Earlier this week, one of my favorite bloggers, Jeff Brooks of Future Fundraising Now, posted a piece titled “Create good experiences for your donors” and my mind has been wrapped around it all week long.
In a nutshell, he draws a link between customer loyalty and profits and then goes on to suggust that a similar dynamic exists between a non-profit organization and its donors. It is really good and I suggest you click through and read it for yourself.
I think the reason I’ve been spinning on this all week is because a decade ago one of my favorite board members took me under his wing and played the role of Oprah. I was a new Executive Director and he was a wise bank President. One day after a board development committee meeting, he pulled me aside and handed me a book titled “The Loyalty Effect: The Hidden Force Behind Growth, Profits, and Lasting Value“. He urged me to read the book and encouraged me to return in a month so we can talk about how it applied to our non-profit situation.
Jeff Brooks mentions in his blog that he thinks a “good donor experience” includes:
- getting the data right
- being thankful
- reporting back
- offering choices around communication mediums
I think creating donor loyalty starts here and involves so much more, which is why I’ve dug out my old copy of “The Loyalty Effect”. Here is my plan … I am dedicating all five blog posts next week to this book. I’ll read a few chapters, report back to you, and try to draw comparisions to the non-profit – donor experience. I am titling next week’s blog posts “A dog’s world” because nothing is more loyal in this world than “man’s best friend”. Right?
In the meantime, I encourage you to take a minute to weigh-in with your comments on “what do good donor experiences look and feel like? And how do you see non-profits building donor loyalty?”
Here is to your health!
Erik Anderson Owner, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC eanderson847@gmail.com http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847 http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1021153653 http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847
I am really, truly looking forward to reading the posts next week….will be a great refresher from my favorite RD professional.
Returning the love right back at you, Teri. I extend the rare offer to you (my favorite RD professional) to be a guest blogger anytime you feeling like writing something! Because everything I’ve ever heard you say about resource development has been WICKED SMART!