The old truth of fundraisers says that fundraising is not about money, but first and above all it is about relationships. It is about connecting our supporters to our missions, to the impact and change we as activists and fundraisers are striving to achieve in our society. It is about turning our fans and friends into supporters. Only when a certain level of awareness and engagement in target groups is achieved support from donors can start flowing to support our missions.
In order to build this awareness, engagement and relationships, we need to communicate. We need to communicate pro-actively, we need to communicate in an inspiring, trustworthy and genuine way. And we need to do it frequently and on a constant basis. In fact, one of the major reasons why most donors leave us and cease their support is a lack of communication from organization they have been supporting. NGOs many times do not have sufficient capacities or do not consider it crucial to develop and deliver frequent and engaging communication with their stakeholders. Feeling abandoned and forgotten the existing supporters then often get frustrated and leave.
In order to connect and build relationships we need to ideally engage in an as-personal-as possible communication. It is essential that we speak and engage in person with bigger supporters and major donors. They often require much detailed information about our mission, work and projects. But with many smaller supporters it is also important that we try to connect as closely and personally as possible. This is best achieved by using particular information we have gathered on our donors and by personalization of automated email or letter communication.
In order to bear fruits effective fundraising communication needs to follow a certain logic. There are four elements that should be included:
1. Problem or need statement
2. Proposed solution and its impact
3. Sense of urgency
4. Call to action
First, in our communication we need to focus on the problem or need. We have to explain how the problem negatively affects our target group, community or society. This may be e.g. exclusion of children due to limited access to education or growing corruption of public officials or declining opportunities for the vulnerable.
Then we need to propose and explain how our mission and work helps to solve the problem or meet the identified need. We can promote here our work which is delivered thanks to support of our supporters (not thanks to our own greatness), e.g. in growing educational opportunities for kids or increasing public control over authorities’ practices or creating new growing offerings for minorities or the deprived.
In order to be able to raise funds, we need to create a certain sense of urgency. We should let the donors know why it is important to support the proposed solution here and now. We can stress more damage or pity or negative effects will be caused if nothing is done to tackle the problem or need.
And finally, do not forget to ask for (financial) support in your fundraising communication. After all, fundraising is mostly about asking – if you do not ask for support, you will not get one! Asking for support is not begging. Neither it is asking to cover your cost or supporting struggling organizational budget. Asking for support is rather an invitation for supporters to join our meaningful mission through financial or in-kind support. And do not forget to let your potential supporters know what they can achieve with different levels of your support. After all, they should know what their donation can achieve and how it will be used by you.
Focus is king. NGOs often tend to speak about their needs, costs they have to cover or their achievements. Yet more engaging supporter communication puts the donors, their active involvement at the forefront. We should refocus the communication from us and our needs to donors (you) and their needs. At the same time, do not speak about your activities, projects, numbers and staff involvement. Rather bring to the front the impact which has been achieved and how the problem has been solved. Donors want to hear about your solutions and they want to become part of the solution. Donors do not get excited when they hear talking about your needs.
Some concrete examples how this communication could be reformulated:
- We have built three new playgrounds for disadvantaged children.
> You have helped to bring new growing opportunities for disadvantaged children to play and learn. - This problem has been solved thanks to our involvement and our skilled staff.
> This problem has been solved thanks to you and your generous support which made involvement of our staff possible. - Our organization has contributed to lowering unemployment of this marginalised group by 50 % in 10 years.
> It is you who has helped to lower the unemployment of this marginalised group by half in one decade! Thank you!
Emotion is key. If we want our supporters to open their wallets or mobile phones, first we need to open their hearts. Our fundraising communication thus needs to be emotional. It is important that it evokes either positive or negative emotions with recipients. We bring emotions to our communication through stories and emotional storytelling.
The best are stories of an individual person on which we demonstrate the need, solution and urgency of donors’ support. Rational arguments, reasoning and numbers (especially big numbers of thousands target groups) do not work so well in fundraising compared to an emotional story of one affected individual. Human psychology causes supporters can better personally relate to one such story then shocking statistics about thousands and millions affected. And they will tend to support the story of one individual more than a story of thousands of victims.
So to sum it up – focus your fundraising communication from your organization to your donors. Talk about the needs of your target groups and problems being solved. Use personal communication with emotional stories which engage recipients. And never ever forget to ask for support!
