What’s your first thought when someone says “nonprofit social media?”  Facebook?  Twitter?  LinkedIn?  YouTube?

And yet, what’s the first thing that you check every morning?

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a full 92 percent of adults polled are sending and receiving email, with 61 percent doing so on a typical day.  Where does that leave social networking sites?  Pew notes that 65% of adult internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Clearly email is the “social” tool of choice for most.

So why aren’t more nonprofit organizations using email to reach their supporters?

Savvy, donor-centered fundraisers know:  email is a fast, easy and inexpensive way to build direct relationships with your organization’s donors and fans.  And it can be effortlessly incorporated into your organization’s communication plan.

In this free report, Nonprofit Email Marketing Secrets, you’ll learn what nonprofit organizations are doing wrong — and what they’re doing right.  Loaded with actionable examples to guide your organization on the path to greater engagement and online giving.

I confess.  There are times when I’m pressed and this is exactly how I handle my email.

That said, whatever would compel me to open your email?  Yes, despite the fact that I have supported this organization in the past, I could give a Rat’s a$$ about their “spring fund drive.”

Study headlines.  Pay attention.  What draws you in?  What compels you to take time away from your busy day?

As a Kindred Spirit, I could really relate to this week’s Movie Monday’s video.

Are you working within your own personal asking style?  We’re not all event-planning party-goers, not by a long shot.  But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a phenomenal fundraiser.  Knowing your own unique asking style, and that of your colleagues and board, will create a marvelous synergy that will grow your relationships and in turn, your fundraising, exponentially.

As your grandmother always told you, “be your own best self and everything will fall into place.”

How can your organization really WOW your donors, with limited resources?

Listen to how Gina Hall of the Seattle Goodwill talks about their strategy for stewarding donors. It’s been so successful, that she’s been able to hire more staff. She’ll tell you what they’ve done over the last few years and the success they’ve had.

One of the tenets of Simple Development Systems is “you can’t do it alone.”  A successful fundraising program is built around a culture of philanthropy – and that means that everyone in your organization has a role to play.  But this isn’t a “have to” or an obligation.  Quite the contrary, building a culture of philanthropy can and should be fun, and inspirational!

So when I learned about the Cara Program’s daily “Motivations,” I asked their Communications and Individual Giving Manager, Sarah Mansberger, to pen a guest post.   You’ll love reading about how students, staff and guests share their stories about Cara’s programs.  And it might give you an idea of how your own organization can practice a daily ritual of gratitude.

Hey there, small shop folks, neck sore from wearing too many hats?  Take a load off by working with your colleagues to build a strong culture of philanthropy within your organization.

Fundraising is a funny business.  Within social purpose organizations especially, fundraisers are often charged with the task of persuading individuals who do not benefit directly from the services their organizations provide to invest in their work.  Armed with stats and stories, we fire up our laptops, pull out our heaviest pens, pick up the phone, head to lunch, sit down for coffee and connect with individuals and institutions whose particular blends of social concern and business acumen marry well with our own.

As many healthy npo balance sheets attest, strong arguments for a compelling cause and a good story or two can go a long way to attracting donors.  But imagine what can happen to the health of your network and your bottom line when you catapult fundraising out of the realm of persuasion and into the realm of visceral, first-hand experience.

An experiential culture of philanthropy can take you there.

A culture of philanthropy is a product of organizational values, practices and communication patterns that create an environment where an organization’s entire community – from donors, to clients, to staff, to partners– has ample opportunities to engage with the mission in authentic and meaningful ways.
My own organization, The Cara Program, is focused on building an experiential culture of philanthropy and welcoming our network into our training facility to participate in our mission.  The Cara Program is a Chicago-based workforce development organization that provides adults affected by homelessness and poverty with rigorous life- and careers-skills training, permanent job placement, and employment retention support.

We are known for our focus on metrics, but what resonates most deeply with people about our work is the life transformations that occur here as our ‘students’ (working-age adults affected by homelessness and poverty) progress through our training curriculum.

