The alternative to “donor-centered” fundraising

When I started my fundraising career back in 2009, the big buzz word in the development world was “donor-centered” fundraising. In the heyday of the very first cloud-based databases that could handle customized dashboards and what not, it became easier than ever for organizations to see their real-time donor retention rates, and they were—and remain—not great.

Enter Penelope Burk with her “donor-centered fundraising” concept.

This concept served me really well as a baby fundraiser. I had started my career at an organization that was 80% foundation funded, and had brought in a steady $300,000 annually in individual giving each year—the vast majority of that from a gala that cost roughly one-third of what it raised. Without raising costs, my marching orders were to grow individual giving.

That’s when I learned about Penelope Burk and her donor-centered fundraising concept, Along with Prof. Adrian Sargeant at the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, who was then helping shape this hot new database called Bloomerang (I was one of Bloomerang’s very early clients way back in 2011). At the time, I really liked this idea of donor-centered fundraising. It made sense. If the problem is that our donors aren’t donating again, and the problem is that they don’t feel like their gift mattered, showing them how they were the hero and saved the day just made sense.

I started building a fundraising program with the donor in mind. But I was at a social justice and human rights organization, and our staff worked tirelessly in sometimes terrifying contexts. It was really, really hard for me to message the donor as the hero when we worked with people doing truly heroic work across the globe.

What I ended up building looked pretty different than a lot of donor-centered fundraising programs. To me, it was donor-centered because we were bringing the donor into the program work to see and witness the incredible work that our organization was doing. It was donor-centered, in my mind, more because I didn’t have a better word for it…but the programs weren’t there to thank the donor so much as bring the donor into the organization.

Enter Community-Centered Fundraising.

Having spent my career fundraising for social justice causes, this group resonated with me right out of the gate. Especially principle four: All who engage in strengthening the community are equally valued, whether volunteer, staff, donor, or board member.

I also felt that I’d been doing principle six my whole career: We treat donors as partners, and this means that we are transparent, and occasionally have difficult conversations.

And I particularly appreciate Vu Le’s takedown of donor-centered fundraising by comparing it to a husband-centered marriage.

The more I thought about what CCF and others were talking about—we have to stop treating donors like heroes because sometimes they just simply aren’t—I was trying to grapple with what that meant for my style of fundraising. If I was doing donor-centered fundraising, and that was problematic, what was I to do instead?

But then I had another thought…what I’m doing isn’t donor-centered.

I’m calling my donors into the mission. I’m showing my donors what is hard about our work, and I’m asking them to engage in the hard. I’m asking my donors to acknowledge they need to do more. I get my donors involved, as involved as our volunteers. I want my donors to sit with the people we serve.

I looked at my communications. Yes, lots of “you’s” compared to “we’s” (a central tenet of donor-centered fundraising), but also, the donor wasn’t the hero. The hero of all of my communications was the coming together of the donor, the client, and the nonprofit to create impact…the impact was the hero. Better yet, our connection was the hero.

Wait…that’s not donor-centered fundraising at all! I realized. That was something else, something I wasn’t sure any of the fundraising consultants out there were talking about.

That’s something that I have started to call mission-centered fundraising.

Here’s how mission-centered fundraising works, and how it’s different from donor-centered fundraising.

Donor Acknowledgements and Thank Yous

Donor Centered: Timely (within 48 hours) acknowledgement of the gift, preferably in the form of a hand-written note.

Mission Centered: We do acknowledge and thank the donor, but in the interests of making sure the donor knows we’ve received their gift and that it will be put to work. No flattery and fawning necessary, no handwritten note necessary. I set my fundraising platform’s auto-responder setting to be a meaningful thank you…and then set it up to BCC me when an email goes out. When I get an automated than you, I reply and say “Hi Nancy - I just saw you made a gift. Thank you so much! Do you mind if I ask you what inspired this gift? I’d really love to know more about what gets you excited about our mission. Best, Kelly.”

No fuss, no fawning. And what I’m doing is centering their focus on the mission. And I absolutely love the responses I get back. I’m building the relationship—from the get-go—around the mission.

Donor Tokens and “Benefits”

Donor Centered: Give the donor what they want. Treat the donor the way they want to be treated. Give them things that show they are big donors, and put their name on things to celebrate their giving.

