Future Fundraising Now

Fundraising that works does one thing well

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by

Jeff Brooks
in

Did You Make Them Feel Good?

That’s the main question to ask about your fundraising, as posed by The Agitator.

Did you make it about the donor? Did you make it clear that sending a gift would enrich and empower them?

Fundraising that doesn’t do well, usually fails because it’s not about the donor:

… if your returns are disappointing, you probably weren’t standing in your donor’s shoes when you (or your henchmen) crafted the appeal. What did your appeal promise your donor that would have made him or her feel good about giving? As you re-read your messaging, if that promise doesn’t hit you hard, right in the chest, then your problem is clear.

That trumps all the other questions people get focused on:


  • Was it on brand?
  • Was the message too short or too long?
  • Too much passive voice?
  • Enough underlining?

None of those things matters anywhere near as much as Did we make them feel good?

    Comments

    2 responses to “Fundraising that works does one thing well”

    1. William Avatar
      William

      You have posed a few questions for campaigners to ask themselves about whether or not the prospective donor feels good.
      In that regard do you think there is any place for field workers to have hand held devices like ipads or phones with which they can show prospective donors on message videos or pictures?
      I understand that there are some companies now offering software to provide this as well as providing on the spot sign up and personal data capture.
      Do you think this kind of thing can be of any use?

    2. William Avatar
      William

      You have posed a few questions for campaigners to ask themselves about whether or not the prospective donor feels good.
      In that regard do you think there is any place for field workers to have hand held devices like ipads or phones with which they can show prospective donors on message videos or pictures?
      I understand that there are some companies now offering software to provide this as well as providing on the spot sign up and personal data capture.
      Do you think this kind of thing can be of any use?

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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.