Donor-centered fundraising – Page 5 – The Healthy Non-Profit

All posts pertaining to the philosophy named donor-centered fundraising and espoused by Penelope Burk

Planning can be scary so don’t do it alone . . . invite your donors to help!

March 13, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, nonprofit, organizational development, Planning

There are those of us who like to make plans in the dark and by ourselves. I suspect some people like to do it that way because the act of planning is revolutionary and involves tackling the scary monster that most people recognize as “CHANGE“.

And doesn’t change involve “death”?

Ahhhh, I bet that got your attention. I suspect many of you are scratching your head over that logical leap, but is it really that big of a leap? Consider the following quote from Anatole France that I found online at BrainyQuote:

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”

So, if planning equals change and change equals death, then through mathematical transitive properties . . . planning also equals death.

I know some of you are there with me on this ethereal point and others of you are still shaking your head. Regardless, let’s all agree that planning equals change, and both planning and change are scary propositions for some people. Keeping this in mind, let’s circle back to the question begging to be asked:

Who should you invite to the planning table?

While some people are very cautious and want to control the process and outcomes, I don’t subscribe to that paradigm. I am a firm believer that those people who are involved in planning are the people who you most need to roll up their sleeves once the planning process concludes.

So, if you like to be the Lone Ranger and have time to single-handedly implement (and fund) your nonprofit organization’s strategic plan (or marketing plan or resource development plan or any other kind of plan), then I encourage you to lock yourself in a closet and start writing that plan. However, if you want others to roll up their sleeves and open their wallets, then the answer to this question is that you need to find ways to involve all stakeholders including: board, staff, clients, volunteers, community supporters, donors, collaborative partners, etc.

This does not mean throwing caution to the wind and working in total transparency for the entire world to watch, worry and fret over. After all, there are times when revolutionary ideas are aired and debated during the planning process. For example, imagine how uncomfortable it might be for an organization to examine the merits of totally changing its mission in front of an audience of donors who have fallen in love with and funded the current mission.

Does this mean donors should be cut out of the planning process? Nope! However, getting the right donors involved does require great thought and care. Asking a trusted donor and friend of the agency to serve on the planning committee means creating ground rules and setting expectations upfront.

Does this mean donors should be ignored until the plan is ready to be unveiled? Definitely NOT! While focus groups and surveys are great ways to secure donors’ feelings and opinions during the planning process assessment phase, it needs to be done thoughtfully. Asking donors to share their thoughts means giving consideration to what they actually have to say regardless of whether or not you agree with it.

Are there risks? Yes, of course, there are, but you can do this!

Don’t take my word for it. I found this great Do-It-Yourself resource guide on strategic planning for those of you who prefer a more traditional planning model. Click here to read more about “Step One: Who Should Be Involved?”

If you didn’t like the first quote about change from Anatole France, then try this BrainyQuote from Robert Gallagher on for size:

“Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine.”

What have been your experieneces with involving donors in strategic planning (or any planning for that matter)? Did you experience difficulties? If so, how did you handle it? If you haven’t included donors in any of your planning processes, then what is holding you back and what needs to happen to help you feel better about doing so?

Here’s to your health!

Erik Anderson
Founder & President, The Healthy Non-Profit LLC
www.thehealthynonprofit.com
erik@thehealthynonprofit.com
http://twitter.com/#!/eanderson847
http://www.facebook.com/eanderson847
http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikanderson847

What do you do when your donor has “Gone Fishing”?

March 7, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

About a week ago, I ran out to California to visit an old and very dear friend. His name is Denny, and we met two decades ago while running Boy Scouts camps.

As I have done on a number of previous vacations including this one, I’ve continued to blog. However, today is my last day in California. It is a travel day, and I am not feeling especially well. So, when I opened this window this morning, I decided to “mail it in” for the first time ever and just post something that says “Gone Fishing”.

As I started to do exactly that, a thought rocketed through my head:

What do you do when your donor has “Gone Fishing”?

When you run a donor-centered fundraising program based on deep and meaningful relationships, it isn’t uncommon to know when your key supporters leave town.

So, if you consider yourself a truly donor-centered fundraiser, what do you do when your donor comes home? Here are a few ideas from a sick, road weary traveler:

Send them a card or an email that just says “welcome home” and “we missed you”.
Pick-up the phone, welcome them home, and ask how things went.
Invite them out for a cup of coffee and ask them to share the highlights of their trip.
Investigate the possibility of incorporating them into your programming (e.g. ask them to share pictures from the vacation via slide show with your clients, etc)
Invite them out for coffee and update them on what occurred while they were gone.

