Fundraising isn’t just about raising money one time. If it were, we could sell t-shirts.
Fundraising is about connecting values – the values of donors with the values of your cause.
Sure, there are times when we just need the transactional. We need to pay the bills. But when all we do is transactional, we have to keep looking for new people to ask.
Our work is transformed when we engage in the deeper, far more rewarding, process of getting to know our donors and finding out what they value. We put down the megaphone and get to listen. We stop monologuing and start asking questions. We learn to be curious.
As fundraisers, we listen to what motivates our donors. What they value. What impact they want to have in the world.
Then we suggest matches that might exist with their values and our nonprofits.
That moves our fundraising from one-time gifts to life-long, growing investments.
So take the time to listen to your donors. Be respectfully curious. Pleasantly ask “Why?” and “What does that mean?”
And watch your fundraising take off.
If you aren’t comfortable having these conversations, maybe you need to get in touch with your own values. You can do that with a Values Inventory at https://concordleadershipgroup.com/values/
This made me laugh.
13 years in marketing, and people never cease to be indignant that you won’t sell them a T-shirt. This isn’t probably at the serious donors level, but just being at an event or connecting with acquaintances and such, people almost seem to not take you seriously as somebody who wants to raise money if you want also at least try to sell them a T-shirt.
I say this somebody who’s not exactly the fundraising professional; I’m not having those conversations with people live. Just working through those mass marketing channels, so I’m sure my coworkers have much better perspective on how to respond.
It’s just sort of maddening and also hilarious.
With a few people, I’ve even gone so far as to explain/question further: you expect the nonprofit you give to to have a ratio of programs spending to fundraising costs of say 70% or even more? (whole other conversation, but clearly this person does) —- well, so your fundraising strategy was selling T-shirts. And it ones are made by a trafficked labor. So the raw product costs a nonprofit at least $15. How much does a T-shirt have to be sold for to maintain a contribution to into healthy fundraising ratios? The answer is $50. Do you think that we should try to sell $50 T-shirts? It’s also an interesting cocktail hour conversation for unrealistic ratios, but I digress.
This rant is also why I’m much better at creating more inspiring campaigns and emails, rather than live networking or on the phones. 😉
Haha, it seems Marc’s headline captured our collective attention. My most recent conversation around this was along the lines of, “freebies, people will give a lot if there’s a ‘freebie’ involved.” Obviously the time and cost of producing those freebies isn’t considered. And there are so many people who also say, “send me nothing in return,” and are offended if they think their donation is somehow going into producing swag. You’re spot-on, Marc, with engaging in conversation and hearing directly from donors. It’s the only way to truly understand what’s meaningful from a donor perspective.
Ha!! Great comments, Sarah.