Why Integrating Fundraising and Awareness-Generating Media is Essential

Because these branding and messaging elements are so vital to your organization, adding an audit of these to the research mentioned earlier will reveal just how much recognition and equity your existing logo and tag line hold. Chances are you might not need a whole new “face”; perhaps just a face lift will do.

Donor-focused print and Web

Fine-tuning your messaging is next. What you say in your communications also should reflect who you are today and have a strong donor focus. Connect donors directly to those served by their donations. Too many organizations unwittingly neglect to do this. Most organizations are institutionally focused when it comes to communications, failing to involve the donor directly, missing this opportunity to build a meaningful relationship with the very people who enable the organization to exist and grow.

Which brings us to the exploratory stage of the donor relationship, where donors take some initiating steps to gather more information to determine if there are common ground and interests they share with your organization. Communication from the donor at this point is still fairly superficial and passive. In the not-too-distant past, this was achieved by providing printed materials and literature to prospective donors, and to a degree still is.

However, today more and more of this information-gathering step taken by potential donors and volunteers is accomplished online. That’s why your Web site is such a critical ingredient in your organization’s communications and branding mix. Your site needs to reflect your organization and its mission, be clearly and succinctly written, designed to reflect your branding, and easy to use and navigate.

With a well written and designed Web site, potential donors and volunteers often will move fairly quickly from the exploratory stage of the relationship to the commitment stage by making a donation of money or time. Online giving grew more than 50 percent each year in the last two years alone. And this growth trend has every indication of continuing. That’s why placing the development and/or upgrade of this vital communications vehicle into the hands of proven professionals is a must.