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Show Your Donors Some Love – Use Feb. 12 to Say Thank You

donor heartThey are investors in your charity.  These courageous men and women support your non-profit with their time, talent and treasure.  Now is the time to let your supporters know how much you appreciate them.  February 12 has been named nationwide on social media as Donor Love Day  (#donorlove on Twitter).

Here are a few ways you can show your donors some love before and after February 12:

1. Send a thank you note without asking for a another gift.  No other action will produce more additional donations than a thank you note.  There is nothing wrong with including a reply envelope, but don’t ask.  Make sure to hand write a special note or thank you.  It is critical that you thank them and thank them quickly.  The faster you thank a donor after they make a gift, the more likely it is they will make a second gift.  Charities who thank  donors within 24 hours report recieving a second gift from as many as 20%, 1 in 5 donors will send a second gift.

There are over 2 million non-profit organizations in the United States.  Network for Good reports that over 70% of them never even send a thank you note within one month of recieving a donation, and of those, 37% never send a thank you note at all.

2. Call Your Donors.   Pick up the phone and just say thank you.  Even a voice mail will be appreciated by your supporter.  I love the idea of a donor “phone-a-thon” this time of year.  I have seen some smart charities get every member of the staff and board calling donors to do nothing but say, “thank you.”

3. Just Drop By.  Without announcing yourself or if you’ve been unable to reach the donor by phone, just drop by.  Leave your car running and the door to your car open.  Knock on the door and hand the donor a small gift and/or card.  Simply say, “I can’t stay.  I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d just drop by to thank you for your friendship and support.”  Hand the donor the card or small gift.  Smile.  Shake their hand and say thank you.  Then quickly get back in your car and drive away.

4. Recognize Your Donors On Social Media.  Without mentioning the home town or dollar amount, use Facebook and Twitter to give your donors a shout out.  Say something about your friendship and the tremendous impact your friend (name here) has had in saving lives through your charity.  Remember, make the reference about the friendship and impact, not the amount of the gift.  #donorlove day on February 12th each year  is a great way to do this.

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What I am Thankful for… a year of thanks and giving at THANKSGIVING

Roy C. Jones, CFRE
Roy C. Jones, CFRE

This has been a tremendous year of learning, growth and preparation. I am convinced at the age of 53 that the next decade of my work in philanthropy is going to be most impactful of my life.  I often told my sons as they were growing up and facing some specific challenge that God was preparing them for something BIG.  Well, I guess I know in my heart that the next BIG thing is yet to come in my life.  He has truly used this year to prepare me for the something special.

I have sat down this year, face to face and personally interviewed 117 major donors. People with hearts that are so unique.  People whose careers and businesses are not about amassing wealth.  People who believe their purpose for living is giving.  They have dedicated homes, careers and businesses to alleviate suffering, helping the homeless, feeding the hungry and providing clean, cool water to those who thirst.

These wonderful people opened their hearts to me. These supporters have cried. They have shared their hearts. They have asked for my advise on how to best give of their time, talent and treasure. However, the most important thing to me was what they said when I asked for their advise. As a major giving advisor, what could I do better… what could the organization do better?  Time and time again it came down to two things, two critically important words. Two verbs of action… that required me to get better and to improve. Those two words were: LISTEN & IMPACT.

Our financial partners wanted only two things: a chance to be listened too and a chance to see the impact their investment was having. There is no doubt about it, everytime I simply listened, giving increased… sometimes right on the spot. Once a donor becomes convinced you are listening to them and have become their advocate they give more. Its just that simple.
 
I am so thankful for these courageous philanthropists and financial investors in charity.  (I truly don’t like refering to them as “major donors”.)  These special people taught me that the importance of listening and demonstrating impact are critical to increasing major giving.  The thing I saw time and time again was if I create more ways for our financial partners to “get their hands dirty” in the work of Jesus it always had a profound impact on their giving.
 
I am so thankful for my co-workers who taught me so much this year.  Event management has been the key learning.  Most importantly, making sure that every detail of every event is centered on one thing: the impact you have having on lives.  
 
I learned so much from each of you. I learned the importance of integrating email and text messaging into my communications with donors. The phone and handwritten notes are important, but to build regular communications you have to email and text in this day and age to grow the relationship.
 
Most importantly, this year I learned to cry. I have cried with so many of you with your struggle to reach your goals. I have cried with donors as we have prayed for children all over the world. I have cried often in my prayers for each of you as you have worked so hard to raise the resources you need. The “old Coach Ro Jo” was afraid to share his emotions, but the man I am today is not afraid to tear up and wear his heart on his sleeve.
 
Thank you. You each know I am your friend and supporter for life. My home is always open and my cell phone is always on. I truly believe we’ll be helping others through philanthropy for many, many years.     

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How 100 Cups of Coffee Could Save Your Charity

Roy C. Jones, CFRE RoyJonesReports.com
Roy C. Jones, CFRE
RoyJonesReports.com

I have had a unique career.  I have worked as a vice president of philanthropy, a director of development, and a major gift officer.  Today, I advise non-profits and provide training and support for growing their organizations.  I love sharing what I’ve learned first hand from the experiences I’ve had with thousands of finanicial partners (a.k.a. donors) and with the marketing programs used identify and communicate with them.

