“Roger, please don’t talk to me when I’m not listening.”

That was the standard response from a client who expressed surprise each time something blew up and I reminded him that we had discussed the very issue months before.

“Don’t talk to me when I’m not listening.” Those words came flooding back as I wrote Monday’s post, Playing the Fundraising Blame Game in the UK.

If the massive media blowup over fundraising techniques came as a shock and surprise to some fundraisers and charity leaders, there can only be two explanations:

• The charities pushing the overly aggressive Face-2-Face and telemarketing efforts were unaware of donors’ feelings about the process and tactics. The plea of ignorance.

Or…

• They were aware and deliberately refused to act according to the donors’ feedback. Evidence of gross malfeasance.

Either way some heads — whether ignorant or grossly irresponsible — should roll.

What’s both sad and ironic is all this could have been avoided and much, much more money delivered to the long-term bottom line, if only these charities had not pressed the ‘mute’ button.

And so Last night I was pleased to receive an Open Letter to UK Fundraisers from Charlie Hulme, UK Managing Director of our sister company DonorVoice.

Whether you’re working in the UK, Canada, Australia, India or the US, I urge you to read Charlie’s Letter.

Not only does Charlie make the case for the importance of seeking donor feedback, he shows the enormous gains that come from doing so. Gains like:

• A 50% drop in attrition
• An increase of 35% in net profitability
• A trebling in multiple giving

Through case illustrations Charlie makes the case for not only seeking and listening to the voice of the donor, but also backing that up with superb donor service.

He quickly and succinctly puts the lie to those knuckle-draggers who say: “The idea of seeking feedback isn’t scalable or affordable.” Or those who warn: “You can’t let a vocal minority drive strategy.”

In his Open Letter Charlie wonders out loud: “How many more headlines do we need before it’s time to start listening? After all, ‘We have nothing to fear and everything to gain’.”

 As the Agitator has noted, over and over and over, as in here and here, by ignoring or neglecting the human interaction that results from seeking donor feedback and great donor service, most organizations forfeit enormous sums of money and increased levels of donor commitment and loyalty.

Are you providing your donors an opportunity to make their voices heard. And are you listening and acting when they talk?

Roger

P.S. Tomorrow this curious editor wonders out loud how the UK, the birthplace of Face-To-Face could have gotten it so wrong.