I hope you’ve had time to absorb and think about Tom’s epiphany that lapsed donors don’t ‘disappear’ into some Land of Lost Donors.

Instead, large numbers of donors who leave you don’t stop giving; they simply switch their giving to other (and probably similar) organizations.

In fact, as we’ve noted, 36% of all donors who leave — that’s 1 out of 3 — hit the exit because they find other organizations ‘more deserving’.

Or, as Simone Joyaux put it in her comment to Tom’s post: “Donors aren’t leaving behind their aspirations, values and desires. Donors are just leaving YOU, a particular organization. Do the loyalty stuff badly and your donors will just give THROUGH another organization.”

When will fundraisers, CEOs and Boards wake up to the fact that the tragedy of donor flight is largely self-inflicted. Other than the 16% of donors lost to death, virtually every other reason given for leaving can be influenced by the nonprofit itself.

This is why paying attention to donor service as Tom did yesterday, and as I did earlier in the week, is so important. It’s an essential donor experience action your organization controls.

AND … also why paying attention to the integrity and quality of the creative, copywriting and messaging process is so important, as reflected in Bob Levy’s rant, Copywriters as Migrant Workers. Once again, an essential donor experience action your organization controls.

It bears repeating, over and over, that ‘good donors are made, not born’. It is the actions organizations take that influence donor attitudes positively or negatively. In turn, the donor’s attitude determines the donor’s behavior — the decision of whether to stay or leave.

Given the plethora of mailing list exchanges, cooperative donor databanks, and look-alike direct mail packages focused on technique (premiums, tote bags, labels, you name it) rather that differentiated on message and mission, is there any wonder there are so many ‘Switchers’?

As long as copycat fundraisers and their agencies continue to order up yet another certificate of appreciation, plush toy, set of labels, matching gift challenge, etc – while also ignoring dull but basic actions like top donor service — what reasons do donors have to stick around?

They don’t. So, when the next environmental (pick almost any sector) package hits their mailbox looking and sounding virtually the same as the ten others they’ll receive from competing enviro groups, is it any wonder the donors feel free to ‘switch’?

Tragically, all too many fundraisers and their consultants are content to pass these copycat tactics and boilerplate approaches off as ‘best practices’. What nonsense. These ‘best practices’ have resulted in creating a massive Sea of Sameness encouraging donors to simply float away.

Roger

P.S. For a fuller explanation of the dangers of copycatting and blind adherence to so-called ‘best practices’, I urge you to read Kevin Schulman’s 12 Reasons Why Best Practices Suck.