Future Fundraising Now

7 heavenly virtues of fundraising

Yesterday, we looked at the 7 Deadly Sins of Fundraising. Today we'll look at their antidotes, the 7 Heavenly Virtues of Fundraising.

1. Chastity. You aren't cruising for cooler, younger, sexier donors. You love the donors you have and faithfully cultivate them.
2. Temperance You aren't seeking the thrill of the latest exciting new technology or social media phenom. You do the things that work and soberly research and test promising new things.
3. Charity. You realize fundraising is a two-way thing, and you give back to donors -- connection, affirmation, social proof, and information about what her gifts accomplish.
4. Diligence. You have your eyes open, paying attention not only to the short-term results, but to what's happening to your donor file. You know you can lose it all while everything looks hunky-dory -- if you don't watch the numbers.
5. Patience. You realize that fundraising is a process of finding the right donors and cultivating the relationship over time
6. Kindness. You treat donors the way you'd want to be treated. You let fund things that excite them. You put them in control of your communications. You receipt promptly and accurately.
7. Humility. Your fundraising is about donors, not bragging about your organization.

The 7 deadly sins of fundraising

Be vigilant against these sins, because they can drag your fundraising program down to a terrifying hell of non-response.

1. Lust. You don't want a relationship with your donors. You just lust after their money. You always try to leap past the relational stuff and get that gift. This, of course, usually leads to weak, temporary, and unsatisfying relationships.
2. Gluttony. You need a never-ending stream of new donors. You don't pay attention to their connection to your cause or their long-term value. You choose low-value, non-nutritious donors, because they are calories down your gullet rather than seek the more involved, more valuable donors who can really power healthy long-term growth.
3. Greed. You refuse to share the joy with your donors. You just take their money and run, instead of telling them what they made possible. This means your donors tend not to stick around very long. Why should they? They can't tell their gifts matter.
4. Sloth. You're lazily repeating what you've always done before. You haven't been keeping up with changes to your donors' behavior or the rise of new tools. Never stop testing, and never close your eyes to changes in the landscape. When you stop paying attention, you can be suddenly engulfed by changes that take you completely by surprise.
5. Wrath. When a campaign fails or donor retention slips, you blame it on your donors. You get mad at them and their unpredictable ways. This keeps you from looking into the real causes of campaign failure. It's always your fault; never their fault. Most problems are fixable -- if you realize the problem originates with you, not outside of you.
6. Envy. You think someone else has the answer you need. You're always seeking the Next Big Thing because you have a nagging fear that you're missing the magic. Sorry, but the real thing you're missing is doing your job by sticking to the basics.
7. Pride. You think fundraising is all about how wonderful your organization is. Your fundraising is a litany of your successes, superior methodologies, and super-human staff. That's boring for donors, and it's not why they give. They give because they are the heroes. Be proud of them, and proud that you're associated with them.

Tomorrow: The 7 Heavenly Virtues of Fundraising

How you might be mistreating your online donors

Is your online giving process like this?

(Or watch it here on YouTube.

Don't flinch. Watch it carefully. There's a good chance you're putting donors (or would-be donors) through this kind of thing.

If this is at all like what you're putting out there, you need to fire the people who are making it that way right now -- and get it done right!

Acknowledging is not thanking

by guest blogger Andrew Rogers

"Gift acknowledgement" is one of my least-favorite direct marketing terms. Erica Mills over at the Claxon Marketing blog might feel the same way, because she points out the vital truth that there is a big, big difference between an acknowledgement and a thank-you (Bye bye boring thank you letters).

Sure, you have to send an acknowledgement letter to everyone who donates to your organization. But acknowledging is not thanking. An acknowledgement doesn't make the recipient feel all warm and fuzzy and good about what they've done. It makes them remember that soon they'll have to file taxes. That's stressful, not joyful.

A thank-you note is a powerful opportunity to strengthen your bond with your donor -- to praise her for her generosity and effort, and to tell her what a positive difference she's making in the world. Why would you pass up a wonderful chance like that in favor of a flat, transactional statement like "We have received your recent donation"?

Apart from laziness, I mean.

Fundraising that works does one thing well

Did You Make Them Feel Good?

That's the main question to ask about your fundraising, as posed by The Agitator.

Did you make it about the donor? Did you make it clear that sending a gift would enrich and empower them?

