Keep Your Donors: The Guide to Better Communications & Stronger Relationships(The AFP/Wiley Fund Development Series)

Written by fundraising experts Tom Ahern and Simone Joyaux, Keep Your Donors is a new, winning guide to making disappointing donor retention rates a thing of the past. This practical and provocative book will show you how to master the strategies and tactics that make fundraising communications profitable. Filled with case studies and based in part on the CFRE and AFP job analyses, Keep Your Donors is your definitive guide to getting new donors—and keeping them—for many years to come.

Table of Contents:
Preface xxiii Acknowledgments xxv Chapter 1 Beginning at the Beginning: The Context for Everything Else 1 Why the Larger Context Matters 1 Philosophical Framework 2 This I Believe 3 Building Community 3 Building Community Redux 7 Effective Organizations 8 Key Components of Effective Organizations 8 Effective Fund Development 9 In Conclusion 10 INTERMEZZO #1 Why? 11 Chapter 2 The Red Pants Factor: A Story about the Power of Questioning 13 Finding Your Own ‘‘Red Pants Factor’’ 15 A Postscript from Black Dress 15 INTERMEZZO #2 What Do All the Words Mean? 17 Chapter 3 Key Components of Effective Organizations: Part of the Larger Context for This Work 19 Adopt an Organizational Development Approach 19 Limitations of Technical Fundraising 20 Turning You into an Organizational Development Specialist 21 What the Organizational Development Specialist Needs to Know 22 Build a Culture of Philanthropy 23 Concept of Corporate Culture 23 Culture of Philanthropy 24 Meaningful Questions 25 Personal and Organizational Commitment to Conversation and Questioning, Learning and Change 27 Learning Organization Theory 27 Systems Thinking, the Cornerstone of Learning Organizations 28 Conversation at Work 29 This Is Hard Work 33 Value of Research—Your Own and That of Others 33 Collecting Data from Your Organization 35 Translating Data into Useful Information 35 Qualified Opinions Only, Please! 36 A Curious Conundrum 36 Corollary of the Curious Conundrum 37 In Conclusion 38 Chapter 4 What Relationships Are and Why We Have Them: The Art of Human Interaction 41 Relationships Are Everything 41 A Radical Notion 43 Relationships Require Choice 43 Types of Relationships in the Nonprofit/NGO Sector 44 Your Philanthropic Relationships: How Your Organization Relates to Its Donors of Time and Money 44 Relationships with Other Organizations: How Your Organization Relates to Other Community Organizations 44 Relationships within Your Organization: How the Various Parts of Your Organization Relate 45 Advocacy and Public Policy Relationships: How Your Organization Promotes Public Policy that Fosters Healthy Communities 45 Relationships Are Definitely Not Transactions 46 Do Donors Really Want Relationships? 47 Watch a Good Relationship Builder 48 Key Concepts in Relationship Building 48 Sincerity 49 Closeness and Boundaries 50 Diversity and Cultural Competence 51 Values 53 Dynamism and Change 54 In Conclusion 54 Appendix 4A Values and Mission of the Equity Action Fund at The Rhode Island Foundation 59 Chapter 5 Five Rather Deadly Sins: Warnings about Relationships and Solicitation 61 Sin #1: Separating Fund Development from Philanthropy 61 Sin #2: Treating Giving as a Financial Transaction Rather than an Emotional Act 62 Are You Treating Your Donors like Automatic Teller Machines? 63 Sin #3: Trespassing on Personal and Professional relationships. Please Promise that You Won’t! 64 How Do Your Board Members Feel? 65 But Lots of Organizations Do This and We Need the Money! 65 Sin #4: Universalizing Your Own Passion. Instead, Find Theirs—or Leave Them Alone and Move On! 66 Sin #5: Asking Prematurely 67 More Visibility Does Not Produce More Gifts 67 Ensuring Visibility with Your Prospects and Donors 69 Don’t Solicit Unless You Know that The Person Knows Your Organization 69 Not Sins but Certainly Worries 70 Are You Worried about Donor Fatigue? 70 Are You Worried about All That Competition for the Same Donors? 