Today, a few friendly reminders from your Agents of Good about donor acquisition that puts donors – not your charity or your workplan – at the heart of the conversation.

Start as you mean to go on. Your donor acquisition message should resonate with your mission. If you’re stretching – or getting into ‘mission drift’ – with what you think is sexy right now but not really at the core of what you do, proceed cautiously. Donor acquisition is expensive enough – don’t fall for the trick of trying to get as many people in the door as you can, if the message using you’re bringing them in the door won’t be heard again.

And while you’re at it, create dedicated content on your website about the focus of your acquisition message. Whether you’re using direct mail, email, phone, face-to-face or a combination of methods, make sure your acquisition message is echoed on your website, ideally right on the homepage.

Your URG. The Agents have developed this concept called URG – your Unique Reason to Give. Really think about what you do better than anyone else and what makes your cause completely unique and special. And build your donor acquisition message with this at the centre.

Don’t Count the First Gift. Well, not really. Of course, when those first gifts come in, celebrate each one. Revel in the fact that you rose above the noise of our daily lives, inspired someone to act and moved someone to give. But then keep moving. Focus – ideally in advance – on what you’re going to do to secure that more important second gift. A thoughtful welcome package or welcome series. And a second gift ask – at the right time with the right message.

Chuck Your Thank You Letter. Create a brand spanking new thank-you letter or email that completely echoes your acquisition appeal. Fill it with donor love. Make sure your letter is about your donors as much as it is about your cause. Send it promptly. Promise your donors that you will keep them informed about their gift at work for your cause. And keep your promise.

Focus on Your Offer. What is the basic offer of your acquisition message? If it doesn’t cut right to the chase, and spell out clearly what you want, and more importantly what your donor can help you achieve, tighten it up.

Ask For One Thing. Don’t clutter up your acquisition reply form or web form with a bunch of crap – monthly giving, legacy giving, volunteer opportunities, events. OK, they aren’t crap. But they don’t belong here. They belong in a thoughtful and appropriate follow-up message. If you are going to have one extra thing, talk about what you’ll do with the donor’s information. Privacy statements are dull, but the spirit behind them is important: we promise we won’t do anything with your information that you don’t want us to.

Tell A Story – Or 2. Statistics, facts and other ways you demonstrate impact are vitally important affirmation messages. But make sure you tell a story, connect your donors with something that will speak to their heart, not just their brain.

Test Something. Anything really. But don’t waste the opportunity to not learn something about your message. Test a longer letter. A different subject line. Something.

Count Donors. Not Dollars. Your objective is to acquire new donors. Try to focus on the number of new donors who have joined your movement, not how close you are to breaking even on the investment. Of course, that’s an important consideration. But the more important consideration is the new people – living, breathing, caring and loving human beings – who have just joined your movement to make our world a better place.

With that in mind, we want to offer you 10 ways to keep your donors at the heart of what you do, each and every day… Not for the sake of it, but because they really should be!

10. Read what you are working on – your letter, newsletter piece, email – aloud to someone who doesn’t know what you are working on. Make note of all the words, phrasing and timing that don’t feel write or that you’ll stumble over. You’ll change at least 5 things. Guaranteed.

9. Count the you’s. From the fundraising genius Tom Ahern. Count the number of times you say “you” in your piece. You should have way more references to “you” than to “we”, “us” or “ABC Charity”.

8. Make a promise – and keep it. In your next appeal, tell your donors you’ll report back to them with the outcome of the project you’re raising money for. And do it.

7. Invite personal contact – and mean it. Put your name on a thank-you letter or email. Ask your donors to connect with you directly if they have questions or would like to speak with you. (Please – no more info@charity.org!) Better yet, pick up your phone and call and thank a donor. It’s infectious.

6. Fall in love with Gary. Gary the Donor – the imaginary friend created by Good Works – is great for bouncing things off. Are you connecting with your donors’ mind, heart and soul?

5. Rewrite your thank you letters and thank you call scripts. Find the time. It’s worth it.

4. Use your heart. Your donors deserve your love. Show it.

These last 3 we call the Kimberley MacKenzie trifecta. She does all of them (and some of these others above) every single day. That’s badass.

3. Put a picture of a donor – or a letter from a donor – on your desk or post it on your wall.

2. Put an empty chair in your meeting room and imagine you have a donor in the room with you. It will change lots of what you say and how you say it.

