Donors

“What’s attention worth?” asks Seth Godin in his 12-17-13 blog. “Marketers that fail are often impatient and selfish.” (Think fundraisers!) “Impatient, because they won’t invest in the long-term job of earning familiarity, permission and trust.” (Think fundraisers and fundraising and your boss and boards that want money right now! Hurry up!)

Earn! Earn familiarity. Don’t pursue visibility, hoping that “everyone will know you and then send money.”

Earn permission and trust. Remember how important trust is to loyalty. Just read Adrian Sargeant‘s work. Read The Agitator. Read Jeff Brooks and Tom Ahern. Read all the great people.

Now think about Seth’s word “selfish.” So many nonprofit organizations and fundraisers and fundraising programs are selfish. Focused on the organization and all the good the organization does. Forgetting (or on purpose ignoring?) donor centrism and customer centrism.

Wow. Basic flaw. It’s not about you and your organization and your amazing staff. It’s all about the wonderful donor whose investment allows you and your organization and your amazing staff to do stuff. And without those donors, you won’t be able to do much.

You can’t demand attention, as Seth so clearly notes. It’s not about you. It’s about the person who is paying attention. “We call it ‘paying attention’ for a reason. It’s worth quite a bit, and ought to be cherished.”

That’s good fundraising.

I couldn’t resist an extra blog this week – with resources. Yes, indeed.

Check out Seth Godin’s BRILLIANT blog about email and permission marketing. While you’re at it, read Seth’s book Permission Marketing. And just stop these e-mail blasts right now – until you can get it together well.

And speaking of Seth, read his blog of 11-29-13. Read this to your boss and board! It’s all about stories. And not your organization’s stories…the donor’s stories.

I’m late to the party, but have you seen the MARVELOUS info graphic “The Rise of the Nonprofit Sector,” developed by the Master of Public Administration at the University of San Francisco? Oh my heavens. You’ll also find this info graphic at Bloomerang, which I hope you’re checking out, too.

Listen to my interview at the AFP Toronto Congress, November 2013. I’m talking about donors and loyalty and fundraising. Maybe your boss and board should listen to this? You can also see this video on my website.

Have you been visiting SOFII? The best of the best…examples from all over the world. New stuff includes Oxfam Canada’s outreach to donors. Pamela Grow’s 12 days of Christmas. The latest list of fundraising must-reads. Visit my reading room about boards and governance. How about top tips from leading fundraisers? Maybe a nice way to end the year and start the new one.

So that’s it. Enough resources. Enjoy. Learn. Share.

I’ve collected quotations from novels and serious literature since I was in high school. I have handwritten notes, old typewriter notes, little books of quotations, computer lists, etc. Quotations about leadership and death and love and war and and …

One of these days, I’m going to write a whole series of blogs using song lyrics and quotes from novels, etc. Hmmm…. As I look back through my blogs, I guess I’ve already started doing that.

Here’s what the protagonist says at the end of William Kent Krueger’s novel, Ordinary Grace:

“I’m a teacher of history…and what I know from my studies and from my life is that there is no such thing as a true event. We know dates and times and locations and participants but accounts of what happened depend upon the perspective from which the event is viewed.

“I’m aware that [my brother] and my father recall things I don’t and what we remember together we often remember differently. I’m sure that each of us has memories that for reasons of our own we don’t share. Some things we prefer remain lost in the shadows of our past.”

First, that quote makes me think of donors and their experiences with organizations. Each donor experiences your organization differently – from her own vantage point, with his own personal lens. Each donor comes to your organization because of different events in his life, with a different perspective because of events in her life.

Each donor describes your organization differently, based on her experience and the accumulation of events in his life. Each donor experiences life differently because of race/ethnicity, gender and generation, sexual orientation and gender identity, socioeconomic staff, faith and physical ability.

The stories you tell. The stories I tell. The stories the others tell. The way you and I and them observe events and relate to icons and interpret experiences. The same events with different stories. The same results with different perceived impact. The experiences your donors share but interpret differently. The remembrances of times past and present, witnessed differently, explained differently, sometimes shared and sometimes not.

