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You are here: Home / Blog / Dear Fundraiser: Things we shouldn’t do

Dear Fundraiser: Things we shouldn’t do

Originally published May 2013

 

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

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Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: appeals, donor retention, relationships, thank you letters 35 Comments

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Comments

  1. aregularcupofjo says

    May 28, 2013 at 9:00 pm

    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 🙂

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 28, 2013 at 9:14 pm

      Thanks very much! Every once in a while, it’s sort of cathartic, right?

      I appreciate you reading – and commenting!

      Reply
      • aregularcupofjo says

        May 28, 2013 at 9:15 pm

        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 🙂

        Reply
        • Mary Cahalane says

          May 28, 2013 at 9:16 pm

          I was just about to do that!

          Reply
  2. Beth Ann Locke says

    May 28, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    Nice post, Mary! It could be called, it’s not about you… 🙂 Keep them coming.

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 28, 2013 at 9:52 pm

      Thank you, Beth. We ought to print signs saying that, right?

      Reply
  3. Charlie Marshall says

    May 29, 2013 at 7:12 am

    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

    ________________________________

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 29, 2013 at 12:25 pm

      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!

      Reply
  4. jenjenott says

    May 29, 2013 at 7:45 am

    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

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 29, 2013 at 9:13 am

      Yes! I cringe every time I’ve missed an obituary and done something like that!

      Reply
  5. Donna Caputo (@donna_caputo) says

    May 29, 2013 at 8:54 am

    How about this: don’t send me a thank you a month (or more) after I send you a donation.

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 29, 2013 at 9:14 am

      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!

      Reply
  6. pbfhpunk (@pbfhpunk) says

    May 29, 2013 at 9:25 am

    Sending me a direct mail pack asking for a one off gift when I already give monthly.

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 29, 2013 at 9:55 am

      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?

      Reply
  7. myersbowman says

    May 29, 2013 at 12:09 pm

    Great list. I’ve been working on my list for years and it’s way too long!

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 29, 2013 at 12:23 pm

      Ha! Sometimes you need a good rant. Especially if it might possibly do some good.

      Reply
  8. Xan says

    May 29, 2013 at 1:22 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 29, 2013 at 1:33 pm

      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.

      Reply
      • Beth says

        May 29, 2013 at 1:46 pm

        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.”

        Reply
        • Mary Cahalane says

          May 29, 2013 at 2:05 pm

          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?

          Reply
  9. Rachel T. says

    May 31, 2013 at 1:59 pm

    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!

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      May 31, 2013 at 2:44 pm

      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?

      Reply
      • Kayza says

        September 10, 2013 at 10:46 pm

        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.

        Reply
        • Mary Cahalane says

          September 11, 2013 at 4:28 pm

          Lots of truth in that, unfortunately. Fundraising as a distasteful but necessary evil makes me nuts!

          Reply
  10. Prabhu Loganathan says

    June 1, 2013 at 9:18 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      June 1, 2013 at 9:22 pm

      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.

      Reply
  11. Michael Farrell says

    June 3, 2013 at 9:17 am

    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!

    Reply
    • Mary Cahalane says

      June 3, 2013 at 9:55 am

      That’s so well put, Michael! Thank you.

      Reply
  12. Mike Jones says

    March 10, 2020 at 9:04 am

    Thanks for sharing this information with us. Here some of the people think about how can I start a fundraising website and start crowdfunding for our small business. Then don’t worry I have a solution for you all, you can create your own crowdfunding platform with the help of eCrowdFundr without any technical skills.

    Reply
  13. Mary Cahalane says

    June 7, 2013 at 4:11 pm

    Merci!

    Reply

Trackbacks

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    June 20, 2013 at 9:37 am

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  3. November Nonprofit Blog Carnival | An Attitude of Gratitude - Pamela Grow says:
    November 24, 2014 at 6:02 am

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  4. I can’t thank you enough! (Or can I?) – Hands-On Fundraising says:
    December 4, 2015 at 10:32 am

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