Year-end is coming!  And online gifts will spike up in December. (We hope!)

Especially the last two days of the year.

Is your web site ready to handle all this attention?

And, did you know that most donors check out your web site before they make a gift? And they do this whether they are giving online or through the mail.

So your web site needs to tell a happy story about your cause. It needs to welcome donors and visitors.

It needs to have the information that donors are looking for:

1. Easy navigation.

When someone comes to your site, can they find out what they want easily?

Don’t make your donor have to think.

Make everything clear, plain and easy to read and understand.

Use a startling headline or a vivid image to engage your donor quickly.

If your navigation is confusing, you’ll probably lose your donor.

2. Lots of pictures and fewer words.

Terrific photos tell your story visually.  And on your web site, images are more compelling than words.

Your donors are skimming, skimming – quickly, quickly.

Lots of words, cumbersome phrasing, crowded text will drive them away quickly.

Verbosity can kill you on a web site. Let great pictures do the talking.

3.  Links to your Guidestar and Charity Navigator profiles.

I don’t  like this any more than you do, especially Charity Nav. But here’s the reality:

Donors today want to check out your overhead costs. They are obsessing over admin costs.

Yes, it’s crazy. (How can you run a nonprofit without admin costs? – just don’t get me started on this!)

See my post: “How to Talk To Your Donors About Overhead Costs.”

Make it easy for donors to find this information. You will build trust.

4.Credibility.

Since donors are more mistrustful of institutions and organizations these days, try to convey credibility by sharing:

• your board members names (who’s standing behind this organization? who’s accountable?)
• your track record – successes
• longevity (a long track record means a lot)
• endorsements
• testimonials

5. A clear call to action.

Donors are in a hurry. If they come to visit, by all means, TELL THEM WHAT YOU NEED THEM TO DO!

You should have a call to action in everything you do, everything you send out, and on every web page.

6. An easy way to donate.

Don’t make your donor work to find out how to give. Don’t make them hunt.

Put the DONATE NOW button clearly where they can find it.

Show them the easy way.

Or you may lose them.

7. A simple donation form.

I hear horror stories of how many donors ABANDON nonprofit donation pages.  I’ve heard figures as high as 96% of people who visit the page, will never complete the form.

Just think how many times you’ve loaded up a shopping cart in an online store – and never completed the checkout process.

Consider this: every box your donor has to fill in increases her impatience with the process.

And if she gets to the point of frustration, you’ve probably lost her.

8. A page titled “Your Gifts At Work.”

In this recession, donors want to see the impact of their gifts.

They want to know exactly where their money is going and how it’s being used.

Lay it out clearly for them in pie charts: where your money comes from and where it goes.

Make it plain and simple.

This is what transparency really means: sharing the details of how much money you are raising and what you do with it.

9. Interaction.

Invite interaction with your web visitors.

Offer a chance for doors to have a dialog with you. Perhaps a survey to answer.  Can they post a comment?

Donors want the ability to comment, to discuss, to learn more about you.

Get your web site visitor involved: Ask them to volunteer or take some action.

Always ask for more than money. Treat people like real people, not like they are wallets.

10. Physical address and phone.

I wish I had a penny for every time I had to hunt, hunt, hunt for a darned phone number or a street address.

What’s with it when a nonprofit doesn’t include this essential info?

Give your donor easy access to you.  Be welcoming.

And your donor may reward you with a gift, and another gift!

Was this list helpful? Leave a comment and say why or why not!

Donor-centered means it's all about the donor!

You’ve probably heard all the talk about making all your appeals in a “donor-centered” fashion.

But what does “donor-centered” really mean? What does it look like in action?

We all know what we are supposed to do.

We’re supposed to make it all about the donor and not about our organization.

It’s easy to pay lip service to this idea, but putting it into practice is much harder than it may seem.

How do you actually implement donor-centered communications?

This letter was a huge hit in my FREE webinars this week, “Where to Find the Donors This Fall: Fine Tune Your Year-End Appeals.”

Everybody wanted a copy of the letter so I wanted to make it available on my blog.

And the webinars were so popular and heavily subscribed that I added an extra session next Monday night, November 7, at 7pm ET. Join me!

Here’s what a donor-centered appeal looks like.

I wrote this last week for one of my favorite consulting clients – a  hospital foundation.

The smart development staff there is eager to learn everything I’m teaching them about fundraising for today’s donor.

And we’ve been working on best practices in direct mail – how to make letters sound personal, more casual and friendly.

The original unedited letter we developed went a bit like this:

Dear Mr. Donor:

Did you know that last year Smith Hospital:

• got this award expanded
• this center of medicine
• brought in xx number of new doctors
• did this, did that, etc.
  

