Donor Communications

25

Jul

Best of Bridge 2011

The sixth annual Bridge Conference on integrated marketing and fundraising for nonprofits ended Friday, but the great content will stay with us long after.

Here are just a few words of wisdom from sessions I was lucky enough to attend at this year’s conference:

“I’ve never regretted taking the high road.” – Jocelyn Harmon, Care2 (on online etiquette). Good advice offline too.

“Write stronger; someone is going to weaken it.”– Barry Cox

“Blogging without responding to comments isn’t community building; it’s broadcasting.” – Sarah Durham, Big Duck

“Remember: monthly donors are future planned giving donors.” – Steve Kehrli, PETA

“50% of donors who have had a bad experience with a nonprofit don’t complain to the nonprofit … the problem is, they complain to others.”– Katya Andresen, Network for Good

“The message that matters most isn’t what your nonprofit is doing; it’s why it’s doing it.” – Barry Cox

Great stuff – but a woefully incomplete list! What were your favorite comments and advice from the conference? Post them here or email topics@nthfactor.com directly, and we’ll compile a complete “Best of Bridge” comments list. Looking forward to connecting!

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 07/25/11 • Posted in Direct Response Fundraising, Donor Communications, Online Giving & Action • Tags: , , ,

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18

Jul

Is the Annual Report Dead?

It’s no secret that our organizations’ donors have been moving and shaking in the last decade. Not a week goes by it seems without a new report on the magnitude of their migration online, social, and mobile.

One of the most exciting developments in donor communications as a result of all this has been a renewed focus on something that’s not new at all: the idea that fundraising isn’t about our nonprofit’s interests; it’s about our donors’ interests. Or to put it another way, being all “me, me, me” doesn’t cut it in a relationship.

What’s different, however, is how our uber-connectedness today has held our feet to the fire on this point at a totally new level:

What we say about ourselves is becoming less important than what our donors say about us, what they think about us, and what we say with our donors.

Where we used to have no choice but to talk at our donors, at least on a large scale, now we can talk with them (and are expected to), and they talk about us with each other.

The great news is, we know this. While we may not have realized our full potential yet, nonprofits are building vibrant communities and fostering connections on Facebook and Twitter. We are getting interactive on our websites, blogs, and in our emails, inviting our donors to share and take action. We’re even taking the conversation on the go, exploring exciting possibilities in our nascent mobile communications programs.

It’s a “let’s talk about you” world that has turned our donor communications strategy on its ear. And as our social media intern, Facebook page, blog, and mobile program say: We got that memo! We are down with all this!

But did we? Are we?

Because – curious thing – many of our organizations are still pushing out the ultimate “me me me” document, year after year.

The annual report.

For decades it’s been a mainstay of the development officer’s toolbox and a vital instrument of nonprofit accountability. It’s an important document that says a nonprofit recognizes its responsibility to its donors as investors in the organization’s approach to fulfilling its mission.

But at the same time, even with the long donor lists as the end, more often than not it also says “but enough about you, let’s talk about me.”

Is that so wrong? Until recently, no. Truth is, there are a lot of nonprofits that could do far worse than monopolize a conversation with powerful stories of their beneficiaries, interesting details about their issues and work to enact change, and their plain all-around awesomeness.

But our donors’ expectations and preferences are changing. (Apparently their brains are changing too.) And so as good communicators, we need to ask the unthinkable.

Is the annual report dead?

As we know it – words on paper, content on PDF, 2D, monologue – maybe it is. But, at least in fundraising, I believe in reincarnation. The things that are good and essential in fundraising never die; they just take different forms over time.

And so perhaps the question we should be asking isn’t whether the annual report has left the building. Maybe it’s this: are we going to greet our donors at the door with a new kind of annual report that’s in step with the way they’re thinking and behaving? Or are we going to catch up to them later – and are we willing to risk being too late?

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 07/18/11 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: , , ,

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14

Apr

Religion, Politics and Branding

Want to get a roomful of people who work in fundraising riled up? Forget religion and politics. Talk about branding.

