Action Item #1: Cultivate the Right Donors

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2 Goal This workbook is designed to take you through the four actionable ways to retain donors that we discussed in the article. There is extra learning material along with places for you to take notes and make goals! Here we go! Action Item #1: Cultivate the Right Donors First of all, you can work on cultivating the right first time donors. One of my favorite ways to look at donor cultivation is to focus on the Three C s of fundraising, which are explained in the infographic below.

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4 The goal is to find potential donors that have all of the Three C s. You want to cultivate a donor that has the capacity to give, a concern for your cause, and a connection to your organization. Below is an example of how this process works for donor cultivation: Here are some facts about our organization: 1) we are an organization based in Madison, Wisconsin, 2) our mission is to provide seeing eye dogs to the visually impaired, and 3) we mainly serve those in our own state. Our organization has been researching potential donors and came across Jack Sullivan. Jack Sullivan is a longtime resident in Madison, Wisconsin. He is now retired, but worked as a surgeon for 35 years. Sullivan has also been a member on multiple nonprofit boards and is very active in the community. I m going to provide additional information about Sullivan as we go on, but now I want to take you through the Three C s: Capacity: According to our research, Sullivan definitely has the capacity to give to our organization. He has been known to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to other organizations around the community, and doesn t seem to be slowing down. Concern: Just recently Sullivan learned that one of his grandchildren is vision impaired, so he is directly linked to the mission of our organization. One day his grandchild might even receive a seeing eye dog from our organization! Connection: Sullivan is an uncle to one of the volunteers in our organization, which is how we first came to know who he was. Once your organization can find out all of this information about a potential funder, you would decide whether or not there is a significant enough capacity, concern, and connection that the funder would sincerely be interested in your organization. In the case of Sullivan I would say that you should definitely cultivate that relationship. There will be times, though that you realize that someone has a lot of extra money, but they don t have a connection to your organization or concern for your mission. In this

5 case I would hold of on asking for funding because you want to cultivate donors who have all three C s. Now it s your turn! I have made space below for you to go through the Three C s with 5 potential funders. Potential Funder 1: Capacity: Concern: Connection: Conclusion (Is someone you should cultivate as a donor?): Potential Funder 2: Capacity: Concern: Connection: Conclusion (Is someone you should cultivate as a donor?):

6 Potential Funder 3: Capacity: Concern: Connection: Conclusion (Is someone you should cultivate as a donor?): Potential Funder 4: Capacity: Concern: Connection: Conclusion (Is someone you should cultivate as a donor?): Potential Funder 5:

7 Capacity: Concern: Connection: Conclusion (Is someone you should cultivate as a donor?): Action Item #2: Donor Funnel Secondly, you want to put each first time donor through a funnel of support from your organization. You do not want any donor to give money and for them to never hear from your organization again. Instead, you want to start sending them a newsletter. Connect them to your social media accounts, give them updates on projects and beneficiaries, etc. You want them to feel like they are now a part of your organization: that they are part of something larger than the amount of money that they donated. A donor funnel can be as easy as a series of s, newsletters, brochures, pictures, and/or stories that your organization sends to donors on a regular schedule. For example, after someone donates to your organization, you might ask them for their address and send the following: Week 1: A newsletter introducing your organization (why your organization was started, who started it, and a background of the organization s mission) Week 3: A video from the founder or executive director Week 5: A newsletter introducing the work that you have done over the entire history of your organization.

8 Week 7: A story about one of your beneficiaries Week 9: A newsletter about your current fundraising campaign Week 11: A video about your beneficiaries You can also throw in brochures, pictures, other videos, and anything else fun that your organization can think of! In the space below, come up with the first five pieces of your own donor cultivation funnel. Some things to decide: How often will you send something to a donor? Will you send them videos? Will you send them regular newsletters? Is there something you can offer them? Will you give them discounts to fundraising events like a fundraising dinner? Contact 1: (How long after they donate, e.g. one week, two weeks, etc.) What will you send them? (An , newsletter, video, brochure, etc.) Outline for what you will send them:

9 Contact 2: (How long after they donate, e.g. one week, two weeks, etc.) What will you send them? (An , newsletter, video, brochure, etc.) Outline for what you will send them:

10 Contact 3: (How long after they donate, e.g. one week, two weeks, etc.) What will you send them? (An , newsletter, video, brochure, etc.) Outline for what you will send them:

11 Contact 4: (How long after they donate, e.g. one week, two weeks, etc.) What will you send them? (An , newsletter, video, brochure, etc.) Outline for what you will send them:

12 Contact 5: (How long after they donate, e.g. one week, two weeks, etc.) What will you send them? (An , newsletter, video, brochure, etc.) Outline for what you will send them:

13 Also, as you think about designing different s, newsletters, and videos, here are some examples! Brochures Here are a couple of brochure examples from canva.com (a great website to create free visuals for your organization!) Videos Here are the links to some great videos that would make awesome s to your donors: Girl Rising: Nepal Chapter

14 charity:water: The Spring Pencils of Promise: Something to Believe In v=85ub_sw6lz0

15 Newsletters There are a few options for making and sending newsletters. Two of the most popular websites are mailchimp.com and convertkit.com. If you are just starting out with sending newsletters, I would try Mailchimp for free! Action Item #3: Mission Achievement Thirdly, show the donor that you are achieving your mission. This can be in your newsletters or elsewhere, but make sure it is clear to each donor that their money is being put to good use and that the mission is being achieved. I would recommend looking through charity:water s website to see examples of this! charitywater.org

16 Action Item #4: Change Fundraising Metrics Finally, Following the advice from Adrian Sargeant, you can also change they way that you measure the success of fundraisers in your organization. You can create a new metric and determine success by how well the fundraiser treated your current donors, rather than just focusing on how many new donors they found or how much money they received from new donors. Keep the focus on the donors that you already have. Before you go, don t forget to download the workbook, which will take you step-bystep through putting these ideas into action within your organization! For this action item, plan a meeting to discuss this with your Board of Directors. In that meeting you can discuss how you will implement a new fundraising metric and why it s important (to retain more donors!). Date for meeting:

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