What Happens If You Listen to Donors Too Much?

Maybe you're listening to your donors too much. Surprised to hear me ask that?

After all, fundraisers are completely in the business of supplying donors with what they want and need. The problem is, what they tell you they want is so often not at all what really motivates them to respond.

Virtuous blog tells the sad tale of some customer-listening done by Wal-Mart, in "When Not Listening to Your Donors Is the Right Thing to Do."

Seems the retail giant did some research and found out that most customers wished the stores were "less cluttered." I get that. I would have said the same thing.

So Wal-Mart got less cluttered. And sales dropped $1.9 billion. Why?