Maybe that’s because branding is a lot like religion. And politics. It has its thought leaders, moderates, fundamentalists, left wingers, independents, evangelists…. And like religion and politics, it stands for different things for different people.

Nonprofit branding gets especially controversial in direct response fundraising. A brown logo-free carrier envelope with your organization’s name and return address in Times New Roman will almost always generate a better response than a meticulously branded one. It will also almost always irritate, and possibly even enrage, your communications director.

Jeff Brooks rails regularly, and rightfully so, over at Future Fundraising Now against the type of narrow branding mentality that kills direct response fundraising.

But this doesn’t mean you have to violate your brand to create really good direct response fundraising. That’s because branding is about a whole lot more than logos, color palettes and font families. In fact, if your brand IS your logo, then you’re in trouble.

Some think that branding is about how you present yourself. But branding is really about how people see you. Or as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos put it: your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

And so in direct response fundraising, true brand integrity comes down to one simple thing: being recognizable to your donors in a way that goes far deeper than your logo and fonts.

What does this mean? Well, take yourself.

You don’t wear the same clothes every day. You mood isn’t always the same. You come up with new ideas and ways of expressing them. But this doesn’t prevent your friends from recognizing you and caring about you when you walk into the room. In fact, they love you. Not because you’re some vanilla version of who you think you should be for them. But because you’re you and you’re interesting.

So think about – or rethink – what it means for your nonprofit to be “on brand.” Being human is a pretty great starting place.

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 04/14/11 • Posted in Donor Communications, Online Giving & Action • Tags:

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15

Mar

Eight Ways to Jump Start Your Fundraising Creative

jumper-cables1It’s easy to develop a fundraising idea. The real challenge in donor development is coming up with fundraising ideas, continuously, so that you can present your contributors with a steady stream of varied giving and engagement opportunities.

Depending on the size of your organization, your healthy membership program may rely on you to develop anywhere from four to twelve to twenty (!) fundraising campaigns per year. Sure, you know your organization is awesome, but saying why and how up to twenty different ways in a single year – let’s face it – is not easy.

So when you’re out of ideas, which you occasionally will be, here are eight ways to jump start your creative thinking and get the ideas flowing again:

  1. Roll up your sleeves. Go to work – on the program side – for your organization for a day. Serve meals, put up drywall, go door-to-door. You’ll be inspired all over and will no doubt find new ways to convey that inspiration to your organization’s donors.
  2. Reverse the way you build your case for support. Most of us naturally take a funnel approach to building a case for support. That is, we start wide with the big picture of what our organization does and then we narrow in and substantiate with specifics on why our work is important and examples of the impact we have. But if you build your case the other way around instead, you’ll actually end up with a more effective case. Next time, start narrow – tell a single story conveying your impact on an individual level – and then expand to the larger discussion of what your organization is doing and why the donor’s support matters. For inspiration, check out The Girl Effect, a collaborative effort that manages to talk about and tackle global world poverty from a very simple starting point and perspective: that of a 12-year-old girl.
  3. Check your idea file. What, you don’t have one? Well get started right away! It can be hard copy, electronic, or both. Whichever, keep a folder of clippings, notes and samples from other organizations that you like. Individually, they’re just scraps but collectively they can be a valuable springboard for new ideas.
  4. Share with and learn from other nonprofits and colleagues. Make time in your calendar and budget to attend high-quality conferences. But don’t be a session hermit. As Seth Godin points out, it’s the engaged conversations you have in hallways that can often be of the greatest value. I’ll be headed to one of my favorite conferences later this week by the way – NTEN‘s Nonprofit Technology Conference – which kicks off on Thursday. If you’re not able to enjoy the opportunity to engage and learn in person, you can still attend online.
  5. Read up. What’s going on in the news about your issues? What are people saying? Are they saying good things or bad things about your issues? Are there any new studies or statistics that are relevant to your organization’s work? Spend an hour taking the external pulse on your issues and your reading will likely spark ideas for new ways and reasons to make your organization’s case for support.
  6. Remember that donors don’t want to hear about your programs; they want to know what you accomplish. Nonprofits usually organize their program areas in ways that make sense from an implementation perspective. Programs are things like: “Education,” “Research,” “Advocacy,” and “Community Outreach.” This is rarely compelling from a donor’s perspective however. Donors don’t give because you “do community outreach.” They give because of your organization’s impact, and at the most individual level possible. So instead of showcasing a program in your next appeal, think carefully about what you really do. I still think one of the best examples of this is the American Cancer Society‘s More Birthdays campaign. For all the organization’s many program areas and initiatives, this campaign distills the impact and goal of ACS into one simple thing: more birthdays.
  7. Spend an hour with your results. Data is one of the best places to look for messaging and campaign ideas. What approaches have your donors responded to the best? Which issue areas have your donors been most interested in? The least? Sometimes revisiting your results helps shape new ideas and approaches that you can test in your program.
  8. Take a walk. Seriously. An apple can’t hit you on the head if you don’t step outside. And by outside, I mean anywhere you’re not staring at a computer screen or mobile device. Your most inspired ideas – of any kind – are more likely to show up on those rare occasions when you’re unplugged and alone with your thoughts.

