They are now married, and their spouses arenat into philanthropy.
They lost their jobs.
They just forgot to give this year.
You forgot to ask them to give this year.
They died.
Again, donat make a.s.sumptions about why they didnat give this year. Ask them.
The thing to take away here is that our donors are human beings. They are more than their net worth on paper, more than the checks that they send in. They have their own lives, their own priorities. The brutal truth is that your average donor, even your above-average donor, spends very, very little time thinking about your organization, and even less time thinking about giving to it. Whereas our job as fundraisers is to think constantly about the nonprofit that we represent, its actions and policies and how to craft solicitation language for that. So we are constantly steeped in the inner workings of the organization. Weare lucky if our donors think about us more than once a month without the aid of a phone call, an appeal, or a visit.
This is a good thing and a bad thing. The downside is that itas just hard to stay relevant on peopleas radar. Theyare busy, and other nonprofits are vying for attention. The good news is that we often underestimate peopleas patience with our check-ins, whether in the form of visits, solicitations, newsletters, etc. Most of the time, we just get ignored, so repeated attempts are okay. Now, there is a point at which you are being too aggressive (as we discussed in Chapter 6, when we talked about planning), but itas likely to be a few points of contact beyond what you initially think.
Beyond the fact that donors live most of their lives outside the realm of giving money to your organization, remember philanthropy is a deeply personal choice. You want a good match between your nonprofit and the donor. Remember: timing and personal circ.u.mstance can prevent a donor who is extremely wealthy on paper from making a gift commensurate with his apparent net worth. It is fair of you to ask why, knowing that you might be diving into very personal waters. I recently met with a donor in Chicago who looked very promising on paper, and seemed to be engaged with my organization. When asked why he wasnat giving more than he was, he replied that although he wanted to, he was currently spending a significant amount of money on his ill motheras medical expenses. He acknowledged out loud that he was not giving in proportion to what he might look like on paper.
In sum: do your homework, be open to the conversation taking unexpected turns, and take no donor for granted. Love your donors. You need them.
b.u.t.terflies vs. Fearlessness.
I began the chapter by telling you that youare going to get rejected. That wasnat very nice of me, but I want to give you realistic expectations. What I did not do at the beginning of the chapter was tell you how to deal with this level of failure. I said not to take it personally, which is true. I said that you need to do your prep work, but you cannot control the response, which is also true.
When you mail a written appeal, send off an electronic solicitation, or dial a donor to ask for money, you donat want to come off as nervous. I gave you tips in Chapter 10, on face-to-face solicitations, for how to come off as calm, cool, and collected. You want a faade of fearlessness, of being unflappable, to gain the trust of the donor but also to keep the conversation comfortable. Appearing ill at ease will put the donor ill at ease.
But the b.u.t.terflies in our stomacha"what do we do about those? Why are they there?
They are there because we care about the outcome. They are there because we are genuinely invested in the mission of the organization that we are representing, and want very much, very sincerely, for the answer to our solicitation to be yes.
I still get b.u.t.terflies when Iam soliciting someone for any kind of gift. Heck, I still get b.u.t.terflies when calling prospects to set up appointments. Itas natural.
It doesnat make sense for me to tell you, donat get nervous. What I will tell you is that you will get nervous, that itas natural, and that as itas happening, take notice of it. Listen to yourself, and make sure that you can hear the words you are saying. Remember, if you canat understand the words coming out of your mouth, then itas unlikely that the donor on the other end of the phone line or across the table will. Listening to yourself forces you to slow down.
Youall develop your own strategies for conquering or at least working through getting the b.u.t.terflies. I want to end by saying that the stirring in your stomach is a good thing. It means you want to succeed. It means that you want your organization to succeed. And that you want the donor to be a meaningful part of that success. And those are all very good things.
So get going. Set your goals. Make your plan. Write your appeals. Call your donors. Visit with them. Ask them for a gift. Steward them well.
Have a positive impact upon the world.
Additional Resources.
While itas best to spend what limited time and resources you have out asking potential donors for money, it canat hurt to have some supplemental guidance along the way in addition to what youave read in this book. Here are some recommendations for your reading/viewing pleasure:
Books.
Ahern, Tom. How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise Money: The Art, the Science, the Secrets. Medfield, MA: Emerson & Church, 2007.
Burnett, Ken. Relationship Fundraising: A Donor-Based Approach to the Business of Raising Money. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Ba.s.s, 2002.
Burdenski, Robert A. Innovations in Annual Giving: Ten Departures That Worked. Washington, DC: Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, 2003.
Burk, Penelope. Donor-Centered Fundraising: How to hold on to your donors and raise much more money. Hamilton, ON (Canada): Cygnus Applied Research, Inc., 2003.
Fisher, Roger, William L. Ury & Bruce Patton. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1991.
Levy, Reynold. Yours for the Asking: An Indispensable Guide to Fundraising and Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008.
Panas, Jerold. Mega Gifts: Who Gives Them, Who Gets Them. Medfield, MA: Emerson & Church, 2005.
