"Why I adore my LinkedIn feed"
File under: LinkedIn—Where serious fundraisers gab...
Welcome to real life Q&A heaven
Think of it as a 24/7/365 "hot tip, all you can eat" free lunch for hungry fundraisers chasing good ideas. You join LinkedIn, follow some folks, connect with the like-minded, feast.
A taste of what you'll get...
[Louis Diez published this post on LinkedIn]
Mid-level donors are the “no-man’s-land” of a lot of fundraising programs. Too big for your mass program. Too small for your major gifts calendar. So they get nothing special. And then we wonder why they do not upgrade.
If you want a simple mid-level move, start here.
One personal thank you.
One quarterly update that is not an ask.
One clear upgrade invitation tied to impact.
[my comment, directed at charities reading Louis' post]
And howz that newsletter of yours? It is, after all, the primary way to keep your base tuned up. Any good, is it? ["Newsletters" incl. social posts, digital & print] • [As you recommend sort of, Louis, when you recommend: "...quarterly update that is not an ask."]
PS, fundraisers: you'll need print AND digital. Oh, and clear offers. Here's a headline: "You're a $500 donor. What happens when you double your already generous gift and trust us with $1,000 instead?"
The truths we know: ≈(1) if they can easily afford $500, they can probably easily afford $1,000 [done it myself many times]; ≈(2) they don't give more because maybe they don't know you NEED more to grow/sustain the mission [again, check your newsletter for its messaging: does it convey clear need?]; ≈(3) they love you a lot [otherwise you'd be getting their "small" gift of $100 or $50; every donor has a "minimum gift to charity"]; ≈(4) I'd expect, if you do things adequately well with Louis' 3 moves, to see something like 20% of mid-level households give an increase.
•> yr donor comms will bear much of the "more, please" messaging weight
[Mark Phillips had this to say on LinkedIn, responding maybe to some ruffled feathers]
This week I wrote about what fundraising gets wrong. I meant every word.
And I want to be clear about what I was defending when I wrote it.
Not asking is always easier. It requires nothing – no courage, no hope, no belief that yes is even possible.
Fundraising is the daily, collective refusal to take the easier path.
News headlines tell us what people are like at their worst. Fundraising is what they are like at their best ....
And there are so many people in this profession who understand that – who guard the sanctity of the ask, who know what it costs and do it anyway.
To every one of them: thank you for being a fundraiser.
[a long essay with all the gory details follows; click here to read]
[my comments]
You know what, Mark, your marathon essay reads even faster if you read it backwards. It unfolds nicely in both directions.
Conferences are funny things. I've been turned down, too; at my most delectable. For the customer, the fundraiser who attends, conferences are an investment in entertainment and self-care as much as anything. Entertainment demands the new. Self-care needs peer-to-peer. Maybe IFC should have a "nostalgia" track, for the "less than shiny new" things that matter, the "boring, old" fundamentals that make money.
Each charity is a bus. Is the right person driving it? Are the right people on it?
If I were the goddess in charge of employment/board interviews, I would ask every fundraiser/board candidate to name their 3 top donor-comms' mentors and what are the latest how-to's they've learned?
If nothing pops to mind for the fundraiser-candi: N≈E≈X≈T≈!
If nothing pops to mind for an ED or board volunteer candi.: They are BANNED from the comms' approval loop (unless invited by the DoD)...even if they're expected to sign the damn letter.
AI had the day off. A human wrote the article above.
Dear Reader: This is an excerpt from Tom Ahern’s e-newsletter. Did you miss crucial back issues of this how-to e-news? Immediately available! Just GO here. (And scroll down just a bit to sign up for Tom’s revenue-boosting tips and insights. In your inbox regularly. It’s free.)