Things to Consider This Week (A-E)

Then step back a few feet and take a bird's-eye view of what your donors see month after month. Is it exciting? Or is it predictable enough to become "white noise" in the lives of your donors? Change for change's sake isn't the goal here, but consider if your communications are varied enough to keep your donors engaged.

C is for convenience
Now, take a look at your online donation page, your printed reply cards and any other method you provide for a donor to make a gift. Are you inadvertently hurting response by sacrificing convenience for your donors for easier processing or a savings of a few cents by using smaller paper?

When the ask on the reply form is so small a donor can't read it without a magnifying glass, it's time to free up space for a larger font by moving some of the corporate copy to the back or even using a larger form. And if making a donation online requires going through multiple pages and entering more details than are required to get a mortgage, you need to come up with a streamlined system.

(Wonder how you stack up? Go online and give small donations to a few nonprofits you admire or who are your competitors. How's the experience?)
D

on't drive away potential donors by making it too inconvenient to donate to you. Some will give up and never come back.

D is for dollars
Are you telling your donor what a gift of $25 or $100 can do? Have you worked with your program staff and accounting team to figure this out? Many donors don't want to give donations that (in their minds) go into a black hole; they want to support something tangible and know what it is they are making possible.