Roger made an off-hand comment in his recent keynote presentation to the Fundraising Success Virtual Conference & Expo.
He noted what he thinks are the two most important questions donors ask of a nonprofit:
1. Will my contribution make a difference?
2. Did my contribution make a difference?
With respect to #1, what result(s) are you promising your donor or donor prospect? Can you tell your prospect that in a sentence or two … a paragraph … that arrests their attention?
With respect to #2, how systematically and specifically are you reporting the results your donors’ contributions have made possible?
In your opinion, is there anything more important to your donors than making performance promises and keeping them?
Tom
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Great post. Over and over again we are reminded that donors want to hear from us about what’s been accomplished with their dollars. Yet, as budgets get tight, one of the first things to get cut back is the newsletter which does precisely that. Let’s fight harder to keep our donor stewardship tools in the budget!
“In your opinion, is there anything more important to your donors than making performance promises and keeping them?”
With the possible exception of making certain that your donors know the maximum amount of their contributions goes to the actual mission (and not to administrative overhead or other things), probably not!
Simply, liken this issue to the stock market and public investment in companies and corporations. The stockholder wants to know: (a) if the investment will make a difference in the company’s ability to be profitable (and, perhaps, even make a positive difference in the world); and, (b) will the investment produce a return (dividend). The promises are made in the prospectus or product offering, and the outcomes are documented/reported in the annual report. If the promises made are not kept, the investor inevitably goes elsewhere!
I agree with Kathy that budget resources for the collateral communications devices needed to report to donors must be maintained. On the other hand, however, it is fairly easy to use routine communication with donors (i.e., acknowledgment letters, follow-up appeals, etc.) to report to them on performance promises made and kept. Every communication opportunity should be so used.