I recently read a post from Jim Langley of Langley Innovations. He noted that donors are interested in “more how and less wow”. You can read his message here. The underlying theme is that donors want to see the impact of their giving. Jim’s right. I want to build on what he wrote and suggest that by delivering more “how”, you can create more “wow”.
Donors want to see the impact of their contributions. This trend has been coming our way for a decade. I did my first presentation on innovations in annual giving back in 2013. In that presentation I showed organizations how to make giving tangible at all levels. I showed a designated giving model my team was using as an example of how to implement the concept in a complex organization. Designated giving offers donors a choice in how to allocate their contributions. Demonstrating impact gives donors a reason to give and inspires confidence.
One of the great fears I hear when discussing designated giving is the impact on operational expense or overhead. Donors are smart. They realize overhead is a cost of doing business. Don’t be shy about building in overhead expenses when developing a case statement for a new program. It takes people, materials, and systems to run effective, impactful, and sustainable programs. Explaining what that means for your organization’s project will only help build donor confidence. Transparency matters.
It’s also important to remember that not every project appeals to every donor. It’s essential that fundraisers take time to get to know their constituents, what inspires them, what difference do they hope to make? Taking the time to do front-end discovery work will help build strong and sustainable relationships with donors for generations to come that will drive meaningful change. Providing donors with choices reinforces an organization’s approach to a donor-centric fundraising model.
Allowing the donor to self-identify the programs they are interested in has a multitude of benefits. One of the most significant opportunities it provides is for meaningful stewardship. When a donor elects to designate their gift to a particular program, the organization has an opportunity to report back to that donor on something they know is meaningful. How? The donor told you what they care about by designating their contribution. I often follow up the standard gift acknowledgment with a personal letter for the program leader. This added touch allowed me to engage others in the philanthropic process and demonstrated the impact of giving to my colleagues. Faculty directly engaged in the work wrote more compelling stewardship letters than anyone on the development team could; they wrote about their passions.
By bringing “more how” to fundraising programs organizations can demonstrate transparency internally as well as externally. The process helps build relationships with donors while simultaneously contributing to a shared understanding of role philanthropy plays in a organization’s sustainability and growth. As nonprofit leaders, we have a responsibility to educate our communities on our mission and impact. By showing more how, we are able to deliver more wow.