For fresh ideas and inspiration this week be sure to follow the Nonprofit Technology Conference on Twitter via hashtag #11NTC.

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 03/15/11 • Posted in Direct Response Fundraising, Donor Communications • Tags: , , , , , , ,

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29

Nov

The Problem With Year End Appeals

I often get asked when the best time is for an organization to send its year end appeal. The problem with this question, and the problem with year end appeals, is that they’re all too often viewed as single events that take place at a single moment in time.

November 1, November 15, the Monday after Thanksgiving … these are just dates. But your year end appeal, of course,  is not a date.

Your year end appeal is:

  1. Part of a larger, ongoing dialogue with your donors.
  2. An expression of your donors’ highest values and dreams.
  3. A whole season of communication through varied channels, not a single direct mail piece.
  4. Only just beginning, right now.

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 11/29/10 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: , , ,

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23

Sep

How to Apologize to a Donor

Oops! 

The author who wrote love means never having to say you’re sorry obviously didn’t know the first thing about direct response fundraising. Direct response is complicated, involving dozens of elements – data, production, content management systems, the post office, and the perfection of mere mortals to name a just few.

And so it’s inevitable: occasionally we mess up. But how well we say “I’m sorry” when we make a mistake is one of the most compelling ways we say “I love you!” to our supporters – and, in turn, earn their respect and loyalty.

So what do you do when you mess up? First, take a deep breath. Then take these three simple steps – and you may just find that those lemons you accidentally lobbed at your donors can make for some pretty great lemonade.

1. Act quickly. When you’ve made a big error that warrants recontacting your donors, drop everything. Get back in touch with your donors as soon as possible to respond to the mistake. This means if it’s a major donor, you should communicate with them via phone or email within hours. Same thing if it’s an erroneous email to a large number of donors: get your correction out via email within hours. And if your communication channel is direct mail, take the “snail” out of mail and get your correction out within 48 hours.

For example, a mailshop once made a production error on a client’s direct mail project in which a #10 window envelope was enclosed in a solicitation mailing instead of standard #9 closed face reply envelope. This meant that when the donor mailed their gift and personalized reply device in the window envelope that was provided with the solicitation, the gift did not deliver to the organization. Instead, it mailed right back to the donor. It was a huge mistake, worsened by the fact that it occurred within a high dollar segment of the campaign. Fortunately the mailshop knew it too. The error was discovered Friday night. They worked all weekend and remailed corrected packages Monday morning.

2. Be transparent. When you make a mistake come out and say it. When one organization realized that it hadn’t acknowledged a sizeable batch of donor gifts for over two months, they addressed their error head-on in their delayed thank you letters saying:

Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in acknowledging your very generous gift. We encountered a mistake in our computer system and have realized that a significant amount of time has passed. We’ve since resolved the problem and assure you it will not happen again.

