Dear Bernard …

May 7, 2014      Admin

Or is it Dennis? Or is it ‘whoever you are’? Or is it good-bye?!

The answer is … good-bye.

Fundraising Success just published an item by Dennis Fischman, originally posted on #fundchat.

It’s brief and to the point. An important point, so I’m reprinting in its entirety.

The Quickest Way To Lose A Donor

“Dear Bernard…”

I’ve been reading The Nation all my adult life.  I’ve subscribed to it for thirty years. And I used to give a donation every month–but not any more.

“Bernard, don’t let them win!”

Sorry. There are other progressive organizations. Hell, there are other progressive magazines.  If I want to do my part to keep the right-wingers from stamping corporate logos on people’s minds, I can give my money elsewhere.

“Bernard, we want you back.”

Too bad. Because my name is not Bernard.

Now, you might think I’m being petty here. I do read The Nation ever week, right? And I pass along each week’s issue to a friend who reads them too. What’s more, the magazine has moved into the 21st century with a good website and a diverse set of contributing editors that keep it lively and on point.

Why should something as minor as the wrong name lose me as a donor?

  • First, because no one’s name is minor to them.
  • Second, because if they’re making this mistake with me, how many others are they offending with similar mistakes?  Why should my donation fill a hole they’re digging themselves, because they can’t get a person’s name right?
  • Third, because when I point it out to them, they don’t respond.  I reply to the emails.  I tweet the editor personally.  And yes, I’m going to call them and find a human being to speak to live.  But that’s not the donor’s job. And most donors won’t do it.  And you will lose them, maybe for a lifetime.

So, ask yourself: is our nonprofit telling donors they are irrelevant?

Do we make donors feel welcomed and cherished?

Or do we make them feel nameless?

Dennis Fischman

Thanks for that, Dennis.

The basics really matter.

Tom

P.S. Roger has talked about the importance of ‘customer service’ here. And search ‘customer service’ in The Agitator archives for more on this fundamental subject.

5 responses to “Dear Bernard …”

  1. I’m pleased to say that a new FR staff person at The Nation, Loren Lynch, wrote me back just this week, corrected the database, and promises to tell the social media department to do better. I have high hopes for what is after all one of my favorite publications.

    So, please subscribe to the Nation…but please also learn the lesson of “Dear Bernard.” Customer service IS marketing. It’s also the first step to fundraising. Make sure you get yours right.

  2. Jay Love says:

    Amen, the basics count so much when there is so much competition for direct mail donors . . .

  3. Lance Colie says:

    My perspective is that mistakes like this can happen, especially with something that involves the merging of data. The Nation, like all organizations, is a human endeavor, and human beings make mistakes.

    The real problem here is that The Nation did not respond when contacted. This is a different level of error, it seems to me, and it reflects a poor response to a customer service need. This is where The Nation truly failed in this instance.

    Yes, mistakes happen. When they do, it is up to us to respond immediately, acknowledge and take responsibility for the error, apologize, pledge do what we can to avoid similar mistakes in the future, and then make sure we do.

    And when the next mistake happens, repeat.

  4. Thanks for sharing this, Dennis. If you’ve ever considered giving that data of yours less than your total attention… well, this is what happens.

    Yes, we’ve all made mistakes. But how quickly do we admit and fix them?

  5. Charles Inlander says:

    This reminded me of an instance about 25 years ago. We were mailing about 2 million pieces a year to membership/donor list of about 300,000 names. We received an irate letter from a donor in Georgia whose first name was Alice. Somehow, in data entry, we chanced the “A” to an “S” making her first name “Slice.” She went on for two pages about who would name their child “Slice”, etc. It was a very funny letter, but her point was serious. We responded to her immediately and made the fix (plus gave her an extra year’s free membership), but the lesson was learned. We did all we could to re-verify, on a regular basis, the names on our in-house lists and used computer programs to compare entries from previous mailings as a double check. It cost us money, but was well worth it. Yes, we all make errors, but a donor/customer/member is the life-blood of any organization or cause and if we cannot get their name right, we are probably doing a lot of other things wrong as well.