If this sounds a bit unusual to you, then please ask yourself what you’d do when a friend or family member comes back from an out-of-town trip. Wouldn’t you call them? Wouldn’t you totally want to see the pictures?

Please use the comment box below to share your thoughts and experiences. Now, if you’d please excuse me, I took a shot of NyQuil, and I’m going to go take a nap as I wait for my airplane.

Here’s to your health!

Asking donors for advice? Buckle up!

March 6, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

I have a number of different bloggers who I really enjoy reading. One of those “favs” is Gail Perry who writes “Fired-Up Fundraising”. Last week, I received an email notice from Gail announcing that she published a blog post titled: “5 Insanely Successful Ideas for Getting in the Door to See Your Prospect“.

I just love her advice, and I suggest you click over and read her tips, too. While there isn’t anything there that you haven’t practiced, it really is great to see all of this written in one place.

However, Gail’s second tip — “Advice visit” — stopped me in my tracks.

The gist of this tip is:

Pick-up the phone
Ask the donor if you can have some time because you’d like to secure some “advice”
Set the appointment

I totally agree with Gail that this is a great way to get some “face time” with your donors. There is nothing more flattering than getting asked your opinion. Right?

So, where is the catch?

In my experience, I’ve found that asking for a donor’s opinion goes beyond just asking their opinion. It includes acting upon that advice or being able to explain why that advice was not acted upon.

Don’t believe me?

Imagine a situation where you ask a donor to help evaluate a special event. They offer some advice that just doesn’t align with your vision for the event, and you decided to ignore the suggestion. However, the donor is very excited about being asked their opinion and can’t seem let go of it.

What do you do?

This might cause some fundraising professionals to take a pass on asking donors for advice; however, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here are a few suggestions for those of you wanting to engage donors by using the “Ask Advice” tactic:

Be genuine at all times.
If the advice isn’t what you expect, share your thoughts in a respectful manner.
If the ideas shared are complicated or seemingly unrealistic, ask them to help you explore their suggestions. You might be surprised. Or the donor might just learn more about your agency.
Always circle back with the donor and share with them what happened (or didn’t happen) as a result of their advice.
If their advice isn’t used, be able to explain why not.

Do you remember the last time your opinion was asked for and it wasn’t used? If so, I suggest you keep that memory close to your heart before employing this donor engagement tactic. It will serve as a great compass that should keep you on the path to success.

Have you ever found yourself in this situation? How did you handle it? Please use the comment box below and share your experiences. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

What do your donors value?

February 10, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

A few months ago, I had the privilege of facilitating a values exercise for an organization. I blogged about it weeks afterward in a post titled “Does your non-profit have a soul?” Yesterday, I had a similar privilege to facilitate a focus group with a different agency, and one of the questions I asked clients was “what values do you see the organization living?

Wow! If you ever want to know if you live your values, pull together a group of clients and ask them what they see. It can be an incredibly affirming exercise. I suspect it can also be eye-opening.

After yesterday’s focus group, I decided to spend a moment reflecting on the power of that exercise. I found my mind wandering back to the same question:

“I wonder how many non-profits know what values their donors hold close to their hearts and how that impacts their willingness to invest in their mission?”

For some dumb reason, I’ve never considered how a donor perceives an agency’s values, reconciles it with their own personal values, and factors it into their decision to donate or not. After thinking about it for a moment, it is as obvious as the nose on my face. However, I must admit that this never has consciously crossed my mind. <<Embarassing>> Additionally, this revelation has now trigger more questions:

Could fundraising ineffectiveness in part be caused by an organization that doesn’t have a well-defined set of organizational values?
Could an agency that only has values “on paper” and fails to live by them, negatively impact their fundraising program?
What can non-profits learn if they ask their donors what values they see the agency living?
How can a non-profit organization best ascertain what values their donors cherish?

Regardless of how you answer these questions, I suspect you will conclude as I have that it is important to figure out how to best communicate what your organizational values are throughout the cultivation, solicitation and stewardship processes.

However, first things first . . . what does your non-profit value? I will leave you with the following incomplete list of values and principles that I’ve seen some agencies embrace (e.g. the YMCA’s core values are in the graphic to the right of this paragraph):

Excellence
Honesty
Fun
Creativity
Respect for Others
Quality
Diversity
Innovation
Winning
Care for Others
Cooperation

Lots and lots of questions for a Friday. If you find yourself with some answers, please scroll down and share those thoughts in the comment box. We can all learn from each other.

