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Everything You Need to Know About Fundraising in 3 Words

Here are three words that will transform your fundraising: Belief is enough.

A few weeks ago, we posted an article on this blog titled It Takes 2 Cultures to Make a Great Nonprofit — and That Can Be Hard! It’s about Al Clayton’s brilliant analysis of the main causes of conflict within nonprofits, namely:

For program people, professionalism is defined by rational, unemotional thinking. Emotional thinking can lead to sloppy work and bad decisions.

Fundraising people value emotion. They have to, because fundraising is inherently emotional –you’ve got to meet donors’ emotional needs if you want them to give you money. Without that emotional connection, you’ve got nothing!

One of the people who commented on the post was Wendy Wong of Parkinson Canada. Wendy said several smart things on the topic of this culture clash, including one thing that has really stayed with me. Talking about the way we inspire donors to action with simplicity and emotion, she pointed out the magic that can motivate a donor to donate:

Belief is enough.

Think about that for a moment. That could be the tagline for all great fundraising — Belief is enough.

This is something many fundraisers know, or at least suspect: People give when they believe giving improves the world in some way they care about.

Not when they rationally deduce it.

Not when they arrive at a complete understanding of the programs we want them to support.

Not when their worldview is in sync with the professionals who run those programs.

When they believe.

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What is belief? It can be hard to talk about, because it’s so strongly associated with religious faith. But everyone, religious or not, believes things.

Like this: the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is defined by an irrational number called “Pi.” To directly confirm this as a fact, you’d have to calculate forever. (If you’re a certain kind of nerd, you might want to calculate it for a good long time until you were satisfied you’d seen enough.) Most of us accept what our math teachers tell us, so we believe in Pi. Even though we don’t really understand why it’s the way it is.

And that belief in Pi is enough. Enough to pass your math courses. Even close enough to design round things if that’s what you want to do.

Effective fundraising is a bit like that. But harder.

Let’s imagine we’re raising money to support Pi. A lot of organizations would do it like this:

Explain why Pi is what it is.
Teach donors to calculate Pi for themselves.
Try to make them practical experts in Pi.
Brag about how good their organization is in the cause of supporting Pi.

They think this is going to work, because they are part of the Program Culture, and their experience (as non-fundraisers) tells them it takes knowledge and facts to effectively build and run their programs. For them, the way to get people to do things correctly is to give them good explanations. This assumption is correct for their programs. But not for fundraising.

If we wanted to succeed at getting people to support Pi, our fundraising would have to tell donors three things:

Pi is real. The easy part, since we’d be talking to people we know are inclined to believe this (assuming we’ve been smart about how we select our audience). But we still need to make it real for them.
Pi is important. Slightly more difficult, as knowing something and caring about it are not the same thing.
You can make a donation to support Pi, and you’ll be very glad you did. Hardest of all. Because you have to move beyond merely thinking and into doing.

Fundraising for Pi and educating people about Pi are two fundamentally different activities.

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Please take note: Getting people to believe is not easier than explaining things to them. It’s much more difficult.

We do it because it’s necessary, not because it’s easy.

Anyone can easily learn that belief is enough and explanation is not useful for raising funds. So why is so much fundraising built on the assumption that donors need knowledge and facts in order to donate?

Because so many nonprofit leaders don’t understand fundraising.

Well, it’s worse than that. They don’t understand fundraising to the point that they refuse to read about it, ask questions about it, or even think about it. They just ignore it, and approach the whole fundraising enterprise the way to approach non-fundraising activities. You’d think their rational minds would be screaming NO at the sloppiness of that.

Even worse, any of us can fall to the temptation to explain instead of inspire. I know that because it happens to me. Sometimes while wrestling with a fundraising challenge, I discover a really cool, super-exciting way to explain the cause or the need. It’s so elegant and amazing that I’m blinded to the fact that it’s still an explanation, and not about belief.

So I run with it.

And I fail.

I’m pretty sure it happens to you too!

Highway Sign

That’s why I hope you’ll make belief is enough a sort of motto. A battle cry. A reminder. Because the enemy isn’t just our bosses and others from the Program Culture. It can be inside any of us.

Your job and mine is to spread the word that fundraising is about belief, not explanation.