These life transformations are made visible during morning ‘Motivations’, a unique ritual that begins the day at The Cara Program.  Each morning, students, staff and guests gather in a circle in our Great Room and answer a question of the day, such as Who or what gives you great joy and why?  Or Talk about a time when your life took on a new beginning.  What positive impact did this have on your family?

Students, staff, and guests alike dig deep and share incredible stories of personal growth and change.  At Motivations, you feel what we mean when we say “The Cara Program transforms lives.”  You laugh.  You reflect.   You get choked up.  You jump in the circle yourself, become part of what happens at ‘our house’, and leave adrenalized by the sheer potential, hope, and resilience of the men and women you meet.

Motivations is the lifeblood of our organization and a reflection of the core lessons of our program philosophy and theory of change.  The ritual has evolved organically over The Cara Program’s 21-year history and happens every day, regardless of whether donors are in house for a visit.  By opening Motivations to guests and supporters, The Cara Program has leveraged an existing element of our program to create an authentic way for supporters to engage with our mission.  In the process, Motivations has become the defining experiential element of The Cara Program’s cultural of philanthropy.  Guests fondly recount their experiences in the Motivations circle.  They, too, are transformed by the experience and get motivated to get involved and bring others to see what this place is all about.

In an environment where many philanthropically-supported organizations find themselves in need of more effective and efficient ways to engage donors and donor prospects, a strong culture of philanthropy is essential, particularly in small development shops where resources, both human and capital, are already stretched thin.  Every organization has a ritual, program element, or practice that showcases what they do best and that could be reimagined as a vehicle for the organization’s entire community – supporters, clients, and staff alike – to share in the most inspiring, transformative, beautifully human elements of their mission at work.  ‘Look with new eyes,’ as we like to say at The Cara Program, and create opportunities for authentic engagement.  You’ll set the stage for an ‘ask’ that will be hard to refuse.

Join The Cara Program for morning ‘Motivations’ any Monday-Thursday at 8:25 am at 237 S. Desplaines, Chicago, IL.  Send Sarah Mansberger a note (smansberger (at) thecaraprogram.org) and get ready to dig deep.  Visit www.thecaraprogram.org or check out The Cara Program’s 20th Anniversary video to learn more.

Facebook pages are a great opportunity to advance your mission and to build a community. They allow you to enhance relationships with your supporters, reach out to new supporters and advance your advocacy and public education efforts.

But what if you build a Facebook page and no one comes?

A genuine, organic approach is the best way to grow a community on Facebook. If you post content that people find interesting and valuable, they will interact with it by liking, sharing or commenting. Doing so gives you a chance to respond and develop a relationship. Asking questions is another great way to get people to engage with you.

But if you’ve just established your page or if your organization has not previously taken a social approach to your Facebook page, initiating that interaction can be challenging.

Having an active community on Facebook requires a critical mass so that the chances of people seeing and interacting with your content increases. You still need to make good content choices but the more people who have it show up in their news feeds, the greater the possibility is that someone will like it, share it or comment on it.

What is considered a critical mass differs. I used to think 100 people should be enough. For some pages, it may be. Others may need more before they can confidently post content knowing someone will interact with it.

So the real question is, “how do you get a critical mass of fans?“

Use Facebook ads to build a critical mass

A great way to build a critical mass of supporters on your page is to use Facebook ads.

Before I explain why or how, let me assure you that I’m not suggesting that you need or should have a large number of fans. Quality is more important than quantity. That’s where engagement and content that provides value come in. The best that ads can do is to introduce your page to people. Whether they stay and actively participate in your community depends upon their experience and how you use your page. It’s better to have 50 engaged fans than 5,000 who never see your posts or interact with them.

Why Facebook ads?

There are many advantages to Facebook ads—especially over other advertising options.

You only pay for ads that people click on so you know you got a response. (You can pay for impressions but if every penny counts, why would you?)
You can target your ad to a key audience. You can target based upon geography, age, gender, marital status and interests. You can also target based upon their connection to the pages you are an administrator on.

You can also use more advanced targeting options such as relationship status, preferred gender if seeking a relationship, language spoken, education and where they work.

