Gosh, Look at the Time! ⌛

Time is a weird construct. When we were kids, it seemed like it took forever for our birthday to arrive. And summer vacation felt like a long time. My grandmother--a feisty gal that anyone reading this blog would have loved…now that woman had moxie—used to tell me that the older you get the faster time goes. The older I get, the more that feels true. She was a wise and sassy lass.

Then, there was Covid-time. Looking back at pictures, emails, posts, and memories recently, it’s hard to believe that it was nearly two years ago that the world shut down. When they halted the first major sporting event—I knew it was about to get real…that never happens!

It was also the week we got Rocket. You know him, you love him—the Dog’s out, Blog’s Out mascot, Rocket! We got him the first Friday of Covid lockdown and he’s been an enormous part of our family ever since. I’m so glad I didn’t have to endure the Covid quarantine without him. He’s starred in many Zoom calls, slept through endless PowerPoint slide decks, rested his chin on my keyboard to remind me to take a break, and he even has a bed in my office. Life with Rocket sure did make the time go by faster when it felt like the world stopped turning. I’m so thankful for our little Rocketboii!

And now, this week in Indiana and lots of other states, we’re participating in Daylight Saving’s Time. That means we all lost an hour of time as our clocks sprung forward by one full hour. It does mess with my body clock for at least 2 weeks. But it is nice to have more light in the evenings, so we don’t have to leave work in the dark anymore.

What’s important to note here is that time…even one hour…does make a difference. Time is a valuable commodity—one no one of any socio-economic status can get it back. Once it's spent, it's gone. So, we need to respect it. Our time and our donor's time--all the time.

So, this week’s blog highlights how we can be respectful of the time we spend on what we do and the time we take when we interact with our donors.

Left Brain Marketing Methods: As fundraisers, we’re used to making a case for our nonprofit mission and seeking out donors who have an affinity for what we do and the capacity to donate to the cause. Heck, we track total donations, average donations, numbers of donations, etc., etc., etc. It’s just what we do. But it’s a worthy endeavor to consider that a dollar donated can be earned again. But a minute spent is gone forever. So, when we ask a donor to commit their time to us, we need to make that time a quality investment. There are left brain marketing methods that can help us do this.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie: The time a donor spends with you, whether that’s in person or via your marketing and communications is still time—that one commodity that we cannot get back. That means when we decide to have an event or send a direct mail piece that it needs to speak a message that the donor needs to hear in order to be a valuable use of their time. Do they know why you’re sending the message? Does the message that you are communicating resonate with them? This is more than being stampworthy—this is being timeworthy. Luckily, there are dashes of right brain marketing moxie that can guide what you create and how you ultimately will be utilizing your donor’s time. You can do this—🎵 tiiii-ime is on your side🎵. (I really hope you just sang that!) 

Gosh, look at the time!  Let’s get started!

Left Brain Marketing Methods: The dollars you raise are vital to your organization’s sustainability and the movement of your mission; no one would argue that. However, for donors to continue to donate in bigger ways annually, you need to respect their time. That means knowing who your donors are and the messages they need to hear. We do this by segmenting our donors into categories where the donors have commonalities.

Your database will be helpful to you as you begin to look at your donor categories. Some segments are easy--like past and present board members. Others might be more difficult to decide. But you could begin by thinking about prospects in some of these categories:

• Fund Contacts
• Professional Advisors
• Top 50 Prospects from past 5 years
• Top 50 Prospects of all time
• Unrestricted Prospects
• New Donors
• Loyal Donors
• Pass-Through Donors
• Scholarship Recipients
• Grant Recipients
• Farmers
• Business Owners

The point is, your database is your data brain. Let it help you make decisions about what your segments should be and who should be in them. Then, while you’re add it, determine how many you can manage in each segment. After all, you only have some much time in your day, too! And your time is also valuable. How many can you manage to steward in each segment in a way that is not a watered down ‘or current resident’ message? For you it may be 25. For someone else it may be 100. For us it’s 50. So, we work hard one time per year to make decisions about what our segments will be and who will be in them. Then, the rest of the year we steward, market, and communicate to those segments. Each time, layering the messages we send to build upon the last and all the time building the relationship with those donors. Yes, fundraising is part science.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie: But fundraising is also part art. And there is a clever way to ensure that the message you communicate with each of your scientific segments is not only worthy of their time, but intentional with a message that is important to them. For example, a 30-year-old doesn’t need to receive information about the IRA Rollover that applies to those 70½ or over. And a 70½- year-old doesn't need to receive information about giving via Venmo.

To help you, meet my friend IDA.  IDA is your Ideal Donor Avatar. And avatar is an icon or figure representing a particular person. So, when you create an avatar for each donor segment, you’re identifying the commonalities that your Ideal Donor in that segment has—your Ideal Donor Avatar. IDA is around to remind you that each donor segment you have should have their own IDA, so you can think about IDA whenever you’re writing to your designated donor segment. Let me explain.

It’s by far more difficult to write an effective letter with no recipient in mind. That’s where IDA comes in. For example, let’s say you’re planning a direct mail piece to a donor segment of past board members. To write that communication piece well, create an IDA for Past Board Members.  If you combined all the donors from your past board members donor segment into one description, what would they all have in common? That’s who IDA is. And each time you write your donor communications, you can write it as if you’re writing to that one, very real, person. Time may fly, but you're the pilot. Act accordingly and make the marketing come alive by communicating to a specific donor type and not creating a diluted mass mailing that anyone could receive. That would be a waste of time for your most valuable donors who have both an affinity for what you do and the capacity to follow through with the actions that your nonprofit needs most. 

You might be thinking, "But Dawn, I don’t know what all of their commonalities are”. I get it. You won’t. But you do know some of them—start there. It’s far better than what you’re likely doing now. Ask yourself what some of their common concerns, celebrations, and challenges might be. And look at what kind of contact have they all had with you in the past? Then, as you learn more, tweak your IDA, so you can dial in on what they truly care about and what information they might like to hear from you to get them to act. Some simple commonalities might be sex, geography, education, and age. You may know if they are readers, social media lovers, or have families. Do they work or are they retired? What are their current fears, dreams, goals, and what do they truly value? Then think about how they might think or feel if they partnered with you and your mission. How could that help them with their fears, dreams, goals, and what they truly value? What are their pain points and what do they desire the most—and then based on your organization’s mission, how could what you do serve them well? 

Again, you’ll be guessing about some of this. But you do know them. They’ve made it all the way to a segment that you have decided to steward, so your data tells you something about them. You can make some educated guesses on the rest until you learn more and put a laser-like focus on exactly who your IDA really is. THAT is a good use of YOUR time!

Some of you already have IDA’s in mind. Great! Others are feeling unsure. No worries. If you’re feeling stuck with what to communicate to any specific donor group, just ask them. Seriously, it’s that easy. Give one of two of them from each group a call and ask them some pointed questions that will help define your IDA and go from there. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…knowledge is power. The better you know your donors, the stronger the partnership you can have with them. It’s worthy work that helps you to create stampworthy communications. And it’s also a respectful use of your donor’s time. Now when they receive something from you, it will feel more meaningful and purposeful. Both are key because when causes have meaning and purpose to a donor, they’re more likely to act upon your request.

Good ‘ole Ben Franklin taught us a lot about philanthropy, so it’s no surprise that he also said ‘time is money’—and again, he was right. Invest your time, and the time of your donors, wisely…it’s self-care and wealth-care. Besides, you never want to leave donors feeling like Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec felt about the government. When it comes to IDA vs. Ron...IDA wins.

All My Best,

dawn ⌛
[email protected]
dawn brown creative llc.