Mission Centered: First off, my mission-centered philosophy is very anti-token. I do like to give out vinyl stickers and cheap, easy items to allow donors to show off their support, but nothing that costs much or requires effort to send. If I do anything, it’s simple and fits in an envelope.

I do build donor societies, but the “benefits” I give to donors are mission-centered…they are rooted in providing deeper and deeper engagement in the mission as donors give more; not because the donor “earned” it, but because the donor is demonstrating a deeper level of engagement. I do things like attending programmatic events (attending a student graduation or school supply handout event), not sanitized things like donor teas and happy hours. The highest “benefit” for one donor society I ran at the human rights organization was going with our staff on research trips…where donors would shadow our staff doing the work in the trenches. Not glamorous, and by the way, they paid their whole way…the benefit was that they got invited. But donors came back more committed than ever.

Talking to the Donor

Donor Centered: The donor is the hero in all messaging. Without the donor, you’d have nothing.

Mission Centered: I make the assumption that—because I don’t fundraise using gimmicks—my donors are giving because they care about my mission. So I treat the donor as a partner. I care about this. You care about this. Together, we’re going to make something happen! When I talk to donors, it’s about the reality of what the organization is facing.

The hero of the stories I tell my donors is always about the community coming together to make impact. My organization isn’t the hero. The donor isn’t the hero. The person we serve isn’t the hero. Alone, none of us would be different or better-off. But together, we create change. That’s the magic.

Fundraising Campaigns

Donor Centered: Tell a sad story with a before, action, and after. Before being the sad person you serve before the organization serves them, and after being after they’ve been served by the organization…and the action that “saves” them is the donor making the donation.

Mission Centered: First of all, before I launch fundraising campaigns, I make sure I’ve communicated with my donors consistently about the mission and our progress. If we have goals for the year, I update them on the status of our goals…being honest about where we have succeeded and where we are falling short (because, you see, with mission-centered fundraising, you build up trust and commitment between you and your donor, so you can tell them the good news and the bad news).

After that, I send out campaigns reminding them about what our upcoming needs are and asking them to fund those needs. I focus on what we can do when everyone comes together. This is the change that can happen if we meet this need in our community. You (donor) can meet that need. The power to make this change is yours. Let’s make magic happen.

And during campaigns, I don’t trust the sob stories to bring a donor in. I expect our mutual respect to bring them in. I call my donors who don’t give, and I ask them straight out “are you giving again? If no, why not?” Again, if you build a relationship around the mission, they know you need them and they feel part of the impact, so they keep giving. (No gimmicks, tote-bags, or guilt-trips required.)

Donor Centered or Mission Centered, which is better?

I’m not disavowing donor-centered fundraising. I think a lot of nonprofits need to get on board with donor-centered fundraising to a certain degree…mostly in that so many nonprofits don’t even acknowledge donors.

I had a donor tell me about how a nonprofit sent out a fundraising campaign saying they “urgently” needed money, she sent them $1,000—a huge gift for this woman—and three months later they hadn’t acknowledged or cashed her check. Worried they didn’t receive her check, she called. “Yes, we have it. Thanks,” the receptionist said curtly. This woman was beyond hurt…she felt lied to. If they’d needed the money so bad, why hadn’t they cashed the check. She didn’t expect an acknowledgement flattering her…she wanted to know she’d helped because she’d broken into her own emergency savings to help that nonprofit. Their lack of gratitude hurt her feelings because the gift she was making meant a lot to HER. My heart hurt as she told me this story because I had a deep relationship with her, and I knew she often gave well beyond her means. That’s why I always fell all over myself to thank her for the gifts she made to our organization…not to flatter her but to show I knew her, I saw her, and I valued her as a partner to our mission.

In that case, a bit more donor-centered attention was desperately warranted. And unfortunately, that’s where too many nonprofits are.

But I don’t really believe in donor-centered fundraising anymore. I believe in mission-centered fundraising, largely because I’ve seen mission-centered fundraising kick donor-centered fundraising’s butt in terms of results. It’s sometimes a slow build when you shift to mission-centered fundraising, but it breeds loyal donors who deeply care about the organization.

Are you interested in learning how to do mission-centered fundraising? Join the Sustain & Thrive program.

Through an online learning portal and weekly group calls, you’ll learn how to build a sustainable, thriving individual giving program that centers on your mission and brings donors in as partners in achieving that mission.