1. Look through your mail every day for 2 weeks. Read the little notes donors write on your coupons – the good, the bad and the ugly. Respect the shaky handwriting. Remind yourself that you are in a conversation with your donors – you’re not just broadcasting.

As a final note – in the header we used the heart from our logo. Most people assume it is a clever way of showing a “o” for “of”. The smarter ones assume it represents our love of the sector, our clients and ultimately the very fact that we are in a industry of sharing and showing love… and they aren’t wrong. But the real reason is to remind us who really matters and is at the heart and core of everything we do. Do I really need to say who?

P.S. This “Top 10″ was inspired by a terrific series by Josh Bowman, 10 things I’ve learned. Thanks Josh!
EDIT: special thanks to Agent Clare McDowall for sending us in this missive from the field! “On the board and highlighted!”

My daughter Sadie spent a few precious minutes (as long as she ever sits still) on the lap of her great grandfather recently. They shared their love of the natural world looking at the bright orange Oriole and the vibrant Indigo Bunting, and whenever she saved a bug from the pool she proudly brought it to him. He beamed.

My other great grandfather, my dad’s dad, (whose name was Gage but we called him Charles) died before Mason was born. And I came to wonder what would happen if Mason sat on his lap with our iPad. Once he got past the magic of the touch screen, I think he would find the real magic in the language of action that technology has given us.

“Favourite” is a verb to my kids. “Mason, can you favourite this video?” asks Sadie when it’s not her turn. “Favourite” is an action.

“Follow” is also active. In my grandfather’s mind, a follower would likely just be someone other than the leader. But following in our language now is half of a relationship. An active, engaging relationship based on mutual interest and an ongoing conversation that happens when you want, where you want.

If Mason talked about his apps, or something viral, Charles would likely would think he was contagious.

As a man who raised four energetic boys, I think my grandfather would plug in to our language of action, and the technology of interaction.

Mason is a digital native – he never knew a world without an infinite amount of information at his fingertips. Would my grandfather have the same struggles with what I am calling “digital imperialist parenting”? Just as history has shown us empires that insist they know better than the indigenous peoples – do I know more about technology than Mason just because I am his mummy?

After about half an hour of tv/iPad/computer my internal alarm goes off and I think “you need to get outside and run around”. But when what the kids are engaging with is actually expanding their horizons, does it make sense to unplug?

So Google Earth is OK but YouTube parodies about poop and farts aren’t?

After I put the kids to bed last night, I revisited this site done by Arcade Fire: www.thewildernessdowntown.com

And I imagined Charles sitting with Mason on his lap, watching Mason enter our address. They would share a few precious minutes together, and Charles would point out where they play ball hockey together on our driveway, and where they hold hands when they cross the street on the way home from school.

Our language changes us. And we change our language. But love and action (and interaction) endure.

Dear Ms. Nit-Picker,

This is an open letter to charity staff members who edit fundraising appeals. With special focus on those of you who aren’t direct response fundraisers or have a clue about fundraising strategy. Just like with my Dear Mr. Fancypants blog, here are some of my inner monologues on the subject.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, I’m changing this thank you message to ‘The ABC Foundation is deeply grateful to its donors’.”

Well done, Ms. Nit-Picker. You’ve taken a genuine person-to-person thank you and made it a vacant grammatically correct org-speak.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, here is some background information so you can write our year-end appeal.”

Wow, Ms. Nit-Picker. Your ‘Implications for Proposed Brand Strategy’ 52 page document would be great for starting a fire, and your ‘Diagram of Core Supporter Filters’ shows me that you’re real smart. I’m a little more interested in what you’re raising money for and inspiring your donors to act. But hey, is that just me?

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, I don’t like how this sounds. It’s too emotional. Last year’s appeal was approved by all levels of management. Can you lift phrasing from this instead?”

Sure, Ms. Nit-Picker. Why tell your donors anything new? Doesn’t really feel like you’re taking much of an innovative approach to what you’re doing anyway.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, I don’t like the call to action as ‘Yes! You can count on me this holiday season!’. Can we work in language from our new 2-paragraph mission statement?

Seriously? No.

Ms. Nit-Picker: “Agent Jen, we want to get more online gifts. Can we focus on a process that gets them to give online?”

