Future Fundraising Now

Zen and the art of fundraising -- and you

You've probably heard the old Zen saying,

"When the student is ready the teacher will appear."

You've probably experienced it in your life. I certainly have. You develop an interest in something, or a need for some kind of knowledge -- and almost immediately a person shows up in your life who not only has exactly what you need, but they're also willing to help.

It's so clear and pronounced that it seems like magic -- or a divine gift.

It's as if your need, your curiosity, somehow sends out a silent message that is heard by the teacher you need, who obeys the call and appears to you with amazing speed.

I think what makes it happen is this: We're constantly being exposed to various "teachers" of various things. But most of the time, we're not awake to what they have to offer; we don't know or care enough to perceive the potential gift that's in front of us. Until something happens within us that awakens us to it. And then: Wow! I can't believe you just showed up like that, right when I needed you!

(I should add that my little "explanation" of this phenomenon doesn't mean it's not a divine gift or magic.)

I'm telling you all this because I think there's a powerful fundraising correlation to this same truth:

"When the donor is ready the fundraising appeal will appear."

That is, potential donors to your cause are going through their lives, unaware of your cause. No matter how many times they encounter your direct mail, your Facebook posts, your banner ads, your TV spots, your street fundraisers ... they barely perceive it. It's as if you didn't ask at all.

And then something happens. Within the potential donor. And she is suddenly aware of your message. She can now respond.

Until that moment she could not respond. Because as far as she was concerned, you weren't even there.

This can teach us a couple of useful things about fundraising:

1. Why getting new donors is so hard. Because most people, most of the time, even in the best-targeted audiences, have not had that inner call in their hearts and minds. (And many never will.) Thing is, if you're not there when or if it does happen ... you won't get that donor! (Someone else will, though!)
   
2. It's not purely random. Outside factors can turn on the light for many people at the same time. Like large natural disasters that bring in surges of donors. Or events like the election of a disturbing candidate. Unexpected fads like the Ice Bucket Challenge. Or a very well-conceived fundraising offer.
   

So practice your fundraising like you live in a world that's thick with benevolent magic. Because it is.

But also stay aware that no matter how much heart and soul you put into your fundraising, it's still partly a numbers game.

And that may be a path to true fundraising enlightenment.

(This post first appeared on April 13, 2018.)

How good is your crap detector?

Someone asked Ernest Hemingway what single quality it takes to make someone a good writer.

His answer:

A built-­in, shock-­proof, crap detector.

I doubt he had fundraising in mind when he said that, but he could have.

Crap is the chief enemy of effective fundraising.

What is crap in fundraising?

• Vague abstractions about what your organization does.
  
• Brand standards that keep you from talking to donors about the things they care about.
  
• Jargon the excludes outsiders from the conversation.
  
• Faddish modern design that’s hard to read and conveys the wrong emotional messages.
  
• Browbeating donors because they owe you support and you believe you shouldn’t have to address their reasons for donating.
  
• Blaming the ignorance and stubbornness of donors on your failure to connect with them.
  
• Pomposity: Using big words and complex communication because it makes you look important.
  

Crap is hard to avoid, because most of it comes from within, as noted by Neil Postman’s Third Law:

At any given time, the chief source of crap with which you have to contend is yourself.

Develop and fine-tune your personal crap detector. You’ll frequently catch yourself wandering into crap territory.

But you’ll also raise more money. You’ll see through more flimsy schemes. You’ll note the subtle difference between empty posturing and useful advice. You’ll generally have more fun.

More on this delightful topic: Book review: Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: And Other Tough-Love Truths to Make You a Better Writer by Steven Pressfield

2 amazing things your nonprofit newsletter can do for you

Newsletter Tuesdays: A series about doing more with your donor newsletter.

An effective donor newsletter should accomplish two things:

1. It should improve donor retention. It does that by showing donors that their giving accomplishes good things. While it’s hard to directly measure this outcome, a solid donor newsletter should be part of a healthy donor file. I’ve seen organizations with no newsletter (or with a newsletter that wasn’t about donor impact) and several percentage points to their donor retention rate by publishing a solid donor newsletter.
   
2. It should raise funds directly. A good donor newsletter is itself a worthwhile fundraising channel that can raise net revenue at a decent return on investment. Typically, newsletters are just behind direct mail appeals in effectiveness ... but for some organizations they can be more effective than appeals.
   

