Nonprofit Fundraisers! Are Your Emails Annoying Your Donors?
by Betsy Steward
So, we’re back in Nonprofit Fundraising Event Season! Is your inbox like mine: overflowing with invitations?
Here’s something that’s been bothering me: why do I get repeated invitations to events I’ve already registered for?
And here’s another one: why am I getting a “thank you for supporting our event” when I DIDN’T support the event?
Why? Because the nonprofits that send these emails don’t bother to segment their list. They just send the same email to all their past and current donors – defeating the underlying purpose of every single donor communication, which is to build trust.
These kinds of messages are annoying, but more importantly, they erode trust by wasting your donors’ time. Worse than that — they send subliminal messages like these:
that your organization is disorganized;
that you have no idea whether or not the donor is attending or attended your event (and you don’t really care);
that your development team sees donors as ATMs, that can constantly provide funds; and/or
that your nonprofit doesn’t look out for their donors’ best interest.
Look out for their donors’ best interest? Is that something the development team is supposed to do? Well... YES. It’s part of building trust. It’s important.
If your donor knows you won’t waste their time with something they don’t need, they’ll be much more likely to open anything you send — because they trust you.
I remember a conversation I had with one of the lead campaign donors at an organization where I was Director of Development. She had given millions of dollars to our organization, she believed passionately in our work, and she was interested to hear about any and all of our fundraising efforts. One day, I was telling her about the response to our end-of-year appeal, and it struck me that, as a major donor to our nonprofit, she hadn’t received it, so she might not understand the references I was making. I stopped mid-sentence and said, “oh, it just occurs to me that of course you haven’t read our end-of-year appeal letter — we took you off that list.”
I wish you could have heard the quiet way she said, “thank you for that.” She just sounded so deeply grateful. I’m sure that, as a well-known philanthropist, she got letters and emails all the time from hopeful fundraisers. By taking her off that list, we were looking out for her – not needlessly pestering her with annoying solicitation letters when we had already had many conversations with her about her giving, or sending her invitations to register for events she was not only registered to attend but was sponsoring.
I believe that’s one reason why she always took my calls and answered my emails.
Folks, we’re well into the 21st century. I’m confident that whatever donor database you’re using can slice and dice your donor list so that ONLY those who haven’t yet registered for your event get another invitation, and ONLY those who gave to your event get thanked for supporting it.
Please take the time to segment your list, so you don’t erode the trust you’ve already built with your donors. Your donors will be more likely to open your emails and take your calls if you do!
Betsy Steward is an independent fundraising consultant. She advises clients on major donor solicitation, cultivation, and stewardship, as well as fundraising best practices, back-office organization, board presentations and writing to donors (appeal letters, emails, proposal letters, thank-you notes, etc.). She can be reached at BetsyVSteward@gmail.com