If you’re afraid of “donor fatigue,” I have some good news for you: There’s no such thing.
What we sometimes identify as “donor fatigue” is really fundraiser fatigue.
It happens when fundraisers get tired of their own messaging. Unwilling to enter our donors’ worlds, we stay in our own heads. And make mistakes like these:
- We create messages that are catered more to our needs than to donors’.
- We vary our messaging so donors can’t figure out what they can do through us.
- We get “clever” and turn our messages into mind puzzles.
- We try to bowl them over with facts about our cause (this is also called fundcrushing.
When we do those things, response falls off the table.
Funny how we ascribe the drop to a condition within donors. It’s our fault!
Serious fundraisers have powerful, consistent messages that reach donors where they are. They never experience “donor fatigue.”
Jeff 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.
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