Future Fundraising Now

5 steps that will make your fundraising more effective

Like checklists? Here's one from Fired Up Fundraising that will help you write better fundraising messages: Your Donor-Centered Appeal Letter Checklist. Check it out:

• Use a warm tone toward your donor. (Write the way you write to a beloved aunt -- not a business message.)
  
• Use the word "you" more than the word "we." (The letter is about the donor, not your organization!)
  
• Talk about the passion for the cause that you and your both donor share.
  
• Tell your donor exactly the impact she will make with her gift. (Show how her dollars connect with action.)
  
• Remove your organization as the intermediary between the donor and your results. (Your gift will accomplish this, not Your gift will help us accomplish.
  

The fail-safe place where you can find major donors

How many nonprofit leaders have said, If only we could get Bill Gates to become a donor. All our problems would be solved! Does anyone here know Bill?

It's tempting to think there's a super-donor who's willing to swoop in and support you on a massive level.

It's not going to happen.

Your angels aren't sitting outside your file, just waiting to be contacted.

Your angels are already donors. They're just waiting for the opportunity to become angels. It's up to you to find them and cultivate them.

That's what the Veritus Group blog advises at Stop Prospecting!

... sitting in your donor file are good people who have already said "yes" to your request for help. And that "yes" -- just that simple tiny little "yes" -- is a very significant clue that they are on board with you.

So leave Bill alone. He has enough on his plate. You already know the people who are going to help you solve your problems.

10 mistakes the weaken your fundraising, and why they happen

It looks as if The Agitators go to pretty much the same set of meeting that I go to. They see similar successes and failures. Their recent list of 10 Bad Fundraising Decisions is almost exactly the list I would have written:

1. Botching the 'thank you.'
   
2. Appealing to reason over emotion.
   
3. Not driving your program, including acquisition, toward maximizing lifetime value.
   
4. Not systematically seeking, listening to or addressing donor feedback/preferences.
   
5. Thinking your donor thinks like you.
   
6. Not committing to continual fundraising training/education/up-skilling.
   
7. Investing in your fundraising program to 'meet budget' instead of to 'seize opportunity.'
   
8. Tolerating 'silo' or 'go-fer' or 'bolt on' status for fundraising within your organization.
   
9. Not appreciating how your donor's broader life as a consumer affects how they respond to and what they expect from you.
   

I think you could look at all of these destructive decisions as symptoms of a single error in approach: Forgetting to think of donors as people.

It's easy -- too easy -- to lose sight of the fact that donors are real people. When you forget that, your only yardstick for strategy or tactics and your own head. You end up doing things that you think you'd respond to. Worse yet, you make choices that make life easier for you and your colleagues.

And your contact with donors makes less and less sense to the very people it's meant for.

Remember, fundraising is all about donors.

10 ways to raise more money with your newsletter

Newsletters aren't magic for every organization. But they can raise good money for most. From Hands On Fundraising, here are some things that may be dampening the potential of your newsletter, at 10 reasons your newsletter could raise more money:

1. Is your newsletter a self-mailer? (Put it in an envelope. They work much better that way.)
   
2. Is there a letter from your CEO or board chair? (Reconsider. Or get a professional to write it for them.)
   
3. Are your headlines really headlines? (Two words: supermarket tabloids. Imitate their headlines.
   
4. Is the newsletter all about your organization? (Make it instead about what the donor has done -- through your organization.)
   
5. Do you address your donors? (Address the donor. She deserves it.)
   
6. Are you listing accomplishments? (Yawn. Tell stories.)
   
7. Are your pictures boring? (Show people. Show drama. Show action.)
   
8. Did you skip the caption? (Captions are among the most-read part of any printed piece. Don't miss the opportunity to draw readers in.)
   
9. Did you forget to ask for help? (It's okay to ask in a newsletter. Donors want to give!)
   
10. Is your marketing department in charge of the donor newsletter? (They're doing it wrong. It should be created by people who understand fundraising.)
    

Podcast: When the boss doesn't like your fundraising

It's one of the most common experiences in fundraising. You've created a powerful fundraising message. Then you show it to your boss -- and she hates it. We can't ignore bosses (and board members and other authorities) -- and they often dislike our best work. Because it's not aimed at them!

Here's how to gently make your case with your boss that whether she likes it or not isn't relevant -- and in fact, her dislike is a pretty good indicator that you've done it right! Practical steps that will help you put the good stuff out their and raise more money!

To listen, click here to download the audio file or visit the Fundraising Is Beautiful page here, where you'll find several listening and subscription options.

