The Extreme Fundraising Blog

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s report on the eNonprofit Benchmarks Study states that emails that

“asked supporters to sign an online petition, send a message to a legislator
or other decision maker, or take some other action generated responses
from, on average, 10% of recipients.

“By comparison, fund-raising appeals sent by e-mail prompted an online
donation from only 0.3% of recipients, on average.”

So an obvious question is: what call to action can you send your email list?

Finally a study that aims to create benchmarks and help nonprofits increase the effectiveness of using the Internet in their fundraising. You can download the free study at eNonprofit Benchmarks Study.

Guess what, they too found out that fundraising emails delivered later in the week seemed to get a better response! Just like my Tactical Tip #10 “Consider Your Timing.” Check it out in my free Guide to E-mail Soliciation.

So by now you’ve made your own gift and have been practicing asking for money (“would you consider a gift of $___”).

Today let’s look at something many of us forget: tangibilitizing the ask.

While you probably won’t find tangibilitize in the dictionary, you WILL find it in practice all around you. Look at any piece of direct mail you receive that’s trying to get you to spend money. The good ones will break down “what you’ll get” for the cost of the investment. They make the offer tangible, giving concrete examples.

Put yourself in the seat of the donor. Someone’s just asked you to give $1000 to her project. They’ve done a wonderful job presenting their case and you’re convinced they’re doing incredible work. But give $1000 from your personal account? How would your $1000 really help them?

Check out the leadership giving page of the Alfond Youth Center. Moving past the glaring orange background, the lack of a title on the web browser, and the fact that the donor list is 2 years old, check out the section starting with “Your membership will enable a disadvantaged child to receive…”

I love it! My $1000 would provide:

• A full year of After School programming.
• Hot meals daily.
• Camp scholarships.
• The child’s choice of a variety of enrichment programs.

That makes my $1000 tangible. Wow, I could supply a kid with hot meals every day?! I can get my heart behind that.

The Heifer Project tangibilitizes extraordinarily well. Look at their gift catalog. All sorts of gift ranges represented by different animals and an ark. Very cool!

So what can you do to make your ask tangible? How many people will be served by $1000? How many days (or hours) of programming will a gift of $5000 fund? How many meals will be served or jobs created or students assisted?

As you make your solicitation tangible, remember to not overwhelm with options. Be sure to reread the Fundraising Fallacy on Cheez-its.

In a way, tangibilitizing is all about taking someone’s abstract gift of money and making it real.

So go out there and make it real today!

For all of you committed to Creating Donor Evangelists but are having a tough time convincing your nonprofit, check out McConnell & Huba’s post on How to become a customer evangelism evangelist!

Click here for the “Judaism in Jesus’ Time” slide.

[Update: Oops! This was supposed to go on the church blog! Oh well. Happy listening. *grin*]

We’re still in the midst of exploring the “ask”step in the Get R.E.A.L. asking for money process. Last time we’ve seen the importance of asking a specific amount and asking for a repeated gift next year.

How are your solicitations going? Are you finding it easier now that you’ve been practicing?
Today I’ll mention one of the single most important determiners of your effectiveness: making your own gift first.

Isn’t it amazing how simple the basics are? There is nothing flashy about this step.
But have you made your gift?

It’s far easier to ask someone to join you in making a gift than it is to simply ask them to make a gift. I think it’s got something to do with how believable the cause is to you. If you’ve made a gift, deep inside of yourself you’re more confident. You gave, so others will too.

People face a daily media blitz. So we’ve gotten pretty quick at figuring out if something is authentic or not. So have our donors.

And if you haven’t given, your donor prospects will know. Intuitively. And they often won’t give. They won’t be able to articulate why they’re not giving. They just won’t make the gift.

Why should they? It the cause doesnt “sell” you, the one working on it 24/7, why should it “sell” them?

Be sure to put some of your money where your mouth is.

Make your gift first!

Thank you to all who’ve emailed me with questions for the new “Question Marc” section I’d like to start here on the blog.

Please keep asking them (and give me permission to post them). Ask exactly the question you have, and I’ll obscure the details so none of your board members or donors can tie it to you. *grin*

Email your questions to marc@fundraisingcoach.com

Check out this Seth’s Blog: Flipping the Funnel–new ebook.

I just love his take on the getting the word out. Sounds a lot like my Creating Donor Evangelists but he’s light years ahead of me.

I’m not sure how I’ll incorporate this in my day job. And I definitely don’t “get” squidoo. But I do find myself wondering why I haven’t started in Inland blog that features our great patient care stories.

You can download Flipping the Funnel for non-profits here.