I remember the U.S.’s Vietnam War differently than my brother. Yet, we lived in the same home at that same time. With the same family members. And when I wrote my memory of that time – that war, that experience – it included my brother. I showed him what I’d written. And he corrected part of the part that was his, about him. I hadn’t remembered it that way. In some way, it didn’t matter what I remembered from Nam. Because the memory – whether accurate or not – has helped define my life, planned my path.

What about you? What about your donors? What about your staff colleagues and board members and other volunteers? What are their stories and memories – and yours? And beyond your NGO. What about your life?

Check out Charles Green‘s The Trust Matters Blog. Read this wonderful book, The Trusted Advisor, co-authored by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford.

I really liked a few of the “Blog Picks o’ the Week” in The Trust Matters Blog. For example:

• Why Experts Are Bad at Sales
• By the way, check out Green’s Trust Equation. I use this sometimes when I’m presenting. TQ = C + R + I divided by S. Sorry I couldn’t make this look like a real equation. Just visit the explanation – and the good visual! – at the Trusted Advisor blog.

And I really liked Think Like a Buddhist, Sell Like a Rock Star. Read about these statements:

• People like to buy, they just don’t like to be sold. For example, donors do want to give. 
• People buy what they need from those who understand what they want. For example, operate as a donor-centered organization!
• People buy with their hearts, and justify it with their minds. Emotions anyone? Neuroscience tells us that emotions are the key decision makers. Is that how your organization writes? Is that how your organization designs its development program?

I hope lots of this sounds familiar. This is your nonprofit’s work…. Selling tickets to your performance. Selling enrollment to your school. Engaging your customers. And who are your customers? Your clients and your volunteers and your donors and…

Maybe you want to subscribe to Charles Green’s blog. For sure, you want to pay lots of attention to trust. Adrian Sargeant tells us that is one of the key drivers of donor loyalty.

Sometimes nonprofits behave as if the thank-you letter is the end of the relationship with the donor. After all, we got the gift. The donor is ours. Let’s move on to the next donor.

Oops…

For the first-time donor, the thank-you letter is the start of the relationship. For loyal donors, the thank-you letter is a meaningful continuation of the donor journey, an important wayside moment.

Or maybe not. Maybe your thank-you letter is just pro forma, not particularly interesting, somewhat boring. Not worthy of a smile, not particularly special.

Tom and I are long-time donors to NCLR, the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “The audacity to fight for justice. The perseverance to win.” I like that “positioning statement.” NCLR launches legal battles, goes to court for justice.

So here are my favorite parts of the letter that accompanied the annual report. No solicitation. Just a thank you.

Let’s start with the salutation: “Dear Simone and Tom.” As loyal donors, the executive director calls us by our first names. And she knows that it is “Tom,” not “Thomas.”

First sentence: “I am honored, as always, to enclose NCLR’s 2012 Annual Report.”

A paragraph I particularly like: “I have also included our 2013 Donor Survey. It would mean so much to me – and would help to share and improve our communications with you and our careful stewardship of your giving – if you would complete it and return it to us. (And then Kate, the Executive Director and signer of the letter, offers me the online link, too.)

Here’s the paragraph I just love! “The accomplishments highlighted within this Annual Report are as much yours as they are NCLR’s — without you, none of this would have been possible. There is truly no way to fully express what your support and investment mean to NCLR.”

Tom and I are part of the team. As Tom always says, we are on the field, part of the team. We donors are not up in the grandstands cheering the team on the playing field. We are on the playing field, too.

And then the last sentence of the letter: “Without the right words, I am left only with the two that come closest: Thank you.“

And Kate signs it, “In gratitude.”

Look at those two final sentences together: “There is truly no way to fully express what your support and investment mean to NCLR. Without the right words, I am left only with the two that come closest: Thank you.”

Yes, I might make some tweaks. For example, I might say: “…what your support and investment mean to NCLR and all those fighting for justice.” Or: “…what your support and investment mean to the fight for justice.”

