So, you go do this fancy survey of your donors and they say: 1) Scrap the newsletter, and 2) by the way, we don’t understand why you’re spending 80% of "our" money on program X … cut it in half.
Do you listen to your donors (i.e., customers) and do what they say? If not, why not? Isn’t it their organization?
These questions come to mind as I read the fascinating debate over Facebook’s attempt to revamp its homepage. I say "attempt" because in response to a giant thumbs-down by two million Facebook users, Facebook backed down.
"A camel is a horse designed by a committee," writes an outraged Michael Arrington in TechCrunch. He cites, for example, Seth Godin saying the Walkman would never have been invented in response to consumer demand, and Robert Scoble (of Microsoft fame) saying a Porsche designed by a committee would be a Volvo, to make the argument that real breakthroughs come from risk-taking visionaries, not myopic, pedestrian consumers.
Fittingly, his article is called: "No! Never Surrender to Your Users, Facebook!" "It takes a dictator to create the iPhone," he argues.
Meanwhile, this article in Online media Daily points out that 94% of 850,000 "voters" is just a drop in the bucket out of 175 million Facebook users. [Note: since the article, the number of dissenters has risen to two milion ... still a drop, I guess.]
So, back to my questions. When do you listen to the "voice" of your donors? When, if ever, do you say: "Hey, they just don’t get it." And … how do you do donor research you can trust in the first place?
Tom
This article was posted in: accountability, charities, communications, direct marketing, Don't Miss these Posts, fundraising, loyalty, nonprofit management, research, Seth Godin.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Interesting question. I have done dozens of focus groups looking at mail packs with donors. The issue is knowing how to interpret the results.
If you mistake of believing what they say in a group, you will produce a ‘camel’. They will say what you think they want to hear. No ‘wasted’ colour printing. Low production values. Recycled paper. Short letters.
What works in reality? Beautifully designed colour packs (but pitched correctly, so they don’t look expensive), recycled paper only if it is appropriate to the situation and of adequate quality, and longer letters.
Research is valuable, but don’t abandon knowledge, skill, experience and wisdom. You have to use your professional judgment to accurately interpret the results. For example donors will tell you they don’t want you to send them lots of stuff – but they do want to know what is going on. So you have to find the appropriate path through that.
I think if you ask your donors for their opinions, you’d best be ready to either implement their suggestions, or at least explain in a convincing way why you are not doing so. The worst thing would be to solicit opinions and then… brush them off. So perhaps it’s best not to ask unless you really want the information!