Philanthropy Facilitators Make It Easy for People to Give

Getting people to give is hard work because, inside the mind of a potential donor, many things are working against you. 

• I don’t know enough about you. 
• I can’t make a real difference. 
• I don’t think of myself as a philanthropist. 
• I don’t know how to evaluate one charity against another. 
• I don’t know how much to give.
• I don’t have time for this. 

People have competing demands for attention and resources. It’s hard for them to make a decision, so the easiest thing to do is to reach no decision at all. 

And when you don’t make it easy for donors to choose to support your charity, you inevitably make it easy for them to choose not to. This is where I ask you how you view your role. Are you a philanthropy facilitator or a fundraiser? And why, do you think, making this distinction might matter?

Fundraisers Can Make Giving Hard

You may think you’re doing a great job as a fundraiser. After all, you’re implementing all of the tactics. You’re mailing appeals, sending emails, holding events, publishing newsletters, posting on social media and more. And people are giving. 

But guess what? Many more are not. You’re very likely leaving money on the table. Lots of it. Why? 

Because you’re making giving hard — and even maybe painful or joyless. When you treat donors like ATMs, you’re thinking about their wallets, not philanthropy. In other words, you’re making it transactional — not transformational.

Facilitate” means “to make easy,” but here are three ways you, as a fundraiser, are making it harder for donors to give, as well as three additional ways your department is contributing to this difficulty. 

1. You Make the Ask More About Money Than Love

For example, don’t lead with “We’re asking everyone to give $50 in honor of our 50th anniversary.” 

This approach leads to too much thinking, too little acting because people get distanced from their genuine urge to be lovingly helpful. Instead, you are priming them to go through a mental calculation. 

• Why this amount?
• Can I afford this? 
• What will it mean I can’t do if I part with this money?
• Will this amount even accomplish anything?
• Why am I considering this again? 

However, do ask for a specific amount, but not without first making a strong emotional case for this asked-for support.

2. You Lead With Data, Not Story

For example, don’t lead with “One in five people in our community doesn’t get enough to eat.”

The best philanthropy facilitation is about the heart, not the head. Passion, not calculation. One person’s story, not the masses.

However, do lead with a compelling story. Humans are wired for story. While leading with shocking statistics may seem like a good idea, data doesn’t stick. Our minds go wandering down a rabbit hole when confronted with numbers. One, we want proof if we’re to believe in its truth and two, we want to ask questions, rather than act philanthropically. 

3. You Make The Process Of Giving Onerous

Don’t make giving more difficult than it needs to be. Instead ensure:

• Your donation button works and is easy to find.
• Your email, website and donation landing page are mobile friendly.
• Your direct mail and online remit form is easy to complete. (Avoid requesting too much information, personal information the donor may be reluctant to give or information you’ll likely never use.
• There aren’t too many choices (either of dollar amount or purpose of gift), leading to analysis paralysis.
• Your tax identification number is easy to find on your website (to allow giving via donor-advised funds and private foundations).
• It’s clear how to give with payment methods other than cash or credit card (stock, crypto, appreciated property, PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, Zelle, etc.)  
• You offer reassurance that giving to your organization is secure.

However, do tender a clear call to action. But be sure you present a user-friendly way to follow through. If it’s too much of a burden to make a gift, the donor will give up. 

Development Departments Can Make Giving Hard

Too often fundraisers silo themselves from the marketing staff and vice versa. Frequently this reflects organizational structure, which often has these as two separate departments — even reporting to different people. 

1. You See Your Responsibilities Narrowly, Not Holistically

Even within integrated departments there’s a tendency for fundraisers to busy themselves with selling and closing, while leaving the strategic marketing communications that leverage their success to other staff. 

If you’re the fundraiser, it’s your job to facilitate philanthropy — every step along the marketing continuum from awareness to interest to involvement to investment. This means proactively connecting and collaborating with marketing and IT staff to assure all the preconditions are in place for successful fundraising.

2. You Focus Only on the Last Part of the Engagement Continuum and Investment

By not considering the entire marketing continuum, you’re likely to have a smaller pool of potential supporters with whom to work. And by not approaching marketing from a donor-centered perspective, you’re likely to fail to inspire the philanthropy needed to fulfill your mission.

In my experience as a director of development and marketing at five different organizations, I found marketing and IT staff truly appreciated having an overarching development perspective as a framework for their labor.

Here are three real testimonials from staff I supervised:

• “Now that I understand who we’re writing to, and what they care about, I feel much more part of the mission. It’s not just about selling programs but inspiring folks and helping them help others.” — Senior Copywriter
  
• “Thanks for teaching me “development writing.” It’s fun, and fulfilling, to have a perspective from which to begin, knowing it’s more likely to generate contributions.” — Marketing Associate
  
• “Before I just set the webpage up to look good, without understanding how principles from psychology and behavioral economics could boost form completion.” — Webmaster 

3. Anyone Who Says ‘That’s Not My Job’

While I’m not suggesting you create and implement every strategy yourself, part of the development job is uncovering people who share the values your organization enacts. Doing so requires an integrated marketing and fundraising strategy (e.g., choice of channels, frequency of communications, use of influencers, selection of target markets, segmentation and more).

If you want to get the investment, here are some of the things you should not consider to be purely “someone else’s job.” Everyone charged with fundraising or marketing responsibility should care about:

• List-building and hygiene.
• Website homepage.
• Website donation button.
• Website donation landing and thank-you pages.
• Website email sign-up forms.
• Website donation pop-ups.
• Video content.
• Social media content.
• Advertising content.
• Newsletter and blog content.
• Annual report content.
• Form 990 content.

How You Can Make Giving Easy

Channel the mantra of “help, don’t sell.”

At its heart, philanthropy is a value-for-value exchange. Consider what your donors may yearn for, rather than just what you need. How might you lovingly help them solve their problems and find greater meaning and joy in their lives?

If you want gifts, you must give them. This makes it an easy no-brainer for people to give because, by offering helpful gifts, you trigger one of the psychological principles of influence – reciprocity. When you help people, they naturally feel inclined to help you back.

Plus, when you offer useful content, folks will experience your value — and then sell themselves! When people self-select in this manner, they feel the opposite of coerced (as in “let’s hit them up” or “let’s twist their arm”). Donors who are loved feel validated and uplifted!

Facilitating philanthropy means making this accomplishment easy for the donor to sense — not just symbolically, but in reality. Tell emotional stories and give real examples that help donors see, feel, hear, smell and taste the urgency of the problem — a problem they can help solve.

• Make it easy for people to see what happens if they give/don’t give.
• Make it easy for people, once they choose to help, to follow through.
• Make it easy for people to see, specifically, what their money accomplishes.
• Make it easy for people to feel good about their philanthropy by offering the gifts of being helpful, grateful and personal.

Capture attention with stories of impact, connect with people on a human level, ask for your desired action, and facilitate philanthropy! 

The preceding post was provided by an individual unaffiliated with NonProfit PRO. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of NonProfit PRO.