From Katya's Nonprofit Marketing Blog, Message isn't working? Here's a three-point diagnosis. Some typical ways fundraising goes wrong:
- Falsely assuming that information results in action.
- Forgetting that we're not the audience.
- Treating marketing as an afterthought.
In my experience, #2 is the most common and most destructive of the three. People at nonprofit organizations become obsessed with creating messages they think would motivate them -- and thus radically mis-communicate with their donors.
It's difficult to get outside of your own head. It's even harder when there's a group-think in the organization that's seeking self-pleasing messages.
Effective fundraisers are the ones who talk to donors, not themselves.
