4 more things that make a fundraising offer powerful

A couple of weeks ago, I told you that the basics of a fundraising offer is these three things:

• Problem
• Solution
• Invitation

Today I’m going to tell you a few more things to on that foundation:

Cost

As often as possible, connect the problem and its solution with the donor’s pocketbook. (It’s not always possible.) You’re asking for money; you need to talk about money.

That means putting a ”price” on tangible items, like meals, shoes, nights in a shelter, books — whatever it is you do.

This is not always possible. It may be your work doesn’t do tangible things. Or maybe the cost of your tangible things is a tough sell. (You really don’t want to talk abut the cost of medical supplies!)

Either way, you need to suggest donation amounts that make sense for each donors. Try hard to make your suggested amounts:

• A good deal. The best offers give donors “bang for the buck.” The strongest offers seem amazingly inexpensive for what they accomplish.
• Leverage. Meaning low cost (such as the one-cent vitamin or the $1.79 meal), big impact (digging a well in Africa may cost hundreds of dollars, but the positive impact is deep, wide, and long lasting)or multiplication. Or all three.

Urgency

A fundraising offer should have time sensitivity built into it — something that makes putting off giving untenable. Use approaches like these:

• A deadline for response. A window of opportunity will close. Maybe the problem will get worse. The more real, connected to the problem, and non-arbitrary your deadline is, the better.
• A holiday or other seasonal reason to respond on time. Christmas gifts delivered in time for Christmas are much more motivating than ordinary gifts at any old time.
• Tell them in a specific way what’s going to happen if the project isn’t funded.

Simplicity

When you free yourself from the need to explain everything in depth, you’ll be able to state your fundraising offer in one sentence.

One sentence that contains no professional jargon. One sentence of simple, colloquial language. That means your statement of the offer will fail to express all of the information and nuance that your staff want to see in it.

But your donors will be more likely to understand and respond.

Donor benefits

Some fundraisers think we have nothing to sell but a tax deduction and a bit of “warm glow.” Boy, are they missing the boat!

Giving is packed with benefits for givers. A rich fundraising offer reminds donors of some of those benefits. It raises the value of supporting the cause beyond its merit for improving the world. Donors are well aware of many of the benefits of giving. Even so, don’t miss an opportunity to remind them of the good things that will come back to them as a result of their gift. Things like:

• Your gift will make our community a better place. (Or our state, nation, world — it depends on your cause.) Be specific about how they make the community better. Maybe your social service agency will decrease poverty, which will improve the economy and quality of life for everyone. Maybe the community will be more beautiful, more livable, more prestigious, more fun.
• Help conquer the disease before it strikes you. This is a motivation for a lot of health charity giving.
• Your support will assure that you get something you value. This is the cornerstone benefit of most arts and public broadcast fundraising.
• Improve the reputation of your school, which improves your own reputation.

There are also the general benefits of giving. They can apply to any offer, any time. Look for ways to include some of these in your fundraising:

• Giving is obedient to your faith. (It’s obedient to all of them.)
• Giving will make you feel good about yourself.
• Giving is tax deductible. (Not a big deal to very many, but a motivator for some.)

Excerpted from The Money-Raising Nonprofit Brand: Motivating Donors to Give, Give Happily, and Keep on Giving by Jeff Brooks

See more posts in this series.