Less is best. Simple wins.
When we want to buy a product or a service, we often search for information.
How does this price compare to similar products?
Is it cheaper online? How has it been rated by others? In fact, we often feel we need extra information to make the right decision.
What about your donors?
What do they want as they consider a gift to you? Is it more information?
The answer is a very small yes — and a very big no.
More information is not more understanding
Yes, information is important. Donors should be kept up-to-date and informed, but enough to
create understanding. Beyond the point of understanding, more information can quickly become extra noise and clutter.
Don’t let your appeal letters, newsletters, website, or any donor communication become a river of information about you and your organization.
In effective fundraising, information is a big tool that has to be gently used, in the right doses.
As a shopper wants more information to feel good about making a purchase, donors want to remember how good it feels to give. That’s the confidence donors need to give again. Help them remember how good it feels to give by sharing with them more stories of how their gifts make an impact.
The gentle emotional response of generous giving can be washed quickly away in the raging river of too much information. You may still end up with a gift, but it could have been more had the donor felt a stronger emotional response.
Give information in the right doses to create understanding, let stories do the rest of the work. Your donors will see themselves in the moment — touching a life, improving a community, investing in a cause they love — and they’ll remember again how wonderful it feels to give.
They’ll keep coming back to you for more of that good feeling.
Remember, when it comes to fundraising, less is best, simple wins.
Better Idea Creative is a consulting and marketing agency for businesses nonprofits. Give us a call. We’ll help you put better ideas at work to help you more deeply connect with your donors.