Future Fundraising Now

What donors are interested in

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by

Jeff Brooks
in

A great reminder from the No Small Change blog: Stop documenting. Start communicating:

The woman who sends you Rs 2,500 a year does not want to see the pipe you’ve installed from four different angles. She wants to see the happy face of child who now has water.

That’s an important distinction that’s lost on many nonprofits. It’s important in the way you report back, and it’s even more important in the way you ask for funds.

You won’t get as many donors if you focus on the pipe. You’ll get a lot more if you focus on the people the pipe well help. Better yet if you focus on a person the pipe will help.

    Comments

    4 responses to “What donors are interested in”

    1. Claire Axelrad (@CharityClairity) Avatar
      Claire Axelrad (@CharityClairity)

      Could not agree more. Reminds me of the Magritte painting: C’est n’est-ce pas une pipe. It’s not a pipe. It’s the people who are helped by that pipe. Thanks for the reminder Jeff.

    2. Claire Axelrad (@CharityClairity) Avatar
      Claire Axelrad (@CharityClairity)

      Could not agree more. Reminds me of the Magritte painting: C’est n’est-ce pas une pipe. It’s not a pipe. It’s the people who are helped by that pipe. Thanks for the reminder Jeff.

    3. Mike Last Avatar
      Mike Last

      Hi. I have been browsing your blog and find it a great resource for fundraising. My company, Charity Helpers, supports various nonprofits by providing vacations. If you ever thought it appropriate we would be honored if you could create a discussion around the idea of vacationing for charity.
      We launched a site for non-profits to quickly build fundraising websites featuring $millions in donated vacations. To get started you can visit http://www.OneSpareWeek.com .
      We’ve done all the legwork gathering vacations. Here are a couple example sites:
      Komen – http://komenatl.onespareweek.com
      PressOn- http://presson.onespareweek.com
      I hope you’ll send me some feedback on our program and perhaps feature us in a future post or discussion. Thanks so much!
      Mike Last

    4. Mike Last Avatar
      Mike Last

      Hi. I have been browsing your blog and find it a great resource for fundraising. My company, Charity Helpers, supports various nonprofits by providing vacations. If you ever thought it appropriate we would be honored if you could create a discussion around the idea of vacationing for charity.
      We launched a site for non-profits to quickly build fundraising websites featuring $millions in donated vacations. To get started you can visit http://www.OneSpareWeek.com .
      We’ve done all the legwork gathering vacations. Here are a couple example sites:
      Komen – http://komenatl.onespareweek.com
      PressOn- http://presson.onespareweek.com
      I hope you’ll send me some feedback on our program and perhaps feature us in a future post or discussion. Thanks so much!
      Mike Last

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    Jeff BrooksJeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com. More.

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    The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here. More.

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    About the blogger

    Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 30 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.