Gluten-Free Giving

Do you realize that, as an adult, you can literally drive to the grocery store and buy a cake whenever you want and no one can stop you? It’s doesn’t even have to be a holiday—it can simply be a day that ends in ‘y.’

I say this as a reminder to you that you make the rules. My friend and colleague, Rosemary, used to remind us that if the rules weren’t working for us, were too tedious, or were creating unnecessary busy work then we could change them! <<Insert your very own mind-blowing action here.>>

When it comes to nonprofit marketing, stewardship, and communication, we have a motto at our office: “We made the plan, we can change the plan.” We’ve threatened to have this tattooed on our arms before, just so we don’t forget to tell ourselves when we hit a point of busyness that gets in the way of business—and that does happen. We’ve been doing this for years now, so we don’t have to remind ourselves as much anymore.

But the fact remains that we do make the plan and we can change the plan! And, as much as I’d like to think our donors are waiting by their mailboxes for our next direct mail piece, they aren’t. They don’t know our plan! So, if we’re late in sending something or we opt to forego sending for any reason, they won’t know. Does that make you feel better?  Let my reality extend the grace to you that you need to extend to yourself so often, yet don’t. This blog is about a donor I’ll call Ted.

Ted was a wonderful man. A pastor. A community leader. A widow. A gluten-free friend. We loved Ted. And we really miss him, too. But his story continues to inspire us and I hope it will inspire you, too.

Left Brain Marketing Methods: We knew what kind of donor Ted was. He fit a specific profile. We knew his occupation, when he gave, and the work that he did in the community. We knew a lot about him anecdotally, but we also knew a lot about him from his giving records in our database. However, despite all that information, we also knew that his communications still had to be stampworthy. That means they had to have the right message, sent from the right person, to the right audience, at the right time. Then, when you learn more, you adapt. That’s what we did with Ted.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie: In real estate it’s always location, location, location. In marketing it’s audience, audience, audience. While all messages might have an ask, thank, or report focus, the message you create should be crafted to your donor’s needs. Ted taught us how to do this better—even though at first the message he passed along was jolting.

Left Brain Marketing Methods: We all loved Ted. He was a retired pastor of a local church. He’d recently lost his wife and made donations in her memory several times a year on special occasions like her birthday or their anniversary. He’d even request that we denote the date of his gifts to be on the exact date of these celebrations—even when they took place on a Saturday or Sunday. We gladly obliged. I had multiple cups of coffee with Ted and knew that he particularly loved one java joint in town that served gluten-free goodies. He told me of several ailments he’d once had that were absent once he eliminated gluten from his diet. Ted never convinced me to go gluten-free, although he was rather convincing. However, after knowing this fact about him, I did bake him a gluten-free cake one year on the date of his wedding anniversary. Although is wife had passed and he had no one to celebrate with, I felt like everyone should have cake on their anniversary. He was so grateful and said the cake was even better than the icing.

I tell you all this so you’ll understand that I knew Ted. I spend hours with him. We learned about each other. And, of course, we had an excellent track record of how he gave. We knew what kind of instruments he used to give and because of his penchant for celebrating their special holidays, we knew when he would give to the day. So, we were quite surprised one morning when he arrived at the office carrying in one of the recent mailings we had sent to Ted’s designated donor segment. He was returning it to us. He said that although he appreciated the gesture, and the message, that he was a number’s guy. What?! A pastoral number’s guy?! Nothing about the interactions I had with Ted or the data we had collected on him told us that he was a numbers guy! But guess what? We didn’t need all of that because Ted told us himself. He drove up in his VW Beetle on his way to his daily 3:00 p.m. swim at the YMCA and walked straight into our office and said, “I love what you all do. And I want to be informed about your progress. But could you do that by sending me your investment financials? I might be a retired pastor, but I’ve always been passionate about the stock market.” Who knew?! Well, now, we did! Thanks to Ted!

So, we changed Ted’s donor segment to one that received our investment financials—our professional advisors. We’d lovingly refer to this segment as ‘Professional Advisor’s and Ted.’ So, why do I tell you this story? Because we were wrong? No. Because we made a mistake? Also no. I tell you this because even when you are thorough and use your data well to determine which donors belong in what segment based on what you know about them—sometimes even that’s not 100% accurate…and that’s ok. Why? Because once you build a strong enough rapport with donors like Ted, they’ll feel comfortable enough to come on in and set you straight.

 Right Brain Marketing Moxie: You’re heard the real estate motto, “location, location, location.” So, it’s no surprise that in marketing, stewardship, and communication, it’s “audience, audience, audience.” Remember my recent blog introducing you to IDA, your friendly-neighborhood avatar reminding you to write to your Ideal Donor Audience. The message you send must be the one that will help the donor take actions to deepen their involvement with you, your mission, and your outcomes. Ted was one of our Loyal Donors. Although people define this differently, it typically means donors who make gifts to your organization more than 3 times per year. With the audience of loyal donors, we’d often have a variety of ‘asks’ we might make to them. For example, we might ask them to follow us on social media so they could be informed about our daily wins. Or we might ask them to share with their friends and colleagues about the endowed funds they held with us or how their donations through us were helping their favorite charitable cause. Of course, we’d occasionally ask for a donation, but not always.

In the direct mail piece that Ted received, we sent a recipe for BBQ Chicken Smoked Cheddar Mac & Cheese. To add bit of moxie we enclosed a $1.00 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce that was wrapped with a logo label for the Foundation—it really had that human touch. Our ask was simple: At their next summer barbeque we wanted them to tell their friends or family about our current matching campaign and why they chose to give through the Community Foundation. That BBQ bottle with our logo has some shelf life so would be a great reminder!

 It was well-received by that donor segment. In fact, one donor came to the office within two days, admitted that she hadn’t had a chance to use the BBQ Sauce yet, but said she didn’t want to forget to write the check—for $5,000…and it was matched! Yeah, that $50 of BBQ sauce sure paid for itself quick.

Although Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Original BBQ sauce is gluten-free, Ted brought his back. Ted wanted the finance-y stuff, remember? He said he’s always been fascinated with math, numbers, and growing his investments, in general. That kind of data impressed him and called him to action. Additionally, he was happy to extend an invitation to us to speak at a meeting of his local pastor’s association, but he knew he’d be more inclined to give if we shared the more complex investment data. Easy fix! Consider it done, Ted!

Yes, left brain marketing methods are necessary and they work far better than watering down one message for the lowest common denominator. But, when you gain new information, even anecdotally, that becomes data. Use that just was wisely. If you want to hit the bullseye, you need to aim well.

The moral of this story is this: When your donors trust you, they will tell you how to serve them well. Can you imagine what a gift it would be if every donor you had told you exactly what they needed from you to increase their level of commitment to your mission? That would be amazing! And we didn’t realize until Ted did that very thing in our office one summer day. He told us, we knew, and we stewarded him right and well, just like he requested from that moment forward. Listen to your donors.

So, yes…buy the cake (gluten-free, optional), make the rules, change the rules, and meet the donors where they are—that’s the fundraiser’s version of location, location, location. I like to call it gluten-free giving!

All My Best,
 
Dawn
[email protected]
dawn brown creative llc