DonorPerfect
Welcome to nonprofit expert presented by DonorPerfect.
Mallory Erickson
Hello, and welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. I’m Mallory Erickson and I’m here for a little podcast takeover, a mini series of episodes where we’re Read More
DonorPerfect
Welcome to nonprofit expert presented by DonorPerfect.
Mallory Erickson
Hello, and welcome to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. I’m Mallory Erickson and I’m here for a little podcast takeover, a mini series of episodes where we’re going to dive into fundraising strategies that make your life easier and your organization stronger. Today we’re discussing something critical that’s often overlooked, which is the courage that it takes to reach out to donors, especially when budgets are tight or it’s been a while since their last gift. Remember, courage means taking action despite fear, not waiting until you are completely confident. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions. We often wait until we feel confident or we’re trying to wait until we feel confident or we feel ready to reach out to that donor until our impact report is just a little bit better or we fix this one picture in this thing over here or our website has this happening on it. And a lot of those things are being driven by fear and what we actually need is courage and not to wait until we feel confident about that other things. It’s super normal. Many fundraisers hesitate when they’re facing tough conversations whether it’s asking for a renewal or re-engaging a donor who’s gone quiet. Our fear of rejection or awkwardness can hold us back and that makes perfect sense, but our avoidance of it only leads to missed opportunities and actually that fear getting bigger. And so I want to inspire you to actually embrace courage by using honest respectful conversations that resonate with donors and feel good to you as the fundraiser also. There are so many different ways to communicate and connect with donors that show authenticity and vulnerability and that really align with the principles that I go over in my book What the Fundraising’ that emphasize honesty and transparency. In my book I talk about the work of Carol Robin and she talks about the six pillars of connection and one of the things she talks about is that what builds connection is letting ourselves be truly known and creating space for that other person to be truly known, and so whenever I’m feeling like I need a little bit more courage, I think about how much everybody wants connection, and instead of thinking about how am I going to ask this person to do this thing that I’ve convinced myself they don’t really want to do, I think about what it looks like to let myself be more fully known and to create space for that person to be fully known, and then to see if that opening, that vulnerability is an opportunity to engage that donor in something that they deeply care about, something that’s meaningful and important to them. And so your action step here is to identify your renewal or lapsed donor segments and make these courageous straightforward invitations to connect. You can send personalized emails, you can make phone calls, but you want to track responses to see the impact of your authenticity there. And I want to remind you donors appreciate transparency and they really appreciate genuine connection, so your intention needs to be more about connection than money. That’s what’s gonna mess up some of those feelings inside of you and the genuineness through which you can actually connect with your donors. This is about building real respectful relationships and so taking a bold step today being a little bit more courageous, maybe one percent more courageous could be what you need to inspire lasting support even if it even if it’s from one donor today and another donor tomorrow. So don’t wait for that confidence to come. Be courageous, take one step forward, reach out, and if you’re using DonorPerfect, you can pull that lapsed donor report right from inside your CRM. And thank you all for tuning in to the Nonprofit Expert. Until next time, keep having courageous conversations and making meaningful connections. I am cheering you on every step of the way.
DonorPerfect
Thank you for listening to Nonprofit Expert presented by DonorPerfect. For more information and a special offer, visit donorperfect.com/podcast.
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