It was a nice letter, written in the correct tone we had been working on, with bullets and white space.

And I liked that the word “you” showed up immediately in the first sentence.

But the letter seemed all about the hospital, and not about the donor.

What the donor wants to hear, and what you want to say are probably totally different.

So I sat down and, just brainstorming with the staff, came up with this letter instead.

And I think this is a true sample of what people mean by “donor-centered.”

Can it be improved? Sure it can.  I’d like to see it be much more specific. But it’s a step in the right direction.

Here is a letter that’s is friendly, casual, heart-felt and even a bit intimate.

Its tone is very personal. It has short sentences, action verbs, lots of white space.

And it talks about the donor and what she wants out of the hospital.

My “donor-centered” appeal letter is all about the donor.

And I’d be pleased if you’d like to knock off any part of this letter.

If any words or phrases seem to ring true to your cause and for your donors, by all means USE THEM.

Please don’t feel like you have to reinvent the wheel.. It’s a waste of your time.

Any nonprofit can use words or phrases like:

“Your donation will make a world of difference.  I promise you.”

And this letter uses the word “you” 16 times. It uses the pronoun “your” 9 times.

Knock this letter off. Adapt this and USE IT!

Dear Name,

When you or a family member is ill or injured, where do you turn?

If you’re like most in our community, you go to Smith Hospital.

Why?

Because you know you will receive absolute top notch medical care.

And you also know that you’ll be treated like a real person, by dedicated, compassionate health professionals in a warm, caring environment.

Your contributions have helped make Smith Hospital the leading regional health care provider that it is.  We are so grateful to you for supporting our committed team of care givers.

Thanks to you, our caregivers have touched the lives of thousands – whether they faced an urgent need, a devastating disease or sought to improve their quality of life.

Smith Hospital is your community hospital.  We exist to serve you and your loved ones – to provide hope, healing and recovery.

In this uncertain economic time, the Hospital counts on your support – now more than ever.

Your gift is extremely important to Smith Hospital because it provides resources that make an immediate impact – that will help us through these interesting – and tough – times.

Your gift of $100, $500, $1,000 or $5,000 can make all the difference…… to our doctors, our nurses, our therapists, our pharmacists, our dietitians, our technicians, our Emergency Department staff – to every one here who works to serve you.

And if you’d like, you can specify your gift to a particular department or program – The Cancer Institute, Breast Center, Cardiology, Emergency Department, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Pediatrics, Community Health, Integrative Medicine – where ever you choose.

Please consider making as generous a gift as you can.

As medical care advances, your hospital is committed to staying at the cutting edge – for you, for your loved ones, for every person in the community.  Please help to make this possible with your contribution.

Your donation will make a world of difference.  I promise you.

Thank you so much for your help.

Sincerely,

Xx

President and Chief Executive Officer

Can you knock off parts of this letter? Tell me what you like about it and what would make it better! Leave a comment!

What is it going to take to open the hearts and wallets of today’s recession-weary donors?

If you are like me, you are watching the trends on donor behavior carefully, looking for that golden key to their hearts.

Today's weary donors appreciate things that are playful and fun.

I’m summarizing all the trends in next week’s FREE webinar: “Where To Find The Donors This Fall. ” I’m including everything from Penelope Burk’s latest update on major donors trends – to Target Analytic’s latest data on online giving trends.

There’s been so much interest in the webinar that I’ve scheduled two additional presentations for Wed. Nov. 2 and Monday Nov 7. Definitely join me so you can fine tune your year-end appeals to today’s donor.  More details here.

It’s absolutely NOT business as usual in fundraising this fall.

Donors are jaded and overwhelmed. What will work?

I’ve been watching people carefully lately, and I’ve hit upon something that is actually getting people’s attention.

And it’s something odd, that you might not think of.

People are responding to things that are quirky, surprising, offbeat and delightful.

They’re paying more attention to something that looks like fun.

When you add “fun” to your appeals and your message, it seems to cut through the din and exhaustion of everyone’s media overload.

Nobody is having very much fun these days.

The economy, working, media, time pressures – it’s all pretty awful. So if you can add playfulness and quirkiness, you can quickly attract interest and attention.

Hence my all time #1 fundraising motto: “when in doubt, throw a party!” Make it fun and you will attract people to your cause like a magnet.

Let me give you some terrific examples of what I mean.

An amazing, charming video by our local SCPA.

The Wake County SPCA created a short video that was a smash hit. It featured homeless animals at the shelter, with staff and volunteers singing along to the old ABBA song, “Take A Chance With Me.”

Watch it – and smile – here.

This is what you call a “lip dub video” (my new vocabulary word of the week).

You take a popular song, and walk through an office with a video camera while different people ham it up and lip synch to the song.