As you make your targeting selections, the tally of the number of people you can reach changes. See how in the earlier example the estimated reach was 15,982,160 and in the following example, it is 65,540 based on the criteria listed below. It will keep changing as you make your selections. Be sure you don’t target too small of a group or else, the chances of your ads success diminishes since you’ll be competing against too many other ads. If your goal is to grow your page, you want to target a relatively large group.

Remember that you control your budget. While Facebook ads cost more than they did previously, they are still a cost-effective option. There are also options so that you can control how much you spend. You can:

• Set a specific time-frame for your campaign and put a maximum on the budget.
• If you prefer an ongoing campaign, you can set a daily maximum on how much you are comfortable spending.
• Since Facebook holds an instant behind the scenes auction between ad buyers to decide whose ads show up, another great option is being able to put a maximum on how much you are willing to spend to give someone a chance to click on your ad. Facebook will suggest what you should spend. That’s a good place to start. You can adjust your maximum bid up or down based upon the results you want and those you get.
• You can stop or pause your ad at any time.

How to create a Facebook ad

Facebook wants to sell ads so they make it as easy as possible to do so. You are presented with options to “Create An Ad” in several places. The easiest to quickly find is on the Admin panel on the new timeline format. Click the “Build Audience” tab to find it in the drop down menu.

There are now three different options for ads. Each has variations. For the purpose of growing your page, I recommend either:

A “Facebook ad’ that combines a picture and some text where you can briefly explain why they should like your page and ask them to do that. This option is best to casting the wide net required to introduce a larger number of people to your page.  

A “Sponsored Story – Like page” ad where it shows your logo beside text that shows which of the viewer’s Facebook friends like the page. This option is best if you have a good number of fans already and want to introduce your page to people who are likely to like your page because they have similar interests to their friend who already likes your page. This option can also be used to keep introducing your page to new people after you have a critical mass by running it as an ongoing at with a modest daily maximum. 

Once you’ve selected the type of ad you want, Facebook walks you through the design, targeting, scheduling and pricing.

Genuine, organic, change

Go ahead and use Facebook ads to introduce your page to your target audiences. Use them to continue to grow your page gradually. But always remember that they are not a substitute for the best way to build a community on Facebook.

You need to be social on Facebook by having conversations with your fans and talk like a real person. You should be sharing content that is interesting and adds value or helps build relationships. By doing so, you’ll see your fans engagement improve and see your fan base increase in an organic way. A genuine, organic approach is the best way to use Facebook to change the world or your community.
James Howe of Communicate & Howe! works mostly with nonprofits and charities to help them get the best bang for their buck. A generalist, he previously communicated on behalf of the YMCAs of Cambridge & Kitchener-Waterloo and the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto. He is the founder of Social Media Breakfast: Waterloo Region. Follow him on Twitter: @Communic8nHowe

How can you constantly be growing, learning, and finding the courage to take chances in your work?

Click to read

Ask Sarah Mansberger of The Cara Program in Chicago, a regular reader of The Grow Report and winner several months back of my monthly book drawing.  Sarah won Tom Ahern’s How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money at a most opportune time.  She had just transitioned into her current position as Communications and Individual Giving Manager for Cara and would be penning her first direct mail appeal the very next day.

That first appeal met with resounding success.  But Sarah wasn’t content to let it rest there.  She sent me an email asking how the letter might be approved and I suggested that she send it on to Tom himself for one of his famous critiques.

Read Sarah’s communications and letter below:

Dear Mr. Ahern,

I am a big fan of Pamela Grow and she suggested I get in touch with you regarding the 2011 year-end appeal I put together.  Let me explain.

I work in the Development department of a Chicago-based npo called The Cara Program.  We serve motivated adults affected by homelessness and poverty and work with them to secure and sustain permanent, quality employment and achieve real and lasting success.

Last October I assumed responsibility for our direct mail appeals and communications.  Facing the task of preparing my first appeal letter, I threw my name in the hat for Pamela’s giveaway of your book, How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money.  I was the lucky winner!  Your book arrived in the mail the day before I was scheduled to begin writing and I could not have been more thrilled.  It served as my reference and ‘how to’ throughout the process.

With the appeal out and dollars coming in, I emailed Pamela a copy of the letter for her feedback.  Since your book was such a huge help to me, she suggested I reach out to you, too, to get your thoughts.

