Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking about the value of trust. This was spurred in part by a couple of pieces of mail I received. One looked like business mail from our garbage collectors. I opened it because you can never tell anymore what might be a bill and what might be another […]
Are donors tired – or just tired of you?
Your donors are tired… Were they for real? I was at a meeting with a number of organizations the other day, along with some fundraising consultants. During the course of the meeting, I was surprised to hear the respected counsel suggesting that the organizations cut back on their communications and solicitations with their donors. Why? […]
Don’t break my heart.
Don’t break my heart. Remember that fundraising is always personal. You might think I’m writing about the one that got away. The donor we courted and counted on. And then disappeared. We’ve all been there, right? It’s frustrating… sometimes, it breaks your heart. But today I’m writing as a donor. And about communications that reduce […]
Are you available to donors?
Are you available to donors? Can they reach you when they want to connect? I’ve written about a few badly done gift acknowledgments, here and here. I didn’t want to shame the organizations, so I omitted their names. But after each post, a colleague urged me to contact the offending organization. These organizations deserve to […]
Say thank you like you mean it
Don’t settle for a boring, emotion-free thank you. I picked up my mail the other day and opened an envelope from a well-respected advocacy organization. It was an acknowledgment of my recent gift. And it was so disappointing! Mentally, I went through a list of failures in one letter: My husband’s name was spelled incorrectly. […]