What Your Givers Want to Know (...and likely won’t ask) - Part 4

In this blog series, we’ve been unpacking the top questions your givers have but won’t ask you. We’ve looked at questions of mission, money, accountability, and who's on the team. We’ve also outlined the times it might make sense to decline a donor’s gift.

Today, we’re going to talk about the consistent questions donors have that leadership and staff should be seeking to answer on an ongoing basis. 

#6: Givers are asking questions of assessment, evaluation, and follow-up.  

I call these the “Will you get back to me?” questions: Will you be reporting back to me on the progress of the project you’ve asked me to support? When will it be done? How will you get back to me? How can you assure me that your reports will be accurate? Put yourself in the shoes of your faithful givers. How would answers to those questions “feel” to you? How would the organization neglecting follow-up “feel”?

The number one complaint I hear on the part of major donors is a failure to return with a report on the outcome of the investment the donor made in the organization. What does that mean? 

Assessment. Donors want to know how your priorities are set, how you make mission and programming decisions, and how your budget and financial planning happens. How do you handle a program, facility, or initiative that is no longer meeting its mission or goals? How do you assess the effectiveness of a program or its impact? 

Evaluation. Feedback, surveys, focus groups, or even just quotes and photos from those participating in our programs can give us simple ways to ensure we know which programs are helping transform lives and how to showcase those stories to donors. Be sure you can translate your program evaluation tools in a way donors will understand.

Follow-up. An important part of what gives a donor a sense of fulfillment is the accomplishment of the project. This is the biggest issue and yet often the hardest thing to get organizations to do consistently and with excellence. Again, this is an area where I see nonprofits too often take their donors for granted. 

A simple system of periodic follow-up goes a long way. Handwritten notes, emails, even a simple text message now and then can make givers feel valued. Calendaring those thank you's and follow-ups in the course of the year can be a fun project, especially if you layer it with the outcomes of what you’re gathering in your assessment and evaluations of your efforts.

Putting a calendar and system of follow-up into place for your year-round stewardship is critical. If you are in a fundraiser for a project or a capital campaign, you’ll need to schedule simple but frequent updates to donors. It’s disheartening to be led to give to a project or fundraiser and then never hear the outcome. 

More than anything, remember that donors want this information but are very unlikely to ask you for it. Encourage your staff to help incorporate transparency and answers into your rhythms of communication to address these questions. Doing so will bolster the bonds of trust and the passion your givers have for your organization.

Timothy L. Smith