The one-word secret to great relationships - and great marketing
- Tue, November 17 2009
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Answer? Gratitude.
What if your annual report were a Gratitude Report? What if you told stories about what your supporters did rather than trumpeting what you did?
It might look like this. This is a real masterpiece of gratitude. And it inspires generosity.
How do you tap your inner generous spirit? Here’s your checklist.
1. Give away: Give away everything you can and it will pay off. For example, at Network for Good, we give away free training, free newsletters and free fundraising and marketing tips. Our sales and customer service staff give generously of their time, never rushing someone off the phone. This makes quite a few people love us – and they go on to buy, recommend or evangelize our paid services. Which pays off in the long run. If we tried to nickel and dime nonprofits, they would not feel the same way and we’d have fewer funds in the long run. Keep this approach in mind if you’re a membership or services organization.
2. Give thanks. Spend a lot more time thanking donors and reporting on their impact than asking them for more money. Make them feel treasured rather than going after their treasures. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the number one reason donors quit supporting an organization is how they were treated by the organization. They hate too many appeals, not enough thanks and a lack of information on impact.
3. Give credit. It’s not enough to be grateful. Give your donors the credit for everything you do. Don’t say, “with your donation, we did xyz;” say, “you did xyz.” Don’t say “we’re so great,” say “you’re so great.” Tell your donors they are doing good works every day of the week through their support of you. This turns donors into owners of your mission, and you can’t get more powerful than that. Pride Foundation - great job in showing how this is done.
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Comments
I actually did that one year - purely by accident. The insanely run organization I had just started with told me, a few days after I’d begun, that “OMG!! We need an annual report - like yesterday!” Then I learned that, owing to the organization having changed their computer systems the preceding year, there weren’t the usual hard statistics our annual report was based upon.
So, the entire annual report became one of gratitude. I interviewed donors, clients, staff - even foundations who had supported our work. It was a beautiful piece and the donors loved it!
Great point. This is why one of my favorite sayings is, “Everything you do comes back to you.” Now, truly that won’t happen all the time, but I’ve found that, by practicing what you wrote above, my life is richer and I have been more effective in my profession.
Sometimes we, in the nonprofit sector, are fixated on fundraising, especially in this environment. But if we slow down and identify our constituents’ needs first, then determine how we can partner with them to meet our mission, we’ll find out they become more engaged and their lifetime value increases.
Glenn
Very well said, I’ve seen articles with this same theme that will be 1,000 words just to say what you said in your first sentence. These tips you list are terrific ways to show others how grateful you are to them.
Really gratitude means much. It may be acknowledged as the principal criterion of successful collaboration and contribution among people. Gratitude minimizes your own benefits but supply with them your partners and donors not only in the world of business but also in every day communication. I think that if people were grateful to each other more the world would become much better. We may paraphrase famous words that the beauty will save the world into that gratitude can perform this. And in a such situation all become winners and create only positiveness. So, it’s enough to satisfy oneself in doing something good.
Thank you