Sometimes we make our lives more difficult as fundraisers through unintended consequences.
A perfect example of this is “overhead.” What we report becomes what we measure. In 1943, we started to require tax exempt organizations to file the IRS Form 990. As the Form 990 was revised to report the allocation of expenses by function (program, management and fundraising), we began to measure “overhead expenses.” Subsequently, donors began to measure our effectiveness through those percentages of… “overhead expenses.”
An under-valued role we have in fund development is teaching donors – both our donors and potential donors to other organizations.
Over the last 25 years, we have been slowly trying to re-train donors to understand that some nonprofits have higher management and fundraising expenses and other nonprofits have lower expenses simply due the nature of the work. We have began using terms such as, “core support,” to describe all of the expenses that are necessary to carry out our mission. This teaches both current and new donors.
In my opinion, there are three other common areas that we train our donors unintentionally in ways to make our lives more difficult.
The first is in the messages. For example, in our development materials, we sometimes give the message that our clients are helpless; yet, the reality might be that our clients need temporary help. The former message can lead to the resentment of “giving to a problem that will never be solved” and a decision to stop wasting money trying to help. The latter message may develop into a feeling of “but, for the grace of God, go I” and a commitment to giving out of gratitude.
The second area is in our communications with donors. Too often donors only hear from us when we are either asking for donations or thanking them for their donations. We forget that there are other generous actions beyond donations. Then, we neglect to share those opportunities with donors who believe in the causes we serve. In this case, we have trained donors that it’s just their dollars that matter.
The third common mistake in training our donors is having too steep of an entry to giving; that is, a donor must fully believe in the cause before donating. We spend significant time giving the “inside baseball” about the methodology and statistics of our work. When introducing our work to others, the donor then feels pressured to understand all of the aspects of the work before speaking about our work. That is then a barrier to the donor inviting others in their network to join.
As you are preparing for year-end giving, take a moment to reflect.
Is there any feedback you receive from donors that doesn’t match your intent for reaching out to them? Are your donors telling the community about work that you don’t actually do? Or, are your donors responding in ways that are unexpectedly negative based on your work or clients or mission? Do you find that your donors are hesitate to share about your cause to others. These may be indicators that we are making life too difficult on ourselves.