Is your donor comm team on the struggle bus?

Back in 2017, a Reddit post inviting people to Badly Explain Your Profession sparked a trend across all the socials. Inc. covered the buzz and shared a few responses:

Kevin: I convert perfectly good jet fuel into noise and chemtrails.

Jennifer: I give away tax dollars to compost dead chickens and keep cow [bleep] out of creeks.

Emanuel: I get paid for letting people yell at me from a great distance via telephone-lines.

So funny, right? (This sort of silly is where social platforms shine.)

Simple statements like these bring a laugh and even a touch of clarity—but they won’t be replacing the usual job titles and descriptions that provide the needed nuance, context, and vision for the work. The stripped-down descriptions make sense only after you have a frame of reference for the larger picture.

Sadly, nonprofits often lead with the stripped-down version of their org’s work:

We plant trees.

We rescue guinea pigs.

We promote safe driving.

Sure, these are good actions. But without nuance, context, and vision, these hardly inspire us to act. We don’t know WHY we should care enough to partner in these causes.

Donors need to understand the larger picture to see how their partnership is essential for changing the world.

Recently I was chatting with a NP leader who was on the S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E bus. Although donor relationships were positive, donors weren’t inspired to give regularly as true partners. Some of the most loyal donors had even admitted they weren’t clear on the org’s mission.

I see this ALL the time in NP orgs: Lots of donor engagement activities, focused on the day-to-day actions of the organization. It’s no surprise this approach leads to disappointing donor response.

By the way, this isn’t fixed by sending a better email or posting more on socials or hosting a bigger event.

This is a deeper issue requiring a holistic solution. You’ll need to back up that struggle bus and start with WHY (of course) and then work your way through all the 5W / 1H questions as they relate to donor engagement:

WHY does your org do what it does?

WHO are you sharing your WHY with?

WHEN are you sharing?

WHAT are you sharing?

HOW are you sharing?

WHERE are you sharing?

These 6 components work together to shape effective donor engagement for your NP org. The answers take time to develop and implement—this is no quick fix. But it is a long-term solution that will grow donor engagement and build solid relationships.

I’m kicking off 2024 with a series covering these 6 components and how you can equip your donor comm team for effective donor engagement in the year ahead. Hope you will follow along here and even join the conversation as I post the entries on LinkedIn!

As always, reach out to schedule a Change Chat if you’d like to see how we can work together to ensure your donors find your mission irresistible.