‘Tis the season to thank your donors

Everybody likes to feel appreciated.

Giving thanks to our donors is one of the most important things non-profits do, and is one of the best ways to ensure that donations keep coming in.

Sadly, Penelope Burk, author of Donor Centered Fundraising, reports that “46% of donors decide to stop giving for reasons that are tied to lack of meaningful information or to a feeling that their giving is not appreciated.” No wonder creative fundraising expert Greg Bowden suggests that non-profits should thank donors at least seven times!


I don’t know of a single non-profit that is not grateful for its donors; it’s a shame to let gratitude go unexpressed.

Jocelyn Harmon, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Network for Good, offers some great advice on how to effectively thank donors on her awesome Marketing for Nonprofits blog. Here are her five gratitude tips:

Be personal – Use proper names, handwritten is always best!

Be creative – Have you thought of writing a song or making a movie? Don’t be shy, be different.

Be tangible – Make sure donors know how their gift is being used.

Be donor-centered – Avoid going on for too long about your organization. Focus on the donor.

Be fast – Acknowledge a gift within 48 hours.

Alan Sharpe, a professional writer of fundraising thank-you letters, advices organizations to “thank donors promptly, personally, particularly and positively.” He’s published a sample letter to help you get started.
Terry Alexrod, author of The Joy of Fundraising, echoes Jocelyn and Alan’s messages about writing specific thank-you letters: “Donors want to see what their gifts allowed you to accomplish – specific facts and stories of how they changed the lives of real people. This is how they will know their money was put to the best use in your programs and services.”

Have you properly thanked your recent donors? If you’ve missed the 48-hour mark, don’t worry. The recent Thanksgiving holiday will add some timeliness to an overdue expression of gratitude.

Better late than never, they say.

Holiday Giving Looks Promising

The holidays are busy for everyone, but I think non-profits are somewhere at the top of that list. The holidays tend to be the time when financial donations increase, outreach programs are set on the calendar, volunteers are knocking at the door and direct mail campaigns are flooding donor mail boxes. It seems a great time to catch up on a depleting budget when many people are feeling the generosity of the season. Even with a sagging economy, it is projected that donations will be going strong from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

The American Red Cross conducted a survey that had some pleasantly surprising results. The Huffington Post reports the findings which state that, “seven in 10 Americans plan to give more, or about the same, this holiday season. That’s a 10 percentage point increase from last year.”

Many Americans are cutting back on gift giving and party plans, but their generosity has been impacted by the high unemployment rate. “Despite the difficult economy Americans want to give to help others in need,” said Red Cross President and CEO Gail J. McGovern. “With so many people out of work, they want to give something that means something.”

There are some interesting results that also came from this survey of 1,020 adults:

• 79% agreed that they would rather have a charitable gift given in their honor than receive a gift they wouldn’t use. (What does this mean for the “As Seen on TV” market?!)
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• 7 out of 10 people say they plan to give about the same or more this holiday season as they did last year.
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• 4 in 5 people said helping someone less fortunate is an important part of their holiday traditions
• 68% of people agreed that because of the economy, it’s important to give to charity
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• While about 40% will spend less on entertaining, travel and decorations, only 30% will spend less on gifts and 26% will spend less on charitable donations.
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• Here are the gender differences in giving: “Seventy percent of women said helping out the less fortunate gets them get through the holidays, while only 61 percent of men agreed. But, men hardly turn into the Grinch when it comes to opening up their wallets. One-third of men plan to donate more than $100, while one-fifth of women said they’ll offer up that much.”

The bad news: it looks like the holidays are going to be as busy as ever. The good news: it looks like the holidays are going to be as busy as ever!

Start up your own or join and support a fundraising campaign to benefit a charity that is close to you this holiday season and make giving fun on Fundly!

Applying Business Strategies to Philanthropy

Silicon Valley is known for its entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen. Now in an attempt to aid philanthropy through donor giving and helping those in need, many business people are sharing their knowhow and reaping surprising results.

Jeremiah A. Hall, correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, explains that, “Frustrated with slow and inefficient non-profits, some of Silicon Valley’s elite are bringing about fresh approaches to solving vexing social issues, such as helping the poor and reimagining how students are educated.

