Why donors give

I had my weekly meeting this afternoon with the folks who provide my communications interfaces and at the conclusion of the meeting, I asked them to spend 5 minutes brainstorming with me about my August direct mail appeal. I know when it will drop - third week in August, that it will mail non-profit rate and that I see considerably better results from a letter rather than creative mailing piece but wanted their help sharing creative ideas for something that we had not already tried integrated with the parts that we know have been effective. This is my second appeal of the upcoming FY2012 and I am actually a couple of weeks behind on getting it started but was not happy with any of my own ideas going into the conversation.

What struck me right away was that everyone in the room jumped immediately to freemium or premium based mailings. I do a mailing label mailing every other year and we did so 12 months ago so am not whatever against bribing donors but it did strike me that the innate tendency was to think in those terms. Ideas that were thrown out (feel free to use!) included soliciting corporate partners for back to school discounts, customized postcards, branded stamps or notepads or sunglasses.

My initial reaction was to discount each of these and as I was doing so, it occurred to me that we were all missing the question that we should be asking - why do donors give? Certainly some do give to get free stuff but is that the primary reason they give or does the free stuff just serve as a reminder? Maybe I am looking at it glass half full but I choose to believe that folks give when they get free stuff because the stuff servers as a reminder of the organization rather than as a direct cause and effect.

I am however very sure that donors give because they believe in a cause. Going back to our meeting, I suggested that we do 4 letters - one from a student in each class year presenting their view on the upcoming academic year - what they were planning and what they were looking forward to. It was suggested that we take that idea and use it in a reply card attached to a page split into 4 sections with a picture of each along with a shortened version of the above. This then left the issue of the letter - how do we tie it into that reply piece? The idea of doing it from an alumni parent came up and made sense - allows for the message to tie in and provides a voice from a unique audience with multiple connections.

Thus we reach the answer - donors give because they believe in what you provide, what you do and why you do it. Do your communications support that premise?