#sigh…

Recently I sat on an awards committee where part of my role was to review the all of the applications… but I realized (especially after having to read 1 paragraph like 6 times) that somewhere we have lost our way.

I’ve sat in boardrooms, I’ve read blogs and have been part of webinars where I’ve had to ask people to repeat what ever bullcrap they just spewed because I just didn’t understand what they were trying to say.

Now I’m no genius by any measure, and I also realize that my work depends on the ability to write and speak at a level that almost any one of any type of education can understand…

But what is this fear of being clear?

As always, Seth Godin nails it is his blog post today “Writing naked (nakeder than Orwell)“.

Here are Orwell’s rules, edited:

If the goal is to communicate, then say what you mean.

Preach on Brother Godin.

This same donor was recently in the office and asked casually if Ruby would ever write him back. Needless to say, we were enchanted with Jack and Ruby’s correspondence, so this week, Ruby writes back!

Successful projects rock. And while it does feel a bit like beeping our own horn, when we celebrate our success here at Agents of Good, it is all the more awesome because in our work, it also means that the world is a little bit of a better place.

And in the case of this project, more fresh food will be rescued from being thrown in the garbage and delivered to hungry people in Toronto. Second Harvest is an amazing and inspiring charity that we have the pleasure of working with. Our Spring Campaign was focused on buying a new truck for their fleet, and it has been a smashing success.

We raised twice as much money as the Spring Appeal last year. Average gift is up 40%. Beep! Beep!

Here’s just some of what we love about this campaign:

1. Surprise and Delight. The letter comes from the truck, and he starts his letter saying “I have a dream…” You KNOW you want to keep reading!



2. The illustrated truck is just so darn cute. You KNOW you’re going to open that envelope!
3. Engaging and involving the donor – the donor uses the keys (sticker) and moves it on to the coupon.



4. The matching gift. Donors “only” have to pay for half. A matching gift (secured with passion and energy by Second Harvest) secures the other half.
5. The last option on the gift array is for $65,000 and a note “I’ll buy the other half of the truck”. Yes, we were secretly hoping someone would send in a cheque or $65,000. But even though they didn’t, we wanted it to make every donor think about giving a little more. It worked.
6. It’s genuine. The match did come in at the 11^th hour, and we used the P.S. and the buckslip.
7. It flowed. We did a reminder pack, with a message of encouragement from the matching donor.
8. It rocked. And we stopped. We had planned to do a follow-up blast. But by the time it was due to deploy, we knew it exceeded the goal. So we did a thank-you email and letter instead. From the truck, of course.

Beep Beep!

John and Jen are two incredible fundraising and marketing professionals who I have the honour of working with at Second Harvest. They have kicked our direct mail program and website development into hyperdrive, and I really can’t recommend them enough. Plus, they are awesome and opinionated people. Here is their website: http://www.agentsofgood.org/ and here is their terrific blog: http://blog.agentsofgood.org/

1. Nothing beats a good story. Nothing.
2. At the end of the day, it is our relationships that define us.
3. Sorry Marshall, the medium is not the message. Your channel of communication needs to be appropriate, but content is king.
4. Agents are everywhere, but not everyone can be an Agent.
5. People are moved to act because of stories and feelings, not facts and statistics.
6. People want to believe their support matters.
7. People are disgusted when they are betrayed or mislead by a charity. And they are suspicious forever.
8. We are truly and deeply inspired by the number of passionate people who want to be part of something special and unique. We all want to be part of a tribe that speaks to us.
9. Like all Agents projects, this list isn’t about us, it’s about you.
10. The three most important words in fundraising? You. You. And you.

Let us know if any of this information and thinking is useful and applicable… or please feel free to add your own small shop challenges and we can help you in a future post! Cheers. John

Recent estimates put the number of non-profits and charities in Canada at over 160,000. That’s a lot of organizations, and a very large and important part of Canada’s economy. But did you know that more than half are run entirely by volunteers? In other words, they don’t have a single paid staff person.

Collectively, we’ve worked with a wide range of non-profits, with databases ranging from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand active donors. What we’ve learned over the years is that ‘small shops’ can learn a lot from ‘big shops’… and vice versa.