We do that by learning how that plays out for our specific cause. By getting better and better at doing it. By learning from our mistakes. By finding proof we can share with others.

It’s hard, and for many of us a steep up-hill fight. But keep up the good fight. It is well worth it.

Belief is enough!

Want help making belief is enough a living reality in your heart and mind? Join The Fundraisingology Lab. You’ll get an amazing array of courses, cheat-sheets, templates, and other resources. You’ll also have access to our Facebook community where fellow fundraisers like you are working to make belief is enough the center of their fundraising.

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Coronavirus Donor Psychology

The Best Thing You Can Do for Your Donors

For the last few weeks, I’ve been asking every fundraiser I’ve talked to one strange question: How clean are your closets right now?

The weird thing is, the majority tell me their closets are cleaner than they’ve been in years.

There’s a reason so many closets are clean right now. It’s because so many of us are seeking ways to “take control” during these uncertain times. Even straightening up your closet gives you that much-needed sense of control!

I’m not telling you this because I think you ought to go clean your closets (though I know there’s a good chance you already have).

I’m bringing it up because your donors are in the same boat as you and me.

They need to do things that help them “take control.”

And donating to your organization does exactly that for them!

That’s why fundraisers who have been fielding strong, relevant and urgent crisis fundraising campaigns are seeing record levels of giving.

It’s not because they’re amazing fundraisers (though most of them are indeed amazing fundraisers).

It’s because donors need to give.

Donors always need to give, but that need to give rises to higher levels when things are uncertain and frightening.

Remember, charitable giving releases dopamine in the brain. That’s a pleasure/reward/motivation hormone and neurotransmitter. It basically reassures you, makes you feel good, and gives you confidence and motivation (among other things). This is why charitable giving is as important to who we are and how we navigate our lives as eating and sex.

Especially during hard times.

So, if you have an opinionated board member or boss who confidently says we shouldn’t be asking people for funds right now in this time of uncertainty — that doing so is insensitive, even cruel ….

That person has it exactly wrong.

Dramatically, horribly wrong.

If you are not giving your donors the opportunity to take a little bit control by supporting your cause, you are failing them in a very real sense. Remember, they’re in this for the same reason you are: To support your cause which needs them all the time… but especially now.

I’m not too worried about your donors; if you aren’t there for them, they’ll find someone else to support.

But really — is that the way your relationship with your donors should be?

Please. If you’re not connecting with donors these days, have an adult conversation about it within your organization. See if you can bring your leaders to the important truth about fundraising:

When someone donates to you, you have not taken something from them, leaving them slightly impoverished. You have given them something of incalculable value. Most likely, they get more out of the transaction than you do!

So get busy with the fundraising. Feel good about it. Your donors will.

Struggling with leaders who just don’t get fundraising? Post your story on our free Facebook community, the Smart Fundraisers Forum. Or leave a comment below. You have friends who might be able to help!

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Creativity Direct Mail Donor Care Donor Love Donor Psychology Writing

Pop Art Senior Woman Riding Scooter e1570866857578

2 Truths Your Donors Wish You Understood about Direct Mail

I am a Gen Xer. I am not the core target market for direct mail. In my early twenties I had to learn two lessons quickly in order to do my job as a Fundraising Appeal Manager.

Lesson one: The people who respond to direct mail grew up with the post being THE main way people communicated outside of in person

The audience who loves and responds to direct mail the most are the Silent Generation born before 1945 (and we are talking about those born in the last 1920’s to 1945) and the older of the Boomers, so let’s say those born 1946 to the 1950’s.

If you’re younger than that, you no doubt see the mailbox as a container full of bills, catalogues, and other not-so-wanted things.

But a few decades ago, the average person could count on there being personal letters from people they knew in every post. Try to imagine how different it would be to approach the mail knowing you’d be connecting with friends and family — some of them people you haven’t seen in years. The post was a source of precious human connection. And even though it was possible to reach distant people by telephone, it was prohibitively expensive, used mainly for emergencies and very important news, if at all.

You and I approach the mail with little sense that there’s anything good in there, and rarely anything from a real person.

Not most of our donors. They expect good things to come in the mail.

This is why direct mail — which to my imagination seems so unlikely to be at all interesting — can work. And work very well in many cases.

