Thanks for coming back for the final installment in the Acquisition Series. So far, I've covered how to approach potential donors, how to craft your package, choosing your lead, and establishing your credibility.
Today, I want to talk about a few of the other techniques you can use to get people to give to your cause for the first time. As with special appeals to your donors, urgency and passion are key. It’s hard enough to get people to support a new cause. Throw in the multitude of distractions between your potential donor and his wallet, and you’ve got to provide strong motivation to get him to sit down right this second and make that initial gift.
Besides killer prose, there are a couple of ways you can provide that extra bit of motivation. Lots of organizations love freebies. Magnets, address labels, stickers you can use to guilt a donor into giving. Or you can entice them with promises of a free gift – a DVD produced by your organization, for example – after they join. They’re both great ways to raise your response.
One caveat: the gift you’re offering should relate to your mission. I hate it when environmental organizations offer calendars or notecards – even with beautiful pictures of nature on them – because of the wasted paper. Make it matter to your mission.
For activist organization, almost nothing beats a petition or a survey. People who are passionate about your cause – and if you’ve picked your lists right, they should be – love to make their voices heard. So give them that chance. Sure, you might get back a bunch of signed petitions or completed surveys with no money…but guess who your best prospects are next time around?
And maybe the single most important way to craft a winning Acquisition Package: TESTING.
Don't toss all of these techniques into one package and hope they work. Create different versions and mail them against each other. See what brings you the best results. Test, test, and test again.
I hope you'v found the Acquisition series helpful. Please post any questions in the comments, and I'll be sure to answer them!
Great advice in this series, Richelle. I often write for non-profits, and I found this very useful. A couple of questions. What's a good return rate on new donors, especially if we're spending money on freebies? Also, any advice on we can transfer these (or other!) strategies translate to e-mail?
ReplyDeleteGreat questions, Amy. I'll pull them out and do a new blog post next week!
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