Here’s to your health!

Choo! Choo! All aboard the philanthropy train

February 9, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

On Tuesday of this week, I climbed aboard a train and made my way to downtown Chicago for a meeting with a former co-worker and current marketing consultant. It was on that train trip that I was thunderstruck by a revelation . . . trains are an amazing metaphor for non-profit organizations when it comes to resource development.

It starts at the train station. If you look around at those waiting for the train, you’ll observe people from all walks of life. There is a lot of diversity standing on that train platform, which also holds true for the average non-profit agency’s pool of prospective donors. Those who are interested in supporting your agency are young and old, white-collar and blue-collar, and rich and poor.

Non-profits who are successful at resource development recognize their mission is something everyone wants to climb aboard, and those agencies are very good at offering seats to everyone on that train.

Once the train pulls up to the platform, the doors open and the conductors come down out of the train onto the platform. They greet commuters, provide valuable information, and assist those who need help getting up into the train. After everyone is seemingly aboard, they look around and make sure there are no stragglers.

Successful fundraising organizations use fundraising professionals and fundraising volunteers to identify, cultivate, educate, inform and help prospective donors.

On the train, conductors are punching pre-purchased tickets as well as selling tickets to those who need them. Everyone pays to ride and no one goes without a solicitation. This all occur while the train is chugging along to its destination. After the solicitation period is over, the conductor stops and chats with passengers. They answer questions and talk about the “expected outcome,” which of course is arriving safely at your destination. The focus isn’t on the solicitation, it is on the outcomes (e.g. talk about the journey, reminders about safety, and the final announcement at the end of the trip that the ultimate outcome has been achieved).

Non-profits who make fundraising look effortless understand that fundraising isn’t the focus. They work hard to keep their donors and supporters focused on the journey, the outcomes and the impact. The message is never “we need your money” . . . it is always “we’re making a difference because of everything you do to support us.”

As the train pulls into Union Station, the conductor makes the following announcements:

We’ve arrived on time (e.g. we delivered on our promise)
Thank you for riding Metra (e.g. appreciation and acknowledgement)
Have a great day, watch your step getting off the train, and be safe
Remember to buy your ticket at the station for your return trip because you’ll save money

Stewardship is more than just thanking donors for their money. In addition to thanks and appreciation, the effective non-profits share return on investment information with their donors and take a genuine interest in their lives.

If you’re reading today’s blog post and think I’m exaggerating to make a point, then I think you need to take a train trip. For me, the proof is in the pudding when I see how many commuters appear to personally know their conductors and look happy to see them.

Non-profit organizations who want to improve their resource development programs and make them more donor-centered should climb aboard the philanthropy train and enjoy the ride. None of us are ever too old to learn a thing or two. 😉

Who are the “conductors” for your resource development program? No everyone is cut out for that job . . . how do you identify and recruit those individuals? Are you strategic in your efforts or is it more organic? What does your agency do to keep the focus off of fundraising and on the outcomes and impact (while ensuring donors are still contributing)? Does your fundraising program feel like a fun journey or is it just a series of unconnected stops?

Please use the comment box below to weigh-in. I promise that it is a warm and nurturing place. It will not bite you. 😉

Here’s to your health!

Seriously?!? Why not just mug prospective donors?

January 20, 2012 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

I have been simmering over an email I received a few weeks ago from a dear friend. In that email, she shared with me an invitation that had been sent to her by a non-profit organization to whom she had never contributed a penny.

For all of you “relationship-based” fundraising professionals, I encourage you to take a deep breath and have a seat. (Note: I’ve changed the names to protect the innocent and avoid embarrassment). Here is the gist of what the invitation said:

Please join us for a cocktail reception
to kick-off our annual campaign
<<Date>> & <<Time>>
Hosted By Mr. & Mrs. Smith
<<home address>>
A minimum donation of $500 is requested

If you wish to learn more about the agency,
please call the Executive Director.

After reading this email invitation at least 10 times, I was speechless; however, I think this YouTube video best captures how I feel.

Seriously?!?

Here is someone who is NOT a donor. The invitation was an email blast and not personal. There was no prospect cultivation done in advance. When you take these facts together with the “minimum contribution” request, I am left speechless. AND . . . just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, the invitee is told to call the executive director if they have programmatic or mission-based questions. WOW!

