Time to Throw in the Towel

I did something this week that I haven’t done for 30 years—I got all new bath towels. I know, I'm walkin' on the wild side! Of course, throughout the years, I’ve bought towels here and there. But this time I replaced them all with these beautiful, matching, fluffy, absorbent rectangles from Heaven. Is anyone reading this a little jelly? If it weren't happening to me, I would be! It was time to throw in the towel on my old, tired towels! Although a towel is such a minor part of each day, it is part of every day. We shower daily. And we had boys who sometimes showered more than once a day—thankfully! So, you’d think I’d prioritize this household necessity. But I didn’t. It just goes to show, no matter what it is in life, if you’re not intentional, it just might not happen.

That’s what nonprofit marketing, stewardship, and communication is all about—intentionality. If you don’t make this a priority, there will always be some other urgency that will take its place—a grant, a board meeting, a board member, an audit, a pandemic…you get the idea. New towels aren’t a luxury item for most of us, but like donor communications—something else that’s part of our daily lives—it’ll easily get neglected. If you’re not careful, one day you’ll look at your processes and procedures and wonder why your marketing plan is fragile, frayed, filled with holes, and barely getting the job done. Like Will Rogers once said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

You may have an asset development plan or a donor communication plan that’s sitting on a shelf somewhere or that’s become optional. Maybe you don’t even have that, but you wing it from week to week depending on the level of chaos that ensues. That’s the beginning of the end, my friend. Because if you don’t prioritize communication with your donors, someone else will—and that could be the nonprofit next door. You’re reading this blog, so you’re on the right track—don’t just sit there. We all need good towels and a good marketing program.

This week’s blog contains the following left brain marketing methods and right brain marketing moxie--

Left Brain Marketing Methods: One of the Seven Principles of Influence is Authority. Let’s talk about using this to your advantage without operating in fire drill mode.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie: Common Sense 101 tells us that you should never ask anyone to contribute to a cause unless you’ve done so yourself. But how can you expand this concept to gain donor loyalty? Well, you’re about to find out.

Let’s go…

Left Brain Marketing Methods: As you know, the left brain is all about logic, facts, and analysis. Of course, many of these things can be grabbed straight from your database. But that’s not the only place you can grab quality data; anecdotal data is equally valuable. We have what we call a Brag Board in the hallway right next to the back entrance of our office. This bulletin board houses the most recent compliments, emails, quotes, and testimonials from our donors. (They go into a basket when the board gets full, which is often!)

We might grab a quote and place it smack dab in the middle of a donor communication piece or add it into our Gift Acknowledgement Letter (GAL). We’ve even use the hashtag #OverheardAtTheCommunityFoundation on social media just to share with our readers why someone else, like them, believes the mission they support (our mission) is so worthy.

Most of the time, we just use a donor’s first name to give credit. Although the full name could be used with permission. These quotes are votes of support that help us leverage one of the Seven Principles of Influence—Authority. Donors like to see that there are others that recommend their favorite nonprofit. Seth Godin says it’s the concept of ‘people like us do things like that.’  They see others enjoying their giving experience with us and it resonates with them.

And to be 100% transparent, there’s an added benefit to collecting anecdotal data from donors or other professionals who advocate for what you do. Sometimes when you’re having a tough day as happens with systemic, solution-oriented nonprofit work, you can always take a 5-minute break and go read those cathartic words of encouragement. It will give you all the feels. Then, take a deep breath, count to 10, and get back to it.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie:  We have an unwritten rule with our team. When we sign our donor communications, we sign them with our name and title, followed by ‘and Donor.’ So, my letters are signed: Dawn Brown, President/CEO and Donor. I want donors to know that I’d never consider asking anyone to donate to a cause that I don’t support myself. In my opinion, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are multiple ways that you can show your donors that you have many things in common. Again, it’s the Godin principle of ‘people like us do things like this.’

If you’ve been reading my blog recently, you know that our Annual Report was just published in January. Well, we have two value-added things that we add to our report each year to share with our donors—add-ons that are both fun and useful. Two juicy elements that not everyone takes advantage of, but those who do really love—a playlist and a book list.

This year our theme is Space: A Philanthropic Frontier, so every song on our playlist has a spacey twist. Elton John’s Rocket Man, of course. But also, Taylor Swift’s Blank Space (we take creative liberty), Frank Sinatra and Count Basie’s Fly Me to the Moon, Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World, and CCR’s Bad Moon Rising. Then, we had to add Space Cowboy by the Steve Miller Bank, Rapture by Blondie, Walkin’ on the Sun by Smashmouth, Defying Gravity from Wicked, and Moondance by Van Morrison. Who knew there were so many space-themed songs from various decades of music past?

We even use one of the songs each year as our hold music song—and donors love it! This year it’s Dancing in the Moonlight by Toploader. People actually comment on our hold music! That’s because music is nostalgic and most everyone loves it. This is just one more way we can relate to donors, add some fun value, and show them we have yet another thing in common. Like Prince said, “Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here together to get through this thing called life.” We’re all in this together…both music and generosity help.

As a total sidebar: At last month’s Board Meeting we had an icebreaker question just to get to know each other better. It was: If you were a wrestler, what would your walk-out song be? We all answered, laughed, and then we turned the results into a playlist. I don’t know when or where we’ll use it—but we will and it will be fabulous! What we continually learn is that it just so happens we all have a lot in common. We work here. We live here. We play here. We give here. We all love our mission and music, too—but we also believe that fundraising can be fun. Changing the world for the better often is.

We also believe that Leaders are Readers, so we provide some value-add there, as well. We have a bi-monthly book club at the office, which means we have several faves that we want to share with others. So, we've posted our recommended reading list on GoodReads.com to show our donors that we’re lifelong learners and we love to share our knowledge with them, too. That's Knowledge Generosity at its finest!

Sure, you know these people and communicate with them because they are your donors. But they are also fully whole people who are parents, grandparents, coaches, teachers, businesspeople, music lovers, readers, etc. They aren’t one-dimensional beings. And because of that, we have even more in common with them than just the nonprofit mission we both believe in. And those commonalities can lead to donor loyalty. Because people like us do things like listen to good music, dance in the moonlight, read good books and quirky blogs, donate to charity, and buy new towels.

It's time to throw in the towel on boring, listless fundraising. Help me put the fun back in fundraising!

All My Best,

dawn
[email protected]