Or should it be “Fired with enthusiasm”?

There’s a big difference as UK fundraiser Ken Burnett sees it.

Awhile back, as part of a series Proud to be a fundraiser, Ken wrote Keeping the right fundraisers. He wrote of fundraisers as either “radiators” or “drains” …

• The radiators, who spread heat and passion, radiating the warm glow of making a difference.

• The drains, who suck out the emotion, neutralize feelings and commoditize giving till it becomes like any other commercial transaction. They’ve professionalized to the point that passion, dreams and aspirations are usurped and replaced by the cold, remorseless logic of the marketplace.

Donors give, he said, despite the “drains” who are beginning to over-populate the nonprofit/charity sector.

Now, in his recent post Keeping the right donors, Ken has turned his attention to donors, as in a species that is fast disappearing and highly endangered. Ken surveys escalating acquisition costs, observing: “The danger for the future of our sector is that acquisition costs have escalated to such a height they’re now really hard to justify.”

He continues:

“Yet even this commercial fact of life might not necessarily be over-hard to justify as long as these so-expensively acquired donors stay long enough and give enough for the charity to recoup its investment within a timeframe that a reasonable donor would consider to be reasonable too.

How that word ‘reasonable’ is defined is a moot point. Donors may well view it differently to fundraisers, or economists. For each the definition is being stretched, dangerously. For many, breaking point may not be far away.”

This threat leads Ken to an appeal for “retention fundraising” — fundraisers must significantly lift the bar in terms of donor retention, which in turn raises the issue of donor service. As Ken puts it:

“Two things influence donor retention more than any others.

• The experiences our donors get, particularly at the front end of the relationship.
• The influence of the people who deliver those experiences.

Which explains why retention levels vary so widely from organisation to organisation. Some get this very much better than others.”

He cites ‘mystery shopper’ results indicating the widespread poor quality of donor service. (And here’s Roger on customer service.)

Ken’s conclusion in Keeping the right donors:

“It’s not the mystery shopping tests that shame our organisations, it’s the reality of inadequate, shoddy, casual, under-resourced donor service that they consistently reveal. This false economy is the biggest indictment of professional fundraising today.

Those who don’t do everything they can to change this paradigm should be fired, with enthusiasm, for they are letting down our donors, our colleagues and all those we seek to serve. The rest of us should be fired with enthusiasm for changing this, for good. So that we can all be justly proud to be fundraisers.”

Amen Ken!

Tom

P.S. For those seriously interested in tacking retention, Ken recommends, and I second, getting ahold of Roger’s forthcoming Retention Fundraising: the new art and science of keeping your donors for life, coming soon from Emerson and Church, USA. For a pre-publication discount on Roger’s book, email here by August 20 to receive a promo code for $5.00 off the regular price of $24.95 (+ shipping).