Break free from your sense that the mail is almost entirely boring, annoying, and irrelevant.

Do your best to imagine what it’s like to think of the mail as magical, beautiful, and important.

That’s when you’ll start to succeed in direct mail fundraising.

Lesson two: Direct Mail donors want mail from causes they are connected to and care about

Our core direct mail audience range from their 60s to their 90s. Most don’t work the long hours you and I do. They don’t have the kids’ dinner to scramble together in the evening, along with the household chores, being nice to the significant other, and doing all those work/life balance things we know we should be doing. They have more time.

They also have more life experience. They saw more than any generation before due to their access to radio, TV, phones, print, and later the internet. They have lived through wars, famines, and revolutions. They saw the rise of AIDS. They fought for civil rights and lead the feminist movement.

Every generation tends to believe their own time is the most dramatic and important of all time, but think about it: people who are now older lived through more crisis, danger, and drama than you or I can imagine. They have a strong sense of connection with the world, which comes from their experience. It also comes with age, because changes in brain chemistry increase their sense of connection with the world.

They see and experience their world differently from you and me.

Direct mail may seem to us like irrelevant and unwanted “junk mail.” To a true direct mail donor, it is a chance to change the world!

That’s the reality you’re working in when you work in direct mail.

Learn more about the often-surprising ways we connect with donors by taking our most popular online course, Irresistible Communications for Great Nonprofits. It’s available for members of The Fundraisingology Lab. Check it out.

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Direct Mail Donor Psychology

What Your Direct Mail is Like for Real People

I’ve spent a good decade and a half defending direct mail. Mostly in response to anxious nonprofit insiders saying things like “I’d hate to get all the mail we send.”

I won’t pretend everyone you mail wants it. And I won’t pretend everyone who gets your mail even reads it.

But many of them want your mail.

And many of them love your mail.

I’d like to take you on a walk-through of the ways real people consume direct mail.

What follows I believe to be true, or as close to true as 15 years in the trenches gets me. My hope is you find some tips and tactics you may not have considered or maybe just a good check-list for you to use.

First of all, let’s admit it: No matter what you send, no matter how you present it, some people will simply not give your (or any) mail pack any attention at all. My reading of the scant research on this suggests as many as eight, and as low as four, out of 10 people you mail simply dump your mail into the bin with barely a glance.

Those who remain are willing to grant you around 15 or 20 seconds of their attention. First the envelope and then whatever comes out first — if they open it.

They scan at headlines, pictures, captions, and the elements you’ve highlighted in some way. But they’re not reading. They’re just scanning to see if your mail is interesting or relevant or valuable. And about half quickly conclude that it’s not.

Into the bin.

So how can you make it through the first cut — the throw it out without even looking cut? And then the second cut — the throw it out unless something grabs their attention?

Accept you aren’t the audience and put your personal opinions aside.
Respond to the way people who do consume direct mail do it.

Let’s focus on the group that gives their mail some attention. What do they look for?

Their name. Spelt correctly. This is the first reason to not thrown it in the bin.

Maybe your logo. I’ve tested outer envelopes a lot. Of the tests that did deliver statistically significant results the outcomes varied by charity. For some a plain, unbranded, no message outer works best. For me this is the element of surprise – What is inside? Who is it from? For others the logo being present works better. Very rarely did a teaser message win. The main time a designed outer envelope has won was with animal welfare and children’s charities where compelling, emotive images of puppies, kittens or children beat the no design versions.

So you got them to open the pack. What do they do then? Consider you need to cater to three types of readers.

1. Sally Scanner. She starts skimming to get some details. My hope is your pack insertion order means the first thing Sally sees is the letter (and if you’ve never considered your pack insertion order please do, it’s your first moment of truth). So, assuming Sally comes across the letter first this is what she does.

Is it addressed to me?
What does the Johnson Box say?
Who is it from?
What does the PS say?
What jumps out at me?
Is it easy to read?
Is it about me?
Is it easy to respond / do what I’m being asked to do?

2. Dutiful Deb. Deb dives in a bit more than Sally. She’s probably a seasoned charity giver. She probably got several appeals at the same time as yours. She’s scanning a bit more deeply because it’s the right thing to. And Deb is looking for something to trigger her interest, something to entertain her, to engage her, to respond to values she shares with your cause.