71 In Conclusion 72 INTERMEZZO #3 Direct Mail and Relationship Building 73 Chapter 6 Eight Steps to Develop and Nurture Relationships: It’s What I’m Buying that Counts 75 Developing Your Relationship-Building Program 77 Steps in Relationship Building 77 Step #1: Identify the Predisposed 78 Step #2: Get to Know the Predisposed 78 Step #3: Understand Their Interests and 78 Disinterests, Their Emotions, and Their Motivations and Aspirations 79 Step #4: Identify What You Have in Common and Define the Mutually Beneficial Exchange 80 Step #5: Nurture the Relationship to Develop Commitment 80 Step #6: Evaluate Interest and Readiness for the Request 81 Step #7: Ask and Thank 83 Step # 8: Monitor Progress and Measure Results 85 In Conclusion 85 Appendix 6A Evaluating Prospect Interest, Readiness, and Capacity and Designing the Ask 86 Chapter 7 Identify the Predisposed: Finding New Prospects for Your Organization 89 Who Are the Predisposed? 89 Introducing the Concept 89 But What If They Are Reluctant? 90 Fund Development Professionals Help Organizations Identify the Predisposed 91 Collect and Analyze Public Lists 91 Listen to Your Friends and Colleagues 92 Host Cultivation Gatherings 93 Creating Opportunities for People to Self-Identify as Predisposed 94 How the Women’s Fund Uses These Four Steps 95 Building Relationships (and Identifying the Predisposed) at the Apple Store 97 In Conclusion 98 Appendix 7A Learning about People Through Conversation 99 Chapter 8 Understanding the Fundamentals of Marketing and Communications: The Right Message to the Right Person at the Right Time 103 Communications: For Many, It’s All They Know of You 103 Fund Development Is a Type of Marketing, and Uses the Same Methods 104 It’s Not What You’re Selling, It’s What They’re Buying 107 Targeting: How You Find Needles in a Haystack 109 Segmentation: How You Increase Penetration Of A Target Market 112 Frequency and Reach 113 What Is Branding? 116 In Conclusion 118 Chapter 9 Emotions: The Decision Makers 119 Introduction 119 Orbitofrontal Damage and Its Implications for Fundraisers 120 Emotional Triggers: An Introduction 121 Up to 135 Triggers to Choose From 122 Emotional Twinsets: Raise the Problem, Be the Solution 125 In Conclusion 128 Appendix 9A W. Gerrod Parrott’s List of Emotions 130 Chapter 10 Relationship Building: Details about Steps #3 and #5: Getting to Know You 133 Step #3 in the Relationship-Building Process 133 Getting Started 134 Keep Going! 136 What Kind of Information Do You Want to Know? 136 A Few Strategies for Getting to Know Your Donors and Prospects 137 A Reminder about Step # 4 140 Step #5: Nurture the Relationship to Development Commitment 140 Role of Customer Service 140 Some Preliminary Thoughts about Cultivation 141 Creating Opportunities for Connection 143 Ways of Making Emotions Tangible and Expressing Feelings 144 Cultivation as a Community-Building Process 144 Ideas for Nurturing Relationships 145 Using Incentives to Nurture Relationships 151 Using an Individual to Cultivate a Particular Relationship 151 Debrief after Cultivation 152 In Conclusion 152 Appendix 10A Building Relationships with Your Constitutents 154 Appendix 10B Member Survey of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island 162 Appendix 10C E-Mail Survey from the Audubon Society of Rhode Island 168 Appendix 10D Women’s Fund of Rhode Island Marking Milestones Brochure 170 Chapter 11 Creating Your Relationship-Building Plan: Write It Down 173 Good Process Produces the Best Results 174 Plan Practicalities 174 A Different Approach 175 In Conclusion 176 Chapter 12 Planning Donor Communications: Staying in Touch 177 Introduction 177 Writing a Plan 178 Building an Annual Donor/Media Communications Calendar on the Schwartz Plan 179 In Conclusion 185 Chapter 13 Characteristics of Effective Communications: How the Sausage Gets Made 187 Action is the Objective. Reading Is Optional 187 An Honest-to-Goodness Secret to Success: Write a Creative Brief First 189 There’s an Onslaught, and You’re Part of the Problem 190 You’re Selling Feelings, Especially Hope 190 You’re Selling a Feeling of Importance, Too 190 Interest Me (or Else) 191 How to Interest Donors and Prospects: The Big Four 193 How to Interest Anyone: Four Chances to Win 195 Self-Interest: Why Greed Is Good (For Your Organization) 198 Make Offers 199 Passing the ‘‘You’’ Test 200 Don’t Talk So Much about What You Do. Talk about Why It Matters 201 Have Themes 201 You’ve Heard of ‘‘Values Voters’’? Meet ‘‘Values Givers’’ 202 In Conclusion 203 INTERMEZZO #4 What’s the Role of a Fundraiser? 