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| Knowing what you ‘Know’ about your Donors You just have to ask
By Dan Mirgon, CFRE, CLU, ChFC When thinking about your
donors, the difference between perception and reality can sometimes be
staggering. Trying to determine what caused them to make the gift
This “disconnect” can come in many packages. New donors acquired through direct mail programs are the lifeblood of most efforts to expand the donor file. Your mailing makes the case for how effective and needed the ministry is, and a certain percentage of the recipients send in their first gift. At this point, certain assumptions are usually made about what caused that person to respond. As subsequent annual fund mailings bring additional gifts, more assumptions are made. Namely, that by virtue of additional gifts the donor is “agreeing” with your message and their giving is a validation of that agreement. When a new donor gives at a special event, similar assumptions are made, causing ministry leaders to conclude that your story is resonating at a high level with new donors – so by extension, you need to send more mail and do more events to get the money we need for ministry programs. The assumption here is that your case was presented well enough that the new donor caught the vision and joined the team. Both of these sets of assumptions may be accurate, but they may also be incorrect. Finally, when a large annual donor increases their support, many presume that these people are more deeply committed and therefore candidates for capital campaign gifts, and major special gift solicitation. Again, maybe yes and maybe no. So the question is how do you find out for sure? The answer is that you have to ask them. Now, before you jump ship, I realize that you are already busy. I also realize that you need more money to serve more people and keep the dedicated staff you have. Where are you going to find time to ask donors their opinion? It can be as simple as inviting donors to respond to a one page survey in your next newsletter, or to send you an email telling them how they think you are doing. You see, it begins by opening the doors of communication so that your donors feel free to share their opinions. This requires that you first believe some things: - That your donors are God’s people at this time in the ministry. - That if you get really good at listening, you will hear what they are saying, and be able to know what motivates them – with more certainty. - That if your message isn’t being heard clearly, you are the one that has to make the adjustment. You have to find a way to tell the story of God at work better. It may also require that you get out of the office and knock on some doors. Whether that is figuratively or literally, there is no excuse for asking people to give money to your ministry, and never talking with them about how it is going. So how will you know what you know about your donors? Obviously, you will never know all there is to know so that you can keep everyone fully engaged and sharing in the needs of the ministry. But you can improve what you know. For instance, knowing that your core donors think you are doing a good job, or whether your major donors really think you are ready for a campaign, will gratefully improve your retention. It will also give you a sense of whether you are on the right track. But it will do another thing that can be more important. It will give your donors a sense that you are different than most ministries. Different because you care about them not just their money. That you are open and transparent about how their money is used. Talk to your donors. Ask them their opinions. Share the vision of your ministry with them. Do it without thinking about how much money they have. I promise, you will learn a lot from them and come to know what they care about.
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can
sometimes lead to conclusions based on incomplete information. When that
happens a “disconnect” is triggered between what the donor is actually
thinking, and what we thought our message was trying to convey.