If you would be so willing, I have included a link to a generic template of the letter for your review.  (The actual version that went out was personalized with names and addresses and a good percentage also included ask amounts.)  http://www.thecaraprogram.org/sites/default/files/ImagineYouAreCharles.pdf

I would be thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to hear your impressions and any tips you have on how the letter could be improved, more compelling, easier to read, etc.

Thank you for considering my request. Mr. Ahern, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,
Sarah Mansberger

And Tom’s response:

Hello, Sarah!

Well, you’ve made it easy for me. Your letter is wonderful!

Charles has a great story to tell — and you told it extremely well. Which, I suspect, you already knew … because no one writes this well by accident.

I do have a few incidental comments that deal with mechanics and visuals.

First, on the visual side.

Your typeface rates very low in readability studies. Colin Wheildon’s research found that sans serif type (what you’re using) is 4 times LESS easy to read than serif type such as Times New Roman. It has to do with what we mostly see during the course of our reading lives. Your letter is physically quite hard to read. Type should be “invisible.”

Also: your line length on the front page is too long for easy skimming. So the eye keeps getting lost, which is frustrating. The perfect line length is usually shy of 70 characters (with spaces). Yours is about 85 with spaces. Small details matter.

Second, on the asking side. You don’t come right out and ask directly until page 2. Most professional direct mail writers will get in an ask within the first couple of paragraphs, then again as the page is turned, then a couple of more times on the back.

Third, there is donor love … but it comes late, after the page is turned. I like to get the donor into the frame very early, and keep them inside the frame (“Thanks to compassionate donors like you…”) throughout the story. Remember: the letter isn’t really about your mission or Charles, the letter is really about making the donor feel special and good.

Finally, you have a matching gift program (always good) but it is kind of side-barred. I’m not sure whether that will hurt response, but I’ve long taken to heart the advice of Aussie star fundraiser, Jonathon Grapsas, who talks about the SMIT: the Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you today. The SMIT for a match is the match, not Charles. Charles should just illustrate the SMIT. As in, “We could do twice as much for people like Charles….”

Hope that helps. My very best, Tom
——
——-
Tom Ahern

What can you learn from Sarah’s appeal?  Continue to learn, continue to grow and don’t be afraid to seek out constructive criticism.

How can you learn from more “in-the-trenches” examples?  Stay tuned for an innovative learning opportunity to be launched in May!

What does the state of fundraising in 2012 really look like?  How did your organization’s dollars raised change from FY 2010 to FY 2011?

What are you looking to learn more about?  Sponsorships, major gifts, finding new donors, email marketing, online giving, grantwriting?

Share your thoughts in the annual 2012 Small Shop Fundraising Survey.  Spend three minutes and be entered for a chance to win one of four amazon gift certificates.

Survey ends March 14.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Mark Miller, Director of Philanthropic Marketing & Communication for the Children’s National Medical Center.  Their recent “Send Your Valentine to a Child in the Hospital” campaign seemed like a savvy approach to engage potential new donors.  What take-aways could your organization learn?

Q:  I loved the Children’s National Medical Center’s “Send Your Valentine to a Child in the Hospital” campaign.  What a wonderfully donor-centric way to engage prospective new donors!  Mark, can you tell me the strategies behind the campaign?  Who came up with the idea?  

A:  The idea was pretty simple – we wanted to make Valentine’s Day more fun for children in the hospital and get more people involved in our mission. In 2010, we experimented with a new fundraising campaign – inviting people to donate $25 and send a card. That didn’t work so well. So in 2011 and 2012, we focused on building our list, with no required donation, and it’s been one of our most successful campaigns.

The campaign was led by the hospital’s foundation, and I worked with Margaret Cohen, who oversees e-philanthropy, to design and execute it. The campaign started with an email communication to our existing list, and we strongly encouraged everyone to share it by email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Q: I first became aware of your campaign through a friend on Facebook, promptly sent a card, and shared it with my Facebook friends.  Did you track new subscribers via Facebook and Twitter?  What kind of metrics can you share?

