Donor Communications

1. How readable are your donor communications – or any communications from your organization? Check out Jeff Brooks’ blog of June 21, 2012, “Real-world fundraising design is aimed at deteriorating eyes.” And for more about readability, read Tom Ahern’s e-news. And read Roger Dooley’s neurosciencemarketing blog and his book BrainFluence.

2. Read the newly-released Giving USA Annual Report on Philanthropy. Share highlights with your development office, your board’s development committee, your CEO, and your board of directors. This is important stuff! What are the trends – and what are the implications for your organization? Get your own copy.

3. Read “Sweetened Charity,” from The Economist magazine, June 9, 2012.

4. Read the Schumpeter column in the June 9 issue of The Economist, “A tissue of lies.” You’ll learn about social psychologist Dan Ariely and his new book, “The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty.”

Organizations keep trying to make me interested. They send me direct mail but I don’t know them. They send me emails but I don’t care. They say “If I could just educate you about this important issue, you would give.”

More education won’t make people care about your cause. More public visibility won’t make people give to your organization. More tweets and Facebook pages won’t make people listen or hear.

Read Seth Godin‘s blog, June 7, 2012, “The unforgiving arithmetic of the funnel.” Seth notes: “The common mistake is to reflexively come to the conclusion that the only option is to make more noise, to put more attention into the top of the [sales] funnel. The thinking goes that if a big audience is getting you mediocre results, a huge audience is the answer.”

But that’s wrong. Deal with the reality of the funnel. Read Seth’s blog.

Have you read Growing Philanthropy in the U.S. yet? Lots of interesting insights. Lots of challenges for you, your organization, and the sector.

This report came out of a summit in June 2011, put together by Adrian Sargeant, leading fundraising researcher. I participated along with 30+ other people.

Here are the 4 major themes:

1. Enhancing the quality of donor relationships.

2. Developing public trust and confidence.

3. Identifying new audiences, channels, and forms of giving with strong potential for growth.

4. Improving the quality of fundraising training and development.

Read the full report, posted on my website. Read the executive summary. Start talking! Host a conversation with your fundraising colleagues through your AFP or AHP or CASE chapter / region or any other professional association. That’s what AFP RI did. Talk about the findings with your development staff and your board’s fund development committee. Explore. Talk. Learn. Change.

Storytelling is a core element of fundraising. And storytelling is more than that…storytelling is a core element of being human, living one’s life.

Read Seth Godin‘s blog, May 20, 2012, “A true story.” As Seth reminds us, there’s no such thing as a really true story. The storyteller must engage the audience. The storyteller must make the story “relevant and interesting” to the audience, “hooking the audience into [the storyteller’s] worldviews and generating emotions and memories.” And then the story isn’t true like facts are true. And that very true story doesn’t work across cultures and boundaries.

But the really true story for the heart, that’s emotional and visceral. That kind of story works just about anywhere for just about anyone. And the audience hears and feels and believes.

“Everything is a tale. What we believe, what we know. What we remember, even what we dream. Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating emotional content. We only accept as true what can be narrated.” [Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game]

Now take a look at Jeff Brooks’ blog, “The two ingredients of stories that motivate giving,” posted November 28, 2012. Jeff refers us to a wonderful video that explains two key elements of the most impactful stories: Distress and Empathy. And the video explains the dramatic arc of a story, the universal story structure.

Seth Godin talks about “four questions worth answering” on his blog of November 26, 2012. “Who is your next customer,” asks Seth. Describe his or her “tribe…hopes and dreams…needs and wants.” Think about the story s/he tells himself.

So now I’m thinking about storytelling as this sequence:

— Telling your own story

— Listening to your own story

— Hearing your own story (Because truly listening well is the only way you’ll hear your own story – or the stories of others.)

— Understanding your own story (Sometimes we tell our own stories over and over before we actually hear and understand those stories and what they mean to us.)

— Learning from your own story (I can listen to my own story, hear it well, and finally understand it. But then what? Do I learn from my own story? Do I learn from the stories of others? And then what do I do?)

