or later in the year, keep relationship building front and center. Thank donors for their past support, share some updates, and show them how their gift will help you make a difference.

A couple of other ways to connect and raise additional revenue this summer are to invite current donors to join your family of monthly donors and send a special letter to your lapsed donors letting them know you miss them and want them back.

Building meaningful relationships with Donors: What it takes

Keep it up throughout the year

Your donors want to hear from you this summer and throughout the year. A communications calendar will be a huge help with this so your donors won’t wonder why you’re ignoring them.

 

A Few Common Donor Communication Problems and How You Can Fix Them

Ann Green appeal letters, Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, newsletter, thank you letters , , , , ,

8775923664_553640db9e_mSome nonprofits do a good job of communicating with their donors, but many do not and that’s a problem.

Mediocre or poor donor communication will hinder your success. If you wonder why your retention rates are floundering that may be the reason. Here are a few common donor communication problems and how you can fix them.

Sending your donors the same appeal letter

Your donors are not the same, so why are you sending everyone the same generic appeal letter? When you do this, you’re showing your donors you don’t know who they are.

I recently received a letter that was a good appeal, but didn’t recognize me as a monthly donor or acknowledge any previous donations. Monthly donors shouldn’t get a generic appeal like this. What should have happened is the organization should have thanked me for my monthly gifts and either asked for an upgrade or an additional one-time gift.

The same applies if someone is a theatre subscriber, museum member, or college alumni. I spend a significant amount of money on a theatre subscription. It’s perfectly fine for this theatre to ask for an additional donation, but I also want them to thank me for being a long-time subscriber.

This happens way too often. You should always recognize a donor’s past support.

Here’s an organization that did that. Their appeal letter opened with For the past 4 years, your generosity has made a world of difference. Wow, this organization knows me! The appeal included several instances where they mentioned how my support has made a difference.

What kind of message are you sending to your donors? That you recognize them for who they are or that they’re just a source of revenue for you?

6 easy ways to segment your fundraising appeal letter

Thank you letters that don’t focus on gratitude

The purpose of a thank you letter is to thank your donor. It’s not to brag about your organization or explain what your organization does. It’s also not a receipt. You can include a donation summary, but don’t lead with that or make it the main focus of your letter. If you do that, you’re implying that the donation is a transaction instead of the beginning or continuation of a relationship.

I use the term thank you letter, because that’s what most organizations send. Although, sometimes it’s just an email. You can do a better job of thanking your donors if you send a handwritten note or make a phone call.

I get so many thank you letters and emails that are uninspiring. They lead with the usual On Behalf of X organization before veering into receipt territory. Occasionally, I’ll get a card in the mail that pours on the gratitude with phrases like We cannot thank YOU enough and You make it possible.

Also, the thank you that you send after you receive a donation is just beginning, not the end, of a donor engagement journey that lasts throughout the year.

Take Thanking Your Donors to the Next Level

Newsletters that ignore donors

Newsletters are a big problem area. They’re usually too long, boring, and organization-focused. I recently received an eight-page newsletter written in the third person that primarily mentioned a bunch of accomplishments. It had no stories and read like a promotional piece, which is not the purpose of a donor newsletter.

Your newsletter should show your donors how they’re helping you make a difference.

The magic word you was nowhere to be found in any of the articles. That’s why your newsletter needs to be written in the second person dominated with phrases such as Thanks to you or Because of you.

The only time the organization mentioned donors and used the word you was in a section asking people to give to a Donor Advised Fund (DAF). It was basically a solicitation and required a minimum contribution of $100,000, which most people aren’t going to be able to do. As someone who gives $5.00 a month, I’m certainly not in that demographic.

They didn’t even thank their current donors before asking them to make such a big financial commitment. They would have been better off targeting people who would be likely to donate to their DAF.

You’re ignoring your donors (or at least most of them) when you include a message that’s only relevant to a small number of people.

Of course, you can share your success in your newsletter, but you need to let your donors know how they helped with that. Another organization did a better job with their newsletter. It included a cover letter thanking donors, as well as a success story and a section titled You Make a Difference.

A good rule of thumb for your newsletter is more donor appreciation – less bragging.

Why your fancy newsletter is failing you

You don’t want to upset your donors with poor communication. Send different appeals to different types of donors, write a thank you letter that focuses on gratitude, and continue that appreciation in your newsletter instead of bragging so much about your accomplishments.