A:  Yes. The integration of social media has been critical to this campaign’s success. We used source codes to track new email names that came from Facebook and Twitter. Those new names accounted for 78 percent of our list’s growth. The remainder of the new names came from email share tools, email forwards, blogs, and other sources. Our own Facebook and Twitter posts were productive, but the real power of the campaign was peer-to-peer sharing.

Q:  My regular readers know that I’m “all about the list” — and believe strongly that email is a highly underutilized tool in a nonprofit’s marketing funnel.  How many new names did you add to your organization’s list? How will you be moving forward to further engage new subscribers?

A:  In total, we added 6,570 new names to our list, for a growth rate of 35 percent. Everyone who we added to our list through this campaign will receive a welcome email thanking them for sending a valentine and welcoming them to our online community. This email will share some of our most heartwarming stories from our patients and provide ways that people can get further engaged.  We’ll also send them our electronic newsletter.

Our communications are already very personal and focused on patient stories and impact, so we probably will not use distinct messaging for these people, but we’ll track them as a group to monitor donor conversion.

Q:  Can I ask if you used an outside agency or copywriter in this campaign?

A:  We work with Watershed on both strategy and execution for our e-philanthropy efforts, and with their help we’re expanding our list, leveraging social media, and raising more money online each year.

Q:  Mark, what words of wisdom can you share about how other organizations might grow their own email lists?

A:  Five key factors that made this campaign successful may be helpful to other organizations.

1. Invite people to make a personal, tangible impact. The campaign gave people a way to engage with children in the hospital in a very real way. We think people were more motivated to participate and tell others because of that personal interaction. That’s also why we sent photos to everyone who sent a card to illustrate the impact they made.
2. Offer user-friendly share tools. With Watershed’s help, we provided simple Facebook, Twitter, and email share tools on the campaign landing page, and those were the major drivers of new names.
3. Set a deadline to create urgency. February 14 worked as a natural, urgent deadline for this campaign, and studies show that this kind of urgency best motivates response.
4. Offer an action that corresponds to the real world. Sending Valentine’s Day cards is something that everyone has done, so it didn’t require any explanation. We tried a similar campaign for people to send cards to children during Halloween, and it wasn’t nearly as successful – probably because sending cards is not a traditional way to celebrate Halloween.
5. List growth leads to more list growth. Our 2011 Valentine’s Day campaign grew our list by 14 percent, and our growth rate for the entire year was 25 percent. We think the success of the 2012 campaign was partly due to the enthusiasm and social media savvy of those new list members.

And I’ll add another tip:  inspire with joy!  Check out the follow-up flickr photographs showing the children with their Valentines!

The small community based nonprofit organization can learn from and emulate some of the best practices of larger charities.

Case in point, this marvelous thank you letter from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  The letter arrived in an over-sized, windowed envelope proclaiming “IMPORTANT YEAR-END DOCUMENTS ENCLOSED.”

What’s right (click on photo to read letter):

• Personalized
• The letter highlights me, the donor, and the work made possible by my donation.
• It paints a joyous visual with the photograph and story of “Rhubarb” (even the name makes you smile, no?)
• It directs the reader to a special thank you video

What’s more, the PS, which mentions the enclosed reply envelope, creates further engagement by again directing the reader to the video, and soliciting comments, questions or suggestions by way of the envelope.  Oh, and let’s not forget the opportunity to use the envelope to “get a head start on your gifts for 2012.”

What do you think?

Has your organization created an innovative, inspiring video this past year? For six years, the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards has been shining a spotlight on all the clever ways that nonprofits use video.  It’s a contest that’s all about moving the field of nonprofit video forward and encouraging cause-video creators to try new approaches that make their work different.

And different is just what The Case Foundation  is looking for in this year’s contest.

• Did you experiment?
• Take risks?
• Did you highlight a failure from your past that’s helping shape the future?
• Share a big idea that will inspire others to dream big?
• Were you… Fearless?

If so, the Case Foundation wants to reward your organization!  This year, the Case Foundation is awarding one $2,500 grant to the organization with the most fearless video in each of the four categories, as selected by a panel of special judges.

