Some fundraisers believe that donors are born the way they are and little can be done to change them.  Others believe that valuable and committed  donors aren’t born that way; they have to be created.

My experience is that these beliefs are often a mirror reflection of the fundraisers themselves. The “donors are born that way” folks have a fixed mindset about themselves: firm in the belief that their, character, intelligence, abilities, etc. are static and were present at birth.

The “donors are created, not born” group has a growth mindset: they believe that their character, intelligence, abilities are dynamic and can be developed?

Research shows that if you are the growth mindset group, you are more likely to embrace challenges, persist in the face of challenges, put in time and effort, learn from criticism, and reach higher levels of achievement.

The growth mindset is a powerful one when it comes to fundraising success.  Why?  Because it reflects how a fundraisers thinks about donors.

A “fixed donor mindset” takes the stance that a donor is what s/he is.  It focuses mostly on the communication.  It views donors as having so many gifts of just so much value in them.  The job of fundraising is to get those gifts out.

A “growth donor mindset” believes that a donor can grow, both within themselves and in their relationship to the organization. A growth mindset fundraiser knows that good experiences make good donors. Her/his donors will share their identity because we ask for it and because it will strength our bond.  H/she will work to prime donors on what their identity means and how it relates to the mission of the organization. He/she targets specific communications and opportunities based on that identity and who the donor is.

In short, the growth-minded fundraiser believes that committed donors can be created by the actions the organization takes.

The fixed donor mindset is OK for maintaining the status quo.  But it isn’t very successful when it comes to  effectiveness and growth.  The only way you can grow with fixed donors is to increase quantity of donors or of communications.  Maybe you can nibble around the edges with ask string tests and upgrade strategies, but the fixed donor mindset is limited to ways of extracting more value from the donors you have, not changing their nature and your relationship with them.

The growth donor mindset, like the growth mindset, isn’t easier.  It’s hard work to ask fundamental questions around “why”.  It requires rigorous, empirical research.  And the success that comes from that means you will be creating more versions and more types of communication than a spray-and-pray mass market appeal.

But it will be well worth it in the long term.

Most donors give to more than one organization.  But the average donor also gives two-thirds of their annual donation to their favorite organization.  And that’s going to be the organization that puts in the work to build a relationship.

Don’t you want that organization to be yours?

Roger