Whatever… I was moved. The letter is staying in my files as a good example. Tom wants to put it in his donor-centered communications slide show when he presents. And that donor survey? Yes. Yes. Yes. Smart and important. Donor satisfaction with the fundraising office is one of the major retention criterion.

I know. Maybe you’re tired of me recommending resources. But hey! I see myself as a curator of good info.

1.  I recommend that everyone subscribe to Roger Dooley’s neuroscience marketing e-news. A recent issue offers this very cool persuasion concept. (And then The Agitator people produced an e-news with more info, too. And, speaking of persuasion, check out Robert Cialdini, the influence guru. Read his books, too!)

Roger Dooley also tells us how to persuade people with BYAF (But You Are Free). This can double your success rate. Read this one and try it.

And – for amusement but also insight – read the newest Roger, “Women Can Be Irrational, Too.”

2.  Never forget those great agitator people, Roger Craver and Tom Belford. A must-read for all fundraisers (and their bosses and boards) is the October 3, 2013 myth-busting e-news from The Agitator is “Dangerous Myth #1: Too Much Solicitation Causes Poor Retention.” Read it. Destroy that myth in your organization. And raise more money.

3.  Check out Larry Johnson’s “Misplaced focus-misspent energy.” Also see Larry’s book The Eight Principles of Sustainable Fundraising.

4. Look at the love pyramid from John Lepp of Toronto’s Agents of Good. The love pyramid can replace that typical donor pyramid. Just try it!

5. I subscribe to Seth Godin‘s daily blog. I read Seth for his general strategic approach to stuff. My most recent favorites:

• “When to speak up,” September 28, 2013. Seth talks about decision-making and speaking up. The blog makes me think about conversation, which is inquiry not advocacy. Conversation, both formal and informal. Avoiding dysfunctional politeness. Remembering that silence is consent. Complainers complaining about decisions made when those complainers didn’t offer insights before the decision was made. So check out that blog.
• And here’s one for sales people (which includes fundraisers): “The failure of the second ask,” September 19, 2013. Seth says: “Asking the first time might be brave. Asking again (more forcefully) after you get a no is selfish and dumb.”

6. Then there’s Jeff Brooks and his daily blog, Future Fundraising Now. My recent favorites from Jeff:

• “Designer or art school grad?” You want a designer who understands fundraising and audiences.
• “How and why you should speed up your donor acknowledgements.” And Jeff refers us to Claire Axelrod’s “3 Secrets to Getting Your Donor Thank You Out in 48 Hours.”
• And how sad that we still have to convince fundraisers, bosses, and boards that emotions rule, not reason. See Jeff’s blog, “Is your fundraising just a lot of blah blah blah?” Thanks to Inspiring Generosity’s commentary, “Why Reason Alone Doesn’t Work in Fundraising.”
• Also see Jeff’s blog of October 7, “The most bone-headed fundraising meme of our time.” Jeff reminds us all that yes, donor retention is a big problem…but to focus on retention only…and ignore acquisition…is pretty silly!

7. And today’s last recommendation, visit the new on-line learning community, the Knowledge Fountain. The Knowledge Fountain offers courses, and provides an on-line chat room about nonprofit topics. Take a look. Topics include social media and analytics, fundraising, marketing communications, personal productivity, and more.

Service and hospitality.

I was with IS 183 in the Stockbridge, MA, today. We were meeting at the Red Lion Inn, where I stayed for three nights. We were talking about donor-centered, of course. And how that relates to customer-centered, of course.

How fitting to talk about customer and donor centrism there at the Red Lion. Great food. Fun surroundings. Rooms with comfort and personality. Really good customer service.

So Bruce Finn, Manager of the Red Lion Inn explains how the Inn thinks about service and hospitality.

• Service: Technological delivery of the job. What you do. And that’s 49% of staff training – and the job.
• Hospitality: How you feel when you do your job. And how the customer feels. And that’s 51% of staff training – and the job.

How cool is that?! Marvelous.

