Donor Relationship Management

I began my career as a fundraiser at a large nonprofit. I loved that prospective donors were familiar with the work of my organization long before I ever had a chance to talk with them. But like many other charities, almost everyone I encountered had a very strong opinion about our nonprofit. I heard everything…

The frequency of giving from a pair of donors, two elderly sisters living together near Seattle, surprised me. The donor relationship had started as a one-time gift in response to a television show we had produced. It then segued into a monthly pledge, which increased over time. In the midst of all that regular giving, there were other one-time gifts, some $100, others $500...

I’m seeing a trend in what I call “fact-sharing,” instead of sharing a story. To illustrate what I mean, I’ve got a some short audio clips to share with you. Listen and hear the difference between sharing facts and sharing words that cause people to feel something. Anything. What you cause others to feel isn’t…

Would you write to your mother like that? Open your last appeal, newsletter or email. Now read it out loud. Does it sound funny? Does it sound like you? If so, congratulations—you’re a step ahead of many. If not, let’s talk about what you can do to fix that. Good donor communications are not corporate…

If anything, working from the underground up taught me to concentrate on what really matters, because, frankly, I didn’t have time for the stuff that didn’t. I trimmed off all of the extraneous stuff so that I could maintain a laser-like focus when it came to working the key areas that eventually would grow my business to what it is today...

"Make giving fun!" That’s the great advice offered by Michael Kaiser, chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland and president emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Kaiser had observed, "[Donors] don’t join our family to be whined at. ... They join because we’re inspiring…

Add this to the list of reasons donor relationships are so important. Last week, Facebook announced its latest feature to benefit nonprofit organizations. U.S. Facebook users will be able to create dedicated fundraiser pages to raise money for causes close to their hearts, USA Today reported. On the pages, users can share their stories, add photos and videos, set fundraising goals, and invite friends to donate to verified nonprofits without ever leaving Facebook...

Good customer service is not always something we talk about in the nonprofit sector. As a sector, we often veil the concept in euphemisms, like “donor-centric fundraising” or “quality case-management.” Industry slang aside, the concepts of good customer service are the foundation of any good organization...

Are you confusing your donors with a bureaucratic category that makes no sense and doesn't matter to them? You might be if you're raising funds under the flag of the foundation that's the fundraising arm of your main organization. There are plenty of reasons to organize yourself this way. But none of them are important…

When you meet someone and they ask what your nonprofit does, what do you say? If you’re like most people, it sounds something like this: “We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing rescue services to at-risk populations in blah, blah, jargon, jargon, acronym, acronym, blah, blah.” Boring. Your listener tuned out about two seconds in. Being able…