Why you should invest in developing donor relationships
Fundraising is a long-term business. In all but the very short term, the basis of all fundraising is the strength, quality and depth of relationships that you the fundraiser will build with your donors. It stands to reason that people like doing business with people they like, that if you are nice to donors they’ll be nice back, to you. So, forget any notions that fundraising is a form of selling or even marketing. You will of course need all the skills of the professional marketer and more. But donors don’t like to be marketed at; they never did. So build strong foundations of openness, accountability, trust and confidence with your donors. Your job is to help donors to see what they can achieve what they help your cause, to let them see how much they will enjoy and benefit from their relationship with you and your cause.
Relationship fundraising, or something more?
You can’t bore a legacy out of a donor and if you try to use high pressure you may succeed in the short term but it won't last.
‘We don’t ask for support.
We inspire it.’
Anonymous
The world’s best thank-you and welcome
letters
Not thanking a donor promptly and properly is not only rude, it’s stupid. In fact reporting back to a donor to thank him or her for her gift and explain how it’s being put to good use is probably your best ever fundraising opportunity.
What, precisely, is ‘stewardship’? And how do we get some?
Every fundraiser should think about putting the donor at the centre and the fundraiser at the centre, two diagrams which illustrate the complex but quite manageable tasks of managing donor relationships in the 21st Century.
How to create a strategy for donor development
To access a variety of free articles on different aspects of relationship fundraising, click on this link.
Exhibits in
this section
NB. Please remember this site is still being built. In coming months we will be considerably expanding the number and range of exhibits presented here.
DD278 Greenpeace USA origami whales
If you want to engage your donors give them something interesting and fun to do. Greenpeace again, showing that it really knows how to get donors queuing up to become more involved.
TW269 Greenpeace Australia Pacific welcome process
Think objectively about the experience a new donor has within the first few months of joining your organisation. Lessons learned from one of the world’s most successful international fundraisers.
TW75 Greenpeace UK’s early welcome pack from 1992
TW 158 Mystery Shopping tests - thank-you letters
Classic donor service tests from the USA show the simplest and the best – and how not to do it too.
RB 227 ALS Canada’s leave-behind
A simple low-cost way to give donors the information that they need, when deciding how to give and how much.
PB 217 Lake Simcoe Conservation Foundation’s 2008 progress report
Without spending much money, how do you account to your donors on what their gifts have achieved during the year?
PO98 Aide et Action press ads and thank you methodology
How a new start-up charity in France got ahead of the game by saying ‘thank you’ properly.
TW26 ISRT’s welcome pack on one page
One small relatively unknown organisation’s effort to explain and retain for new donors led to this welcome package on a single sheet of paper.
TW103 WWF Canada’s Welcome Book
Learn how to engage and retain your donors from this early example of a donor-centred welcome pack.
TW104 WWF Canada’s donor questionnaire
This accompanies the welcome pack, above. It's a low-cost easily copyable way of learning about your donors.
TW159 Station WNED, Buffalo–thank you to a donor
Every fundraiser should say ‘thank you’ like this – appropriately, simply, sincerely, cheaply and quickly.
TW64 Station WDCN, Nashville – a sparkling thank you to a donor
A fundraiser really listening to her donor, thinking on her feet and responding in an entirely appropriate and personal manner with a communication that any donor would be delighted to receive.
RB118 Botton Village giving donors choices
This simple experiment, which became progressively more sophisticated, is one of the most important steps in donor relationship development in the history of fundraising.
RB97 NSPCC’s Little Book of Change
A brilliant example of stewardship at its best, the NSPCC’s Little Book of Change is a superbly-chosen high value thank you for major donors and volunteers alike.
‘Dogs have relationships. Cats have staff.’
Anonymous
WF41 Directchange.org
Is this the future of fundraising, giving donors direct control over where their money goes, instant feedback and the flexibility to decide what they will support, when and how?
Dear Misty,
Your owners are not responding to my messages...
Anonymous fundraiser’s letter to her donor’s pet cat