Pitman, Marc A. Ask Without Fear: A Simple Guide to Connecting Donors with What Matters to Them Most. Mechanicsburg, PA: Executive Books, 2007.
Stanley, Thomas J. & William D. Danko. The Millionaire Next Door. New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1996.
Websites
The Agitator: www.theagitator.net/ The a.s.sociation of Fundraising Professionals: www.afpnet.org/ The Chronicle of Philanthropy: www.philanthropy.com/ Council for Advancement and Support of Education: www.case.org/ Donor Power Blog: www.donorpowerblog.com/ Federal Election Commission: www.fec.gov/ FirstGiving: www.firstgiving.com/ The GivingUSA Foundation: www.aafrc.org/gusa/gusa_foundation.cfm GrantMakers Online: www.grantmakersonline.com/ Growing Philanthropy in the United States: www.indiana.edu/~iunews/GrowingPhilanthropy.pdf GuideStar: www2.guidestar.org/ Internal Revenue Service: www.irs.gov/ Mal Warwick a.s.sociates: www.malwarwick.com/ Open Secrets: www.opensecrets.org/ Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration (where I retrieved a number of these sites!): www.sofii.org/.
Periodicals.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy The Wall Street Journal Your Local and State Newspapers.
Example Appeals and Websites You Should Envy.
This appendix will a.n.a.lyze excerpts from actual appeals and provide you with a sample that I have written for Betasab, an orphanage in Ethiopia for which I serve as the volunteer gift officer. In doing this, the hope is to get you thinking about writing your own appeals.
I am also including a major gift solicitation. I should note that the solicitation is written in my voice and might not resonate with your own. That is OK. You want the solicitation to sound authentic, so know that I am including this to give you an idea of how to structure a major gift solicitation.
More full length examples of actual appeals and solid websites can be found on SOFIIas website (www.sofii.org). When you look at these examples, pay attention to how well and how succinctly these organizations make the case for philanthropic support, and how clearly they present the problem, the solution, the solution, and the ask. Donat just follow them blindly, though; approach them with a curious, but critical eye. No appeal is perfect, and no website is perfectly designed.
Iad also recommend signing up to receive e-mail updates from a number of non-profits that you personally support (or are interested in supporting but havenat done so yet) so that your inbox is inundated with online appeals. This will give you a robust data set that you can a.n.a.lyze to figure out what works, what doesnat work, whatas inspiring, and whatas just downright annoying.
At the end of this section, Iall give you a few websites of non-profits that you should take a look at, either because of the site layout or because of a compelling message that lives on the site.
Barack Obamaas 2012 Campaign.
Letas start with someone youave probably all heard of. Below is an e-mail I received back in September of 2011. The whole e-mail itself is quick and effective. The message goes on for more than one windowpane, so the reader has to scroll, which is something to keep in mind. This problem is more or less solved, however, because there is an ask halfway through the appeala"something for you to keep in mind if the person writing your appeal has a problem with concision. Letas take a look at a few elements of the e-mail.
The salutation is to me, an important little thing to note. It doesnat say aDear Donor,a or aDear Supporter.a It opens with my name.
Then the e-mail opens with an introduction. The person signing off on this letter is the Chief Operating Officer of Obama for America. Why is she writing us instead of the usual appeal from Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or Jim Messina (the campaign manager)? She says so immediately: aAs chief operating officer of this campaign, Iam the person people come to when they want to spend the money youave donated.a So we know why weare supposed to pay attentiona"weare about to learn how our money is being spent (a good stewardship step, if youare paying close attention).
The appeal definitely contains urgency: What we do before midnight on September 30th determines our budget until the end of this year. And what happens this year will set in motion the results on Election Day 2012. Itas that simple.
I received this e-mail on September 23, and Iam being told that September 30 is the deadline for determining the campaign budget. That gives me less than a week to make up my mind. Two days before that, I received an e-mail with the subject line aSerious Deadlinea from the campaign. That achieves the same sense of urgency that you need in effective appeals.
It closes with a gimmick, but an effective one: ayouall even be automatically entered for a chance to have dinner with President Obama.a Of course, the odds of actually having dinner with the President are really small, but dangling the possibility could sway the on-the-fence donor.
The appeal also talks about its plan, its solution. It plans to open aoffices in some battleground states right now, and laying the plans to open others across the country next year. The campaign has plans to be the biggest gra.s.sroots movement this country has ever seen.a The appealas biggest weakness is the aproblema part of the letter, which is implicit, but a little diluted. This is the closest we get to hearing an explicit problem: Every team on the campaign has submitted their plans for the rest of this yeara"opening field offices, registering voters, building technology. And it all costs money.
I canat say yes to everythinga I canat say that itas a terribly convincing problem. I know that opening an office costs money. And not being able to say yes to everything isnat a compelling reason for me to give. Are the Republicans opening more offices than you? The average reader needs something a little more meaty to be sufficiently inspired to click on that hyperlink.
