Insanity or a happy world?

in Fundraising,Marketing for Nonprofits

The other day I was watching my neighbor rake up leaves in her yard. As she raked, her two toddlers giggled and ran about jumping into the piles of leaves again and again. Mom didn’t mind because they didn’t really mess up the piles that much. And the kids were having fun while she got the work done.

Mom rakes leaves - kids jump inEverybody was happy.

Is everybody happy
in your world?

Do your donors and members like jumping into the pile of words and images you’re sending them?

Do they come back for more? And are you meeting your business and work goals?

If not then you need to do something different.

Develop a better offer.

Give more choices on how they donate or join.

Test new copy that doesn’t sound like everything else you write. (And for goodness sake; if you decide to test copy then don’t rewrite it until it does sound like what you’ve been doing all along!)

Try something new and bold. Figure out how you can be DIFFERENT from every other nonprofit with a similar mission.

Send more cultivation messages (i.e., messages with ZERO ask).

Test a bit of humor.

Offer supporters a puzzle or quiz to solve.

Tell more stories because good storytelling is captivating.

Shake up your calendar.

Send more integrated campaigns.

Break the mold.

Give people an exceptional experience.

You know the expression: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

If you need better fundraising and marketing results (e.g., more donors and members, higher average gift, more people at your events, higher retention, more advocates responding, more online conversions, etc.), then you better make a change. Otherwise you’re enduring a form of insanity.

Different approach … different results. Your choice. How can you make everybody happy in your world?

Related posts to help you even more:

Avoid becoming an obsolete charity

Want more donors or members?

Who are your most loyal supporters? And why you ought to know who they are.

{ 1 trackback }

My Favorite Fundraising Blogs — Karen Zapp - Nonprofit Copywriter
March 6, 2012 at 10:52 am

{ 0 comments… add one now }

Leave a Comment