205 Chapter 14 Are You Really Donor-Centered? Are Your Donors Truly Loyal? Why Building a Better Mousetrap Doesn’t Work Unless Your Donors Are Mice 207 Some Facts about Donor Retention 208 Donor-Centrism: The New Old Thing 209 Acquisition Is Easy. Retention Is Tough 209 ‘‘Donor-Centric’’ Is Another Way of Saying ‘‘Building Trust’’ 210 Why Donor-Centered? Shouldn’t Mission Be at the Center? 211 Simple Demands of Donor-Centricity 212 Donor Loyalty and Donor-Centrism: Inextricably Linked 212 What Is Loyalty? 214 Passive Loyalty 214 Active Loyalty 215 Lifetime Value 216 Are Donors Loyal to Your Organization or to the Cause You Represent? 216 Current Donors Come First 217 Helping Your Donors Dream 218 It’s Relationship Building, It’s Not Education 218 Engaging Donors with a Targeted Gift 220 Acquiring a New Donor 221 You’re Invading Their Privacy 222 Many Nonprofits Cannot Afford Bulk Direct Mail Acquisition Anyway 222 Create an Exclusive Program to Bond with First-Time Donors 223 Your Organization Can Speak Out—But Does It? 225 In Conclusion 226 Chapter 15 Telling a Story: Then What Happened? 229 Why Tell Stories? 229 What Is a Story? 230 Fundraising Stories Report Results, without Lingering on Your Inner Workings 231 Anecdotes versus Statistics: Which Are Better? 232 Handling the Trophy Statistic 234 Use Statistics like a Spear 235 Have Themes, Then Tell Stories that Illustrate Those Themes 235 What Makes a Story Work? Sensory Detail 237 In Conclusion 239 Chapter 16 Communications and Social Styles: Did You See What I Mean? 241 Everything but the Words 241 What Does ‘‘Social Style’’ Mean? 243 Assertiveness and Responsiveness Come First 243 Assertiveness: Measuring How Others See You as You Try to Influence Their Thoughts and Actions 244 Responsiveness: Measuring How Others See You as You Express Your Feelings 244 What’s Your Social Style? 246 Are You Comfortable? Are Others? 247 Are You Versatile? 248 A Few Caveats 248 In Conclusion 249 Chapter 17 Conversation Nurtures Relationships: Asking Questions to Learn More 251 A Quick Aside: Questions Related to Solicitation 252 Purpose of This Conversation 252 Honoring Conversation 253 Active Listening 254 Listening . . . Sort Of 254 Observing 255 Genuine Inquisitiveness 256 Starting a Conversation: Why Talking about the Weather Is Good 256 What Is Important to Those in Your Relationships? 257 Here’s a Framework That Might Help You Discern What’s Important 258 Your Donors and Your Mission 260 Ask Your Donors Why 260 Ask Questions about Your Organization Specifically 261 Ask Questions about Your Cause 261 Ask About Their Giving Habits 262 Find Out Their Values and Beliefs 262 Conversation with Donors at the Rhode Island Foundation 263 In Conclusion 265 Chapter 18 The Case for Support: Why Should Anyone Give You Money? 267 Introduction 267 Preliminary Steps 268 A Good Case Is, at Heart, an Inspiring Tale 268 What Kinds of Information to Collect? A Checklist 271 Building a Case in a Single Meeting 276 Why Does Your Organization Do What It Does? 277 What Have You Accomplished? 277 Why Is Your Organization the Best Organization to Do This Work? 277 What Do You Do? 278 How Do You Hold Yourself Accountable? 278 Who Are Your Target Audiences? 278 Which Emotional Triggers Would Move Your Target Audience(s) to Act? 279 Going from A to B: Answering Three Basic Questions 279 Why Us? 280 Why Now? 280 Why You? 280 Types of Case Statements 280 Internal Case 280 Feasibility, Planning, or Draft Case 285 Public Case 285 In Conclusion 287 Appendix 18A Thoughts about Creating a Case for Support 289 Appendix 18B Housatonic Youth Service Bureau: (Established by Six Concerned Communities in 1991) 294 Appendix 18C Volunteers in Providence Schools: Case Statement for Operations 297 Appendix 18D Audubon Society of RI: Internal Case for Donor Support 302 Appendix 18E Talking Points: HousingWorks RI 2006 313 Chapter 19 The Donor Newsletter: How You Cultivate (i.e., Retain) Donors 321 Introduction 321 What the Research Says about Donor Newsletters 322 What Do Donors Want from Your Newsletter? 