One mission-aligned touch per quarter
Next up in our #DonorLove series: warm, mission-aligned donor engagement touches.
Week 1, we talked about figuring out your donor retention rate. Week 2, we talked about my #1 tip for starting conversations (and thus relationships) with your donors.
Welcome to week three, where I’m going to talk about how you can bring your donors into the mission-centered work you are already doing to get them more deeply engaged.
You see, in the age of digital marketing, we see digital modes of engaging with our audiences as “efficient”—mass communicating with our donors means we don’t have to work as hard. But the problem is that donors are stopping giving in droves. We keep hearing about donor fatigue (note: I linked one of a million articles I could have linked), but I don’t think it exists. I think donors are tired of being treated like ATMs, like their only value is in their donation.
Here at From Scratch Fundraising, our strategies are rooted in building relationships with our donors and creating community between our donors. That’s not something you can do over email, social media, or anything that communicates on a mass scale.
We coach clients to find mission-aligned ways of engaging their donors with the mission, with the staff, with the clients, and with each other. Community will always win (IMHO) because people need people.
So let’s break this down, and then I’ll give you some great examples from my clients. Then I want you to figure out what you might do.
Your touch points should be mission-aligned.
This means that you’re not creating programs for donors, but rather finding ways to give donors a window into what you already do.
For example, I worked for a niche foreign policy advocacy organization for many years. Our staff took trips to various countries to observe the impact of U.S. foreign policy on the ground, relying on our partner experts in country. When our staff would return, they’d write up their findings in policy briefings to members of the U.S. Congress. Well, we sent those to our donors. We knew which countries mattered most to which donors, and we would send them the policy briefings (in individual emails). Were they wonky, full of jargon, and longer than I ever believed a donor would ever read? They were. Did I also frequently talk to donors who read every word and had more questions? I did. Did the donors love it? Absolutely. They felt like they had a window into our day to day. And if I can do that with wonky policy papers, you can do it with anything!
Mission aligned isn’t the same as poverty porn either. One example that I love from a former client of mine is prayer circles they conducted on Zoom. They are a faith-based organization serving refugees in Uganda, and their donors are mostly U.S.-based. On a quarterly basis, they got their clients (who wanted to participate) and their donors onto a Zoom call together. Everyone was equally encouraged to share prayer requests (donors and clients), and they all prayed over everyone’s concerns. It created a community, it created equality, and it created deep connection. I still hold this up an amazingly mission-aligned way to connect donors to the work and impact.
Another client of mine has quarterly meet the animals events at the farm where they conduct equine assisted therapy. Their donors can come out, meet their equine therapy assistants (horses), and experience a group therapy session (for the donors!). They are doing the work in a way that the donors become the beneficiaries, and they’re getting great donor loyalty out of the effort. (This was an idea we came up with AFTER I shot down an idea to hold donor thank you events at a nice restaurant. I said “nope, they need to pet the horses, they need their boots to squelch in the mud, they need to smell the hay. That’s the only way they are going to understand your mission!” And it was true!)
Your touch points need to work with your schedule.
Donor-centered fundraising advice would have you believe that everything has to be done on your donor’s timeline. It does not. The best, most mission-aligned donors know that you’ve got a lot on your plate, and they’ll forgive a lot of non-communication if you schedule quality engagement points when you can. For me, it’s more important to have two amazing engagement points a year where your donors can deeply engage with your mission than to get out a weekly or even monthly newsletter.
So look at your year, look at your work load. When can you program a quality, mission-aligned donor engagement point? Is it once per quarter? AMAZING, that’s plenty.
Certainly email newsletters can keep your donors informed day-to-day, but my guess is your open rates aren’t great and you can only communicate so much that way. Keep them informed with newsletters, but keep them engaged with a couple of really great engagement points.
Your touch points don’t have to be all on you!
I know so many nonprofit leaders that are completely overwhelmed, but here’s where you can leverage even the most fundraising-avoidant board. Get your board engaged in donor stewardship. They don’t have to ask, they just have to say thanks…and if they won’t do that, what the heck are they doing on your board?
Once per year, I have my clients’ gather their board members for a thank-you-call-a-thon. We get their board members in a room, and nobody leaves till all the donors have been called and thanked. (Tack it onto the end of a board meeting.) Donors love getting direct access to board members, and often enthusiastic donors make board members more excited about fundraising. Double win!
I had a board member who was retired and absolutely loved writing thank you notes to donors. And his notes were things of profound gratitude and beauty, and they made him happy. I don’t always preach that you need to send handwritten thank you to donors, but if you have someone who loves doing them, by all means.
You can also have volunteers help you in these efforts.
Okay, put it all together.
Now that you know what a good donor engagement point is and isn’t, brainstorm for your organization.
What will your warm touch points be? Think about the mission work you do all day every day. How do you give donors a window into that? They don’t want fancy thank you events, trinkets or totes. They want to see your mission in action. How will you do that?
Given your work load, what’s a realistic donor engagement plan? A monthly newsletter and two events per year? Amazing…do it! A quarterly newsletter and one event per year? Also fine as long as the event really gets your donors engaged.
Map it across the year. Take your annual calendar. Put on the events you already know are happening (both fundraising and program related). For small organizations, everything is always all-hands-on-deck. If you’re starting up after school programs in September, don’t plan donor events then, you’ll be too busy. Maybe October is a good time once the programs are up and running. But print out a 12-month calendar (or get this full year wall calendar that I use) and figure out where your touch points can go in a way that won’t wear you out and leave you burned out.
Now go do! That’s it. We tend to over-complicate donor stewardship plans, but it’s about simple, sweet, engaging ways to get our donors to understand and experience our mission. Can you map that out today in the next hour?
