Donor Relationship Management

Whether a patient comes in for a gall-bladder operation or to have a baby, the routine remains the same for staff at Sharp HealthCare hospitals in San Diego. The front desk checks insurance records to make sure the bills get paid on time. Nurses take vitals and tag their charges with a bar-coded wristband. And behind the scenes, fund-raisers scan the assets of each patient -- to find out whether they're "megarich," "wealthy" or merely "comfortable."

While the folks checking in don't know it, the nonprofit hospital chain is hunting for prospective donors. Armed with powerful data-mining software, staffers screen admissions records to find wealthy patients who've shown prior interest in the hospital. Those who make the cut may enjoy a bedside visit from a "patient-relations director" who offers perks like free parking passes for visitors.

Donors give because they want to give, want to help your mission, not because they want some grand award or a parade thrown in their honor for their good deeds. However, donors are human, just like the people your organization helps. And people have the need to feel appreciated. That's why acknowledging your donors — thanking them for their generous gifts and support — is so important. If donors don't feel appreciated, they may get turned off and lend their support to another worthy cause.

I've been warning my daughter about the dangers of drinking and driving since, well, conception. She's 24 now and still doesn't drive, but when she does I think she'll know what and what not to do behind the wheel.

A lunchtime encounter at the Nonprofit Technology Conference proves to be a valuable lesson in communicating with donors and other supporters.

Most fundraising professionals devise campaigns with a standard, “blanket” approach — what's the best package to mail out to the majority of my donors? However, by complementing this approach with more targeted communications designed for specific donor groups, fundraisers can optimize their donor contacts and, ultimately, generate more revenue.

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston recently received in its halls a number of donor kiosks — PCs with embedded keyboards and flat screens that run loops of the institute's ads and allow visitors to learn more about the institution and its donors, sign up for e-newsletters, make a credit card donation, and forward the donation page to a friend.

The recently released 2009 eCampaigning Review Study analyzed the activity of more than 2 million supporters from 50 international nonprofit organizations and found that 60 percent of nonprofits present a compelling argument for supporters to take action, but 70 percent of them didn't send a follow-up e-mail within one month. What's more, 37 percent of nonprofits failed to send thank-you e-mails.

It's a familiar scene. I'm in line at the grocery store. A young girl and her mother are ahead of me. The girl is poking at the food items on the conveyor belt, running her hand up and down the gray metal. In an effort to distract her, the clerk compliments the young girl on her dress. Embarrassed and surprised by the clerk's attention, the young girl slips behind her mother.

Business processes often set the standard for what consumers and donors expect from transactions and relationships with for-profits and nonprofits alike.

It's been a while since I've written regularly for newspapers — and riled up people in the process. So long ago was it, in fact, that people who wanted to respond to something they read had to put pen to paper to compose letters, mail them, and then wait for them to arrive in the newsroom and appear, possibly weeks later, in print.