Donor Relations—a One Way Street?

A sure sign that not much of anything worthwhile is being done in the area of donor relationships is the growing presence of lots of buzzwords surrounding this subject.

In reality, my guess is that more folks have married Kardashians than there are organizations that have become seriously engaged in building true relationships with donors.

The buzzwords and talk signal that "donor engagement," "donor experience" and "donor loyalty" are supposed to matter. In practice—as measured by expenditures of time and money—they really don’t.

Donor loyalty for most organizations is a one-way street. Donors are expected to be loyal to the organization. Sadly, the idea of the organization’s duty of loyalty to the donor is a passing thought at best and an annoyance at worst.