 

Don’t Get Lost in the Shuffle – Make Your Messages Stand Out

Ann Green Communications, donor-centered, multichannel, writing , , ,

4698746521_0f3d47dd0f_mInformation overload is an understatement right now. We’re bombarded by messages of all kinds from many different sources.

How can your nonprofit keep up with all this? You want to communicate with your donors, but you don’t want your messages to get lost in the shuffle. It won’t be easy, but here are a few ways to make your messages stand out.

What’s your intention?

What’s the purpose of your message? What do you want your reader to do? Maybe it’s to donate, volunteer, attend an event, or contact her legislators. Maybe you’re sharing an update.

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

Keep it simple and stick to one call to action.

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 is often the primary way nonprofits communicate 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.

But email has its drawbacks. People can get hundreds of emails a day plus messages from other sources such as social media. It’s easy for your messages to get lost in this melee. I often don’t read all my email. I usually scan through the burgeoning list to see what looks interesting. That, of course, depends on if I even have time to look at my email.

Some email messages, such as a fundraising appeal or an event invitation, you’ll probably need to send more than once. Try not to send messages to people who have already responded.

You can also go multichannel. For example, include a link to your e-newsletter on your social media platforms.

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, a person can put a piece of mail aside and look at it later. Don’t count on that happening with any type of electronic communication.

Get noticed right away

A good subject line is the key to getting someone to open your email message. If he doesn’t bother to open it, all your work has gone to waste.

Give some thought to it. Instead of Donate to our Spring Appeal or May 2019 Newsletter, try Find out how you can help Michael learn to read or Thanks to you, Dara won’t go to bed hungry tonight.

For postal mail, consider an engaging envelope teaser or a colored envelope with a stamp. You don’t want your letter to look like junk mail.

Keep it short

Your next step is to get your donor to read your message. Keep her interested. With email, yours may be one of hundreds she’ll receive that day, along with whatever else is going on in her life.

Make your messages short, but engaging, and get to the point right away.

Keep this in mind when you send your e-newsletter or updates. You might want to consider a two-article newsletter twice a month instead of one with four articles (and it’s unlikely your donors will read all four articles) once a month.

Given the cost of direct mail, why send a six-page annual report when you can wow your donors in an instant with an infographic postcard?

Photos and other visuals can be a great way to stand out, especially on social media.

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. Don’t use microscopic font either.

Be personal and conversational

Write directly to your reader using clear, conversational language – no jargon. Address your message to a person – Dear Janet and not Dear Friend.

Segment your lists so you can personalize your messages. For example, you’ll create different messages for current donors, potential donors, and monthly donors.

Don’t cast a wide net

It’s important that you send your message 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 blast them with generic fundraising appeals, well good luck to you.

Make sure people know your email is coming from your organization. In the from field, put DoGood Nonprofit or Lisa Wilson, DoGood Nonprofit. If you just put a person’s name or info@dogoodnonprofit.org, people may not know who it’s from and ignore your message.

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.

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.

It’ll take a little more work, but it’s possible to make your messages stand out so you don’t get lost in the shuffle.

 

Let’s Skip the Formalities

Ann Green Communications, donor-centered, writing , ,

14125863156_9a20cd1a47_mWhy is it that so many nonprofit newsletters, annual reports, and even fundraising letters sound like a Ph.D. thesis? Why are they so formal and impersonal? It often seems as if someone likes to show off their big vocabulary.

Unfortunately, when you do this, there’s a good chance your donors will lose interest. It’s hard enough to get them to look at your messages in the first place. Make it easier for them by dialing down on the formality and being more personal.

Here’s what you can do.

Write in the second person

All your fundraising letters, thank you letters, newsletter articles, etc. should be written in the second person. Pretend you’re having a conversation with your reader. Keep that person in mind when you write and think about what they would want to read.

Seeing the World Through Your Donors’ Eyes

Use the word you much more than we. When you’re having a conversation with someone, do you spend a lot of time talking about yourself? I hope not.

Use language your donors will understand

Quiz time. Which sounds better? a) food insecurity or b) a family choosing between buying groceries or paying their heating bill? How about a) at-risk youth or b) high school students who might not graduate on time?

I hope you answered b for both questions. Jargon is confusing, and even if your donors know what the word means, it’s boring and impersonal. The second two examples give a clearer picture of the need your donors will help you meet.

You May Love Your Jargon, But Your Donors Don’t

Mistakes were made when you decided to write in the passive voice

I’m not a fan of the passive voice because it weakens your writing. Like jargon, it distances you from what you’re trying to say.  