— Changing because of my own story and your stories and their stories

What do you think? How important is storytelling? What about the sequence of telling, listening, hearing, understanding, learning from, and changing because of? How does all this work within your organization? What kind of stories does your organization tell that reflects its values and culture, founding and future? What stories do your donors tell? How well do you embrace this all?

Read my web column about social media at the Nonprofit Quarterly. I just rant and rant about the excessive hype.

And here’s more: I was listening to Sherry Turkle, professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. Turkle writes lots about technology. Here’s what I heard – in my words:

— We want Facebook to do the work of connecting for us. But it really can’t.

— We want social media to do the work of conversations for us. How sad. True conversation is so much more than social media. Read Theodore Zeldin’s beautiful little book Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives.

— Our response to social media is lots about FOMA (fear of missing out).

— We’re fleeing from real connection, deep human interaction. Instead, we embrace the quick, transient, ephemeral links of social media. As Turkle notes, “connection is different than a bond.”

— Turkle also noted that we’re “never where we are where we are.” We’re with a group of friends but we’re texting others. We’re at a board meeting but we’re doing our email.

Read The Atlantic‘s article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” Consider these research facts – not personal opinion – research facts!

— “Facebook users have higher levels of total narcissism, exhibitionishm, and leadership than Facebook nonusers…. In fact, it could be argued that Facebook specifically gratifies the narcissistic individual’s need to engage in self-promoting and superficial behavior.” We create a persona, the person we want to be. That’s what we display in social media…the desired self, not the true self. The Internet allows us to mediate a distance between ourselves and others.

— “Our online communities become engines of self-image, and self-image becomes the engine of community.”

— “What Facebook has revealed about human nature…is that a connection is not the same thing as a bond.”

We all know that social media is relentless. And self curation is constant. Lots of connections don’t produce a group. More connections don’t create meaningful relationships. Relationships are messy. That’s life.

But there’s something else sad about social media, the Internet itself. We cannot remove the past. In real life, we change. We leave behind, hopefully, our follies and mistakes. People grow and can change for the better. But the Internet never forgets. So the new and better you and me…thwarted, compromised.

Read Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. I think this is a must-read for all fundraisers and digital staff and the CEO, too.

P.S. I just love it when others criticize social media – or at least question it. For example, check out Jeff Brooks‘ infographic, 03-09-12. I hope you already subscribe! And read Jaron Lanier’s book You Are Not A Gadget or Maggie Jackson’s Distracted? Two big shockers. Enjoy!

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Every summer, I head to Winona, Minnesota to teach in the Masters Program in Philanthropy and Development. This is one of the most meaningful experiences in my life. Intense. Focused. Full of cage-rattling questions and deep conversation and soul searching.

And every year, my student colleagues say such interesting things. Raise such important questions. Wrestle and challenge.

Consider this  from Beth, Cohort 21:  “I now had to stare down the ugly beast of reality. As an organization we cared more about ourselves than those who supported us and we were not very coy about it either. Our messaging made it clear, our attitudes reinforced it, and worst of all our leadership practices it from the top down. Based on our class dialogue I was painfully aware of so many of our organizational shortcomings but this one was akin to a mortal sin in the development world.”

Thanks Beth, for reminding us that – too often – we are all like this. Our organizations, our fund development operations – everything we do – is not sufficiently customer-centered. Customer-centered includes focusing on our clients and focusing on our donors. Yes, we can be mission-centered and client-centered and donor-centered. We can and we must.

Consider these thoughts from Ryan, also in Cohort 21: “Today in class we discussed what philanthropy and a culture of philanthropy looks like…

“What came to mind when I heard the word philanthropist? An extremely rich business man with enough money to create a full-time job out of managing his donations – Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

“That’s pretty sad that I applied and wanted to get a masters degree in something that made me think of old, white men with too much money to handle.

“This lesson today helped me understand what philanthropy truly means – giving. A philanthropist is anyone who gives time and/or money, regardless of the amount.”

Thank you, Ryan,  for reminding us all of that essential truth: Philanthropy is not reserved for the rich. Good fundaisers don’t focus on the rich. Philanthropy (and its partner fund development) is about more than money.