I apologize for my tone this morning, but things like this offend me because prospects and donors deserve better. Philanthropy is not about the “grab-and-run” fundraising approach . . . it is about connecting with people, discovering their dreams, and helping them put their charitable giving to work in a way that will help their dreams become reality.

I am left wondering if the volunteers who emailed this invitation were “taught” to ask in this manner. I know that it sounds crazy, but don’t human being typically do what they observe? If this is the case, then the non-profit agency who initially solicited these fundraising volunteers must be guilty of not possessing a “culture of philanthropy”.

This, of course, begs the question: “How can you change an organizations culture and instill a sense of philanthropy into it?” Thankfully, the fundraising sector has an awesome organization in The Association of Fundraising Professionals. I came across this awesome 2011 article titled “Building a Culture of Philanthropy” that speaks to this issue.

So many non-profit organizations are talking about “donor-centered fundraising” nowadays, but what is your agency actually doing to put these principles in place? Please use the comment box below to comment on this organization’s fundraising approach or how you ensure your fundraising volunteers don’t do things like this. We can all learn from each other.

Seriously . . . Here’s to your health!

Make that call and express your thanks

November 25, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

Ahhhhhh . . . Thanksgiving is over and the food comma is starting to wear off, but the spirit of this holiday looms for much longer. It might even set the table for the one of the most charitable times of the year by putting donors in the mood to give, give, give! So, if you believe this, then you should also believe that giving thanks doesn’t just end when the last piece of turkey is packed up in Tupperware and placed in the refrigerator in hopes of becoming a turkey sandwich in the not-so-distant-future.

I am suggesting that it would be a very nice donor-centered stewardship gesture if you picked up the phone on Monday and called one of the most impactful donors to your non-profit agency.

Don’t just call and say thank you.

When you finally get them on the telephone, you might consider telling them that the Thanksgiving spirit motivated you to call. Spend the rest of the call discussing the following:

What does their financial support mean to your agency?
Provide a few examples of how their contribution made a difference for your agency’s clients.
Ask them if they have any questions about anything they may have seen or heard about the organization.
Ask them what they see as the organization’s greatest strengths and weaknesses.
Explain to them how their contribution makes you personally feel. Share any emotions you may experience as a result of their support and involvement.
Tell them that you appreciate them and the agency couldn’t do what it does without support from caring people like them.
Wish them a happy holiday season and tell them you look forward to working with them again in the new year.

You’re all really busy. This doesn’t have to be an “initiative” or a “thank-a-thon” . . . even though that would be awesome. All I am suggesting is that you do this on Monday with JUST ONE very important donor.

Taking a few minutes on Monday represents your personal investment in doing good stewardship. It will renew your non-profit soul and set the stage for a great end of the year push!

Trust me . . . just do it . . . and then circle back to the comment box below and let us all know how you felt afterward. I’ll sit tight and wait to hear back from you. 😉

Here’s to your health!

When donors cry (literally)

November 18, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

Have you ever been engaged in conversation with a donor and they spontaneously erupted into tears? This had never happened to me until recently, and I need to talk about it because it really shook me right down to my resource development foundation.

While I need to be sketchy with the details as not to embarrass anyone, I can provide some conversational context and set the scene. The conversation was about a specific non-profit organization that they had been donating to for a very long time. Long story short . . . the non-profit organization is now talking about going out of business and the newspaper is covering the story.

We talked for a long time as the tears flowed, and I was given one of the greatest gifts that any resource development profession could ever be given. I was allowed a glimpse inside the soul of a donor. Here is what they were saddened to tears over (this is their thoughts and not my analysis):

They believed in their heart in the mission of that organization and were mourning the possible death of something they loved.
They believed that their financial contributions had been making a difference in the lives of people. Now they have doubts and feel deceived
They personally solicited friends and asked them to also make a contribution to this organization. Now they feel like they perpetuated a fraud against their friends and aren’t sure they can face their friends.

I was given a gift when I was allowed to bear witness to the raw power of philanthropy. It affects me, and I wanted to share this with you because there are some important lessons that all non-profit professional need to take away from this story:

What we tell donors regardless of whether it is during cultivation, solicitation or stewardship efforts is like a sacred promise. Many donors take it to heart and deposit it in their emotional bank account. We need to remember this at all times.
There are people who “go to bat” for those non-profits that they love. They leverage personal relationships all in the name of mission. They are out there making promises to their friends, and we need to do a better job of recognizing that investment. They tell their friends that your agency is a wise investment, and we owe it to them to make sure that is true by always focusing on sustainability and organizational capacity building efforts. Just focusing on programs for our clients that our mission calls us to serve is simply not enough.
We need to be very careful about what we say publicly in the press about the present state of our agency. Donors take those things to heart. It can affect them deeply. Cavalierly talking about the possibility of closing your doors is the equivalent of playing with someone’s emotions. It isn’t nice and will cost you donors.

