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Donor relationships

People are people… even donors

Let’s talk about donors. We fundraisers seem to have complex feelings about donors. Are they your boss? Do you need to worry about a “savior complex”? Or are they a source from which you extract money? Are they friend or foe? People are people… and donors are people, too. To borrow from Depeche Mode, donors […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donors Tagged With: donor care, donor communications, donor relationships, donor retention Leave a Comment

How to share feelings

So last time, I wrote about communicating less with facts and more with feelings. Because giving isn’t a logical act, it’s an emotional one. And feelings are how we best connect with other people. But how do you do that? Think about communicating with one person, not an audience. If you’re focused on your audience, […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications, Fundraising Tagged With: donor communications, donor love, donor relationships Leave a Comment

Communicating Planned Giving to Your Donors: 5 Tips

Planned giving is the underdog of charitable gifts. Often underestimated and underused, planned gifts have the potential to seriously grow your nonprofit’s long-term revenue. And, conveniently, anyone can make a planned gift.   When donors make a planned gift, they solidify their legacy and make a real difference in the world (and tap into valuable tax […]

Filed Under: Donor communications Tagged With: donor relationships, Planned giving Leave a Comment

Trust, more valuable than money

Trust is one of those things that you can’t necessarily put a dollar value on, but you know matters, a lot. But like your database or your donor relationships, it’s critical to a successful fundraising program. Your brand isn’t about colors, type, or taglines. Do you remember the outrage that United Airlines created years ago […]

Filed Under: Branding Tagged With: donor relationships, donor retention Leave a Comment

Fundraisers, what do we need to do now?

We live in frustrating, pain-inducing times. There’s war, there’s sickness, there’s hunger, there’s injustice, there’s needless death. Uvalde hit me hard. Those little ones and what they went through! It’s easy to feel powerless. But fundraisers, we need to act. I’ve been thinking – a lot – about the emotional impact of gun violence in […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: change the world, donor communications, donor relationships Leave a Comment

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