Do You Treat Your Donors Like Gumballs? Stop!

Do you get your donor’s gift, chew it up, and then spit it out? Done?

It’s time to bring some clarity to this all-too-common practice of treating your donor’s gift as the “end” rather than the “beginning.”

Want your donors to sustain you?

Then you can’t consume them in five minutes. Yet all too often nonprofits treat their donors exactly like a gumball dispensed from a machine. Chew it up. Spit it out. Done.

Oh yeah, maybe you send a quick "thanks" to whomever gave you the change to buy the gum. But that’s as far as your gratitude takes you. You’re over it. You never even think about that gumball again. You probably can’t even remember what color it was. You’re off hunting down your next snack.

Little snacks are nice. But they won’t sustain you over time. One-time donations are the same way. And they’ll stay that way—one time—if you treat them the way you treat gumballs.

You’ve got to think from the perspective of the gumball.

It’s perfectly happy to have you enjoy it. That’s why it’s there. But it wants to know it made an impact. Tell it how happy you are with it. Tell it you think its color is pretty (that means, of course, that you have to take notice). Blow a bubble. Tuck it away to save it for later. Write it a note. Invite some of its friends over to your place. Find out more about it. Think of it fondly, and let it know now and again. Don’t wait until the next time you want a gumball to tell this one how you feel.

OK, the metaphor may be breaking down a bit, but you get the picture.

Think about building a relationship with your gumball (aka donor). 

No one enjoys being simply tossed into the trash (or your donor database) and then being forgotten about.

If a donor makes a gift and you simply dispense an automated "thank you," and nothing more, that’s not a donor relationship. That’s a transaction.

You can have 100, 1,000 or 100,000 transactions this year. But that’s just now. They may help you balance your annual ledgers, but they won’t move the needle on solving your overarching problem or reaching your ultimate vision over time.

One-time gifts are here today, gone tomorrow.

In fact, the most recent Fundraising Effectiveness Project shows that a whopping 73 percent of first-time donors won’t give again. Every 100 donors gained is offset by 102 donors lost through attrition. Zowie!

You’ve got to transform transactions into something longer lasting.

Stop with the spitting out of snacks. Start with creating some nourishing meals. To clairify, let’s use another metaphor—the potluck.

When I’m asked to bring snacks, paper goods or a beverage, I run to the store at the last minute and grab a little something. I’m not too invested. However, when I’m asked to bring a main course that will serve 10, then I get serious. I think about what I’ll make. I buy enough ingredients to serve the full group. I make sure I don’t flake out because people are depending on me for the main meal. Even if I get sick, I’ll make sure that somehow the meal gets there. That’s how you want your donors to feel!

Your donors needs to know you rely on them. 

You’re all about solving problems, right? Well so is your donor. They need to know they’re essential to your survival.  It’s your job to let them know. If they ask how much you need, don’t say “any gift helps.” That’s like telling me to bring “whatever” to the potluck. It makes me feel unimportant, and certainly doesn’t fire my imagination.

If you’ve been treating your donors like gumballs, stop!

Here are five tips to transform one-time donors to sustainers:

1. Thank immediately, with gusto.
I’ve created a free Donor Thank You Calls e-book and Scripts to get you started, as well as these resources: How to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude and Keep Your Donors, Creative Ways to Thank Your Donors and Keep Them for Life and 48 Hours: Your Donor Acknowledgment Solution Kit.

Savor the moment of this first gift. Remember, first gifts are where the relationship building begins. They aren’t where it ends. A study conducted by Charity Dynamics and NTEN shows that 21 percent of donors said they were never thanked for their support. Don’t be one of the bad guys.

2. Pay attention to any particularities.
Did they ask to remain anonymous? Do they want you to mail only once a year? Did they ask you not to send a written thank you? Is there contact information on their check that isn’t yet in your database? Make a record of whatever you notice and put this into your database so you can create reports, queries and donor segments later on (if you don’t notice the gumball is blue, you can’t group it in your database with all other blue gumballs, nor can you indicate in your thank you what a lovely blue color your donor was sporting).

3. Develop and implement a donor stewardship plan.
Donors want to know their money didn’t go into a black hole. Tell them right away that you got their gift. Show them the impact of their gift through photos, videos, client thank-you letters, etc. Offer your donors opportunities of value to them (e.g., non-fundraising events, volunteer opportunities, chances to make their voices heard through social media). Make sure you touch on donors more than once before you ask for another gift.

4. Wrap engagement opportunities into your stewardship plan.
The goal is to learn more about your donor, and to reveal more of yourself to them. This is what’s called a relationship, and it requires an investment of time—both on your and your donor’s part. Once a donor becomes engaged they’re much more likely to become invested further. That’s why Publisher’s Clearinghouse makes you tear off and affix a zillion stickers to your sweepstakes entry. They want you to have some skin in the game. The wedding comes after the engagement. If you want folks to say “I do,” don’t rush it.

5. Always be donor-centered.
Today’s donors can be found in many different places. Maybe your first gumball came from a machine. But gumballs also hang out in boxes on shelves in stores. And you can find them in piñatas. If you want to consistently find them, you have to look in all the places they are. If you want folks to be there for you, you’ve got to be there for them. It’s just common sense. So find out which social channels your supporters frequent (you can do a simple survey using Google Forms or Survey Monkey); then engage your donors where they are.

Donors aren’t gumballs; they’re people.

Don’t you like it when people make an effort to get to know you? And when they then show you they know you?  It’s pretty simple, but for some reason most nonprofits don’t do it all that well.

You’ve got to do better, because research reveals folks are giving to fewer nonprofits. By becoming the exception, you’ll have a competitive edge.

P.S. One way to assure you rock your donor stewardship is to think about how you’re going to handle donations—and what you’re going to do to make your donor feel all warm and fuzzy—before the gifts start to arrive. So, as you’re planning your year-end fundraising campaigns, wrap this into the mix. If you want to learn more about this, I hope you’ll join me for Your Ultimate Guide to Powerful Year-End Fundraising.

What’s your favorite donor stewardship tip?