Your donors are different, until they are not

Many nonprofits start out like this:

A person or group sees a problem (or an opportunity) that they have a vision to improve. So they create an organization to tackle the problem and make the world a better place.

That person or group, and the people who join them in the work, are typically experts or professionals at solving problems of that type.

Those are the inner circle, not only of leadership, but of donors to the cause.

Then they start attracting like-minded (and like-experienced) people as volunteers, staff, board members and other donors. This often includes friends and family members. People who really get it.

When it goes well, it’s a wonderful time of growth. These kind of knowledgable and closely connected donors are amazing. Their giving is high. Most of them are in it for the duration.

Donor value is amazing. Donor retention is way beyond most organizations’.

Then something strange happens.

Growth slows.

Sometimes even stops.

They try to keep getting new donors, but it really doesn’t work.

It’s because during that initial stage of growth — which can last up to a few years — they have a group of spectacularly well-suited donors.

And that’s a limited population.

If they want to keep growing, they’re going to have to reach beyond that inner circle. To people who are not as connected, less expert, and paying a lot less attention.

It’s a hard transition, because to keep growing, they need to change their messaging. Not radically so, but they have to adjust to the reality of a new type of donors.

And that’s hard. Because they’re used to what they’ve been doing. And they usually like to talk the way they’ve been talking.

So they resist change, saying Our donors are different!

Which is true.

But a barrier to continued growth.

The Better Fundraising Blog notes this challenge, at Your Donors ARE Different … When You’re Small.

To keep growing, you need to transition over to a different type of fundraising: Fundraising from like-minded people who are not experts and/or don’t know anyone in your organization personally.

And that means using fundraising “tactics.” Like telling stories. Like underlining key points. Longer messages. Simplifying your messages. Because, as the Better Fundraising Blog says, these tactics are “proven to help [you] grow beyond [your] current group of donors.”

It’s a tough transition to make. It doesn’t feel right to many. Some of your original close-in donors might even notice your “tactics” and comment about them — because they are different from a wider audience.

But unless your first-stage organically grown audience is large enough to fund your work, you need to make the switch.

Or stay small. With your “different” donors.