Are You Serving Your Audience? Why You Should + 14 Ways You Can Start Today
Back when I was an in-house fundraising director, we were able to rope in a master marketer who had previously worked at Chipotle (what’s up, Laura!) for over a decade and saw them through a lot of their massive growth. One of the first things she did upon coming on the team was audit how we engaged with our audience - both on and offline. Her very first observation: that we needed to give, give give (serve, serve, serve) and then make an ask compared to always be asking.
“What do you mean, give?” I asked. We were a nonprofit after all - what could we possibly have to give? Or how could we afford to give in terms of time and resources?
Let me tell you, this was a light bulb moment for me. Previously, I had always been trained to, of course, share stories and impact, but the intention behind all of those efforts was always to (eventually) secure a gift. What might it look like to just be giving without expecting anything in return?
This was the fun part. Once we all agreed that our new motto was going to be, “serve, serve, serve” - the team had some fun coming up with ways to give back to our followers, donors and volunteers. Some ideas that we came up with:
A weekly give back in the form of an interview with an expert, a piece of free content or list of top 10 books to read about XYZ
Testimonials, impact stories or staff and volunteer spotlights
Physical copies of publications we had put out
Handwritten thank you notes
Appreciation moments: this ranged from the ED saying thanks in a video or a holiday cocktail hour
In short, we had two goals:
To serve, serve, serve our audience: We flipped our mindset to it being about THEM, their wants, and needs vs. us.
Be consistent with the serving: This was a biggy - tough to commit and stick to. We made a promise that if we were going to do something - say a weekly offering - come hell or high water - we needed to put out that offering out each and every week. No matter what. This shifted our audience to expect good, high quality content more regularly, but also had them get into the habit of engaging with that content (and in turn the organization) on a more frequent basis.
So what were the results you ask? Within a year we….
Grew our email list nearly 64% (or by 8,000 subscribers)
Grew our overall revenue 22% (or by $200,000)
Grew our end of year giving 525% (or by $21,000)
Not too shabby...and guess what? It just kept getting better.
When was the last time you thought about giving back to your donors/volunteers without expecting anything in return? As fundraisers and marketers we are usually strategizing ways to attract, get the attention of, tell a story to or impress a donor to get them to act (donate) back to us. Often times worse, I literally see organizations just ask, ask, ask over and over again. It is such a turnoff! I’ve talked about “making friends” before and in a friendship - is that how you participate? I hope not. A friendship (the good ones) are a two way street. You give and get. But most importantly, you give without the expectation of getting anything in return.
You might be saying to yourself, “But what would I give?” or “I have no money to gift something back to our donors.” Well my friends, here is a list of 13 ways to get you started. All of these are free or very low cost and should be able to be executed quickly.
Send a handwritten thank you note from you or someone on your team
Randomly email an article you read that made you think of your donor
Text over a podcast episode that made you think of your donor
Have your constituents write a note/draw a picture/make something small (and mail them to your donor(s))
Send them a photo - if you just had an event with a photographer present, you can email or (better yet!) mail a hard copy of the photo to your donor
Tell your story - what is your personal story that drew you to your organization? What is your why? Share that with your donor(s)
Impact: In written or video form - tell your donor about what impact your organization has achieved and why their impact matters.
Write a consistent blog
Host a virtual “state of the union” for your donors
Host a Facebook Live or a phone call with a free dial-in number and do a Q&A session
Throw an appreciation gathering
Gift a guide, how-to or publication from your organization. For example, if you are a literacy nonprofit, maybe you send a “list of top books we are excited to read this summer” or a bookmark compared to an environmental nonprofit that sends a planting calendar of what fruits/veggies to plant during the different months
A video or physical note from the Founder or Executive Director or Program Director talking about the next six months of plans or impact for your organization
I’m curious - do you serve your donors? If so, what are some ways you’ve show the love?
Xo,