“And they aren’t just bringing money. Social entrepreneurs are bringing their business skills – everything from marketing to operations, along with their enthusiasm and business drive – to transform many nonprofits into savvy, goal-focused businesses.”

Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, a philanthropist and author of Giving 2.0, a new book on how to improve one’s philanthropy states “We now live in a giving 2.0 world, and the definition of a philanthropist has changed. This is no longer about sympathy. It’s about strategy.”

In a world where a wealth of information is at our fingertips via the web, many donors are doing their homework before handing over their dollars. Accountability, research and numbers are sought after by donors to make sure their funds are going to good use and having positive outcomes.

Hall uses the example of “Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems, a Silicon Valley software company that was purchased by Oracle in 2005. Mr. Siebel decided to take a new approach to preventing drug abuse. Eschewing counseling and other traditional approaches, the Siebel Foundation took a page out of a business playbook and created a research-based, consumer marketing campaign. The program, called the Meth Project, relies heavily on consumer research like target-market surveys and uses that information to develop graphic advertisements that then saturate a community. The program aims to reach 70 to 90 percent of teens three to five times a week during a campaign.”

“Today’s donors want to navigate the possibilities and fund the proactive rather than the reactive,” says Arrillaga-Andreessen. “But if we’re to solve these problems, the onus is on givers to facilitate that change.”
In this constantly changing world, technology is certainly a catalyst for success in the world of non-profit fundraising. Philanthropy is a highly competitive field and without modern graphics, consistent communication with donors, and an easily maneuverable website, some other organization may snag the funds that were destined for your bank account.

America’s top charities weather the storm

A recent article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that though non-profits expect to bring in more money than they did last year but that they still haven’t made up for ground they lost in the economic downturn.

Charities on The Chronicle’s Philanthropy 400 list raised 8 percent less than they did in 2007. The Chronicle found that the biggest gainers are those charities who tend to receive donated goods such as food and medicine. Charities who tend receive donations in the form of stock are also experiencing gains.
Though cash donations are generally down, the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, both in the top 10 of the Philanthropy 400 list, are up. The Chronicle reports that donations to the Salvation Army, with a new “Doing the most good” campaign, grew 5.1 percent and that the American Red Cross, responding to the 2010 Haiti raised a whopping 64 percent more.

A recent study of 800 charities from the Nonprofit Research Collaborative shows that organizations with budgets under $3 million were less likely to report gains. Arts organizations, such as the Art Institute of Chicago, have also seen steep declines. Recently receiving a promise for sponsorship from two companies, the Institute will allow clients of these companies special access to the museum, private tours and cocktail receptions.

Organizations like the Art Institute of Chicago are smart to use the experiences they can offer others as a way to secure donations and sponsorship.

Some organizations, such as the Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital, are working on attracting younger donors by organizing fundraising events like dance marathons targeted at young people.

Other charities, like the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, are increasingly turning to social media for a fundraising boost. Todd Hendricks, the ASPCA’s senior vice president for development, talked to The Chronicle about the challenges in linking fundraising and social media.

Fundly has a solution for you, Todd, check out our social fundraising platform today! Connecting social media and fundraising is more important than ever and, with Fundly, it’s easy!

Which is a Better Use of Time: Facebook or Blogging?

There are only so many hours in a day and many smaller non-profits don’t have the luxury of having a social media manager. Between e-mails, Twitter, Facebook and a website, social media fundraising can make any CEO exhausted. With limited time and limited resources, what should you focus on to get the biggest return on your time investment?

The social media world is obviously vital to the existence of any non-profit organization. In a world where cell phones and iPads are the new appendage in the evolutionary process, this is the best and easiest way to stay connected to your donor base. E-mails are great but if you send a mass e-letter, you’ll probably get an abundance of responses in the process which take more time that you have to spare. Twitter is great for comments and short updates, but there is no depth to it. Facebook is perfect for sharing pictures and paragraphs but not everyone is a member.

Of course your website is the 3-D version of your organization and your spokesperson on the web, but not everyone is going to take the time to click every tab or read every page. Blogging is great if you have the passion of a writer and you can really get in depth with your topics, but will your donors take the time to search out your blogs? So we’re back to our original question: what genre should you invest your limited time in to?

