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Recently, we had a chat with Ruthellen Rubin, CFRE, a nonprofit consultant and professor at NYU\u2019s Heyman Center for Philanthropy & Fundraising, about the best ways for nonprofits to communicate with major donors.<\/p>\n
If you know how to address your biggest donors, you will inspire continued and increasing support. If you don\u2019t, however, you may lose a critical funding source. More tragically, you may turn off someone who wants to support your cause<\/em> but who no longer wants to support your organization<\/em>.<\/p>\n Below, we talk about the importance of gratitude, talk about how to find big donors among your small donors, and offer a few tips about meeting with prospective supporters. Here\u2019s what we learned:<\/p>\n It\u2019s Not About the Gift<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOne of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is to focus solely on the gift,\u201d said Rubin. Worse yet, if an organization is only communicating with the donor when they need a check, that person probably won\u2019t be a donor for long.<\/p>\n Instead, show appreciation often.<\/p>\n A basic guideline is to communicate gratitude three times for every time you ask for support. How do you do it?\u00a0 First, send out your official \u201cThank You\u201d notes immediately after you receive a gift. Then, at other times, send messages that show the positive impact your organization is making. The concept of the message is: \u201cYour support led directly to [insert wonderful outcome]<\/em> \u2013 you\u2019re a hero!\u201d<\/p>\n You can also pass along the wonderful personal messages you get from your beneficiaries that tell their stories and show how your nonprofit helped them out. The idea is to celebrate your donors, especially those who provide a lot of support, instead of making them feel like they carry a burden and nothing more.<\/p>\n Big Donors Come from Small Donors<\/strong><\/p>\n Not every major contributor starts out that way. Often, a big supporter will start out with small donations<\/a>\u00a0but will increase giving as he or she becomes more deeply connected to your organization. Provide opportunities for people to volunteer, meet your team, and become invested in a cause they care about. If they are able, they may want to provide additional support when they realize that they are a part of the cause and its community, instead of being separate from it.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Check People Off <\/strong><\/p>\n All right!\u00a0 You just got a substantial donation!\u00a0 Time to move on to the next supporter, right?\u00a0 No way. Rubin advises that \u201cThe more a supporter gives, the more you need to communicate with him or her.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a continuous feedback cycle, and you have to make sure that those who write big checks don\u2019t get ignored while you seek support from others.<\/p>\n Cultivating Big Donors<\/strong><\/p>\n Rarely is a big donation acquired by sending out a letter. Instead, most large donations are obtained through face-to-face meetings, and this is where your board comes in handy. If their friends, family, and colleagues are willing to meet with you, you\u2019re headed in the right direction.<\/p>\n The goal of the first meeting with a major donor prospect is to inform him or her about the work of your nonprofit, get feedback on your activities, and ask how he or she would like to be involved in the coming year. While some small organizations may feel pressed to ask for money quickly, a more effective strategy is to be patient and to cultivate the relationship over several meetings.<\/p>\n The key to continued success with major donors is to focus on the relationship and to let the rest take care of itself. Keep them informed and show appreciation often.<\/p>\n If you treat them like the heroes of your organization, that\u2019s just what they\u2019ll become.<\/p>\n You can learn more about Ruthellen at www.ruthellenrubin.com<\/a>, and you can also view her video series on donor acquisition here: www.getdonors.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, we had a chat with Ruthellen Rubin, CFRE, a nonprofit consultant and professor at NYU\u2019s Heyman Center for Philanthropy & Fundraising, about the best ways for nonprofits to communicate with major donors. If you know how to address your biggest donors, you will inspire continued and increasing support. If you don\u2019t, however, you may […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Olivia Hosey","author_link":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/author\/ohosey\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.causevox.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}