These special grants will recognize those nonprofit video creators who aren’t afraid to deviate from the norm, use innovative approaches and fearlessly tell compelling, honest stories direct from the heart. Fearless video means taking risks and trying new approaches for the sake of creating moving content that inspires the viewer.  We recognize that nonprofits are fearlessly making new and interesting video everyday and we want to see more!

There’s no better time than right now to enter your video to win great prizes like these special grants from the Case Foundation as well as cash prizes and products from Cisco, free registrations to next year’s NTC from NTEN and your video on the YouTube homepage on April 5, 2012. To enter the awards, just visit the contest website by February 29, 2012, and submit your video.  Winners will be announced by See3 Communications on April 5, 2012.

Last year’s contest was a record setter with almost 1,400 submissions from over 800 nonprofit organizations and record breaking views on the website.  It’s incredible to think of all the great work the participating organizations submitted.  See past winners here  to get inspired.

So what are you waiting for?  Enter today!

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Children’s National Medical Center has developed a fun, donor-centric approach to engage potential new donors via their “Send Your Valentine to a Child in the Hospital” campaign.

With a few clicks, you can send a Valentine’s card that will be printed out and given to a child in the hospital. Children’s National Medical Center is “hoping to shower each of our patients with lots of valentines, so they know how much people like you care.”

And they note that “You will receive occasional updates from Children’s National, and can unsubscribe at any time.”

Be sure to check out their follow-up emails as well.

It’s a clever, simple way to engage — and easy to emulate.

Valentine’s Day is coming up.  What better time to shower your donors with love?

Over the past two years we’ve featured a number of ways for you to ramp up your organization’s stewardship program.  Here are six, in no particular order:

1.  Does your organization’s stewardship system need a tune-up?  Or perhaps you’re creating one from scratch?  Listen in on this 37 minute teleseminar with Lisa to learn:

• The two biggest mistakes you can make in a thank you letter (besides not sending one!)
• How your first communication with a donor following a gift sets the stage for future gifts
• Why you need to change your thank you letters and how often (and why you should include a P.S.)

2.  “On behalf of the board and staff of XYZ, I wish to thank you for your generous gift of…”  Zzzzzzzzzz.  Need to retool your organization’s thank you letter?  You’re sure to find plenty of take-aways in this “before” and “after” example.

3.  Shake it up baby now.  If you’re sending out seasons greeting cards, your mail is falling into the “because everyone else does it” category.  Try sending your donors a little gift to show your love.

4.  Does your communications calendar include plenty of listening?  Think of every opportunity you have to listen to your donors.

5.  Create lifetime donors!  Eight ways.

6.  And how about a plethora of ways for thanking via some of your favorite bloggers?

We talk a lot in this industry about donor retention.

All kinds of “Phantom Donor” testing occurs, such as Mal Warwick’s practice of sending a round of checks to twenty organizations to study the (usually unimpressive) returns.

Articles turn up regularly on penning the perfect thank you letter, and whether a thank you letter should include an additional ask, and how many times and ways that you can thank your donors.

So, what’s missing in this equation?

It’s simple really.  You can’t really be a donor-centric organization without both a good database and solid protocols and training in using that database.

How can you thank, survey, segment and communicate with your supporters if you’re keeping that data in an Excel spreadsheet?

My first step in working with any new client – typically a small, community nonprofit – is to evaluate their database and make recommendations.

How do you locate the perfect database?  Robert Weiner’s article on that topic gives a terrific overview and can help those new to donor databases evaluate and select a database that’s right for their organization.

But don’t stop there.  Begin developing your protocols for data entry before you begin using your new database.  Make certain that you’ve factored in funding for training and regular updates.

Awhile back I was having a conversation with Mazarine Treyz of Wild Woman Fundraising. Do you know Mazarine? She is one awesome woman, smart, savvy and loaded with energy and good will.

Anyway she said to me “Pam, I just love your consistency!”

She was talking about my weekly enews, The Grow Report, which goes out like clockwork every Thursday morning.

Why every week?

Early on when I made the decision to launch an enews targeted specifically to “small shop” development directors, one of the biggest decisions I had to make was how often I would mail. Regardless of whether I mailed monthly, bi-weekly or weekly, it’s a huge commitment. My enews takes an average of anywhere from two to four hours a week to produce – time that could be spent on client work – and costs about $75 a month to send.