All in all, though, itas a good message. The ask is for $15, and we are given a clear idea of what that $15 will do: open new field offices and provide those offices with the necessary supplies. We know that weall be a part of this gra.s.sroots effort if we give, and we might even have dinner with the president.
Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
Iam going to present excerpts now from a 2010 appeal from the Human Rights Campaign, the oldest LGBTQ advocacy group in the US. The appeal was targeted at donors who had given to the organization previously, but had not in over a year (in fundraising lingo, the label applied can be alapsed donors,a or aLYBuNTS,a an acronym for aLast Year But Not This Yeara).
In contrast to the Obama appeal, the HRC e-mail does a very good job of addressing the problem. They then include a link to a video that highlights how the HRC is addressing the problem. Itas a shrewd way of keeping the appeal itself to one page, and giving folks something to click on other than a aGivea b.u.t.ton or hyperlink (even if the video page also contains a giving form).
Without access to their a.n.a.lytics, Iam guessing that a fair amount of people actually clicked the link to the video (fair meaning anywhere from 20% to 50%). Letas take a look at what works here: Again, the appeal is addressed directly to me. The first paragraph has an implicit introduction, but then dives right into the problem. Have a look.
Dear Jeffa"
I spend most of my time on Capitol Hill, and lately Iave noticed a clear intensification of right wing efforts. Emboldened by their win in Maine, anti-LGBT groups arenat just trying to prevent new victoriesa"theyare trying to take away rights weave already secured.1 Thatas a concern! Granted, it could be a plat.i.tude, as thatas a pretty sweeping statement, but it certainly has my attention, and, if it contains any truth at all, it certainly is problematic if you support the work of the HRC.
The appeal later lists even more things that anti-LGBT groups are doing. Here is one of three bullet points that is included in the appeal: Itas not just inflammatory words. Theyare spending money. Over the holidays, they blanketed the Washington, D.C. transit system with ads against marriage equality. In 2009 they spent $1 million in New Jersey alone, and another $1.5 million in Maine, on TV ads, flyers delivered directly to votersa mailboxes, and millions of automated arobo-calls.a2 Thatas a ton of money! So not only is there an aggressive push in rhetoric, but large sums of cash are being spent on the endeavor.
Again, the solution is compiled into a video that you have to click to view, and that link also contains a giving form. Here is the language that HRC used to inspire people to click through: __________.
1 Emphasis in original.
2 Emphasis in original.
Watch the video, renew your HRC membership for 2010, and give us the resources we need to defeat them.
And later, there is a second request (also hyperlinked): Please, check out this short video a" then help us take back the movement in 2010 by renewing your membership today.
In case the reader does not click on that link, there is still a nod to how HRC is part of the solution: Your membership today will help fund a ma.s.sive campaign to go head-to-head with groups like this, from Capitol Hill to the doorsteps, town halls, and state legislatures where marriage equality is won.3 Preceding that second request to click on the link, there is a sense of urgency captured here: awe need 2,010 people to pitch in before January 20th and help us hold our members of Congress accountable for what they have yet to do.
I received this e-mail on January 7, 2010, so that gives the HRC just 13 days to recruit 2,010 new donations. Thatas a tall order, but it does the job of giving the reader a clear deadline and a sense of haste. Urgency was also implicit in the bullet point that I included: just two weeks before, the anti-LGBT groups had spent a lot of money to get their message out.
Itas a pretty solid appeal, with all of the elements necessary to make a convincing case for giving. And at the very bottom of the letter, after the Legislative Directoras signature, there is still one more opportunity for readers to make a gift, in the form of a very large, blue aRenewa b.u.t.ton that takes them to the giving page.
__________.
3 Emphasis in original.
Betasab.
And so we go from the president of the US, to one of the nationas largest LGBTQ advocacy groups, to a teeny-tiny orphanage in Ethiopia that has yet to get off the ground. Below is an e-mail that I personally crafted for Betasab, which is an orphanage in Ethiopia for which I am volunteering. Iave also included the fact sheet to which I allude in the body of the e-mail. This appeal could also be sent as a hard copy if need be. I included this to give you an idea of something that you could send to people that you know personally. If I was sending to a stranger or mere acquaintance (which I will be doing), I would take out the personal note about what Iave been up to this fall.
Dear [informal salutation]: Greetings from New England. I hope that this note finds you well. Itas a busy fall up here with work, running and martial arts.
Iam writing to you today to let you know about an exciting project for which I am volunteering, and for which I am requesting your support. I am hard at work building awareness around an exciting new organization in Ethiopia, called Betasab, which means afamilya in Amharic. This orphanage is directly addressing the challenges of poverty, AIDS, and orphaned children in Addis Ababa.
The Betasab model will provide orphaned children with a stable home, a guaranteed education, a small bank account, coupled with practical skills and training, and frequent contact with mentors, local teachers, health, and mental health care providers. This model provides a long-term, sustainable solution to the deep, structural problems in Ethiopia of disease, unemployment, poverty, and the hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 18 who are orphans.