It was just another day at work in my home office when I stumbled across one of those heartwarming stories from Humans of New York (HONY). I’m sure you know HONY, the Facebook photoblog founded and lead by Brandon Stanton. HONY seeks to share the stories and innermost secrets of humans everywhere.
A particular story caught my eye. It was about a young man, recently released from prison, who was working to turn his life around. In typical HONY fashion, those commenting on the post were 
effusive in their encouragement and ideas for the young man. One of them posted the contact information for a nonprofit agency in the city. This organization worked with formerly incarcerated individuals to help them obtain college degrees.
I paid a visit to the organization’s website. And I impulsively made a monthly donation to this small nonprofit.
What happened next shouldn’t have surprised me. But it did.
I got an automated email receipt and then…crickets.
With each passing month, the agency dinged my credit card. I never once heard from them.
Why did I donate to that organization out of the blue? What made me pull out my credit card and commit to a monthly gift for this tiny nonprofit?
Here’s the back story: early in my career, I served as an Aide to a state legislator who was Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee of Corrections. I spent those years traveling the state, visiting most of our prisons. I worked with an organization within the state’s largest prison to fight for prisoners’ rights. I witnessed firsthand the horrors, not to mention the utter degradation of the American prison system. We have the largest prison population in the world, and our system is deeply flawed. Don’t even get me started on the privatization of prisons, which is pure evil.
You could say I have a passion for prison and judicial reform.
Why am I telling you all this?
It’s quite simple.
Your donors share your passion.
Your passion for social justice. Your passion for education. Your passion for the environment. Your passion for music. Your passion for gardens. Your passion for the arts. Your passion for women’s rights. Your passion for the animals. Your passion for diversity. Your passion for accessible healthcare.
They want to play a role.
Why, then, are we, as a sector, treating donors like garbage?
The latest Fundraising Effectiveness Project (FEP) comparing the first six months of 2018 with those of 2017 reveal that:
- Total donors are down 6.6%
- New donors are down 9.2%
- New retained donors are down 18%
- Repeat retained donors are down 2.1%
- Retention is down 6.4%
- For the past decade overall donor retention rates have been below 50% and are getting worse. The overall rate now stands at 45.5%.
And retention for newly acquired donors stands at an appalling 23%.
When you fail to focus on donor retention…
When you neglect caring for the donors you already have…
When you fail to thank. With genuine, heartfelt gratitude…
…You are making your job much harder than it is.
You do realize that you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of Oprah stumbling onto your organization’s website and making a multimillion dollar gift, right? (And even if she did, she might give up in disgust after trying to make it through your god-awful donation process.)
You do realize that adding yet another event will not save you (and will probably stress out your staff to the point where more decide to quit)? I seriously saw this posted in a Facebook group (and wanted to vomit):
Your loyal donors, your monthly donors, your major donors, your legacy donors…those relationships will not magically arrive on your doorstep via the next bright shiny digital campaign. They are cultivated by the systems you put into place. And they begin and end with gratitude.
Your loyal donors, your monthly donors, your major donors, your legacy donors…those relationships will not magically arrive on your doorstep via the next bright shiny digital campaign. They are cultivated by the… Click To TweetOur work as fundraisers is not going to get easier in the upcoming years. Don’t make it even tougher.
And then make a plan to thank your donors. To understand your donors. To love your donors. To show them that their support made a difference.
And rinse and repeat.
It really is that simple.
Resources & Downloads
How are you thanking your donors? Download your Thank You Letter Template
Make a plan to keep those new donors. Download the New Donor Timeline.
Why do your supporters care? Put the systems in place to find out.
What does a new donor Welcome Pack look like?
View Pamela Grow's profile
I can’t wait to meet with you personally.
Comments on this entry are closed.