I decided to write this blog post because this tearful conversation was impactful. I can’t get it out of my head. It made me profoundly sad and even a little angry. I had hoped that sharing this with others would make me feel better and get beyond it because of my belief that we can all learn from each other. While I do believe this, I am also not feeling any better about things. In fact, I think I am a little sadder as I fight back some tears and a little angrier as I clench my teeth to get through this post.

There can be no doubt that I am physically experiencing the power of philanthropy, and I hope I become a stronger more donor-centered fundraiser because of this experience. My holiday wish for you is that you walk away from this blog post feeling the same way and use this story to become more donor-centered, too.

Have you ever had a similar experience? Has any donor interaction ever affected you in a way that you’ve embraced it and used it to become a better professional? If so, please use the comment box below to share because we can all learn from each other.

Here is to your health!

If I only had a heart . . .

October 26, 2011 DonorDreams Board development, Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising, resource development, volunteers

There are 9-keys to “inspiring and managing yours board for fundraising success”. In fact, the reality is that these 9-keys are the same nine things you need to do to “engage” anyone in anything. However, I believe that these nine concepts are not all equal. While all are important, I have come to realize that the most important and most difficult engagement tool was best summed up by the “Wizard of Oz’s” Tim Man in this YouTube video.

The most important engagement tool in your nonprofit toolbox in my humble opinion is “MISSION-FOCUS”.

I personally learned this lesson more than 7-years ago when one of my more influential board volunteers (I’ll omit his name for privacy purposes, but let’s just say he was really good with other people’s money) resigned from the Boys & Girls Club of Elgin’s board of directors. While he resigned for personal reasons and still supported the Club, I didn’t see the train wreck coming until it was too late.

This board volunteer was infamous for taking 15+ prospects’ pledge cards as part of the annual campaign every year. His reasoning seemed sound: 1) they were clients of his, 2) they were friends of his, and 3) he had always solicited these donors. I’d be lying if I tried to tell you that I ever tried to talk him out of being such an overachiever. However, in hindsight I wish that I had.

The first year this individual wasn’t on our board, we tried to redistribute his annual campaign prospects to other volunteers. I finally understood how big of a fool I had been when my phone rang a few weeks after our annual campaign kickoff meeting. The call came in from one of our more steady donors who had always been solicited by this former board volunteer.

The call started off nice enough. “Hi . . . how are you . . . how are things down at the Club?” However, pleasant conversation quickly turned into a cross-examination: “why is so-and-so calling me for my annual campaign pledge this year . . . what happened to he-who-I-loved-to-get-solicited-by . . . is there something wrong at the Club whereby he just walked away from your board of directors?” And as if that wasn’t enough to cause me to run to the restroom and vomit, most of the calls ended with the donor talking to me like I was a kindergartener and telling me that they didn’t donate to the Club because of our mission but because of who had been asking.

The lesson I painfully learned was that stewardship was very important in the resource development process. Successful stewardship and relationship building meant transitioning a donor-relationship from their the volunteer-solicitor connection to a love affair with the organization’s mission. While it might not happen overnight, working on it symbolized a commitment to sustainability and a donor-centered paradigm. The Tin Man was 100% correct when he sang about the value of his heart.

Being “MISSION-FOCUSED” goes beyond stewardship . . . here are just a few ideas for infusing mission in everything you do at your non-profit organization:

Host your board meetings, committee meetings and fundraising meeting at your service facility as a way of reminding everyone what their volunteer time commitments are all about.
Focus newsletter content on return on investment messaging and all things related to your agency’s mission. Skip the boring advertisements for the next opportunity to make a contribution.
Don’t let your annual campaign volunteer solicitors go on important solicitations by themselves. Staff should do everything possible to get invited on important solicitations and ensure: 1) the ask is not being done in a “quid pro quo” manner and 2) mission-oriented reasons are infused throughout the solicitation call.
Find ways to bring the idea of your clients into important meetings. For example, ask agency clients to participate in an essay contest about what they value most about your organization, its programs and mission. Share those essays with board volunteers, fundraising volunteers and donors.
Incorporate a “mission moment” into ALL MEETINGS as a way to keep the focus on why you’re asking others to do what they do.