On StepbyStepFundraising.com, Gayle Thorsen advises “If you truly don’t have the staff time to blog at least once a week or make a Facebook update twice a week, you shouldn’t be considering either medium… If you do have adequate staff resources, go back to your strategic communications plan to make this decision. You have to start there—with what you want to happen as a result of your communications efforts… Each organization has unique goals and needs, they have to drive your choice. Don’t be seduced into thinking that because everyone’s on Facebook or such-and-such an organization has a blog, that you have to do the same thing.”

Here’s the breakdown: If most of your financial support comes from individual donors, Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with them. If most of your support comes from grants and foundations, have a stellar website with a blog attached. For major events, giveaways and milestones, send an e-mail from an address that is not your personal one and delegate an assistant to sort through what’s important and what can be skimmed over.

Whichever method you choose to implement, social media is an important aspect to non-profit fundraising. Being consistent, detail oriented, informative and heartfelt is the best way to approach this forum.

Stories matter – what’s yours?

I just started Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, founder of the wildly successful shoe company TOMS.

Blake’s book shares the inspiring story of TOMS and inspires readers to change the world with their own stories.

On a trip to Argentina, Blake became enchanted by the alpargatas, a casual shoe worn by many Argentineans. He traveled around the country to find a shoemaker to partner with and soon discovered that in many villages children were shoeless. No shoes means blisters, sores and infections. Blake knew he had to help. Within months, TOMS became increasingly popular in the U.S.; for every pair sold a pair was donated to a person in need.

The story of TOMS is compelling, and Blake has invested a lot in sharing its story. He recalls the exciting moment he first saw a stranger in TOMS. After complimenting her shoes, she shared the story of the company with him. At that moment, he realized the power of the TOMS story and started traveling the world in an airstream trailer to share it. Driven by a clear mission to give shoes to the shoeless, Blake – and TOMS – have taken the roads by storm.

Blake devotes the second chapter of his book to helping readers find their own story and explains why stories resonate more than facts. People might not know how many calories are in a Subway sandwich, but they will always remember Jared who lost over a hundred pounds on a Subway diet.
Blake says that answering three questions will help you get to the core of your story.

• If you did not have to worry about money, what would you do with your time?
• What kind of work would you want to do?
• What cause would you serve?

Once you’ve got it, Blake encourages you to share it with everyone you can, from people in your yoga class to people in your online social network. Once you share it, you can begin to find story partners (as TOMS did with AT&T) “to incorporate your story into theirs to share in the halo effect.”

Blake also advises readers to carefully manage their online stories (your Facebook, Flickr or Tumblr pages, for example, should connect to your story) and to “find the influence makers who will love your story. …  Sharing your story with someone at the center of a social network will have an exponential effect.”
What is your organization’s story? Share it with the world – and with @Fundly – today!

Earlier this month

Earlier this month, Twitter launched @Twitterstories, a series of stories that capture the power of the tweet.
I love that Twitter has developed a place for these stories to be shared. They are great reminders that technology, at its best, is a direct extension of the helping human hand. The best tweets in turn have a special way of anchoring to the human heart.

“Each story reminds us of the humanity behind Tweets that make the world smaller,” Twitter posted on its blog.

These stories come from people around the world, and new ones surface each day. Twitter encourages users to submit their stories to be spotlighted.

One Oregon man describes how a single tweet saved his mother’s small independent bookstore. He used the last $1,000 on his credit card to promise a burrito to anyone who came into the store.

Roger Ebert, the famous film critic who lost his voice after a series of cancer surgeries, writes about how Twitter has helped him find a new voice: “There’s something seductive about it: the stream, the flow, the chatter, the sudden bursts of news, the snark, the gossip, time itself tweet-tweet-tweeting away.”

When Chris Strouth from Minnesota needed a kidney, he put it in a tweet. He got 19 offers within days. He found a compatible donor and now has a new kidney.

The world of social media can be overwhelming, and if we’re not careful, all-consuming. There have been times when we’ve all reconsidered how and why we participate in social networks, but these stories inspire us to keep tweeting.