We’ve all seen it on TV, and it’s usually hilarious.

So here you have a cause that is sad, featuring lost animals who need to find a home.

Instead of sending out appeals featuring sad looking puppies and kittens, our SPCA decided to be cheerful instead.

They put a happy, hopeful face on what could be a sad cause. And they hit it big. Their video went viral on You Tube. It got 60,000 hits in just a few days.

So don’t tell me that your cause is too morose or desperate to bring some fun into it.

Why don’t you ditch the formality? Cut the lofty language.

And add some play. Loosen it up. Stop trying to be so dignified!

You’ll be surprised at your result!

Now for example two (I blogged on it earlier this year.)

The little food truck that went “Beep beep.”

Totally delightful appeal!

Here’s a fundraising appeal that comes directly from the cute little food truck. (!)

The truck is asking donors to contribute so it can do what it’s always dreamed of doing – bring food to the needy.

And the little line drawing of the truck going “beep beep” was on the outside of the appeal envelope.

Now you’d open that one, wouldn’t you?

Quirky subject lines have higher open rates.

Last example: I want to share my own personal experience. You probably know that I’m obsessive about my Friday newsletter.

I study how to write a subject line in the emails that will intrigue my readers enough to click and open. And I watch my open rates carefully.

Here’s what I’ve found:

The subject lines with the highest open rates in the past 6 months had (you guessed it) quirky titles:

Quirky is fun!

How to Avoid the Fundraiser’s Kiss of Death

10 Things to Look for in New Board Members (not politically correct!)

Both of these subject lines had something playful about them. The not politically correct post was an indicator that it might be fun and offbeat.

The Kiss of Death post had everybody wondering “what IS the kiss of death for a fundraiser?”  So they opened the email.

Bottom Line: Add some FUN to your fundraising.

Add it to your events, your galas, your mailings, your meetings, and most of all, add it to your fundraising appeals.

Communicate with donors in a way that will enchant them.  Practice being gracious and charming and a little off beat.

It will take you far in this jaded, overloaded world. : )

And it will help your cause more than you know.

Comments? Thoughts?

I hope at this point, you are in the middle of an intense year-end fundraising campaign.

The stakes are high: can you catapult over your goal?

The fundraising outlook is uncertain, just like the economy.

But the stakes have never been higher. You need the community’s help now more than EVER before  and you need to tell everyone so.

Where to find the donors this fall: FREE webinar

I’ll be talking more about all this in my FREE webinar on November 1: “Where to Find the Donors This Fall.”  I’ll give you even more practical strategies based on the latest research on what donors want right NOW. I hope you can join me. Find out more here.

Here are my Top 10 Tactics that will help you get the attention you need from today’s harried, uncertain donor – and open her heart to your cause.

Hopefully you’re already doing these, but just in case: here they are!

1. Set a specific goal tied to specific results.

Recession-weary donors are looking for specific results.  They want to know exactly where the money is going and what you are trying to achieve.

They are much more apt to rally around a solid goal that has a specific outcome.

Tell your donors that you need $XXXX money in order to serve YYY people and create ZZZ outcomes.

• For example, if you are the SPCA, tell your donors you need to raise $100,000 more this fall to save 10,000 more animals.

• If you are a hospital that raises lots of money at year-end, tell your donors that your target is an additional $500,000 to expand cancer services in your community with XXX more staff and facilities.

2.  Let donors restrict their gifts.

They will give more money if you let them give do something specific.  Though restricting gifts is unpopular with CEO’s, it’s very popular with donors.

At the very least present options like these:

• $100 will buy coats to keep 5 kids warm this winter.

• $500 will provide safe after-school care for 50 kids who have no place to go.

3.     Make 50 in-person asks.

And be sure to see your very top donors who have not yet given this year.

If you can’t do 50 personal visits, then do 40, or 30. Enlist your volunteers to help.

Check out Amy Einstein’s book: 50 Asks in 50 Weeks, for a great plan.

4.     Tell a heart-gripping story.

Wear your heart on your sleeve!

If you want to raise more money, add drama.  Romance your vision and make it about real people.

Awaken your donor’s emotions and you’ll get to her heart. Remember that “emotion leads to action. But logic leads to conclusions.”

So wear your heart on your sleeve.

5.     Use a visual and emotional hook in your appeal letter.

Use a visual metaphor such as a lunch box (food for the hungry) or a diploma (for scholarships).

Add surprise and delight.

6.     Make your appeal letter appealing.

Use white space. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. Action verbs. Pictures. Boldface headings. Wide margins.

Make it readable by someone who is just skimming. Use the pronoun “you” liberally.

Use colored paper to set it apart.

7.     Integrate everything with your web links.

Be sure to include your donation web link everywhere.