Failure to inject “MISSION-FOCUS” into all of your meetings and fundraising campaigns can be disastrous. It can lead to volunteer-fatigue and donor turnover. It can create a sense of disengagement that results in staff doing everything. Do I need to go on? Come on . . . if a Tim Man can get it, then surely we all understand the importance of this concept. Right?

I can go on and on, but I’d rather you share with your fellow DonorDreams blog subscribers what you do to maintain a healthy dose of “MISSION-FOCUS” in everything you do. Please use the comment box below to share your example because we can all learn from each other. There are no right or wrong answers. Please jump in.

Here is to your health!

Engaging donors directly? Brilliant!

October 18, 2011 DonorDreams Donor-centered fundraising, Fundraising

Marketing works. I know this because periodically I catch myself associating real life things with television commercials.

For example, I was at city hall in Elgin, Illinois the other day trying to acquire my small business license. I thought doing something in person might be more efficient. Unfortunately, that was NOT true. I was turned away by a clerk who asked to me to do this online. When I turned around to talk out of the building, I saw this huge sign sitting on an easel. It advertised Mayor Dave Kaptain’s “Listening Sessions” and promoted public participation.

At that very moment, the old Guinness beer commercial came streaming into my head. Do you know which one I’m talking about? Click here to enjoy this flashback to the not-so-distant past.

So, why is this so “brilliant” and what does it have anything to do with non-profit organizations, which is at the heart of this blog?

For starters, I think it is brilliant because in this day and age of mass media, the answer always seems to be: send them a letter, advertise on television, put it on the website, “tweet” it, organize an email blast, and the list goes on and on. I haven’t heard anyone say in a very long time: “let’s go out there and engage people directly” on issues that are important to them.

As for the question about how this pertains to non-profit organizations, all I have to say is that non-profits should take a page out of Elgin Mayor Dave Kaptain’s book. Here are just a few ideas for non-profits that I thought of as I walked out of city hall:

Organize a “town hall meeting” at your non-profit service site on any number of issues your agency helps address every day. Invite donors, volunteers, community leaders, and collaborative partners to attend and participate.
Organize a series of quarterly or monthly “brown bag lunch meetings” focused on one of the issues your agency deals with every day. Invite a guest speaker from the community to speak about some part of the issue (e.g. your state representative, city council member, chamber of commerce or hospital CEO, etc). Also invite donors to bring their brown bag lunches and participate in this lunch program.
Organize a small reception and honor someone in the community who works hard and does something related to your agency’s mission. For example, a domestic violence shelter could put together a small after-work reception to honor a local police officer for their commitment to working differently and compassionately with victims. Invite your donors and ask them to turn-out and help you honor this person.
Organize a petition drive around one of your issues and ask donors to help secure signatures.
Organize focus groups for each of your fundraisers and ask donors to provide feedback. Invite your donors to help you dream by asking them what they think it would take to “double” the funds raised from that specific fundraisers. After all, who else would know best other than the participating donor?

Non-profit organizations don’t always need to be out front, jumping around screaming “look at me . . . look at me!” Donors are capable of digesting subtle messages, and these types of activities will position you as a leader in your field. Mix in a few subtle “return on investment” messages, and donors will walk away feeling very good about their most recent investment in your organization.

Don’t charge any money. Resist the urge to solicit your donors during these mission-moments. This is about engagement . . . not about cash flow. If you find yourself saying “you don’t have the time or resources” to do these kinds of things, then I suspect you aren’t interested in looking at your donor loyalty numbers either (and with Halloween around the corner this could be a very scary activity to undertake).

Non-profit organizations need to get back to investing in personal stewardship and engaging donors in real mission-focused activities in between solicitation opportunities. I urge you to go beyond the donor database generated acknowledgement letter, email or Tweet. There are countless examples of how to do this if you just keep your eyes open. We can all learn something from politicians, for-profit corporations and our fellow non-profit friends.

This entire post aligns well with my teachable point of view that non-profits need to stop treating donors like ATMs!!! Of course, if you don’t commit to being a life-long learner on the subject of donor engagement, then you might start looking like Ms. Swan from this old Mad TV comedy sketch (albeit less fortunate than she turned out to be in the end of the sketch).

How is your organization stewarding its donors? How are you going beyond traditional stewardship and engaging them? Have you done any benchmarking to see how your efforts impact your donor loyalty numbers? If so, what was the result? We can all learn from each other. So, please use the comment box below and share your secrets. Because failing to do so would not be BRILLIANT!

Here is to your health!