Here’s the key thing.

You don’t have to balance these two goals. It’s not either/or.

It’s both/and.

Newsletters that have the most positive impact on retention are also the best at raising direct net revenue. And vice-versa.

Newsletters that are bad at one of those are also bad at the other.

Because if a newsletter is compelling, donors will engage with it. And that means more of them will donate to it. And more will donate to other channels later.

A good donor newsletter is a win-win for fundraisers!

This Newsletter Tuesday series is about the ways you can create a donor newsletter that does what it’s meant to do. Stay tuned.

Why so much writing is so bad, and how you can avoid it

Hard-to-read writing is bad for fundraising. It decreases response.

Why does it persist? I think it’s mainly three factors:

Sloppy writing

Easy to read is hard to write. It takes care and attention to write clearly and make things simple.

First drafts are often complex. That’s okay, even inevitable. As long as you revise for simplicity. Many writers don’t bother with that. Those who do one last draft for simplicity essentially have a communications super-power.

Bad teaching

Sometimes, though, it’s not just sloppiness. Some writers consciously and carefully make their writing difficult. Often because college writing teachers tend to require students to write long, complex sentences and use sophisticated vocabulary. That may be considered “elegant” in some circles, and it has its place. But for readers, it’s just hard to read.

Most writers’ last (and only) training in writing happened in college. It’s what they know. We were rewarded for writing complex copy; sometimes we were penalized for keeping things simple.

In fundraising (or any form of writing where you need to influence people who are not required to read your stuff), keep it simple. Most of us need to “re-train” as writers after school. Banish that English teacher from your brain who tempts you to to academic elegance.

Elitism

Some professions keep outsiders outside by using specialized, jargon-packed, complex language. If they made it easy, they wouldn’t be so special. Advanced vocabulary and jargon are often ways to signal I am educated or I am an insider.

That’s not appropriate for fundraising. We need to practice inclusive writing that invites people in. It can be difficult to step outside of the elites we want to be part of.

But it’s far better to open your heart and your mind and write to connect with everyone who’s interested ... not just your in-group.

The secret to good fundraising writing:

• Write with care, taking the time to simplify.
  
• Ignore most of what you learned about writing in college.
  
• Write with an open, inclusive attitude.
  

When you can’t face writing: 5 tips

It happens to everyone: You have to write something. But you can’t make yourself do it. But you have to.

Yes, it’s weird. And normal.

Here are five ways to help yourself move forward from Publication Coach at How to write when you don’t want to:

1. Start doing something different, instantly. When you notice you’re stewing about not wanting to write, walk away from your desk immediately. Go for a walk. Talk to a friend. Break the cycle of negative thinking.
   
2. Immediately reduce your goals. Sometimes the reason you don’t want to write is because the task you face is overwhelming you. Break it down to smaller goals until you’re facing something you know you can accomplish. You can come back for the rest tomorrow.
   
3. Adopt a growth mindset.
   Having a growth mindset — meaning you believe it’s possible to learn to do anything better — means you see problems as obstacles to overcome, not roadblocks. Researcher Carol Dweck has shown that a growth mindset predicts success far more reliably than talent. As well, if you do more of something you’ll inevitably get better at it.
   
4. Abandon perfectionism. Give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft. You’ll fix it later. Really, almost all first drafts are crappy whether you give yourself permission or not. Write in the real world, not the fantasy one your perfectionism creates.
   
5. Take better care of yourself. Be nice to you. Make sure you’re comfortable, not hungry, warm or cool enough. It’s easy to let discomfort get in the way of progress -- because some part of your brain says you “deserve” to suffer.
   

Don't snub donors with the Myth of Self-Sufficiency

Do you need your donors?

Then tell them so!

Donors don't know they're needed unless you specifically say so. And too many of them have no idea how important they care, because so many fundraisers believe in the Myth of Self-Sufficiency.

The Myth of Self-Sufficiency drives us to make all our messaging about how great we are and how well things are going.

It feels good to talk that way, but it inadvertently tells donors things are fine without them.

