What do donors care about

Ours is a traumatized society. The overlay of the public-health crisis, the economic disaster, the searing demands for racial justice, existential environmental fears, and the grinding, depressing, election-year political rhetoric has everyone on edge and looking for a better future.

Paint a picture of what your organization will provide in the post-pandemic world. In doing so, you will be implying how important it is, yes, to keep your organization from going under. Rather, you want to show how ensuring that your organization is vibrant, now and in the future, will provide enormous benefit to your community.

As we turn the corner into the cooler days of autumn, and as the public health and economic crises show little sign of abating, nonprofit leaders need to be strategic in approaching their donors.

They need to go where the money is. They need to be unabashed about seeking support, while remaining respectful and appreciative to all. And, through it all, they have to remember to paint a hopeful picture of the future. Our donors desperately need a dose of optimism — as do we all. If our content helps you to contend with coronavirus and other challenges, please consider subscribing to HBR.

A subscription purchase is the best way to support the creation of these resources. You have 2 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Corporate social responsibility. That research also finds that donor behavior is driven by existing donor knowledge of the cause or charity either from their own experiences or through someone they know.

Of those who donate regularly:. That same research identified what donors would like to see versus what they are actually finding:. This donor behavior research ties in nicely with the effective altruism movement , which seeks to do the most good for the most people and to demonstrate that with specific outcome measures.

All the data points cited above are focused on demonstrating cost-effective stewardship of donations. Once the donor has identified a social cause, they want to find the nonprofit organization that can best leverage their support to directly address that cause.

This also boils down to being completely transparent with the numbers and operational aspects of all your programs as well as your organizational overhead.

Being completely open and honest with your donors and prospective donors also builds trust. That, in turn, builds loyalty to your organization and its social cause. It focuses on outcomes and takes the time to clearly explain the programs they are implementing and their outcomes.

If they have a strong affinity to your cause, then maybe their gift can help fund an important project that will be meaningful to them. This requires doing your homework to adequately get to know your prospect and, and then set alerts so you can stay up-to-date not only of wealth creating events but also of wealth eliminating events. Donors want to know the impact of their donation to you.

What their return on investment is? Who or what did it impact or benefit? Keep them interested and in the loop, invite them for a tour of a new building they helped fund. Rather, send them a video showing them the social benefit of a program that their gift helped finance. Every major donor is different, so understanding their personal desired level of involvement is important. You should use social media—sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—to create a relationship with your donors, and provide them with insights into how your organization functions day to day.

One way to do this is through posts that focus on your staff and the hard work that they do, day in and day out, so that donors recognize the need to compensate them appropriately for that work.

By giving those donors a choice where their money goes, even if some of it still goes to overhead, you can make them feel like more active participants in the good work your organization does. According to tax attorney Bishop L. For some donors, having this level of choice will convince them to donate at least once. Publicly-traded for-profit businesses provide reports to their shareholders at least annually, and if you want to be fully transparent with your donors then you should be prepared to do the same.

Garet Turner, vice president of development at the American Society of Association Executives Foundation , explains that annual reports not only provide comfort to previous donors, but can also be used to ensnare first-time donors. Regular reports are just one form of providing feedback to your donors as you develop a deeper relationship with them that can turn them into repeat donors.