Donor Cultivation

Are you sure you want to list donors by gift size? Maybe yes. Maybe no. Think first. Then decide.

Here’s a comment from Rebekah says: “Because of your writing about fundraising and inequality, I made the decision in this year’s annual report not to recognize donors by gift amount. I just made an alphabetical list.

“We’re a social justice organization. I know how deep many workers have to dig in their pockets to make a donation. I’ve been uncomfortable with listing donors by amount. But I had picked up that that’s what you ‘have’ to do to make donors who give larger amounts feel thanked. Simone’s work gave me the permission I needed to stop doing that.”

You don’t have to do what Rebekah did. But at least think before you act. How about talking with your Fund Development Committee? Maybe talk with some donors, too.

Read Philanthropy’s Moral Dilemma in my Free Download Library. Read my blogs, too.

Here’s what else Rebekah said: “Both you and Tom really have made an impact on me. I’ve added you to the handful of fundraisers who I think really have something worthwhile to teach to small, grassroots organizations. Keep up your great work.”

Thank you, Rebekah.

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I’m a donor to lots of organizations. My life partner and I give away at least 10% of our annual income to charitable organizations – and 100% of our estate goes to charity.

But not many organizations have asked me why. Darn few have really explored the feelings and interests behind my gifts.

What questions do you wish organizations would ask you as a donor? What questions do you ask your donors?

Here are just a few questions I wish organizations would ask me:

1. What interests you most about our organization? What is less interesting to you?

2. Why did you make your first gift to our organization? (Thanks, Richard Radcliffe, U.K. legacy consultant, for this one.)

3. If you had a personal mission statement or slogan, what would it say?

4. Would you share with me your life’s journey? (Thanks to Liz Hollander, former President and CEO of Campus Compact, for this one.) And Liz goes on to ask such questions as: Who have been the leaders and mentors in your life’s journey? Why and how have they affected you?

5. What would you like to pass on to the next generation – for your children, your nieces and nephews, the children of others?

6. How do you want to be remembered? (Thanks, Carol Golden, Executive Vice President and Senior Philanthropy Office at the Rhode Island Foundation.)

What are you prepared to ask your donors? What are you prepared to be asked yourself?

Yesterday I received an email from a colleague. She was very pleased that her board members were – finally – engaging in donor cultivation.

This executive director – and her board members – had participated in a comprehensive, multi-session fund development training program that I delivered years ago. And despite my haranguing them (with body of knowledge and amusing stories and …), the board members hadn’t yet embraced donor relationship building.

But now, with this economic crisis, my colleague’s board members must face the truth: cultivate donors and members or you’ll use lose them. The donor retention crisis is real and has been for years. And with economic stress, your donors and members may chose or not choose your organization. Yes, donors can stop giving. Members can leave.

Put together the right stuff to nurture relationships. Get the right information. Do it well! Read KEEP YOUR DONORS: THE GUIDE TO BETTER COMMUNICATIONS AND STRONGER RELATIONSHIPS. Download my various handouts and use them.

Come on now. The economic crisis is your wake-up call. Nurture relationships with your donors and members. Invest your time (staff and board member). Do good communications. Do good cultivation. Just do it!

I listen to National Public Radio lots when I drive. Right now, my area stations are doing their on-air pledge drives right now.

And NPR does fundraising well!

The recent on-air pledge drives are about the best I’ve ever heard. The radio pledge patter hit me hard enough that I want to share it with you!

Here are the key points that resonated so much with me: belonging; membership is contributing; the perfect gift; and the importance of donors.

First, it’s all about belonging.

NPR plays broadcast journalist voices and then says: “If you recognize this voice, you belong.” I do recognize the voices. I do belong.

NPR plays the theme music for various shows and then says: “If you recognize this music, you belong.” I do recognize the music even though I don’t remember which show. I don’t care which show, I still belong!

Over and over and over…they remind me that I belong. That I’m an important, essential, critical person. They remind me that my gift makes a difference. They remind me that I make a difference. Me.

I belong. I’m part of the tribe. I’m part of the gang. Giving is about belonging.

Next, all gifts matter because all donors matter.

Yes, all donors matter, and so do their gifts.

One of the pledge drive presenters said “Whatever amount works for you is perfect for us. Any membership contribution makes you a member. You belong.”

How good is that? NPR talks about $1 / week or $1 / day or $12 / month. Lots of different ways of giving. They explain to me what different gifts can accomplish.

Then they confirm my importance, my value as a donor with the statement “whatever amount works for you is perfect for us.” Empowering me to give. Saying that I’ll have impact. Respecting me, not my money.

Giving isn’t a financial transaction. Donor’s aren’t interchangable sources of cash. I’m important; me the donor. How often do you tell a donor: “What amount works for you is perfect for us”?

Membership is a contribution. Using the term “members” and “membership” can be good – cause it’s about belonging.

But be careful, selling membership benefits may well leave me out. I don’t care about the membership benefits. I want to sustain the cause.

Members and donors should be the same thing. Membership benefits don’t matter to lots and lots of people. And if you’re “selling membership benefits,” and I’m buying “contributing to make a difference,” then I’m not buying what you’re selling. You’ve lost me. I may not give because I don’t see myself as a “member buying benefits.”

NPR avoids that trap by using the phrase “your membership contribution.” And it’s great that any membership contribution makes me a member. There is no minimum.

A final thought: It isn’t always about the big stuff, it’s about the little stuff.