Let’s start with some definitions. How do you know if you’re a small or big shop? We couldn’t find an official definition, so have come up with our own. A small shop has:

• Annual gross revenue of less than $500,000 (according to Imagine Canada, that applies to 87% of non-profits and charities);

• Two or fewer full-time fundraisers;

• Staff who are experts at multi-tasking (small shop fundraisers often leap from major donor calls to special events menu planning to counting pennies from coin boxes within the same hour).; and

• A donor file size of 2,500 or less.

With a file size of 2,500 or less, it becomes very difficult to conduct statistically valid testing within your direct mail program. But that doesn’t mean that small shops can’t learn from testing: they just have to look at what big shops have done and adopt some of the lessons learned.

So, for all the small shops out there, here’s what we’ve learned through the dozens of tests we’ve done within big shop direct mail programs:

• Four-page letters often get better response than two-page letters;

• Incorporate a sense of urgency and/or a timeframe (for example, adding ‘please reply by April 5th’ to your response device, or on your O/E, will likely increase your response rates);

• Stick to one simple straightforward offer (for example, including a an invitation to a special event within an appeal for an annual gift will likely confuse donors and reduce response);

• Larger envelopes almost always pull a higher response rate than smaller envelopes;

• Have a matching gift opportunity? Let your donors know about it and challenge them to participate;

• Use an ascending gift array (i.e., $35, $45, $60) rather than a descending one (i.e., $60, $45, $35);

• If possible, match your gift array to the donor’s last gift (if their last gift was $35, start the gift array slightly higher – 1.25x their last gift is a good rule of thumb);

• Larger response coupons often lead to higher response;

• Here’s a big one: handwriting rules! Have the signatory hand-sign the letters (this is something that’s virtually impossible for big shops to do, but is very possible for you to do), add a hand-written and personalized P.S., and hand-address your envelope. (you can get the help of volunteers for some of this). You can even get your President or Executive Director’s handwriting made into a font;

• Use a live stamp on your mailings (yes, it’s more expensive than third class postage, but we suspect you’d make that up in higher response rates and average gifts);

• You will get your highest response from donors who have most recently given to you (i.e., for a mailing you send in 2011, your highest response will be from donors who have given in 2011, next highest will be 2010, then 2009). If you’re instinct is to give you recent donors a break from giving, don’t do it!; and

• Stick to black text on a white background and use a minimum of 13pt font.

So, why not incorporate a few of these big shop learnings into your own small shop program? Try them out for a while and see how your response rates and average gifts compare to prior years.

Stay tuned for an upcoming article on what big shops can learn from small shops (this is a two-way street).

Leah Eustace, John Lepp, Jen Love

I came home to this in my mailbox.

Wrapped in that old-school brown paper, hand-taped. A stamp from “Wolfsburg, Deutschland” on the top left. It looks like a real stamp, so I touch my finger to the snow and try to smudge the ink the way Steve Thomas taught me. No smudge. So it’s a fake/real stamp. And I notice the “Addressed Admail” Canada Post indicia. So, being a direct marketing nerd I know it’s “junk mail”. But I also know that it’s going to be damn fine “junk mail” because someone is going to lots of effort to make this look and feel like real mail, just to me, right from VW HQ in Germany. I rip it open, and inside is a box saying “Welcome to the family”.

I open it up and out drops a letter from “Markus Schafer, Engineer”. He introduces himself and gets to “I was lucky enough to work on the design of this superb vehicle…” and a bit of dull language about cutting edge technology and German expertise. Not exactly my stein of Pilsener but I get who he is and the context.  And then, the genius. “It’s no surprise that after such a great deal of effort I have become extremely attached to your Golf. I am sure you can understand. With that in mind, I would be extremely grateful if you could take good care of it. Spend time with it. Show it some affection. That is why I have sent you this chamois cloth. It is perfect for lavishing some extra special attention on your car.” And the cloth says “Now it’s your turn to give it some love.”

And, of course, the offer. Membership in VW Plus program to get exclusive benefits and privileges…

W.O.W.

You, my dear readers, have likely read me rage on about premiums. Charity premiums are almost always loathsome. But this is an example of a premium done perfectly. Gets me into the package. Reminds me why I love VW. Actually useful.

This morning, I thought I loved my VW most for the heated seats. This afternoon, it’s their slammin’ direct marketing.