Twelve Rules to Live By In the Land of Donor Appreciation

Penelope Burk's book, Donor Centered Fundraising is the first book I purchased that I considered professional development reading. It has since become my bible. I loan my copy out regularly and encourage others to look beyond the sticker shock, what you learn will be worth it's weight in gold. I am thinking about donor appreciation and cultivation today so I felt it was good time to share these rules Burke suggests.

Twelve Rules to Live By In the Land of Donor Appreciation

-Penelope Burk

1) Statistics

a. Do your own research specific to your organization, do rely on industry standards. Figure out who your donors are, how much the give, how often and how you can cultivate them. Then implement your plan.

2) Categorizing Donors By Gift Size

a. Is shooting your organization in the foot. This is a reward and punishment system that is insulting to donors and doesn’t allow npo’s to grow the size of the gifts people are making.

i. Ex: if you only have to give $1000 to be in the CIYC, why would anyone feel compelled to give $5000.

ii. ?How do you get the information that compels your $25.00 donor to become a $100 donor out do them.

3) Urgent Appeals

a. Remember your emergency is not your donors emergency.

4) Failure to Plan

a. Don’t expect donors to fund on faith. You need a well organized, succinct plan that shows donor where their money is making a difference.

5) Failure to Test

a. Test all fundraising ideas before counting on them entirely.

i. Ex: NPO has a budget deficit, at a board meeting an innovative idea for a new fundraising event is suggested, projects are made about its potential net income and before the board meeting is adjourned the event date is set.

6) Being Unrealistic About Time

a. There is no such thing as short term fundraising. Pressure is often put on fundraisers to close deals within unrealistic timeframes. This failure to take into account the cultivation process with your donors almost always means the organization looses out in one way or another. Many failures that happen today have roots in things that were/weren’t done 2-3 years ago.

7) Solicitation/Attrition

a. Don’t fall into this cycle: Direct mail campaign happens, response isn’t what you anticipated, decision is made to send another mailing to increase revenue, this causes donor burn out (attrition), so prospecting for donors increases, no time to follow up and thank current donors, leads to more attrition, leads to more solicitation.

i. GET OFF THE TREADMILL. Spend time with your current donors.

8) Relying on Fundraising as Marketing

a. The organization should have separate budgets for fundraising marketing and general marketing. General marketing is for awareness building and fundraising marketing is to generate income.

9) Fundraising Expenses

a. You need to be willing to spend money to make money. If you aren’t you kill the ‘donor-centric’ fundraising model before it can work for you.

10) “Donors should be neither seen nor heard”

a. Donors feel privileged to give and don’t want anything in return. Don’t confuse no vested interest and no interest. There is incredible competition for donors and volunteers, an organizations meaningful communication is what will set them apart.

11) The Fundraising System

a. Be willing to break out of the current system. If you aren’t seeing results, if your solicitation strategies aren’t donor-centric don’t tinker with the old system, take it apart and build a new one.

12) Feeling Charities are Beyond Reproach

a. In 2000 83% of Americans gave to charity. As NPO’s we need to be more in tune and better prepared to change the way we do business to meet the needs of the people who keep us in business.