Remember what author Maya Angelou says this so well: “…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

So how do you make your donors feel?

Read Adrian Sargeant’s article in Summer 2013 Nonprofit Quarterly. “Donor Retention: What Do We Know and What Can We Do about it.” And then do it!

Dip into the Agitator series on Donor Retention. Embrace that, too!

Compare your board’s performance to Board Source’s  Nonprofit Governance Index 2012. Yes, it was published in September 2012. But refresh your memory!

Now take a look at NPQ‘s online article by Rob Meiksins, “Is Dr. King’s Dream Realized? Not on Boards.”

Check out “Missing Pieces: Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards.”

And then, read Delia Ephron’s 09-07-13 New York Times piece, “You Can’t Have It All, but You Can Have Cake.” A commentary on having it all (which may be a particularly American perspective).

Malcolm Sproull, Fundraising Manager  for SHINE, New Zealand, posted the following on LinkedIn:

“I came to the philanthropy/non-profit sector after 25 years in relationship selling and marketing in the commercial world. I never knew anyone could ask anyone for money if the asker wasn’t customer centric. It’s the fundamental DNA of relationship selling, which was the foundation for Ken Burnett’s book Relationship Fundraising.

“But your book [Keep Your Donors: The Guide to Better Communications and Stronger Relationships] was the first I came across in the non-profit sector illustrating the need to be so focused and to put one’s energies into seeking out the “pre-disposed”.

“It was the first time I had confirmation that the relationship selling principles I was then applying to the non-profit sector were not off the rails. At that early entry into the non-profit sector on many occasions I thought I had stepped into the Twilight Zone. Your books and those of Tom Ahern’s were and are a brilliant help.”

Thank you, Martin, for that marvelous testimonial about Keep Your Donors, written by Tom and me. But more importantly, thank you for your insights. Hey everyone, pay attention to what Martin says:

• A donor is a customer. Think customer centric. Then you’ll understand donor centric.
• No one can ask for money unless they are donor centric!
• Customer centric and donor centric are the DNA of relationship building.
• For heavens’ sake, read Ken Burnett’s seminal book Relationship Fundraising.
• Focus. Identify those that you suspect might be predisposed to your cause. Avoid cold calling.
• Once you’ve identified some predisposed, qualify them as prospects…or leave them alone! A prospect means someone who has actually expressed interest. Don’t confuse the predisposed and actual prospects.

Did you read Tom Ahern’s, archived on his website? “Proposed: A new set of messages for nonprofits.” He talks about emotional triggers and other tricks of the trade – and how we need to use them.

Well, I’m the “senior expert” explaining “fundraising 101” that he references in his e-news. I’m the one who apparently smiled warmly. (He should know; he was in the room watching me.) After Tom’s usual great presentation, I told people not to take the negative approach and think that these “tricks of the trade” are manipulative. Instead, we’re talking about basic principles and best practice.

I said, “Don’t worry. This isn’t manipulation. You’re plugging into people’s own values and emotions.” As you saw in his e-news, Tom thought, “What’s wrong with manipulation? I think manipulation is great.”

So what, exactly, is manipulation or manipulate? My old Webster’s Dictionary says: “Manage or utilize skillfully.” Well, that’s good.

But then, of course, what we all seem to think of mostly is, “control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means to one’s own advantage.” I don’t like unfair or insidious. Actually, insidious is a somewhat odious word, isn’t it?

Then there’s that final phrase, “to one’s own advantage.” That’s really, the problem, I suspect. I trap you into doing something you don’t want to do. I make you act in ways contrary to your own interests.

But that isn’t good fundraising. Good fundraising honors and respects people’s values and interests. Good fundraisers don’t keep chasing people who aren’t interested. Good fundraisers don’t even think in terms of “hitting up” people for gifts. Good fundraisers don’t misrepresent or lie.

Good fundraisers and the most effective fundraising are ethical and respectful, donor-centered and caring. And good fundraisers and effective fundraising apply the body of knowledge and research, and use the best tools.