Why "boring" fundraising is so exciting

Good article in Nonprofit Pro: The Death of 'X': Why 'Boring' Might Be Best for Nonprofits.

In this equation, X = anything you're doing now to raise funds. You'll hear it from one-track consultants: Direct mail is dead, so you need to reinvest in millennial hoverboard/bitcoin fundraising, which I just happen to be an expert in.

While it's true that our donors' use of media is shifting, which tells us that we should be doing that too -- the old media aren't dying. They're changing. Some money is moving from direct mail to email and other digital channels. So keep your eyes open.

And when someone suggests some amazing new channel, ask yourself these questions suggested by the article:

1. Does it help you love those who support you more and/or help your supporters love you more?
   
2. Does it help you and/or your supporters express that love better?
   
3. Does it help new people fall in love with you?
   

Newness is not a reason to get involved in a channel. Having a reason to believe that it answers these questions -- that's how you know it's worth looking into. If you really want to be there for donors, stay with them in the "boring" channels they're still using. You can yawn all the way to the bank.

The one thing fundraisers need to pay most attention to in the future

Good post over at re: charity that riffs on an insightful quotes by Jeff Bezos:

I very frequently get the question: 'What's going to change in the next 10 years?' I almost never get the question: 'What's not going to change in the next 10 years?' And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two -- because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.

Change is a given. But so is stasis. The big successes in fundraising won't be those who chased shiny objects and spent to little on the fundamentals. It'll be those who realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

As the re:charity post notes:

If you want your organization to be a strong, sustainable, and successful ... don't worry so much about what will change and stop trying to predict the future. Instead, focus on what will remain constant -- knowing and caring for your supporters -- and invest your time, energy, and resources on that.

How to make your newsletter thrill your donors

It's possible your newsletter is good bedtime reading for your donors. That may be an appreciated service by some of them, I doubt a sleep-inducing newsletter is accomplishing what you need it to do.

Ann Green's Nonprofit Blog asks Is Your Newsletter Putting Your Donors to Sleep? If it is, here are some things to do:

• Think about what your donors want (they want to know that their giving makes a difference)
  
• Share stories
  
• Write to your donors (directly address them in stories, making it clear: You made this great stuff possible!)
  
• Say thank you
  
• Make it easy to read (and scan)
  
• Short and sweet
  
• Send it to the right audience (donors)
  

If your newsletter isn't raising money, that's probably because it's not engaging donors.

When you create your newsletter, keep three things in mind: drama, joy, & ease...

Make every story throb with drama.

Make sure everything is a source of joy for your donors.

Make it easy to read.

The reality that undercuts the charge of "poverty porn"

by guest blogger George Crankovic, Senior Writer at TrueSense Marketing.

When we show disturbing photos and tell graphic stories about people suffering with poverty and disease in developing countries, the executive directors and boards of many charities often balk. They believe we're exploiting people in our fundraising.

"Show all the good work that's being done," they say. "Show the 'after' not the 'before.' Be positive."

Critics of fundraising often hold the same view. Calling it "poverty porn," they say this kind of fundraising undermines the dignity of the very people we're purporting to help.

Fundraisers push back, naturally. We say that showing donors the problems we hope they'll help solve needn't be exploitive at all. It's simply presenting donors with a real problem to solve. It's creating the necessary emotional connection between nonprofit and donor.

What's more, on a practical level, we know that images and stories of sad, hurting people will garner more donations than images of happy, smiling people. This makes perfect sense, and it's been proven again and again in direct head-to-head testing.

In all the back and forth, though, an important point gets overlooked.

Those who level the charge of poverty porn maintain that showing disturbing images and gut-wrenching stories in appeal after appeal creates a distorted view of reality for donors.

But the fact is, the exact opposite is the case. Showing images of happy, smiling people in a famine zone, for example, isn't in any way the reality of the lives of the people facing life-threatening hunger and poverty. The stark, undeniable reality is that many people in poor countries are hurting. They suffer with disease and poverty on a massive scale that those of us in the West couldn't begin to imagine.

If we believe our donors to be caring, intelligent people who can have a part in making the world a better place, it's our responsibility to show them the actual reality of the lives of the people we want them to help. Not some sanitized, happy-talk version.

How to tell when your fundraising is on the wrong track

It seems Marketoonist has been in a few of the same meetings I've been in:

See marketing vanity metrics.

Does this look familiar to you too?

This is how truly terrible decisions are made. Don't let it happen in your organization!