A long-ago mentor once told me that the entire problem with human relationships is this:  We judge others by their actions, but we expect them to judge us by our intentions.

“He did that hurtful thing because he’s a bad person. I did something similar, but I didn’t mean it. I’m a good person.”

Things go wrong between us because we can’t get inside their heads. So we look within ourselves, assuming what we want is what they want.

Bad move! What they want and need may not be at all what you want. And what you consciously think you want is quite likely not that close to what you really want.

Weak and unsuccessful fundraising almost always stems from the mismatch between what you think would work for you and what is most likely to work for donors.

Donors are different people from you. Here are some of the important ways they differ, and what that means for your fundraising…

Donors are older

Donors are overwhelmingly over 60. You’ve heard the saying, “the past is a different country.” Older people spent most of their lives in that very different place. They are culturally (and physically) different from younger people in many ways. Including:

• They aren’t as tantalized by “new.” In fact, they are likely to be suspicious of it. Younger people tend to like things that are new, fresh, innovative. That means new design styles and never-before-published fonts. It can also mean frequent “re-branding” that changes visual identity away from that old one we got tired of. Even organizational name changes — to creative abstractions donors have never heard of before.
• Their eyes don’t work as well as well young people’s. Design that uses small or disfluent fonts, poor contrast, and other cool-looking techniques may be perfectly readable — if you’re under 40. Difficult and exclusionary for those above 60.
• They read. That’s why direct mail is an old people’s medium that still works just fine in many places. It’s also why the (young) experts who have been saying direct mail is dead for such a long time are dead wrong. Donors still pay attention to the printed word.

If you’re under 40, the solution is largely up to you. Learn about your donors. Not the donors you wish you had, but the donors you actually have. Study them. Think about them. Get to know as many as you can. Love them.

And don’t try to replace them with young donors. It doesn’t work. It will happen naturally when currently young people get older.

Many donors are neurologically different

This is not age-related. About 20% of people have learning or attention issues that make reading a challenge. These differences are a wide range of things, from dyslexia and other reading/learning challenges to various forms of attention and executive function issues. They come in a wide spectrum, from minor issues to extreme barriers.

20% of your donors live with these issues. So do 20% of those reading this. Those in the 80% can’t really imagine what it’s like to think differently, and they tend to be oblivious to the barriers their communications place before the 20%.

Older people, people of color, and people on lower incomes are less likely to have a proper diagnosis of a neurological difference, and thus often don’t have the support and workarounds. So when you pay no attention to this issue, you are actively excluding a meaningful group of your would-be donors. You are gatekeeping them from the joy of giving and the power of helping change the world.

The good news: Most of the things you should do to make your communications accessible to older donors will also help neurologically different donors.

Donors are not experts like you

Even if you’ve never been program staff at an organization, you become conversant about your cause. That’s important, but it has the potential to separate you from your donors: You know too much.

Your donors, even your most loyal and fanatical donors, don’t spend 40+ hours a week talking about, thinking about, and reading about what your organization does. You’re lucky if they give you three minutes a month of their time.

This makes them, compared to you and your colleagues, woefully ignorant about your cause.

But that doesn’t mean they care any less, or give any less. While knowledge can feed your passion about something, passion doesn’t depend on knowledge.

That’s why attempts to communicate with donors using insider professional jargon is bad for fundraising. Donors are unlikely to know what you’re talking about. And they aren’t interested in learning, which is why fundraising built on the belief that “if we teach them enough about our work, they will give” is even worse fundraising.

Fundraising should never assume that donors have a high level of knowledge about what you do. They likely have higher-than-average knowledge, but they are not experts. And few will ever be.

Instead, assume they care about your cause. Keep it simple and passionate. That’s how you move them to action.

Donors aren’t being paid to pay attention

This may be the most important difference between you and your donors. It’s also one of the hardest to keep in mind.

Your job is to pay close attention to every word and picture you put out there. You examine it closely and repeatedly. You don’t miss a thing, ever. That’s how you should be doing it.

Donors? They don’t even know you tried to reach them much of the time. They delete your email en masse with hundreds of others. They throw away your mail unopened. If they get as far as actually opening your message, you’re lucky if they skim what you’ve written.

Donors have their own lives. Your fundraising is a small, incidental part of it.

That’s why it’s important that your messages be easy to read, simple, and repetitive.

Those features are going to annoy you and your colleagues. Effective messaging will seem simplistic, and mind-numbingly repetitive.

It won’t take long for your steady stream of similar fundraising messages to feel so boring and repetitive that you can hardly believe it isn’t driving donors away. But it doesn’t. About the time it starts driving you up the wall is about the time a donor is starting to notice what you’re saying.

A common fundraising mistake is to constantly change campaigns, approaches, even brand. Which might feel like refreshing variety to you – but it just confuses your donors.

Effectively seeing things from another person’s viewpoint is one of the most difficult of tasks. But it’s one of the key abilities of fundraisers.

When you keep in mind the way donors are different from you, you can raise a lot more revenue.

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Related Blog Posts:

• 3 Things that Disconnect Donors from Your Cause … and 4 That Connect Them
• Donors are from Mars, Nonprofits are from Venus: Here’s What You Can Do about it!
• Donor-Centered Fundraising: What’s It About Really?