Go Your Own Way
One of the most common questions we hear when working with clients is, “So-and-so did this. Should we do it too?”
There’s nothing wrong with surveying the landscape, and we encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with best practices for major gifts, donor relations, advancement communications, etc. But, “this other organization did this thing,” should never be the reason that your nonprofit takes a specific approach. Instead, you should reflect on the core values of your organization and how they inspire people to support it.
Below, we offer some recommendations for going your own way.
Broad Communications
In today’s charged political environment, many leaders are scared to make a public statement. At the same time, your supporters probably want to hear from you. Staying silent is the most risk-averse path, but it can also be a missed opportunity.
The best statements from organizations in response to divisive or charged issues are those that rearticulate the organization’s values to explain how they’re taking action. You can see excellent examples of this approach in:
Amherst College’s statement on its decision not to divest from companies that do business with the Israeli government
The letter from Debra Hauser, President of Advocates for Youth, on the organization’s decision to operate without federal funding
The New York Times guest essay from Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff, which very astutely filled a gap in messaging from other leaders by reflecting on the relationship between academia and democracy
And yes, of course, run communications by your legal counsel to ensure that you’re not inadvertently wading into needlessly risky waters. But don’t let generalized fear keep you from making a statement that can reaffirm or deepen your supporters’ commitment to your organization.
Website Information Architecture
An organization I work with recently asked if they should have a section on their website titled “Major Giving” because they saw this on the websites of a couple of aspirational peers. I swiftly responded with a firm ‘No’ because it’s internal language that means something different at every organization, and also because it may lead some donors to perceive that the organization isn’t interested in them.
Most websites are unwieldy collections of information that organizations add to over time and very rarely pare back. If you’re thinking of building out a new area on your website because you see it elsewhere, ask yourself the following questions first:
Does this addition contribute productively to the story you want to tell about your organization?
Would this information make sense to a donor who isn’t intimately familiar with your organization?
Does the path to reach this information make sense?
Is it written for external audiences rather than internal ones?
How would the addition relate to or change the content on the rest of the site?
Chances are, reactively building out a new section on your website will create more problems than the process would solve.
Donor Recognition
We frequently see inertia or a lack of imagination in how organizations recognize and celebrate their donors. Longstanding precedent within an organization and similar structures at peer organizations frequently drive this staleness. One of the most common examples is the donor honor roll, an incredibly time-intensive exercise that research has shown yields little in return.
If you want to recognize donors in ways that reinforce the unique value of your organization and their support of it, ask yourself the following questions:
What motivates our donors to give?
How can we recognize our donors in ways that they actually like and that affirm their reasons for giving?
How can we create a structure using the answers to these questions that will foster a culture of philanthropy?
To illustrate, if you’re at a nonprofit where the honor roll falls flat, you might instead stage a celebration for annual fund donors where they interact with people who benefit from their giving, whether they’re students, faculty, program directors, healthcare workers, etc. You could also reallocate all of the hours spent on creating an honor roll to writing impact stories that you weave through communications across the entire year. There are so many possibilities as long as you let go of expectations set by past practices or the activities of other organizations.