Likewise, in the case of the reply envelope mess up, the corrected packages were sent with a cover note from the Executive Director that got right to the point:

Dear Friend of (Organization Name),

Last week, we sent you important information about (Organization Name)’s (Special Campaign Name). We have just learned that due to a production error however, you might not have received the correct set of materials from us. As one of (Organization Name)’s most valued supporters, I want to apologize sincerely for this error and ask you to please be sure to review the corrected information enclosed …

3. Be positive. You may have messed up, but your donors are still incredible and your organization is still doing incredible work. After you say “I’m sorry,” take the opportunity to let your donors know how much you appreciate them, and remind them how important their support is to the work you’re doing together.

Here’s what the organization that messed up on their acknowledgment letters went on to say to their donors:

Your support means so much to us and we are profoundly grateful to have you with us. Thank you again, not only for your gift, but for your understanding.

Pretty great, huh? And here’s the rest of the cover note on the high dollar donor package resend:

If you have already responded to our (Special Campaign Name), and this letter has crossed in the mail with your gift, I want to thank you for your generous support. If you haven’t yet considered our request, I would like to convey my hope that you will take part in (Special Campaign name) by sending your gift today. On behalf of the Board of Directors and all of us at (Organization Name), please accept my deepest thanks for your ongoing friendship and generous support.

Not only were its donors impressed by the organization’s attentiveness, but they also gave more to this mailing than they had ever given to a single solicitation before.

So on those rare occasions that we may disappoint our donors – or ourselves – remember that all is not lost. On the contrary, when you mess up, it’s an opportunity to improve your processes for implementing your campaigns. More importantly, it’s an opportunity to show your donors how much you value you them, because in direct response membership development nothing says “I love you” like “I’m sorry.”

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 09/23/10 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: , , ,

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25

Aug

The Worst Reason to Ask Your Donors to Give:

Because it’s time to.

Powerful fundraising is the intersection of strategy, passion and relevance. Of course we have communication calendars. And we most certainly have fundraising goals.

But if you find yourself starting your next development/membership department meeting with “What are we gonna write about this month?” then take a step back.

Instead, ask yourself and your membership team:

What is our organization fired up about?

What gets our donors fired up?

Where is funding needed?

What do we want to have happen with this appeal? (And don’t just think about financial goals.)

Start here and your powerful message – and results – will follow naturally.

Where have your best ideas come from? Share your thoughts here or drop us a line at topics@nthfactor.com. And if you’d like to expand your own idea library, email us to request MKDM‘s free Idea Book.

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 08/25/10 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: , ,

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9

Jul

The Boss of You

Quick: who do you work for?

Most people, when asked this question, will automatically tell you the name of their employer: “I work for Acme Incorporated, where I’m the VP of Sales and Marketing” (or something like that).

But “who signs your paycheck?” wasn’t really the question. And you, of course, are not most people: your employer is a nonprofit.

This means you don’t work for the Chair of your Board. You don’t work for the person who supervises you. You don’t even work for the nonprofit that employs you.

You work for your organization’s donors.

Your donors believe in something, and they have hired YOU – and everyone else in your organization, from the Executive Director to the administrative assistant – to achieve their vision.

So the next time you sit down to write a membership renewal letter, or a cultivation newsletter, or a fundraising email, remember this:

You are writing to your boss.

For insights and ideas on communicating with your real boss, join me on July 27th in Washington, D.C. at the AFP / DMAW Bridge Conference, where Robin Kornhaber and Jeff Costantino from Legacy, Evan Parker from The Nature Conservancy, and I will be sharing helpful case studies and tips in our session Six Steps for Building Donor-Centric Direct Response and Communications Strategies. Hope to see you there!

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 07/09/10 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: , ,

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21

Mar

Things We Think We Know

The most successful membership programs excel, in large part, because they know how to strike up the conversation with prospective donors.

donor-engagement

Instead of would you like to make a gift? great membership programs approach us with questions like: what concerns you more: drilling in the Arctic, or deforestation in the Amazon? They ask our opinions: Where do you stand on health care? They pique our curiosity: How well do you know your rights? They even stop us in our tracks sometimes: Do you think this child deserves to eat dinner tonight?

