Thursday February 27- Trust

Hi !

🎶 Welcome Back: TL;DR version

43% of Americans don’t trust nonprofits. If they don’t trust you to use their donor dollars to help those who need it most, they’ll stop giving and go elsewhere. That spells doom for your nonprofit.

Organizations should:

• Send more updates to supporters

• Share stories, demonstrate impact and show data

• Make sure social proof is part of their fundraising and marketing arsenal

Let’s dive into this week’s pain point.

👨‍🏫 Gabe Kotter: If they don’t trust you…

Only 57% trust nonprofits. 40% donor retention rate. Household giving is down.

If you ran a store and only half of your customers trusted you, if people didn’t come back to purchase again, if people didn’t even bother shopping at your store, you’d close down. Quickly.

But nonprofits seem to operate under the theory that since we do good work, whether people trust us or not is inconsequential.

It’s like we’re stuck in an infinite loop of insanity.

Let’s discuss today’s pain point: A lack of trust.

When donors trust you, they are more likely to donate. They’re more likely to be involved.

But when they’re suspicious of your organization and its activities, they’ll think twice and three times before donating. Odds are they’ll hesitate long enough to find a different cause to support. (Trust me, they have plenty of options.)

Don’t assume because you’re a nonprofit and your mission statement says that you help homeless families, people will believe that automatically. You have to prove it to them.

What worries donors to the point of moving elsewhere? Here are a few questions they might be asking themselves:

• Do they really do what they say they do?

• Are my donor dollars actually having impact and solving a problem or is the organization misusing the funds?

• Why do they only contact me when they need money?

• I can’t cure hunger in my community. Will my $10 a month really help?

If your organization isn’t providing the information supporters need and the reassurance that gifts are being put to good use, you might as well wave bye bye to your current donors.

Which means you’re stuck. That’s not a path to growth and thrival.

How can you keep their trust? Here are a few ideas:

1) Volunteer opps: 80% of Americans who volunteer say their experience made them view nonprofits more favorably. When people have a chance to actually see what you’re doing, who’s being helped, how people are being impacted, that builds goodwill and trust. (This is also why site visits when possible are critical to growth.) Provide different volunteer opps and encourage people to join.

2) Data tells a story: How many people have you helped? And how exactly have you helped them?

Data helps tell a story that donors are interested in. Knowing that you’re raising reading and math scores among elementary aged children is a big deal. Sharing how many families will have three meals a day means a lot.

Your organization should be receiving a constant stream of data from your program managers. It’s important that info is passed along to your fundraising and marketing teams and your Board. Everyone should not only know the latest data but should share it on social media, via email, in person meetings with supporters and more.

3) The impact: Let supporters know- through consistent and constant communications- how their gifts are impacting people in their community.

This is CRUCIAL to building trust. People want to know that you’re using their hard earned dollars the way you said you would. Share the impact. (The video is awesome!)

Connect a donor’s gift to the people that gift is helping. Which means…

4) Find and share the stories: People connect with stories. It allows them to read, see and hear the good they are doing in this world.

Your organization should have a story bank, a folder where you store all your stories. That bank is critical to your fundraising and marketing efforts. You share stories at events, in your enews, on your website, in your annual reports, in fundraising asks and sit downs with funders and donors.

Want your donors to trust you? Share stories. Let them feel proud about giving. Make them see how they’re doing good in this world.

Provide proof that even a “small” gift of $10 a month has a large impact.

If they give but there’s no follow up, how will they know what impact their gift had?

5) Talk to donors! When’s the last time you picked up the phone, called a donor, thanked them for their gift and told them how their donation made an impact on someone in their community?

It’s been awhile, right?

Pick. Up. The. Phone! Make people feel good about giving by letting them know in a one-to-one conversation how they’re doing good.

6) Social proof: When we need to buy something, many of us will ask friends and family for recommendations.

Know who else does that? Your donors. When they see someone posting about giving to or volunteering for your organization, they’ll take notice. Someone else has vetted your organization. That goes a long way towards getting others to join.

Post recommendations and testimonials in your emails, on your website and on social media. Encourage your audience to share online about your organization. It builds trust in your nonprofit.

“They give to organization X? Then it must be trustworthy. I’ll give as well.”

Here’s one thing NOT to do: Stop communicating.

Think about it from a donor’s perspective: You asked them for a gift. They gave. Now they don’t hear from you till the next campaign.

What did you do with my gift? Did anyone benefit from it? Are people’s lives better because of it? Are we making a dent in the problem we’re trying to solve?

And most important: Did you just take the money and run?

If you stop communicating, they stop trusting.

Way too few people trust nonprofits. You right now have donors who may not trust you.

Change that up. You won’t grow and thrive until you do.

🕺 Vinnie Barbarino: Free IGPD Online Summit

Next week Friday is the annual International Grant Pros Day Online Summit, a chance for grant pros to come together and learn.

This free two-hour event includes six presenters giving a ten-minute presentation on grant related topics plus five minutes of live Q&A. Short and sweet but plenty for you to learn!

Register today for free!

🙋‍♂️ Arnold Horshack: A little of this and that

Here’s some great content for you to learn from:

1. 10 elements of a successful fundraising landing page (4 A Good Cause)

2. How to read donor behavior (DonorPerfect)

3. 4 strategies to expand your donor base (re:Charity)

4. How to develop a content marketing plan (Captions)

⛹️‍♂️ Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington: Follow up

Last week I shared with you a gratitude video from Ickle Pickles. Before I share some feedback, have a look at this:

As part of their welcome email series to new subscribers, they sent the above image. It gave me the reason behind their name (and I really love the name Ickle Pickles!).

I thought their gratitude video was good but I have two ideas to improve it:

1. Embed on website so there’s a CTA: The link in their email sent me to YouTube. I’d prefer if the video was embedded on their website. The page on the site hosting the video could include some info and maybe even a call to action.

2. One or many: They donated a LOT of different products. (Some of you thought they showed too many products and a shorter video would’ve been better.) But what if the video told the story of just one of those products? How it got from the store to where it was needed and then show it in use. Give people an idea of how Ickle Pickles learns about a certain need, goes shopping for the product and delivers it to the right people. It’ll also be different because you tell the story of the organization not thru a person but thru a product that helps beneficiaries.

☀️ Juan Epstein: I wouldn’t eat that

I’m a guy who likes to try new recipes. Some of them work out and some do not. Yesterday I made turkey pesto meatballs with pasta. Meh.

There are plenty of foods I don’t like. (Looking at you tomatoes.) But I also know what I can eat and what I should stay away from.

Apparently people in Ghent City, Belgium aren’t good judges of what to eat. The Belgium Food Agency is pleading with them not to eat this. 

You do you in your kitchen but this seems a little bit much, even if using it for soup.

I’ll be back next Thursday. Have a great weekend!

P.S. I didn’t listen to any music while composing the enews. This time I worked better with the sounds of silence.