But I believe strongly though that consistency, especially in today’s world, is vitally important to relationship-building. And it’s an area where the smaller community organization often falls flat.

If I had a nickel for every nonprofit website that I’ve visited or organization that I’ve been contacted by without any strategic communications plan I’d be rich. “Click here to read our newsletter” you’ll see proclaimed on their website, only to be directed to a pdf from 2009.

The importance of consistency and creating your daily, weekly, and monthly habits, especially when it comes to donor care, plays a huge role in your fundraising success.

In his book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialini notes that consistency is particularly important when it comes to the nonprofit sector. Fundraising has always been challenging, even in the best of times. You’re asking people to give financially without really expecting anything in return.

But when you use consistency — along with asking potential donors to take small steps toward true commitment (for example urging a prospective donor to “like” you on Facebook, or watch a video about your work, or even to forward your email) – before asking them to give financially, you’re using what Cialdini refers to as the “foot-in-the-door technique,” and you’ll have greater success.

Why do you see so little consistency in the world of small nonprofit organizations?

Building relationships takes time, focus and commitment.

How can you create an organization that’s donor-focused, year round? Learn why about.com called Simple Development Systems: Fundraising for the one-person development office “a road map to success that can take the scary out and bring in a sense of comfort, self-confidence, and focus about what can and should be done.”

Senator Al Franken’s latest email, a holiday greeting from his family to you, has even more take-aways for the nonprofit marketer.

How can you make your supporters feel a part of your organization’s “family?”

• Write in an open, personable style.  No jargon allowed.
• Share photographs.
• Use humor but keep it gentle.
• Creative use of the P.S.

You’re a nonprofit fundraiser, right?  That’s why you’re here, am I correct?

Take a look at the latest email to land in my inbox from Al Franken (click to read):

Takeaways?

• A fun, breezy subject header.  One that makes you curious to open.
• It’s personalized
• A you-centered story, one that everyone can relate to
• A gradually escalating call to action
• And check out the P.S.

When this email from Cafe Press, wishing me a happy anniversary from the date of my first purchase with them, arrived in my inbox I thought “how easy would this be for nonprofit organizations to emulate?”

Sure, if you’re the Lone Development Director, chances are you’re too busy to remember your own family’s anniversaries, let alone donors.  But what if you could implement something like this on autopilot?

Simply sign up for a service, such as Send out Cards, and set it up for your donor to get an anniversary card on the date of their first gift to your organization.   No jargon, no ask, just a simple joyful reminder of how grateful you are for their involvement.  Set it and forget it…but your donors won’t!

How can you create an organization that’s donor-focused, year round? Learn why about.com called Simple Development Systems: Fundraising for the one-person development office “a road map to success that can take the scary out and bring in a sense of comfort, self-confidence, and focus about what can and should be done.

Today’s before and after example comes to us courtesy of Erin Tierney, Development & Outreach Specialist for the amazing organization Explorations in Math, located in Seattle, Washington.

Erin writes that after downloading a copy of the free eBook, Lifetime Donor Attraction System she was compelled to recreate her organization’s already “not bad” thank you letter to result in a warmer, more donor-centered approach.  You can read both versions by clicking below.

Note how the second version brings the donor into the picture, inviting them to share in the experience of the children discovering the joy of math.  While there are dissenting opinions about the practice of using a photograph within the body of a thank you letter, I am of the opinion that if a photograph adds to the overall charm of the letter and the organization’s printing capabilities supports it, go for it.  We are, after all, in the joy-producing business.

Explorations in Math - Old Version

Explorations in Math - New Version

And, just in time for the upcoming weeks of thanking, you can still download your free copy of the Lifetime Donor Attraction System to redo your organization’s thank you letters – and create your own donor WOW calendar for 2012!

How can you create an organization that’s donor-focused, year round? Learn why about.com called Simple Development Systems: Fundraising for the one-person development office “a road map to success that can take the scary out and bring in a sense of comfort, self-confidence, and focus about what can and should be done.