In his post, Is There A ‘Donor Journey’? Tom raises a key question and some of our most thoughtful readers answered, in essence, course there is, BUT … in the case of many organizations that journey is mighty flawed.

And the reason most donor journeys, donor experiences, ‘touches’ or whatever you want to call them are so flawed is because most fundraisers — no matter how great and good their intention to please the donor – have not the slightest idea why a donor chose to give to their organization in first place. Nor do they have the slightest inkling of the donor’s ongoing feelings.

Why? Because few of us ever bother to actually find out. To ask the donor.

Instead, we conjure up donor experiences and journeys by falling back on ‘best practices’, the shared wisdom of the tribe, or the latest advice picked up at the latest conference.

Lisa Sargent, in commenting on Tom’s post sums it up nicely:

“A huge problem I see with nonprofit communications (every channel) is that no one mentally walks through these ‘donor journeys’ before sitting down to create: so when the donor actually starts across the chasm from potential giver to repeat giver, or from casual giver to bequest (the ultimate destination), etc., they’re forced to leap over broken boards in the communications bridge — and daunted, some turn back. Our job is to make the path beautiful, clear, and easy to follow, with the full understanding that at any time, they can choose to take a better-maintained one.”

However, in reality there’s an EVEN BIGGER PROBLEM. It’s not just that “no one mentally walks though these donor journeys before sitting down to create”, it’s that almost no one has the slightest inkling of what that donor’s identity is and how she’s feeling about your organization.

In short, it’s difficult to create a journey if you don’t know anything about the traveler.

And so we push out communication after communication in as many channels as possible with little positive effect on retention or lifetime value.

And that’s why ‘donor identity’ is so important. Each of us has multiple identities. And our identity for one sector of our life is quite different than our identity in other sectors — like giving.

For example, I consider myself a parent, a Patriots fan and a kayak enthusiast. Each of these identities is totally irrelevant to what drives my charitable giving.

Of the dozens of charitable gifts I make each year, I have yet to have a nonprofit recipient call, mail or email me asking any of the following questions:

• Why did you give?
• Was our donation process easy?
• Did the way we thanked you make you feel valued?

Yet, I’ll bet you 10-1 that each and every one of those nonprofits consider themselves ‘donor-centric’.

But how in the world could they be? What personal identity are they trying to reinforce with the ‘donor journey’ and experiences they provide? Are they performing the job for which I ‘hired’ them?

The fact is that if a nonprofit can’t answer those questions it’s really not donor-centric/donor-focused/donor-centered.

By way of specific example, I’m bordering on Type 2 diabetes. And the reason I support a diabetes research charity is because of that. But, I’ve never been asked, and the donor experiences I’m exposed to aren’t focused on research or prevention affecting folks in my situation.

Same holds true for the other health charities. I’m sure there are donors who are also direct beneficiaries of these charities because they either have the disease/ailment/handicap the charity is fighting; or they are caregivers to people with the disease.

These are two relevant identities. But, I’ve never come across a single health charity that offers a different donor journey for those with a direct connection versus an indirect connection to the organization.

Same with conservation, environmental, human rights, or any other group.

What is required to successfully meet the future is a sea change in our approach to donors. An approach that gives top priority to understanding the donor identity and why they give.

This is an approach that most fundraisers will dismiss out of hand as ‘too difficult’, ‘too expensive’, ‘too time consuming’.

Successfully matching the donor’s identity and her associated needs and preferences is what donor-centricity is all about.

Meet the donor’s needs and she will meet yours. It’s as simple — and difficult — as that.

So, think about starting over, or at least running a pilot as follows: rather than the ubiquitous thank you, welcome or other onboarding process that so often unintentionally signals internal teams to dump everything on the donor in the name of ‘welcoming’, shift to ‘getting to know you’ — as the guiding principle for the initial steps in the donor journey.

You won’t be alone. Others have done or are doing it. See Pam Grow’s  Could you borrow the smartest thing I ever did? for a simple, workable example of how to get started. Or Jackie Fowler’s case study of Botton Village and the power of determining donor preferences at The donor’s choice: an early fundraising preference service that’s worked brilliantly since 1986.

And for a treasure trove of questions, approaches, conversation starters you can put to work immediately to determine donor identities and interests, check out Chapter 17 of Keep Your Donors, a remarkable guide to stronger donor relationships by Simone Joyaux and Tom Ahern.

Identity matters. As Kevin Schulman over at DonorVoice puts it: “Don’t make the mistake of thinking some random group of attitudinal or behavioral clusters is identity that translates into donor motivation, needs and preferences. How you treat donors and what you do — beyond copy tweaks — is the difference between delivering a great donor experience and a crappy one.”

What are you doing to determine donor identity?

Roger