From Busywork to Bonding: Carving Out Time for Meaningful Donor Engagement
Have you ever walked into the office, sat down at your desk, looked at your relatively and surprisingly open schedule and thought “I am going to spend the day having meaningful interactions with supporters today.”
Then, maybe you take a look at your to-do list, read through your emails and chat with a colleague. And suddenly, it is the end of the day and you never got around to completing those meaningful interactions with your supporters.
And it happens time and again, until you get to the end of the week or quarter or year and realize that the bulk of your time was spent reacting to incoming requests, and not connecting with your supporters.
Anyone? No, just me?
Why We Get Stuck in Reactive Mode
So much of our work in the nonprofit sector is reactive - there are many valid reasons for this. The day to day is unpredictable, whether from the programmatic perspective or the administrative/donor side. Our organizations are often understaffed, and each person often wears many hats. And, for many of us, the tendencies that draw us to nonprofit work - believing we can make a meaningful change in the world - also lead us to believing we can or should get more done in a day or week or quarter than is actually possible, and agreeing to too many things (perhaps in the name of people pleasing).
Also, our supporter interactions - the thank you note, the phone call to check in, a congratulations email, are all things that supporters aren’t necessarily expecting, while the board meeting or event that is coming up has a very clear deadline, as does the grant proposal. It is easy to prioritize those things with tangible deadlines, the deadline drives the work.
Here’s the thing though, when we take the time to consistently make meaningful connections with our supporters, fundraising suddenly gets far less stressful and transactional. Anyone can send a mass email, but a heartfelt two-minute phone call or note can make all the difference in building trust and loyalty, the key to successful fundraising programs.
Proactive Habits for Building Donor Relationships
So how can you fit those important interactions into a day that is driven with deadlines and requests of your time? Try this, instead of saying to yourself “I will get to these when all this other pressing stuff on my to-do list is done” start your day with 30 minutes to one hour of dedicated time interacting with supporters and prospective supporters. If that feels like too much, start with one or two times per week. There are tools that can help with this (see below). Be sure to build in time to leave good notes in your CRM about the interactions. Future you will thank yourself for this.
I can assure you that the rest of the stuff can ALSO get done. Notice that the deadline drives the work, but that the work also is often, if not always, being done right up until that tangible deadline. That grant proposal might be reviewed and fine tuned one more time, even if you started it 2 months prior to the due date. Or we may be looking at our sponsorship list to see if there is anyone we missed following up with, or double checking those table assignments. Think about how you approach these projects and deadlines, and how often you are working right up until the deadline even with a good head start. Why? Because this type of work often fills the time that you give to it.
The work of interacting with supporters and prospective supporters (also known as cultivation or relationship building) is some of the most important work you can do as a fundraiser to build a sustainable individual giving program. And it is fun work as well - getting to know the motivations and interests of the folks who choose to support our mission is extremely satisfying.
Systems & Tools to Help you Succeed
Not sure where to start? Here are some actionable tips for systems you can put into place that will help move your efforts forward. If you need someone to help you with accountability - send me an email with your plan or goals, and I promise I will check in with you in a month to see how it is going!
If you are struggling with what to connect with supporters about, here are a few ideas:
Skim Social media/newspapers for news about your supporters’ successes, their business happenings and more. Send congratulatory emails or notes.
Send an email to a new donor asking what inspired their gift.
Invite someone for a tour of your facility/program.
Write a note, email or make a call to a supporter you haven’t connected with in a while just to say hi and let them know what their support has helped make happen.
Send an informational piece or update about a program a donor has shown interest in, or a video clip that you think might make them smile.
If you are struggling with how to manage the connections, here are a few ideas:
There are basically 3 steps to managing donor interactions:
Determine what type of interaction you want to have (see above for ideas)
Create some sort of task reminder - bonus if the system you use will send a reminder for the time you set aside to complete these tasks
Capture notes about the interaction (including and especially if the supporter engages with you)
Example:
I want to congratulate Donor A on a promotion at work
I want to send a 6 month update on a project of interest to Donor B
I want to send a handwritten thank you to Donor C
I add all of these as transactions that are due on Monday morning at 10 AM
I block out Monday morning from 10 - 11 AM to complete these tasks
When the reminder email arrives, I have time and space to follow through, and capture notes within my CRM/Donor Software to show the tasks are complete.
Here are a few ways that you can manage this system:
CRM - if your CRM (ask donor database) has a task function associated with the donor profile, add the interaction and assign it as a task. If you can, have the CRM send you an email reminder when the task is due, or a digest of tasks due on a particular day.
Pro tip: batch the date/time you assign tasks to coordinate with time you can set aside in your schedule to actually complete them rather than sporadically throughout the week when you may be too distracted to follow-through.
If your CRM doesn’t have the task/interaction functionality, a project manager such as Trello or Asana can fill in this gap. Both have free options that are pretty robust, and have the option to have set email reminders for due dates.
If you use gmail or Google Calender, there is a task function associated with this as well. Just be sure to have the task bar visible when the calendar is open.
In a similar way, calendar entries themselves can be a great way to identify what communication you’d like to complete in a session. Just create a calendar entry titled “Donor Cultivation” or something similar. Maybe even set it to repeat each week. Within the calendar entry notes, list those interactions that you’d like to complete.
Ready to commit? Email me your plan, and I will help you with your goals!
With all of these ideas, the discipline of attending to the tasks and following through are key. I have seen many folks (including myself) put a recurring entry on their calendar, then ignore it thinking they’d come back to it or that something else was more pressing.
If you want a strong individual donor program, it is imperative that you dedicate structure and time to managing these interactions and attending to them not just when ‘you have time.’ Remember, these personal touches transform your supporters into lifelong champions of your cause.
Want more tips and resources to build a strong individual donor program, subscribe to my blog here.
Looking for ways to engage your Board Members in Fundraising? Check out this free resource “5 Things Board Members can do Right Now to Support Fundraising (without asking for money)"
