Four things you need to know about donors

From the Return Customer blog, a great post on what you need to know to be good at selling stuff: 4 Keys to Successful Customer-Centric Selling.

Here are those four keys, adjusted into our world of fundraising:

1. What donors want. Not what you want.
   
2. What donors need. Sometimes, we offer donors something they never knew they wanted to do until they saw it.
3. Donors' language. Our jargon is not persuasive. It's usually not even comprehensible. Be sure to communicate the way donors understand.
4. Donors' fears. Probably the biggest fear of donors is that their gift will not do what they want it to do. They're afraid we're anything from con-artists stealing their donations to stumble-bums who try to get it right but fail. Help them believe otherwise.

Comments

[Event360]

Putting yourself in your donor’s shoes and framing your fundraising efforts from that perspective is essential to any successful campaign. Thanks for these simple, yet incredibly important, pointers.

[Joe]

Thanks Jeff for mentioning my post on ReturnCustomer.com. I like how you apply the principles to donors. Whether a person is a customer or donor, they are still the center of our efforts (as a business or organization) and we can't forget their perspective as we try to influence them to take action.