Today’s unique fundraising idea concerns a subject that many charitable organizations would prefer to duck. Values. That’s donor values, not necessarily those of your organization.
Don’t get me wrong. Having a strong, value-driven purpose for your organization is absolutely essential. Successful fundraising demands it.
The unique fundraising idea, is to focus not on your values but those of your donors. What my marketing friends call the “inbound marketing strategy.”
Allow your supporters to realize their values within the context of your organization’s purpose. Doing so requires a major re-think of the way most nonprofits reach out to potential donors, however.
The time to do so, is NOW. In case you haven’t been watching, donors are more in control than ever. It’s always been their money. But now, they also have the power to effectively screen your organization out of the conversation without ever getting a hearing.
The donors that will support you for decades, those that are generally under the age of 50, don’t have a home phone and throw away more mail than they ever open.
Social media is widely proclaimed as the tool of the future. In some ways, it is. It’s only a pipeline, however. The unique fundraising idea is to use this, and the other new tech tools to draw donors in, not “push out” to them.
Principle 1 of The Eight Principles of Sustainable Fundraising® is Donors are the Drivers™. Donors are in the driver’s seat. Now more than ever.