Many donors will receive your direct mail appeal and then make their gift online.  Other donors will research you on line before they give.

Remember these important stats about wired donors (from Sally Heaven at the Connection Cafe):

• half of wired major donors say that online giving is their preferred giving method
• most wired wealthy already give through multiple channels
• most wired wealthy visit the website of a nonprofit before they decide to give

8.     Repeat your appeal via different media.

Send the same appeals via different media: emails, phone calls, letters, posts cards, social media. Multiple channel fundraising is the way of the future.

Repeated messages all reinforce each other. And be sure the messages are all integrated with the same theme and same ask.

9.     Followup, followup, followup.

Include a clear call to action!

It’s the only way to get through to a busy donor.  Follow up the appeal letter with emails and phone calls. And perhaps another letter.

Do what it takes.

And don’t forget an intense email effort the last week of the year when online gifts spike up.

10.  Update your web site with a clear call to action.

Put the donation link prominently on your home page.

Make it easy for year-end donors who want to zoom through the giving process.

And join me when I’ll give you more practical strategies in my FREE webinar on November 1: Where to Find the Donors This Fall.”  I’ll give you the latest research on what donors want right NOW. You can find out more here.

Are you already using these tactics? Tell me and leave a comment!

The moment of truth in fundraising is the ASK. How do you know what to say and how to frame your ask? Finesse is everything in this dance with your donor.

Will your donor say YES or NO?

Here are some key pointers that can make the difference between your donor saying “yes” or “no” in your next solicitation.

1. Plan your visit.

Visualize the call – and visualize success.

Before the call, sketch out your agenda and key points. Make a list of all the reasons why your wonderful donor should say yes.

Go in a team. And plan who is going to say what.

Make a deal to kick each other under the table if you get off track or too longwinded. (this works!)

2.  Tune up your energy.

Your energy will be contagious in your visit with the donor. If you are feeling self conscious or nervous, your donor will feel it too.

It’s your responsibility to show your own enthusiasm and excitement for your cause and your project.

Infect your donor with happy energy – and help her feel the same way about the possibility of creating a better world.

3.  Make the ask into an opportunity.

Talking about what you want to accomplish as an opportunity brings incredible energy into the discussion.

It focuses the donor on what he or she wants to accomplish – a future vision of something wonderful.

You can say “we have the opportunity to do xxxx.”

If you reframe your solicitation into an opportunity, things change.

It’s no longer about the money. Instead it’s about the impact you and the donor will be making.  And it’s concrete.

And you can present the opportunity in terms of a story.  Remember what Tom Peters once said: “He who tells the best story wins.”

Listen to your donor!

4.  Use the phrase “wouldn’t it be wonderful if. . .”

This is a terrific phrase that evokes vision. It calls on the donor’s highest thinking about what’s possible for the community, or the world.

This idea paints a picture of a happy future.  You’re sketching out the wonderful results and impact your organization wants to accomplish.

And you are calling on the donor to actually join you in envisioning this happy future.

Talk about what you’ll be accomplishing together – with the donor’s investment.

5. Make it a two-way conversation.

You simply have to create interaction with your donor. Dialogue means give and take with the donor.

You need to be asking questions.

When the donor responds, you have to pause in your presentation to process what she is saying  – and then you adapt your conversation to go in that direction.

Follow what the donor wants to talk about.

As the terrific guys at For Impact say, “it’s engaging the prospect in the presentation… it’s making the presentation about the prospect, not about what you have to say. It’s also about discovery, using questions to learn real information.”

I love the idea of making the presentation about the prospect, not about you. It’s a dramatic shift AND it works.

6. Spend 50% of your time listening.

Yes! Your donor said Yes!

That means you have to shut up and really listen.

If you are doing more than 50% of the talking, you lose.

You will never know what your donor’s hot buttons are unless you listen.

Use your radar to watch your donor’s body language. You can’t use your radar if you are talking.

Doing all the talking will do nothing for you. And if you become boring, you’re dead.  The way to keep your donor’s interest is to keep her talking.

Listen, and listen some more. That’s how you engage your donor.

7.  Use the words “consider a gift.”

Make it hypothetical; use the conditional tense.

Here are the words to use: “Would you consider a gift of xxxx?”

Or, “we were hoping you would consider a gift of xxx, to accomplish yyy.”

Framing the gift this way is much better manners and does not feel like arm twisting.

Moral of the story:

Asking can be an energizing, happy experience, or it can be a deadening, awful experience.  It’s all in your planning and your mind set.

Focus on impact, opportunity, vision and excitement. And then celebrate your donor when she says yes!

Which of these pointers do you think are the most important? What have I left out?

Leave a comment and tell us!