Unless you have a funding structure that makes donors unnecessary, tell them you need them. If you need them urgently, if you need them to keep the doors open for the next 30 days, if programs would be cut without them -- don't hide it. Be honest, open, and urgent.

It makes some people in nonprofits uncomfortable to admit their dependence on donors. They think it reflects poorly on their management. Or they might think donors would be repelled by the idea that their giving is critical to the cause.

But donors want to be wanted. Years of experience, including head-to-head message testing, tells me this: An appeal that says, We may have to cut programs unless people like you give outperforms an optimistic message that says Things are great, please join us. The difference is dramatic.

I've seen organizations who aren't willing to admit they need donors caught in a poverty cycle where they never have the resources they need. Because donors believe they aren't necessary.

So put the Myth of Self-Sufficiency to rest. Go out with some powerful fundraising that tells your donors you really need them!

4 ways to unlock the power of gifts of stock

Here’s something that might surprise you: Nonprofits that consistently receive gifts of appreciated stocks grow donation income six times faster than those that only receive cash.

This according to a recent study by Dr. Russell James.

Here are some things you can do to up your game in this high-impact type of fundraising, from Clairification, at Could Gifts of Stock Be Your Nonprofit’s Magic Genie?:

1. Set up a Brokerage Account. Find a broker to work with you to makes gifts of stock easy for donors.
   
2. Actively Promote Stock Gifts on your Website and Online Communications. Gifts from stock are not for all or even most donors. But it might make sense for more donors than you (or they) think. Make sure you donors can learn about this.
   
3. Include a Sub-Menu on Your Home Page (under Donate). Make it easy for them to find out how to make stock gifts.
   
4. Give Fundraisers Extra Tools, and Rewards, to Generate Gifts from Assets. Staff who deal directly with donors should know how to guide donors who can give stock gifts -- and why it makes sense to do so.
   

The right way — and wrong way — to thank your donors [PODCAST]

A lot of nonprofit thank-you messages say something like this: “Thank you for being our partner...”

That’s about as thrilling to the donor as telling her she has nice elbows.

Donors don’t give in order to be our partner. They give to have a positive impact on the world in some specific way. And that’s what you should thank them for.

Not for what they did in their relationship with you. It’s another way to put yourself in the donor’s world and not your world. Which leads to better results every time!

From the archives of the now-defunct podcast Fundraising Is Beautiful. This episode first aired on September 13, 2017. Listen here:

(If you don't see the audio player below, click here to listen.)

3 ways to keep your fundraising tests smart and on target

Testing is one of the great advantages of doing direct-response fundraising. It frees you from guessing what will work. It shuts down the uninformed opinions of amateurs. (Well, it should.)

But you have to test right.

Here’s a helpful post from the Heroic Fundraising Blog, at When to Invest in a Fundraising Campaign Test? 3 Questions to Ask. (It includes a helpful decision tree for testing.)

1. Why are we testing? It may seem so obvious you don’t need to do this, but you need to put your answer to this question in writing before you launch into a test. Of course, the reason you’re testing is most likely to improve performance. Are you intending to improve response with different messaging or format? Are you going to a different audience? Are you hoping to cut cost while preserving performance? Put the why in writing. If you you lose sight of the why (believe me, this happens all the time), you can wrongly interpret test results.
   
2. What’s your hypothesis? Say it out loud (and write it down): We hope that doing X will yield Y result. Be specific about it. Sometimes a test tells you something beyond your hypothesis. But you’ll construct a smarter test if you are very clear about what you are looking into.
   
3. What if it wins? Make sure you are able and willing to take action based on the test outcome. Otherwise, the test is a waste of time and money. This can be difficult when you test something that costs more to do than your control. It might “win” in the test ... but cost too much to make the win repeatable.
   

See also Smart testing for nonmathematical fundraisers, a 7-part series on testing.

Are your donors tired of hearing from you?

We need to cut back on our fundraising. Our donors are starting to get tired of hearing from us.

You may have said this. A lot of fundraisers do.

There are two major assumptions being made:

1. That your fundraising is annoying or irksome.
   
2. That donors are paying enough attention that they notice and care about the frequency of your fundraising.
   

For some donors, one or both of those assumptions might be correct.

But for the large majority, neither assumption is correct.

Don’t decide for donors that they’re tired of hearing from you.

That’s their call, not yours.