Are you ready to give donors choices?
Donors Need Choices -Are you ready to offer them?
One of the most important things you can do now is to stay in high communication with donors, especially donors who've made gifts consecutively - no matter what size the gift. Focus on the loyalty factor.....look at your donor list in terms of years of consecutive gifts. Have you been in touch with them in 2009?
Loyal donors still believe in your cause and may not be comfortable right now making the same cash gifts as usual. Are you making it easy for them to support you now in other ways? Now is not the time to lay low or hesitate.
These are days when donors need more gift options. Consider loyal donors as your prime stakeholders. What gift options can you offer them?
What about a provision in the will? That doesn't cost the donor anything now. What about being named a beneficiary of someone's retirement plan? That doesn't cost the donor anything now either and when someone tells you that they've made one of these gifts, they've opened a grand window of opportunity for you to continue cultivation for many years. Someone who has included a provision in their will for your nonprofit will always want to see you. They consider themselves long-term investors and they are interested in activities and updates that we may take as mundane. Maybe they will be interested in a cash gift at some soon point. It's worked that way for me.
As long as your mission is relevant and your message of commitment to that mission is clear, loyal donors don’t go away – they may bide their time.
The first planned giving program I established at the art museum resulted in will provisions by volunteers, many of them docents. While not necessarily the biggest donors, these volunteers were first place in proactivity about a role in the museum's future. As they discussed among themselves the possibilities of what could happen in the future if everyone pulled together, their enthusiasm increased and my job of securing planned gifts was fun. I considered this group my self-cultivators!
Are you talking to loyal donors about alternatives to cash gifts? Do you know what to say? Do you know how these basic gift plans work?
If not, you might be interested in one of these complimentary teleclasses. Click here for details and to register. http://www.jeancraiglong.com/teleclasscalendar.htm
One of the most important things you can do now is to stay in high communication with donors, especially donors who've made gifts consecutively - no matter what size the gift. Focus on the loyalty factor.....look at your donor list in terms of years of consecutive gifts. Have you been in touch with them in 2009?
Loyal donors still believe in your cause and may not be comfortable right now making the same cash gifts as usual. Are you making it easy for them to support you now in other ways? Now is not the time to lay low or hesitate.
These are days when donors need more gift options. Consider loyal donors as your prime stakeholders. What gift options can you offer them?
What about a provision in the will? That doesn't cost the donor anything now. What about being named a beneficiary of someone's retirement plan? That doesn't cost the donor anything now either and when someone tells you that they've made one of these gifts, they've opened a grand window of opportunity for you to continue cultivation for many years. Someone who has included a provision in their will for your nonprofit will always want to see you. They consider themselves long-term investors and they are interested in activities and updates that we may take as mundane. Maybe they will be interested in a cash gift at some soon point. It's worked that way for me.
As long as your mission is relevant and your message of commitment to that mission is clear, loyal donors don’t go away – they may bide their time.
The first planned giving program I established at the art museum resulted in will provisions by volunteers, many of them docents. While not necessarily the biggest donors, these volunteers were first place in proactivity about a role in the museum's future. As they discussed among themselves the possibilities of what could happen in the future if everyone pulled together, their enthusiasm increased and my job of securing planned gifts was fun. I considered this group my self-cultivators!
Are you talking to loyal donors about alternatives to cash gifts? Do you know what to say? Do you know how these basic gift plans work?
If not, you might be interested in one of these complimentary teleclasses. Click here for details and to register. http://www.jeancraiglong.com/teleclasscalendar.htm
Labels: nonprofit fundraising, planned giving, teleclasses, training
posted by Jean Long at
7:00 AM
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