Future Fundraising Now

8 things worth knowing about matching fund offers

Matching Fund offers are a powerful tool in all types of fundraising. Just about the only things you can do wrong with the double-your-money offer is to over-complicate it -- or not do it.

Here's a helpful post from the Classy Blog, at Don't Let These 8 Donation Match Myths Hold You Back:

1. A Donation Match Is the Same as an Employee Match. Two very different things. A donation match is a powerful motivator for all donors. Most of your donors don't have charitable giving matches available to them.
2. A Donation Match Requires a Corporate Sponsor. You can get matching funds from any source. It's a great focus for board giving and for major donor fundraising.
3. A Donation Match Has to Be a Big Match. There really isn't a too-small (or too-big) for matches. It motivates donors anyway.
4. You Can Only Do One Donation Match Per Campaign. There is no limit to the number of times you can go to donors with a match offer. It keeps on working, and I've never seen any evidence that repeated use drives down giving.
5. Donation Matching Is Seasonal. It works no matter when you do it. If you can only do it once a year, choose your strongest appeal. Wouldn't you prefer to make a strong appeal stronger than to get a small boost to a weak appeal?
6. If You Create a Match Campaign, Donors Will Come. You still have to do good fundraising, with an appealing offer, emotional story, and all the other things that make fundraising work.
7. A Donation Match Is Limited to a Specific Campaign Type. I have never seen a campaign type that a match didn't improve.
8. Donors Are Fatigued by Repeat Matches. Not even close. They are energized by them!

What should nonprofit marcom people know?

If a nonprofit is large enough, it often has two different but related departments: One that does fundraising and another that does marketing and communications, or MarCom.

There's a logical reason for this bifurcation. Fundraising is about motivating people to donate, mainly through direct-response channels. Marcom is about creating the general impression that the organization is good, and for those that sell things (like services or tickets), they do actual classic marketing and advertising.

These are distinct activities, so having both can make a lot of sense.

It also causes a lot of problems: Wasted money, ineffective fundraising, and pointless internal conflict.

As the Veritus Group Blog points out at The Marketing Communications Dilemma, the problem typically stems from radically different cultures and mindsets of the two groups.

The way to make sure both groups are pulling in the same direction, Marcom people should be conversant (if not expert) in the goals, methods, and mindset of fundraising. They recommend asking these questions about potential marcom professionals:

• Are they donor-driven?
• Do they understand that fundraising messaging is about addressing a societal problem, and therefore all copy and images need to support that goal?
• Do they understand that communication vehicles, including the website and social media, should be biased towards presenting societal problems to solve, and not how great the organization is?
• Do they understand and accept that every societal problem statement to the general public should be an opportunity to acquire a donor, and that functional provisions need to be made to make that happen?
• Do they understand and accept that every communication piece, electronic or printed, is an opportunity to come on board as a new donor, or to give, if it’s an existing donor? This means that there are opportunities to give in every piece, some soft?
• Do they understand the importance of continually telling the donor, via MarCom materials, that their giving is making a difference?

A marcom person who gets the above will be invaluable to the organization. One who doesn't get it, will be a drag on future progress.

5 lies your donors tell you

When you talk to donors, there are a number of lies you are likely to hear.

They aren't really lies, because the donors are doing their best to give you accurate and useful information. But they don't have access to the truth about these things. Nobody does. No matter how earnest and helpful the donors are, these common statements are incorrect, and harmfully so.

If you use these statements to create strategy, you will deeply damage your fundraising revenue. You'll end up betraying the very donors who gave you the direction.

Here are some common "lies" told by donors:

1. You don't need to thank me for my donation. Giving is its own reward. If you fail to thank donors, you will lose donors. A strong program that thanks donors promptly, relevantly, through multiple channels, and often is a key to improving donor retention rates.
2. Remind me to donate once a year and I'll make my donation then. This might ring true, especially coming from a donor who is in the habit of giving once yearly, as many are. But if you go invisible to a donor for 11-1/2 months, you will very likely stay invisible when that one reminder rolls around.
3. Save your money and send me an email once a year instead of paying to send a letter. This advice will hurt even more than sending one reminder a year. The low engagement rate of email means even fewer of those once-yearly donors will forget their one shot at giving.
4. No need to tell me about how my gift is going to work. I trust you. They may trust you, but if you don't report back on the impact of their giving, you will build a weaker relationship and have lower donor retention over time. Telling donors about their impact is a cornerstone of a strong relationship.
5. I don't need to read a sad story to persuade me to give. Just give me the facts. There are two things that really don't persuade the human mind: non-urgent situations, and statistics. Yes, some donors think they want you to give them those things. They'll be far less likely to give than if you tell them about problems they can help solve.

These "lies" are not told to mislead you. On the contrary, they are really trying to give you useful information. They just can't, because the information isn't visible to them. Kind of the way you can't see your own ears.

The way donors give you usable information is through their behavior. Watch that carefully, and you'll be equipped to do what motivates them to give.

5 transformative fundraising lessons from 2020

The main thing I learned from the weird year 2020 (beside "don't inject bleach") was that donors are even more generous and connected than I ever thought.

It was an important year, and here are 3 Things We Learned About Donors In 2020 from the Soapbox Engage Blog:

1. We don't need to fear donor fatigue. Donors don't get tired of giving, especially when there are reasons to give. Organizations that kept in touch with donors had record years in 2020. Those that decided for donors that fatigue was real ... they had a different experience. Donors get tired of irrelevant fundraising. Not urgent need.
2. Recurring donations lay a strong fundraising foundation. Encouraging donors to become recurring monthly givers is a cornerstone of a sustainable fundraising program. Make it easy and rewarding to give this way, and keep giving them the opportunity. And they give because it's convenient for them, not because it's 5 good for your cash flow! Make ease and convenience your main talking points.
3. Giving is trending up, and analysts predict it will continue. Charitable giving has been trending upward for decades, with a few downturns now and then. Demographics are on our side: The 60+ population of most countries is growing.

I'd like to add two more to the list:

1. Online giving surged and is likely to stay higher than before. After a few years of very slow growth, digital giving increased by a lot last year. While it may decrease as things go back to normal, I doubt it will go back to 2019 levels. Be on top of it!
2. You may find you can get rid of that big event you've been depending on. Fundraising events were canceled everywhere. Some organizations found better ways to use their time and budgets to mobilize people and raise money.