Another quiz. Which one sounds better? a) Over 5,000 meals were served at the Riverside Community Center or b) Our volunteers served over 5,000 meals at the Riverside Community Center. What was your answer?

In addition to using the active voice, use strong, active verbs and avoid adjectives and adverbs. Say depleted instead of really tired.

You want your readers to take action whether it’s donating, volunteering, or reading a success story. Active language will help with that.

Back to school time

Write at a sixth to eighth-grade level. You’re not dumbing down; you’re being smart because you’re making it easier for your readers.

Don’t use a lot of fancy words. It makes you sound pretentious. You don’t want your readers to have to hunt for a dictionary. Most likely they won’t, and they’ll miss out on what you’re trying to say. Your goal should be for your donors to understand you.

Now, forget what you learned in English class. It’s okay to start a sentence with a conjunction and use sentence fragments.

Do some serious editing

It’s important that you take time to edit before you send your messages. Check for passive verbs, adjectives, and adverbs to see if you need them. Also, be on the lookout for jargon and SAT vocabulary words. Can you simplify?

Read your content out loud. Do you sound like a friendly person or a robot?

Readability programs such as Flesch-Kincaid (this link contains examples of other readability programs, as well) might be useful because it determines grade level and finds passive sentences. I’ve never used the Hemingway Editor, but some people like it. None of these are perfect. It’s best if you can get into the habit of producing clear, conversational writing.

Always think of your readers

Your donors are busy. They don’t want to slog through a newsletter that looks like a legal brief. Skip the formalities and give them something they’ll enjoy reading.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR NONPROFIT WRITING MORE CONVERSATIONAL

8 Tools to Be a More Effective Nonprofit Writer

 

Seeing the World Through Your Donors’ Eyes

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, donor-centered, fundraising, multichannel , , , ,

16694129500_90ff25d71d_mIn my last post, I wrote about the importance of staying donor-centered. Now let’s take it a step further. Try to think like your donors. Visualize one donor or a type of donor and imagine how they will respond to your communication.

Get to know your donors better

You may have a hard time with this if you don’t know your donors very well. One way to get to know them better is to send short surveys. The key here is short. Ask a few questions at a time.

3 Examples of Nonprofit Donor Surveys

The 5 ½ Principles of Effective Donor Surveys

GET TO KNOW YOUR DONORS: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO NONPROFIT SURVEYING

While surveys are a great way to connect, not everyone is going to respond to them. Another tactic to try is to create donor personas. You can use your database to figure out vital information and/or interview a few donors.

How to Develop Donor Personas for Your Nonprofit

GUIDE: Using Donor Personas to Maximize Your Nonprofit Fundraising

I think some of the most important things to know about your donors are why they give to your organization, what aspects of your work are important to them, and how they like to communicate (by mail, email, social media, or a combination of those).

Let’s look at these more closely.

Why do your donors give to your organization?

Donors are human beings, not just money machines. There’s a reason they’ve chosen to give to your organization. If you can find out what drew them to your nonprofit, it will help you with your donor communication.

Most likely they feel a connection to your cause. For example, I support the American Cancer Society because way too many people I know have been affected by cancer.

The best time to find out this information is right after someone donates, especially for first-time donors. This will be easier to collect online and you could include this question on your donation form.

Of course, not everyone donates online. You could also include a short survey and a reply envelope or a link to an online survey with your thank you letter or welcome packet for new donors. (You do send those, right?)

What aspects of your work are important to your donors?

You may have already found out this information from the question above, but most likely you’re working on several initiatives. If your organization is working to prevent homelessness, you may discover your donors are most interested in finding affordable housing for homeless families. Then you can share stories and updates about that initiative.

What communication channels do your donors prefer?

It’s probably more than one, but listen carefully. Don’t spend a lot of time on channels your donors aren’t using much.

Email will probably be your biggest communication tool. You won’t use direct mail as much because of the cost, but you do need to use it at least a few times a year, especially if you find out some donors don’t use electronic communication.

You could also try to get feedback about the frequency of your communication. Shorter, more frequent messages, especially for email and social media, should be more effective. This doesn’t mean blasting your donors with a bunch of generic messages.

The advantage of email and direct mail is you have complete control of them, unlike social media. Speaking of social media, almost every day you hear about some issue with Facebook. I’ve stopped using it and only use Twitter sporadically, but that’s just me. Other people can’t get enough of social media.

