This blog post is the final piece in a series of six titled, “The House Your Donor Lives In.”

If only.

That’s what many of your donors, who have the capacity to give more, are saying.

“If only I could do more.”

“If only they would let me _________.”

While many of your donors are happy to support you on a regular basis and stay at a fixed rate of support through the months and years ahead, there are quite a few donors in your active donor file who want to do more. They are the ones who are thinking and/or making the “if only” statement.

But if you are viewing those donors as a source of cash, you will not be able to hear their “if only” statement because you will be too busy acquiring their cash versus listening to their vision for their future with you. And this is the exact point at which the donor turns from helping you more to going somewhere else to help. They will be going to a warm, inviting, and caring home where they are listened to and valued.

You see, when you are alert to and in touch with your donors it means that someone, or even more than one person, in the organization is watching the donor’s behavior in their journey with you and is equipped by the organization to respond to that donor’s “if only” musings as they travel with the organization.

For instance, a donor is expressing interest in program X – so the organization pivots to providing the donor with program X information. Or the donor wants to have a certain involvement so the organization, as best as it can, provides that involvement.

All this sensitive treatment of the donor because you are now aware of the donor’s needs, means more revenue which in turn affects your forecasts for the future.

So, here’s the question. How do you pivot to become an organization that listens to your donor’s “if only” musings? Here are some ideas:

1. Become highly aware of the connection between listening to your donor’s dreams and vision for themselves as relates charitable giving and involvement – look for the data that will point you to that connection to securing more revenue and reducing donor and value attrition. It will be there. You just need to look so you become a believer in this connection. Spread that awareness among other staff at your organization.
2. If you can’t do #1 above, either because you and others really are more focused on revenue acquisition and growth over truly caring for your donors, then believe that that connection exists and pay more attention because it will bring you more revenue. We don’t recommend this as it does not have long-term value outcomes. But it is an option.
3. Be an avid consumer of donor feedback (email, web comments, letters, comments in person) so that you secure information on what you can do better in this area.
4. Provide “You can do more” ideas on your gift receipts, in your personal contact with donors, and in your newsletters (printed form or email). The language goes something like this: “Thank you for your gift of X that arrived a few days ago. We so appreciate your generosity. Here is what your gift will do – [provide info]. If you want, you can do more in this area. [Provide ideas]. Just contact [NAME] or reply here…” Something like that. I think you get the idea. The point is to make it easy for that donor who wants to do more.

All of this is just a matter of helping your donor dream about what could be if they gave more and doing it in a helpful and practical way that makes it easy for them to do so.

All of what I have said in this series of blogs titled The Home Your Donor Lives In boils down to this fact: you will secure more revenue AND reduce donor and value attrition if you maintain a home for your donor where:

1. Everyone values the donor and regards them as a true partner in addressing the societal need your organization is organized to address. This means there is an authentic culture of philanthropy in your organization.
2. Your structure (division of work and labor), strategies, tactics, processes, and systems are donor supportive and sensitive so when they are seen through the experiences of the donor, they are positive, welcoming, constructive, and helpful. In other words, when all this is done right, the donor experiences an organizational home where there is one personality, not many, and that personality invites the donor into the home in a welcoming, respectful, and mutual way of a partner in addressing the societal problem the donor and the organization is committed to addressing.
3. Your frontline fundraisers, because of the good work your program and finance folks have done, have the ability to present donors with investment opportunities that match their passions and interests. This is the whole area of preparing donor offers.
4. Your fundraising, marketing, and communications budgets are allocated, in a balanced and strategic way, to every phase (strategy) of the donor pipeline to accurately service the donors in every phase of that pipeline: acquisition, cultivation, mid-level, major gifts, and planned gifts.
5. There is opportunity given, to every donor who wants to, to give more and be involved more with your organization – everything I have outlined in today’s blog.

The fact is that you can have tremendous revenue growth IF everyone in your organization is thinking right about fundraising, they are organized right, they have the right strategies in place, they create donor offers, and they’ve invested properly. All of this works together to make for a successful organization.

This, all of it, is what makes for a happy, caring, and welcoming home for your donors – a place where they love to be, where they feel valued and cared for, and where they will gladly, with enthusiasm and generosity, give more of themselves and their resources to work with you.

To create this home, it is first very important to analyze where you currently are. What state is the current home your donors live in? To find out you can use this Donor Journey Health Checklist to get a very practical analysis of the state of your current donor home and what steps you need to take to make it better. Jeff and I encourage you to spend the time going through it.

Remember this, if your donor is happy and fulfilled in their relationship with you, you and the rest of the staff will be happier and fulfilled as well. And here’s the additional bonus: you will secure more net revenue and reduce donor and value attrition! It doesn’t get better than this.

Richard

This is Part Six of the Blog Series: “The House Your Donor Lives In”

• Read Part One: What Kind of Home Have You Created for Your Donor?
• Read Part Two: How Does Your Organization Think About Fundraising?
• Read Part Three: How Does Your Organization Treat Your Donor During Every Phase of the Journey?
• Read Part Four: Something to Present to the Donor Who Wants to Help MORE
• Read Part Five: How Should You Spend Your Fundraising Budget?