Wisdom on fundraising during a downturn
We recently were lucky enough to have Kim Klein share with Network for Good her wisdom on fundraising. The woman is an entertaining encyclopedia of fundraising smarts. She is really, really good at what she does.
If you missed her talk, you can listen to it or read the transcript HERE.
Here are four immediate steps she says you can take this December:
1. Encourage your donors to give the gift of charity. It’s the holidays. People are buying gifts. Have them make that the gift of charity.
2. Call all your major donors. She says, “The tendency right now is to think, “Oh, these poor people. They lost so much money.” So you don’t call them. What you actually wind up saying to them, even though you don’t mean to, you wind up saying to them, “All we cared about was your money. Now that you don’t have so much money, I can’t be bothered to call you.” And that is really,
really, really not a message you want to give. You want to welcome them. You want to write to them and use a follow-up phone call to say something like, “We thank you for all you’ve done for us over the years. We are determined to hang in there and continue to do our work as best we can. We hope you will support us at whatever level feels acceptable to you.” Focus on the donor, not the donation!
3. Tell 70+ donors how to save on taxes! She says, “You can transfer up to $100,000 in any given year directly from their IRA to a charitable organization and they pay no income tax on that. Normally if you withdraw money from your IRA you pay a tax, whatever tax bracket you’re in that year. And of course if you donate it, you claim that tax donation. This is a very nice provision that allows you to avoid taxation and still claim the donation, so it’s kind of a double tax advantage.”
4. For smaller organizations especially, share a wish list! She says, “Tell people, this is the stuff we need. We need four ergonomic chairs. We need 10 printer toner cartridges. We need 75 reams of paper. We need new filing cabinets.” And you just kind of list all the stuff, everything in your budget.”
Thanks Kim!
Syndicate
Katya,
Excellent 911 call - thank you! I especially like the the idea of putting the focus on the donor, not the donation. As you know, people respond favorably when respected and appreciated.
Demonstrating big-heartedness reflects well on non-profits - for the long term.
Thanks again,
John