This is a good opportunity to monitor your email and social media to see if people are responding to your messages. Look at the open rates, click-throughs, and likes. (I know likes don’t mean that much, but they do reflect some sort of engagement.) Monitor this frequently and focus your efforts on channels your donors are using.

Use your database

As you gather vital information about your donors, put that in your database. Your database also comes in handy because you want to segment your donors – first-time donors, long-term donors, monthly donors, etc – so you can personalize their communication as much as possible.

Putting your work into action

You’ve spent time getting to know your donors better. Now you want to make sure they respond to your messages. This can be hard, especially when donors are bombarded with messages from many sources.

Keep them in mind. What will entice them to look at your email or letter and take action, if necessary. The email subject line Find out how you helped Claudia and her family move into a home of their own is profoundly better than April e-newsletter.

Now that your donor has opened your e-newsletter, is the first thing she sees a story about Claudia? You know from surveying your donors they like to read about the people they’re helping.

Every step of the way you need to see the world through your donors’ eyes – why they give to your organization, what they would like to hear from you, and which channels are best for connecting with them. Do this for every fundraising letter, thank you letter, newsletter, or any other type of communication.

Take time to get to know your donors, so you’ll have a better chance of keeping them for a long time.

 

How You Can Stay Donor-Centered

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

379714893_a11931e4a0_mMany nonprofits don’t seem to understand what it means to be donor-centered. I think it’s fairly obvious. It means focusing on your donors’ needs and interests, acknowledging them in your letters and other communication, and taking into account that not all donors are the same.

I guess it’s not obvious enough because you see countless examples of generic, organization-centered communication that barely acknowledges the donor.

Your communication suffers if it’s not donor-centered, but you can change that. Before you send your next appeal, thank you letter, or newsletter, run it through this donor-centered checklist.

Fundraising Appeals

  • Is your fundraising appeal focused too much on your organization – rambling on about how great you are? Your organization may be great, but let your donors figure that out. Your donors are the ones who are great, and they want to hear how they can help you make a difference for the people/community you serve.
  • Is your appeal segmented to the appropriate audience? Thank past donors or reference your relationship to a potential donor. Maybe they’re event attendees, volunteers, or friends of board members. Send separate appeal letters to monthly donors.
  • Is your appeal addressed to a person and not Dear Friend?
  • Is your appeal vague, impersonal, and filled with jargon your donors won’t understand? Don’t say we’re helping underserved members of the community. A donor-centered appeal would say something like – With your support, we can help low-income families find affordable housing.
  • Does your appeal make people feel good about donating to your organization?

Thank you letters

  • Does your thank you letter come across as transactional and resemble a receipt? Yes, you need to acknowledge the donation is tax deductible, etc, but most donors are more concerned about how their gift made a difference.
  • Does your thank you letter (or better yet, a handwritten note) shower your donors with love?  Start your letter with Thanks to you! or You’re incredible and not On behalf of X organization…..
  • Are you telling your donors the impact of their gift?  For example – Thanks to your generous donation of $50, a family can get a box of groceries at the Northside Community Food Bank. 
  • Do you recognize each donor?  Is this the first time someone has donated?  If someone donated before, did she increase her gift?  Did he upgrade to monthly giving? Acknowledge this in your letter/note.

Newsletters

  • Does your newsletter sound self-promotional and focus on all the wonderful things your organization is doing instead of showing your donors how they’re helping you make a difference? Think about nixing the letter from your CEO unless you can guarantee it’s donor-centered.
  • Is your newsletter written in the second person? Write to the donor and use the word you more often than we. How to Perform the “You” Test for Donor-Centered Communications – Do You Pass?  BTW, all your donor communication should be written in the second person. It’s much more personal.
  • Does your newsletter include success stories, engaging photos, and other content your donors like to see? Lead with a story because donors love to read about the people they’re helping.
  • Are you using the right channels?  Perhaps you only send an e-newsletter, but some of your donors prefer print.
  • Are you showing gratitude to your donors in your newsletter?

Always think of your donors first

Use this checklist for other donor communication such as annual reports (these are rarely donor-centered), your website, and social media posts.

Make sure the messages you send to your donors focus on them and make them feel special. Staying donor-centered can help you build relationships. This is especially important as retention rates continue to plunge.

Read on for more information about staying donor-centered.

Lots of donor-centric sentences for you to steal

Creating a Donor-Centered Appeal Letter: A Makeover!

Donor-Centered Storytelling Boosts Fundraising. Period.