“It doesn’t sound like us!” Bad or good?

Notably re-quotable

"In donor communications, untrained opinions are not only worthless, they're dangerous to your nonprofit's bottom line." ~ from What Your Donors Want ... and Why! ~ chapter 7, titled: "You know who is not your customer? Your boss and board."

File this under: "Guest column"

... by the incredible, savvy, "taught me tons" Better Fundraising Co., based in the Seattle area. Founders Steven Screen (right) and Jim Shapiro (left) service with distinction NGOs across North America. And they contribute a lot of sage-nicity at no charge (including the essay below; reprinted with permission). In response to the pandemic, for example, they created a freely distributed email-appeal template used by lord knows how many charities to quickly raise in total many new millions of urgently needed funds. Read and learn ... as I always do.

Also file this under: "Is your approval process built to fail? Inadvertently, many are."

Your board/boss/other staff disapprove of your appeal. The reason: "It doesn't sound like us!"


Managing up:

Negative reactions from insiders can = gold

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Steven says:

When an organization reads a draft of their upcoming appeal and thinks, “that doesn’t sound like us,” they usually experience that as a negative.

However, I want your organization to experience “doesn’t sound like us” as a positive – as a sign of growth.

After all, if “sounding like you normally sound” were the key to raising money, wouldn’t you have raised a lot more money by now?

So, if your goal is to raise more money than you’ve raised in the past, shouldn’t you be actively trying to sound different than you’ve sounded before?


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You Know the Old Line…

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

You must sound different if you’d like to raise a different amount of money.

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What Does “Sound Like Us” Mean, Anyway?

In my experience there are four principles that, for most organizations, make up what “sounds like us” means:

  • We don’t ask too strongly or directly

  • We don’t share stories of need

  • We like to sound the same way that the [academic] experts in our field sound

  • [We are "we"-focused] We ask the donor to support our organization and its good work

For most organizations, appeals that follow those principles will “sound like us.”

The problem is that those four principles don’t work very well.

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Try These Instead

Instead of the principles above, try these four:

  • We clearly and directly ask the reader to send a gift today

  • We share a problem that needs to be solved, and show how the donor’s gift will help solve it

  • We sound however the audience needs us to sound so they best understand the message

  • We ask the donor to help a beneficiary or the cause, not to help our organization

If you create an appeal or e-appeal that follows those principles, your donors will still know it’s you. After all, your mission is the same. Your logo and colors are the same. The person who signs the letter is the same.

It will not “sound like you.” But it will raise more money than your normal appeals.

And remember, it needs to be different if you want to stop treading water and raise more money through the mail and email.

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Take Heart

If you’re an organization that is being held back by “but this needs to sound more like us,” take heart. Breakthrough fundraising is available to you. But you don’t break through by doing the same thing you’ve done before.

Show this post to people in your organization. Try something that “doesn’t sound like you” in email where the stakes are lower. Or try to implement just two of the new principles above (instead of all four).

But do something meaningfully different.

If you’re struggling with this issue, I can guarantee that you have “pent up giving,” because your donors haven’t been asked in powerful ways yet. They are waiting out there, ready to give you gifts!

You just have to stop “sounding like you.”

And that’s a good thing.

# # #

Shanon, Angel of Thanks, can coach you

HERE. You'll nod in agreement when you consume this brief, profound blog post on thanking. Shanon Doolittle is one of the most extraordinary souls/minds I've met in fundraising. (And ours is an industry flush with hearts bigger than nation states.) Journey through her self-description. Dare you not to fall in love.

Supply chain issues hit year-end direct mail


HERE. Roger Craver does his usual fine investigative job in this chilling Agitator story. One shocking finding: "There’s a shortage of personnel and capacity in the direct mail industry. This means mail dates are being extended or delayed beyond normal timelines. Once upon a time – pre-covid — a mail drop delay of a day or two was normal; today, drop dates may be delayed by weeks or even months."

The Gunfighter (Best Short LA Film Fest)

HERE. I didn't promise you a time-waster with every issue of this e-news, but.... According to one Canadian reader (who will remain nameless), the infrequent time-wasters I do include occasionally help him avoid real work. So > watch The Gunfighter. Great storytelling ... with twist after twist. Warning: bad language, stereotyping, extreme fake gun play, unsuitable jokes.

Andrea Hopkins