3. Excited Elaine. Elaine expects your mail. She likes it. She sits down and reads the letter, the response form and the other pieces you’ve included. She is going beginning to end.

Your direct mail letter is a one-to-one conversation between the letter’s signer and Sally, Deb or Elaine, and nothing assures them that your message is intended for them better than seeing their name at the beginning of the letter. People love to see their name, and today’s technology makes it cost-effective to personalise your mailing. The marginal cost saving of not personalising is not worth the drop in response.

Before moving from the salutation to the signature, most readers will take a fraction of a second to scan whatever is visually obvious at the top of the letter … the material often called the Johnson Box.

Knowing this, you can use a Johnson Box, along with underlining, highlighting, bolding, and notes written in the margin to call attention to your call to action, and to pull the reader’s eyes across and down the page.

When we work with direct mail, we can get bored of a standard letter format. But a standard letter format is what works. If it didn’t, the format would have changed. We would have stopped writing letters home to mum this way and done something different.

After scanning the letter and perhaps reading the Johnson Box and/or opening paragraph, the reader will typically look to see who signed the letter.

It helps to print the signatory’s name and title under the signature and avoid “creative” signatures. Scribbled signatures don’t build trust, and eye-flow studies show that readers respond negatively to a signature they can’t read.

Once readers see who signed the letter, many will read the P.S. before moving back to the top of the letter. Not using a P.S. is simply a missed opportunity.

Keep the P.S. to three to four lines and use it to restate your call to action and tell the donor exactly how they can respond.

If you can personalise the P.S., do it. Inclusion of the recipient’s name at the beginning of the postscript draws even more attention to this recap of your call to action — and this call to action should include your ask, using a personalised ask amount derived from each donors previous giving level.

How you choose to format your letter (and any other elements of your pack) will impact its readability. FACT: Pretty does not necessarily equal readable.

To make your letter visually inviting, keep your paragraphs short, left justify your lines and provide plenty of space for your left and right margins.

Indent your paragraphs—they “catch” the reader’s eyes and help lead them down the page—double space between paragraphs. 12 point font is the absolute minimum, but I’d rather you use 14 point. I know you want to save costs and keep letter length to two pages … well all you are doing by sending out a 10 point font letter is turning away your audience. Too small = too hard.

For enhanced readability, use a serif font—Courier, Times New Roman and Georgia are examples—for the letter. Practically every book, newspaper or magazine printed in the Western world uses serif type because it enhances reading flow and reduces eyestrain. If you want it read, use a serif font.

And don’t end a page with a complete sentence. Look at your newspaper. To finish practically any article, you must turn the page, and that’s exactly what you want your readers to do – keep turning pages until they reach the call to action.

I love a long word, especially when it’s the perfect word for a nuanced sentence. But that’s me and that’s 2% of the time. What I like more is being understood. And the research shows that writing at a lower reading level will hit the mark with the widest audience. Aiming above that will lose you readers. Simple, clear language is not dumbing down. Far from it, it is showing an understanding of your audience, it is showing your audience respect and it will force you to take the often complex situations we are working to address and make them accessible.

My favourite words to open a letter are “You” and “Your,” quickly followed by text that shows Sally, Deb or Elaine how awesome she is.

This isn’t a letter from an organisation to a prospect or customer. Your letter is a one-to-one conversation between the letter’s signatory and the donor. The more ‘we’ you use in the letter the less they’ll feel the signer is talking to them.

Write in a conversational style as if you were speaking face-to-face with the donor. Use your words to create an image for them. If the donor can see herself in the situation you create, she’ll take an interest and read on. A great story will win the day. A bunch of stats will not. A bunch of chat about how great an organisation you are will not.

Is responding super easy?

Response forms should be something you put some brain power into, not an afterthought. Your donor may engage more with the response form than the letter.

If the donor has to squint to read the information or the boxes are so tiny they struggle to make their credit card numbers fit, they’re more likely to give up. Make it easy!

Tailor the response form to the letter call to action. You will have told me a great story in the letter so follow through and repeat the messaging on the response form. Or consider Sally and Deb — they may only look at the response form … does the start of it present your specific call to action or is it generic? Consider how much more powerful your response form could be if you consider it to be another mini ask vehicle.