Fundraising that doesn't do well, usually fails because it's not about the donor:

... if your returns are disappointing, you probably weren't standing in your donor's shoes when you (or your henchmen) crafted the appeal. What did your appeal promise your donor that would have made him or her feel good about giving? As you re-read your messaging, if that promise doesn't hit you hard, right in the chest, then your problem is clear.

That trumps all the other questions people get focused on:

• Was it on brand?
• Was the message too short or too long?
• Too much passive voice?
• Enough underlining?

None of those things matters anywhere near as much as Did we make them feel good?

What fundraising is really all about

Writing recently at the Hilborn blog (Successful direct mail for smaller charities), Super Excellent Fundraiser Guy Tom Ahern went well beyond the subject of small-charity fundraising to what fundraising is really about:

When I make a gift to a charity, it's not all that much about the charity. It's really more about me. It's about me feeling like a good person, a contributor to a better world.

... the number-one job of fundraising appeals is to tell donors how great they are. That's what so-called "donor-centered" communications are...

That's true no matter how big or small the organization. In fact, smaller nonprofits have an edge in this area. The big guys often have strict brand guidelines that mandate self-centered bragging and unattractive navel-gazing.

If you're serious about raising money for your cause, you'll focus on your donor. You'll turn every statement back toward her. You'll help her discover or rediscover what an empowered, world-changing person she is.

The power of giving your donors choices

Here's a brilliant piece from the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes (an organization that unfortunately has a 0-star rating from Charity Navigator).

The reply device gives the donor two choices -- but both choices involve sending a gift:

Background: The letter details how the organization went ahead and gave Christmas gifts to wounded vets, even though there was no budget for that. Now they're asking donors to step up and make it good.

Of course, that's not good policy. And I have to wonder if the story is even true.

But set aside those things and consider what this piece is doing: It gives donors a "voice" while assuming that the donors fully support the goal of supporting the veterans.

Choice is good for fundraising. Even when the choice isn't very meaningful. It's like the once-common (now rare) reply device formula that goes like this:

YES! I'm enclosing my gift...
No, I can't give right now...

Choice allows the donor to engage, even if she can't give. Or, in this case of this piece, to express her disapproval for a dodgy action while she gives.

Choice does its magic even when it's meaningless. It can be better yet when the choice is meaningful.

More from the Trove

Things worth testing in your email campaigns

Testing subject lines in your email campaigns is one of the smartest ways to improve response. Here are a bunch of testing ideas from The Emma Blog: 12 subject line split testing ideas. See how these might work in your emails:

1. Length
2. Special characters (those little icons of hearts, smiley faces and other shapes)
3. Specificity
4. Personalization
5. Sender name
6. Exclamation points (
7. Discount-speak
8. A Question
9. Relevancy (you might do well with a subject line that's not relevant!)
10. Urgency
11. Capitalization
12. Gratitude

Some of these things may be techniques you've heard you should never use. The thing about online fundraising is this: the rules change. What might have been true a few years (or months) ago might be promising test hypotheses now.

Why your donors don't get it

Do you sometimes wonder why your donors don't get it?

You try and try to show them how important and transformative your cause is -- but response is low, donors are lapsing away, and you can't seem to break free from the recession...

Why don't they get it? What can you do to make them see?

Maybe it's you who doesn't get it.

Maybe you've been speaking to yourself and not to them. Maybe you're trying to persuade yourself, not them.

Fundraising is not about showing your greatness and hoping they'll agree and climb aboard your bandwagon. It's about showing how you belong on their bandwagon.

You can't change the way other people think. But you can change the way you communicate.

How to get more donations

Here are some ways to improve your prospects this year, from John Haydon's blog: Seven Ways to Increase Your Nonprofit's Donations in 2013...

1. Say Thanks
2. Give Your Supporters Better Tools
3. Plug up the Holes in Your Website
4. Make Your Supporters' Agendas Your Agenda
5. Constantly Report Outcomes
6. Develop One Cause Marketing Partnership
7. Don't Shoot for Perfect

Four is the center of it all. Once you realize that fundraising is not a process of getting people to join your club, but trying to get people to let you into their club -- you'll start doing a lot of things much more brilliantly.

(I'd take #6 with a grain of salt. You could spend a lot of time trying to bring that to life and never bring in a dollar.)