323 Seven Common Flaws that Undermine Donor Newsletters: A Checklist 326 Flaw #1: Doesn’t Deliver News that Donors Care About 326 Flaw #2: Doesn’t Put the Donor Center Stage 327 Flaw #3: Isn’t Very Friendly 327 Flaw #4: Skimps on Emotional Triggers 328 Flaw #5: Doesn’t Tell Stories 328 Flaw #6: Expects People to Read in Depth 328 Flaw #7: Doesn’t Have Real Headlines 328 The Flaw You Fix First: Headlines 329 How to Find the Story Behind the Headline 330 Electrons or Paper? High-Performance E-Mailed Newsletters 332 Your E-Newsletter’s Subject Line Makes All the Difference 335 Electrons and Paper: Other Advantages of E-Newsletters 336 E-Newsletters Must Be Opt-in (A Good Idea for Everything, Really) 338 Fast, Easy, Still on Paper: The ‘‘Newsyletter’’ 339 Simplicity Itself: A Proven Formula for a Donor Newsyletter 340 In Conclusion 341 Appendix 19A Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket Newsletter 342 Appendix 19B Example 1: Women’s Fund of Rhode Island Newsyletter 346 Appendix 19C Example 2: Women’s Fund of Rhode Island Newsyletter 348 Chapter 20 The Web Site Home Page: Click. Search. Do. Read? Not So Much 351 Why Web Sites Are Completely Different 351 Is Your Home Page Ready for Newcomers? 352 Getting Off on the Right Foot: The Importance of a Tagline 353 What Must Be on the Home Page, Krug Says 354 In Conclusion 355 Chapter 21 Tips for Writing: Think First. Write Later 357 Introduction 357 Your Fifth-Grade Teacher Was Right: Outline 358 An Easy Way to Outline: Ask Yourself Questions First 358 Know the Point of Your Story and Start There 361 Write about Benefits, Not Features 362 Write Less 363 Write for Speedy Reading 364 Beginning with a History Lesson, and Other Common Flaws 366 In Conclusion 368 Chapter 22 Readability: Visual Aspects of Good Communications 369 Welcome, Browsers! 369 How We Look 371 From Gutenberg to Wheildon 371 Anatomy of a Failed Annual Report 373 In Conclusion 376 Chapter 23 Monitoring Progress and Measuring Results: How Effective Are Your Communications? 377 ‘‘Is It Working?’’ How to Measure Your Results 377 Measuring the Unmeasurable 381 Get Your Thoughts in Order Before You Begin to Write: A Checklist 382 Evaluating Your Donor Newsletter: Eight Tests 384 Measuring the Effectiveness of Public Relations 388 Standards for E-Mail Solicitations 389 In Conclusion 390 Chapter 24 Monitoring Progress and Measuring Results: How Good Is Your Relationship-Building Program? 393 Why Evaluation Matters 395 Deciding What to Measure 396 Measuring Performance and Evaluating Results 397 A Practical Example 398 A Suggestion for Measuring Some of Your Qualitative Results 399 Analyzing and Interpreting Evaluation Results 400 Communicating Evaluation Results 401 Possible Performance Measures for Relationship Building 401 From the Prospect/Donor Perspective 402 What You Do to Nurture Relationships 403 Charitable Giving Measures that Reflect Donor Loyalty 404 Monitoring Progress 404 In Conclusion 405 INTERMEZZO #5 You and Your Organization: Sprinting into the Future 407 Chapter 25 Coda: Philanthropy’s Moral Dilemma 409 Politics of Power in Philanthropy 410 Moral Dilemma Facing Philanthropy 410 Power, the Silent Haunting 411 Privilege, the Driving Nature of Power 411 Understanding the Two Types of Philanthropy 412 Tradition Dominates 415 Have You Noticed: The Less Social Justice We Have, the More Philanthropy We Need? 416 We Are Complicit 416 Philanthropy as a Democraticizing Act 418 Attacking the Moral Dilemma 418 In Conclusion 420 Appendix 25A Questions about Privilege and Power 422 Appendices A. Joyaux’s Concept of Enabling Functions, Skills, and Attitudes 425 B. Basic Principles of Fund Development 427 Resources 431 Index 435