Want to know what really works in direct mail fundraising? Take our online course, 7 Steps to Creating Record-Smashing Direct Mail. It’s your hands-on workshop in what works, how to do it, and how to apply these truths to your cause! It’s available for members of The Fundraisingology Lab. Check it out.

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[VIDEO] Sean Asks Adrian Sargeant: What Is the Biggest Thing in Fundraising No One Is Doing?

Sean had Professor Adrian Sargeant of The Philanthropy Centre on the line, so he asked him this:

What is the most important thing in fundraising that no one is doing?

We are pretty good at describing problems and getting donors to send money to help solve those problems. We are not very good at thinking how we can make them feel about that.

Everyone, including donors, needs to feel these things

Connection. In our case, it may be connection with the people their giving helps. Or with other donors, or maybe even with a brand or celebrity. We rarely give donors that sense of connection.
Competence. Everyone wants to feel successful at the things they do. What do we do to help donors feel competent at the way they’re making the world a better place? Nothing, when all our communication is about the awesomeness of our own organisation!
Autonomy. Our donors want to know that they matter as individuals. Are we giving them the sense that they — each one specifically — matters?

When you meet these needs, Professor Sargeant says, you can at least double the income of your fundraising.

Watch this short video for a fascinating insight into the psychology of our donors.

Want to really master the art of nonprofit communications? Check out our masterclass, Irresistible Communications for Great Nonprofits that is available for all members of The Fundrasingology Lab. These action-packed sessions will help you be a master communicator – with lots of real-life examples that will inspire and motivate you.

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Fundraising Donor Psychology

VIDEO: Adrian Sargeant on the Most SHOCKING Thing I’ve Learned from Fundraising Testing

I asked professor Adrian Sargeant of The Philanthropy Centre about the most shocking thing he’s learned in fundraising testing.

Here’s what he told me:

Blokes don’t seem to care about morality.

I’ll leave it at that because you’ll enjoy what he has to say. Let’s just say there’s a gender gap between men and women and issues of morality and philanthropy!

And there’s at least one positive takeaway you can get from this research and use in your fundraising!

Enjoy this quick and informative video!

Have you seen this or other “gender gaps” in fundraising? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below. We’d love to learn from your experience.

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VIDEO: Adrian Sargeant Reveals How Fundraising Meets Human Needs

Professor Adrian Sargeant of The Philanthropy Centre describes research into some of the human needs that charitable giving can help people meet:

Connectedness
Autonomy
Competence
Growth
Purpose in Life
Self-acceptance

When fundraisers aim their strategy and messaging at these fundamental needs that all donors have, they can meaningfully improve results.

See how this can work for you. Don’t miss the powerful examples Prof. Sargeant shares!

Have you aimed your fundraising at meeting your donors’ human needs? Please share your experience by leaving your reply below. We’d love to learn from your experience.

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VIDEO: Roger Craver on the Amazing Donor-Behavior Prediction Tool You Can Use Now

Roger Craver, founder of DonorVoice and editor at the must-read blog, The Agitator, describes the power of the donor commitment survey, a simple three-question survey that’s highly predictive of donor giving.

He’ll show you how to put it to work for your organization … including what to do with the information.

This is information that can transform your fundraising and lift your ability to treat the right donors in the right ways to new levels of effectiveness.

Here’s the complete survey. Update it with the name of your organization, but do not change any of the questions, as that will destroy the predictive power of the information!

Have you had any experience with the donor commitment survey? Have any questions about how to use it? Share or ask in the comments below. We’d love to learn from your experience.

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What Makes Donors Respond?

I found two interesting online banner ads. One from Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, the other from UNICEF USA.

Each ad is half brilliant. And half not-so-brilliant.

Sean and I talked about these ads and the easy step each of them could take to be fully brilliant and connect deeply and meaningfully with donors.

Making your fundraising all-the-way brilliant … aimed directly at the hearts and minds of donors … it’s not easy. But it’s not that hard.

Find out the secret of how you can be brilliant any time you want in this six-minute video.

Please share your thoughts by leaving a reply below. We’d love to learn from your experience.

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