A pledge presenter was talking about what he cared about. He wasn’t talking about one of the big shows like “All Things Considered” or “Prarie Home Companion.” Instead, he was talking about little moments that he likes.

He said how it’s great when NPR journalist Robert Segal talks about big news items. And how it’s also cool when Segal talks about psychotherapy for dogs. (What did I hear? Robert Segal is great no matter what he’s talking about. And NPR talks about big important things and curious interesting things and that’s why NPR is so special.)

Then the pledge presenter said how much he liked it when NPR reads the names of donors, like Jennifer and Ted Stanley. And if you listen to NPR, you always hear the names “Jennifer and Ted Stanley” in almost every donor list. I recognize the names “Jennifer and Ted Stanley.”

But the best is yet to come! The pledge presenter said “Who are Jennifer and Ted Stanley and why do they love NPR so much?!” And his voice was loud and excited. And I found myself chanting the same thing. And I’m still doing it today: “Who are Jennifer and Ted Stanley and wow are they ever cool to keep giving to NPR and why do they love NPR so much?”

And you know what? I want Jennifer and Ted Stanley to come on the air and tell me why they love NPR so much. I want to know the donor story of Jennifer and Ted.

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I listen to Bob Dylan a lot.

I was a latecomer to Dylan. In 1966 – my freshman year in college – one of my roommates, Donna Jay, was a Dylan fan. But I still didn’t really get into Dylan until the 70s.

I love it all now. Recently, I’ve been listening lots to “Blood on the Tracks.” And for Christmas I gave my life partner Tom the “Bootleg Volume 8,” which is lovely. I said the household needed more of the Dylan oeuvre. But I suspect, it may have been mostly a gift to me.

And last night – one of our date nights at the bookstore – I bought the bootleg “Rolling Thunder Revue 1975”. I was just reading the liner notes by Larry “Ratso” Sloman, dated September 2002, NYC.

And you know what Ratso says about Dylan? He’s “telling the tribe the news of the hour.”

Telling the tribe the news of the hour. That’s our job as relationship builders. That’s our job as fundraisers. That’s our job as leaders. And that’s our job as activists.

Tell your tribe the news of the hour.

Just ask Seth Godin. Read Godin’s Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us? Have you read the PDF Tribes Q & A.

In Tribes, Godin tells us that a tribe is “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea…A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.”

Doesn’t that sound like your organization? If it’s donor-centered and customer-centered and real good at developing relationships?

Tribes reminds us what people want: “…connection and growth and something new. They want change.”

Isn’t that what your donors of time and money want? And how about those activists that signed your petition? How about those people who signed up for your newsletter, or spent lots of time wandering your website and downloading stuff?

The best organizations and businesses and campaigns and movements – and yes, artists – attract and lead a tribe. Hey Seth, you tell us you belong to the Grateful Dead tribe. Do you belong to Dylan’s, too? And how about those members of the Obama tribe?

Seth tells us that people want to belong to lots of tribes. It’s a survival mechanism, belonging.

So do your donors belong to a tribe? Do your clients and users belong to a tribe? Bottom line: is your organization creating a tribe?

You must read Tribes. Buy it at amazon. Download Tribes Q&A here. Check out tribe building tactics at Seth’s website. You’ll recognize lots of them, like celebrating accomplishments and telling stories. That’s what the best organizations do with their donors. Visit Seth.

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“Do we really have to nurture relationships? They’re already our donors. And we have so much other work to do.”

Yes, people actually say that to me — in workshops when I’m presenting. And sometimes, in the early moments of a consultancy, a new client just barely starts to whisper — but then they see my frown.

Do you know the biggest reason wealthy donors stopped supporting charities? Because they no longer felt personally connected. Of the 38% of donors who stopped their support to one or more charities last year, 60% said they did so because they just didn’t feel that connected anymore. That’s from the 2008 Bank of America Study of High-Net Worth Philanthropy available at the IUPUI Center on Philanthropy.

But there’s more…

Some people say that donors don’t really want a relationship with an organization. That may well be true.

But what about the many donors who do want a relationship?

Donors use your organization as a conduit to achieve their desires. They give through you, not to you.

Think of me: I’m angry about the injustice in the world. I want social justice – equity regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity / race.

How many different organizations can I give to? Lots. Equity Action Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation. Women’s Fund of Rhode Island. Women’s Funding Network. NAACP. National Committee for Lesbian Rights. Southern Poverty Law Center. Planned Parenthood. Many many many…

So if an organization doesn’t nurture the relationship with me, I can find another organization that will. And I can still fulfill my interests and achieve my aspirations.

Yes, relationship building is important. My good friend Doris always says, “Absence does not make the heart grow fonder.” So true. And real true with donors.

Yes, most donors want to hear from you, and not just asking for money. Donors want to know things like: How did you spend their money? How did their gift make a difference? How will their next gift make a difference? Whose life is better and why?

Are your thank-you letters and newsletters telling donors what they want to hear? Are you talking with donors, asking their opinions and finding out their interests?

There’s so much you can do to nurture relationships with your donors of both time and money. Some is no cost. Some is low cost. And yes, some strategies may cost more money. (Chances are, you can ignore some of those strategies.)

It’s way past time to nurture relationships between your donors and your organization. It’s never too late to foster donor loyalty through relationship building. (And remember, it costs 10 times more money to acquire a new donor than retain a current one.)

Read Keep Your Donors: The Guide to Better Communications and Stronger Relationships. Tom Ahern and I explain why and how. We give you specific examples and tons of practical tips.

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