BIG’s Blog: It’s Relationship

This is a very important post.  

Some might even say it’s an urgent topic . . . but statistics and surveys tell me that all of my readers won’t take the time to finish it.

Cliffs Notes have become too long.

We . . . you and me . . . plus your donors and potential donors have grown accustomed to the ways of our world, and it is hurting us and our fundraising organizations.

We don’t have to wait for our favorite song on the radio; we can get it on Spotify now. We don’t have to sit all afternoon watching the NFL on Sunday; we get Sports Center’s condensed scoreboard and best plays of the day before bed. We don’t even have to see a whole movie . . . the previews have all the best parts. And we really don’t want to read (or even open) your latest mail appeal; we would much prefer a 140-character version.  

You know I’m right . . . so what are you going to do about it? How are you going to get people to take notice of and care about your organization?

The answer is hard. Increasingly, you can’t.

Push-message-marketing, whether TV, newspapers, or direct mail, is slowly failing. What is hard is that push-message-marketing, broadcast, print, or direct mail is all we know. And because it is what we know, it’s still how you get your message out today in your nonprofit fundraising.

Increasingly, people don’t want to read or even listen to your message. But what about you?  Don’t you blow through the TV commercials on your DVR at home? Don’t you think that other people might think and act like you?

So how do people hear about and connect with your mission or ministry?

We are in the social era. People are open to learning about your organization from a friend, or they might stumble on your work from a third party like a blog or a story they come across online. They might even come across your organization as they are looking for something else.

Today’s donors are not your father’s Buick, and neither are you. How scary is that? Look at how your habits and behaviors have changed, even as the techniques and ways of fundraising in your organization have not changed.

Your fundraising group needs to catch up with you and those 30 and 40-somethings sitting in your office. Your fundraising needs to shift into the mode of inviting, establishing and deepening relationships with every person that connects with your organization. Relationships with people that are “bought in” to your mission or ministry are what it is all about today . . . but it starts with letting them find you!

Curious?

Join us.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com