Essential #1: Communication That Is Consistent, Coherent, and Specific
Consistent
If you don’t already use a communications calendar, build a simple one that includes everything your organization is sending to its various audiences through each platform or vehicle. Look carefully at how often your donors are hearing from you and the kind of information you’re communicating.
- 🗓 Your organization-wide communications calendar should also include components that are development-specific.
- ✍️ Plan that content and timing strategically alongside the other communications your donors are receiving.
💡 Example: Year-end giving receipts are often a lost opportunity.
- Begin planning early and use that mailing to showcase the impact of donor giving.
- Collect statistics, quotes, or other outcomes to remind your givers of what they helped achieve this past year.
- Include handwritten thank-you notes to a set of givers with the receipts. Either approach will give your mailing more impact and inspire donors.
We’ll dive deeper into donor acknowledgments later in this blog series, but any nonprofit communications plan should include:
- Regular thank-yous.
- A plan for thanking recurring and first-time donors.
Coherent
While donors crave knowing the impact of their giving, they quickly tune out if they’re hearing from you too often with messages that are irrelevant to them or are poorly constructed.
- 📬 If every program or department in your nonprofit is sending an e-newsletter to all audiences, it’s time to take a donor-centered communications approach to streamline and segment your audiences.
- 📊 Pay close attention to your open rates and analytics, which indicate if your messages are being well-received.
You might discover that:
- Of the readers getting your e-news, 30% were going unopened by people whose first gift was to a specific program.
- Trends like this should guide your communications strategy.
Finally, consider an occasional feedback survey about your communications vehicles to help shape them moving forward. Just the act of asking for input and what is meaningful to givers is an act of stewardship!
Specific
Donors want to know what impact they’re making. Be purposeful about letting them know how their investments were spent.
- 📸 People who give to a specific project should get a special communication (with photos and stories!) letting them know what difference their support made.
- Share stories of mission-related impact—if at all possible, with quotes and photos of people involved.
Your givers will:
- Share it.
- Tell their friends about what the organization is doing.
- Inspire others to get involved.
It might feel more challenging to showcase the impact of funding your operations and facilities, but that is where and how the real work happens. So:
- Name it and acknowledge it!
- Look carefully at your budget and what donors made possible with their support.
- 🏢 If your givers helped replace windows or paid for critical HVAC repairs, name it, photograph it, and be specific about the difference it made for the health of your facility.
- 🚐 If your givers funded a new van or a scholarship for a student, share that and its impact on your mission.
- 💻 Even investments in your IT or website are donor funds well spent—talk about them!
Final Thoughts
Don’t feel overwhelmed. Whether you are in a small office (one-person show!) or part of a large organization, strategize how to best allocate your time and resources.
- If you have none of the above essentials in place, just choose one or two goals and commit to making progress on those.
- Choose some volunteers to help you think through your communications strategies or get their input on a mailing piece or survey.
- Sometimes people who aren’t called to volunteer for the food pantry or an event would be passionate about helping with development and communications efforts.
In the coming weeks, we’ll outline additional philanthropy essentials, including:
- A lens for your donor data and trends.
- An approach for personalized acknowledgments.
Stay tuned!
Tim Smith
