Dear Fundraiser,
Here are the things I wish we wouldn’t do. I’m cheering for our success. So in a helpful spirit, I offer you my list below.
So, putting on my donor hat, I wish we wouldn’t:
- Send an automated thank you message for an online gift and assume that’s enough
- Forget to thank me at all
- Send me a buck slip receipt and a generic postcard instead of a real letter
- Phone me when I’ve asked not to be called – repeatedly
- Robo-call me – if it’s important enough to interrupt me, it’s important enough for you to call personally
- Forget about me when you write
- Spell my name wrong, after I’ve corrected it
- Address me as “Mrs.”
- Squeeze the font size down so small I can’t read it so you can fit the letter on one side of the page
- Spend a lot of time talking about yourself
- Hide your contact information on your website
- Make me talk to a call center rep when I have a question for you
- Make my aunt inform me of the gift she made in memory of my mom
- Trade or sell my information without my permission
- Tell me about your budget needs, not the good I can do
- Send me a Twitter auto dm when I follow you, asking me to give or like you on Facebook
- Call me “Ms. Cahalane” if I’m a former employee or volunteer
- Ask me to fill out a form online if I want to email you or someone on your staff
- Send me a nickel
- Use the same generic response envelope for every mailing
- Send me the same package every month
- Waste your money mailing me the same generic package for years though I’ve never responded
- Write emotionless appeal and thank you letters
- Write unclear email messages and hide the call to action
- Treat me like an ATM, not a valued partner
Love,
Your Donor
P.S. I’ll bet you have a list, too. Add yours in the comments, please!
Photo by Sarah Kilian on Unsplash
Loved this post and was cracking up reading. I think a lot of people can relate to this. Thanks for sharing and keep up the awesome work 🙂
Thanks very much! Every once in a while, it’s sort of cathartic, right?
I appreciate you reading – and commenting!
You’re welcome, if you ever want to read some funny and inspirational stories, you are more than welcome to come by my blog and have a Cup of Joe 🙂
I was just about to do that!
Nice post, Mary! It could be called, it’s not about you… 🙂 Keep them coming.
Thank you, Beth. We ought to print signs saying that, right?
Very useful, Mary
I would also add that mass thank yous are a bigger turnoff than week old haddock. At the very least, top and tail by hand and add a handwritten PS. If you have enough donors to have to resort to production line TYs, you should invest some of the returns in employing more staff to handle replies individually and sensitively. The increased response rate will more than pay for the investment.
Yours aye
Charlie
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Charlie – I replied earlier, but apparently it didn’t “take”. Thanking people seems to something of a lost art. I agree, it’s so important!
So thank YOU for commenting. I appreciate it!
Great list! Another might be sending asks (or anything!) to dead people (bad enough in any case, but worse by far if they are received by a grieving spouse). Equally, identical items addressed to me with slight variations in my name make it crystal clear they don’t care who I am (and that their database is a mess!).
I can think of more but I won’t spoil the fun for those who want to add their own 🙂
Cheers and thanks, Mary!
Jen
Yes! I cringe every time I’ve missed an obituary and done something like that!
How about this: don’t send me a thank you a month (or more) after I send you a donation.
You’d think it’s just common courtesy, right? There are some (national) organizations I never get a thank you letter from. They’re not saving time, they’re missing opportunities!
Sending me a direct mail pack asking for a one off gift when I already give monthly.
ACK! Oh no. Do they at acknowledge your monthly when they ask for a gift? I could see a special need or situation. Or do they not keep their lists well?
Great list. I’ve been working on my list for years and it’s way too long!
Ha! Sometimes you need a good rant. Especially if it might possibly do some good.
The “Ms. Cahalane” thing is generational, I think. I would never presume to first-name a donor I hadn’t interacted with in person, and am offended when I get “Dear Alexandra” or, worse “Dear Alex” letters.
Well, my point is that it makes sense to treat a former employee like “family”, not a stranger. But other than that, Ms. Cahalane is fine. Just Do. Not. Use. “Mrs.”! I hate the assumption that because I’m married, I have my husband’s name or wish to be identified as Mrs. But more than that, either is a sure sign that you don’t know me.
Exactly! Ask how they want to be recognized or take what they say and enter it in the database! It could be another engagement point. My alumni association calls me Mr. and Mrs. Nick Locke. Really? Guess who attended: ME ONLY! Get in the 21st century. I’ve written in but apparently it never gets to the right “processing department.”
I hate that! It took a little while to get our school to stop sending us two of everything. But they have. Of course, we still get two, because now there’s my daughter, too! But they didn’t ever assume I’d be Mrs., which I appreciated. Seems like a weird step to address it to you that way – just logically, that’s a step away from you, right?
I have one – Please don’t send me address labels. I have enough address labels to last me the rest of my life, and sending them to me does not make me any more or less likely to donate. It’s more likely to annoy me that you’re wasting my donation money on things like that. It’s even worse when they send seasonal ones (read Christmas, because that’s about the only season they seem to single out) because then I can only use them for a couple months out of the year!
Yes, we’ve got quite a stack of those, too. I suppose they’re used because they work. But with our donor hats on that doesn’t mean we have to like it, right?
I’m not so sure that they work. Most organizations probably have no idea of what really works. If they think they do, it’s probably NOT based on any data, since that requires a certain type of culture, and resources that are generally NOT invested in fundraising.
Lots of truth in that, unfortunately. Fundraising as a distasteful but necessary evil makes me nuts!
Great post. It will be nice If you can come up with do’s for a thank you letter. How do we send individual letters when we have large donors and less staff. Please guide. Thanks.
Prabhu, I wrote a bit about that a few weeks ago: https://mcahalane.com/2013/04/30/the-best-fundraising-ideas-i-ever-stole-part-two-fix-your-thank-you-letters/
See if that helps some and let me know.
Great post…but frightening. We are all guilty. It is just a matter of degree. Great reminder that we are not dealing with a list. We are dealing with people!
That’s so well put, Michael! Thank you.
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