We all know this as good membership and marketing people.

Or do we?

We strike up all these great dialogues via our emails, newsletters, blogs and Facebook pages. But more often than not, our offer to engage our donors through these channels happens via one conversation-killer:

Join our mailing list.

It’s good to question our strategies every once and a while. Often, we validate the way we do things. But sometimes, we find better ways to do them.

What do you think? Is there a better way than “join our mailing list?”

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 03/21/10 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: , , ,

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30

Nov

Snoozeletter or Schmoozeletter?

If you’re responsible for creating your organization’s newsletter you probabaly scrutizine every edition for accuracy, messaging, typos and so on. But when was the last time you sat down and read your organization’s newsletter cover-to-cover … for pleasure?

Made you laugh, didn’t I? 

lambda-legal-newsletter-article

This donor profile from Lambda Legal's newsletter draws the reader in with good content, lively graphics, reader-friendly copy and compelling donor quotes.

That’s ok. Most of us are glad to forget our newsletters the moment they’re printed or we hit send. We fill them with staff and Board announcements, snapshots of people in suits shaking hands, and pictureless articles in 8-point type. We assume that our newsletter is about us, and so we write articles about ourselves. Creatively, we try to get each edition over with as quickly as possible so that we can check that box and get back to more important things.  

And lost in the drugery is a simple question: if our own newsletter bores us, what do our donors think?? 

Fortunately, all you need is a fresh perspective and a little imagination to turn your ”snoozeletter” into a lively publication that engages, cultivates and even entertains your donors … a.k.a. (so sorry) “the schmoozeletter!”

Here are some tips to get you started on your own new and improved newsletter…

Be interesting to your donors. Your newsletter isn’t about you. It’s about your donors, and nourishing their interest in your work. If not produced entirely by your Development department, your newsletter should at least be a collaboration between your Communications and Development departments. Your newsletter should …

  1. Supply your donors with the information that interests them about your work and your issues
  2. Demonstrate the value of your donors’ investment in your organization
  3. Reinforce your donors’ sense of belonging to a community of like-minded individuals
  4. Lay the foundation for further giving

Tell your story. Many organizations make the mistake of approaching their newsletter as a straightforward chronicle of their accomplishments. Don’t give your readers program reports; instead, tell them stories, beginning with compelling headlines.

For instance, instead of “The So-and-So Organization Delivers Groceries to a  Record 350 Families ” try something like “Michaela’s First Thanksgiving” or “The Johnson Family’s Recipe for Happiness.” And then, for example, tell the donor about your organization by telling the story of a little girl’s first Thanksgiving or a family’s special time bonding over supper, all possible thanks to the donor’s support.

Avoid what’s not relevant to your donors. Certain content may be unavoidable, but be sure to keep the following to a minimum:

  1. New Board announcements
  2. New staff announcements
  3. Long letters from the president
  4. Photographs of people at podiums or holding drinks at parties

Make it easy on the eyes and visually appealing. Good newsletters are engaging in part simply because they’re pleasant to look at…

  1. Make use of white space for readability.
  2. Fill your newsletter with photos “from the field” emphasizing the beneficiaries of your organization’s work.
  3. Your newsletter should be attractive but not too expensive.
  4. Make sure your newsletter is very legible and friendly to older eyes.
  5. Establish a graphic standard for your newsletter (i.e. consistent design and formatting).

Do you have ideas of your own on creating more engaging newsletters? Then post them here or email us at topics@nthfactor.com.

mkdm-idea-bookAnd speaking of ideas, we have only a few more 2009 Idea Books featuring some of our best ideas for engaging donors, motivating action and inspiring philanthropy. If you’d like your own free copy, email ideabook@mkdmc.com. And if you already have our 2009 edition, email us to sign up in advance for your copy of our 2010 Idea Book, available in late February, 2010.

By Moira Kavanagh Crosby, 11/30/09 • Posted in Donor Communications • Tags: ,

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