Over the last few weeks I have met with several wonderful charities… all facing tremendous financial challenges.  After discussions about their websites, giving pages, number of direct response appeals, ask handles, gift arrays, fundraising banquets and mail formats I ask a question that often brings long, self reflective, periods of silence:

“How many indidvidual, face-to-face, meetings did you do last year?”

After sometime passes, I expain that over the last year I worked with a charity where we made a remarkable difference in income by meeting with financial partners… I have personally met with 117 families over the last 12 months.  Of course, I always thank them for their support.  Then I listend to why they give and tailor an “ask” based upon their desires, not mine.

Make no mistake about it, it does begin with acquisition.  Acquiring donors with both capacity and donative intent only happens by design.  Then getting donors to renew their giving and increase their giving requires a plan for moving each and every donor up the “giving pyramid”.  I like to call it “climbing the ladder.”

Are your donors climbing the ladder?

As you identify donors who give or have  4-figure and 5-figure capacity your organization must put a plan in place to meet them personally.  You must thank them and, as importantly, ask them personally.

So often the thought of carving out time to meet with donors seems like an impossible task for development directors and executive directors.  My recommendation is to simply begin where you are… decide how many meetings you can do a week or a month and then DO IT!

I like to give people an easy way to visualize the task… “100 cups of coffee.”  The fact is if your charity will meet each year with your top 100 supporters you will increase giving dramatically.  Could you do just 2 coffee meetings a week? That’s all it takes…

100 cups a coffee a year will transform your charity.  I challenge you to try it!

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Are YOU Business Partners With Your Major Donor?

Roy C. Jones, CFRE
Roy C. Jones, CFRE

From “Rainmaking: The Fundraisers Guide to Landing Big Gifts” on page 114…

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Great fundraisers are not just devoted friends, but great business partners, too. And great major gift fundraisers understand that those writing the checks are ultimately their business partners.

They know that people do not go into business with a person who they do not like or do not trust. Successful major gift fundraisers begin every relationship with a specific “end game”… to acquire a new business partner. Transparency, honesty, integrity and advocacy are all critical steps that must be demonstrated incrementally. It takes time and it must be intentional.

Once the donor “invests” in your organization or ministry, how you recognize, steward and are accountable for each gift has an impact on the size and frequency of the next gift. People invest in places where they see the biggest return for their giving. Great business partners bring value to the relationship!

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Get Your Charity a Ladder… Please!

Roy C. Jones, CFRE RoyJonesReports.com
Roy C. Jones, CFRE
RoyJonesReports.com

Most organizations use “ask handles” (sometimes called an “ask table”) in order to do upgrade giving through their direct mail fundraising.

 When the economy is good most charities will use the donor’s previous highest gift to calculate the three or four ask amounts in the gift array on the reply device in the letter. In short, the donors previous highest contribution (HPC) is the lowest amount you would ask for… the subsequent amounts might be: HPC; HPCx1.5; HPCx2; and Other.

 When the economy is sagging, LIKE NOW, most not-for-profits use the donor’s last gift or average gift as the base to calculate the gift array. This tends not to upgrade too quickly and in most cases upgrades giving more gradually by simply lifting average giving.

 Now for the question, “Is a gift array strategy the only tool you should use to upgrade donor participation?”

 The obvious answer is “NO”.

You must do more in this economy to identify and harvest major gifts from your donor file. I am a big proponent of identifying “asks” around your programs existing program.  Review your budget, analyze your program and look at every expense.  Then repackage your programs and projects around the natural giving clusters that form around specific amounts in order to benchmark giving.

I compare it to having “rungs on a ladder”. You need to have $5,000 asks, $10,000 asks, $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000.  With no rungs or levels between entry level giving and estate gifts it is almost impossible to take donors to the top of the giving pyramid.

Donors truly climb the ladder in their giving from one year to the next.  It is extremely rare for a new donor to pull out their check book and write you a check for $100,000.  Major donors are investors by nature.  They will give you $5,000 and then measure your stewardship and impact.  If you do well, their next gift could be $10,000 to $25,000.  If you do poorly in reporting your impact it will likely be their last gift you get.

How do you find $1 million donors?  By building a base of 6-figure donors that you are demonstrating impact from one

Roy C. Jones, CFRE
Roy C. Jones, CFRE

year to the next.  How do you get $100,000 donors by demonstrating the best return on investment for their gifts at $10,000, $25,000 and $50,000.  Donors move up the ladder from one year to the next as you ask for more and demonstrate that you have been a good steward with their previous gifts.

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The New Normal for Year End Giving…

December has changed for most non-profits, we have just experienced the biggest decline for a December in more than a decade. Volatile stock markets at year end; combined with expensive, divisive political campaigns and new tax implications from one year to the next are forcing most non-profits to rethink the giving calendar. Is this the new normal?

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I traveled to a major city recently and met with a man who had given $25 million to charity over the last decade. The amazing thing was that he is in his 80’s and still working everyday. As a matter of fact he travels to China every month to oversee one of his new manufacturing […]

About Roy Jones

Roy Jones has more than 30 years of relationship building, coalition development, marketing and fundraising experience. He is recognized professionally as one of the top relationship managers in the country.
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