Read Robin Hood Was Right by Chuck Collins and Pam Rogers, an important and beautiful book. Read “Philanthropy’s Moral Dilemma,” the final chapter of my book Keep Your Donors – and posted as a monograph on this homepage.

“Which Mailbox Delivers Emotion?” The Agitator blog of 12-15-11 reports on the Consumer Channel Preference Study. And it’s pretty darn interesting for fundraisers! Check out the original source at Epsilon. Here are some of the findings:

— Both U.S and Canadian consumers said they pay more attention to postal mail than email.

— Both U.S. and Canadian consumers enjoy checking the mailbox for postal mail – and that’s an emotional connection, people. Remember, emotions rule. Emotions trigger decisions.

— Both U.S. and Canadian consumers said that the least trustworthy channels are social media and blogs.

The report also lists reasons for preferring direct mail over email – and vice versa. Check it out! As always, thanks to the agitators Tom Belford and Roger Craver.

1. Keep scaling those endless difficult but achievable hills. Thanks to Seth Godin. (February 1, 2012)

2. Make sure you know who your customers are (e.g., donors, prospects, clients, board members, whatever). Thanks to Seth again. (February 6, 2012)

3. Grow your email list with 18 different strategies. Thanks to Karen Zapp. (February 2, 2012)

4. Understand what customer dissatisfaction is. Thanks to Seth yet again. (February 6, 2012)

5. This is a common question – all too often, answered poorly. “Not too often. Don’t want to make the donors upset.” Forget those answers. Instead, read Ken Burnett’s answer. Ken is the founder of SOFII (Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration). Ken introduced the term “relationship fundraising,” and his eponymous book is a must-read. Ken’s answer to “how often should you ask” is exactly the right answer, the best answer, the only answer. Share it with your staff and board members.

6. Visit Marco Kathuria’s site mkcreative. Some interesting info. Some good interviews. You might find Marco’s recent interview with me insightful. Read Tom Ahern’s interview, too. Check out the blog about making a fundraising video and the interview of with Gail Perry and stuff about Apple, and more. And mine, too.

I don’t believe charities compete for donations. People have their own interests – and pay attention to those interests.

Most of the solicitations I receive (and you and your donors, too, I suspect) are of no interest to me. So those organizations are not competing for my money. And when I get solicitations from multiple causes that interest me, I decide how much to give to which one.

Competition also suggests that there is limited money available for charity. The truth is, more people give more money each year. (And if we could increase the % of household income that each of us gives, we would raise even more money.)

And competition is an easy excuse to use when organizations have trouble raising money. Instead of complaining about competition, try doing a better job of fund development.

Remember, fund development starts with identifying the predisposed and qualifying them as prospects – or leaving them alone. Fund development requires relationship building (donor-centered communications and extraordinary experiences). Then we solicit. And then we continue relationship building. Learn lots about this in the Free Download Library on this website. Click on Resources and see the pulldown menu.

I talk about congestion. Yes, it’s a very congested marketplace. Lots of solicitations and crowded mailboxes and telephones. So make sure you’re sending relevant solicitations to those who are interested. That way, those donors and prospects will pull out your letter and listen to your call and meet with you. Make sure you don’t waste your resources alienating people who are not interested.

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By now you must know that I read lots of popular culture, not just business stuff. I read romance novels and science fiction fantasy and mystery/detective/police type fiction.

And I collect quotes from lots of different sources. I’ve collected quotes since I was in high school. I used to type them into a 3-ring black binder. Now I write them on bits of paper and post them into the revolving quotations on this website.

So right now I’m reading the second volume of a sci fi fantasy series by Patrick Rothfuss. The series is called The Kingkiller Chronicle. The first volume (Day One) is called The Name of the Wind. The second volume (Day Two) is called The Wise Man’s Fear. I don’t know how many volumes Mr. Rothfuss plans.

But hear these lovely words: “It might not be true, but that doesn’t mean it’s nonsense.” And, “When someone tells you a piece of their life, they’re giving you a gift, not granting you your due.”