We Promised Him 10 Minutes

June 30, 2014      Admin

The other day I did a post on Selling Your Board On Direct Response. I don’t know if you noticed, but Agitator reader Mike Cowart added a comment that takes the cake.

Mike says: “I was invited to do a board presentation by the CDO of a large hospital foundation. The Board Chairman owned several car dealerships. He introduced me by saying, ‘Direct mail doesn’t work, but we promised Mike he could have ten minutes’.”

Mike didn’t comment on the outcome of that presentation, but regardless, he deserves a medal for valor!

As I wrote in Donor Nation USA last week, individuals donors are the center of the fundraising universe. In the US, they gave $268 billion in 2013.

I don’t have a clue as to where Mike’s car dealer Board Chairman thinks charitable dollars come from.

But I do know how to lose them …

Abuse your individual donors.

Start little, by spelling their names wrong, repeatedly.

Then ignore their stated preferences.

Move up the abuse curve more subtlely, talking about you all the time, when the real story is about them and what they hope to accomplish.

Or make a promise you can’t keep.

Of course, you could go for broke and simply mislead or deceive them.

From the little ‘abuses’ to the major ones, it’s all about losing donors’ trust.

Here’s how Joe Boland at Fundraising Success puts it: “Fundraisers must always focus on their donors, cultivating them and building trusting, intimate relationships to land those future major gifts — and maybe even those future grants and corporate dollars.”

Individual charities can lose trust by mishandling donor relationships. But so can the entire sector. We don’t like to admit such major abuses occur, but they do, as the Chronicle of Philanthropy (and general media) frequently reports.

Tom

P.S. More from The Agitator on donor trust here and here. Of course, an institution won’t earn much trust if it’s not populated by trustworthy individuals. Here’s a self-evaluation survey for you — How Trustworthy Are You?

 

 

 

 

 

2 responses to “We Promised Him 10 Minutes”

  1. Heather Eady says:
    June 30, 2014 at 10:28 am

    All true. I especially don’t understand the sector’s reluctance to admit when major abuses of donor trust occur. Burying our heads in the sand just makes it seem like none of us care about donors. When abuse happens, the sector and its professional organizations need to recognize it, condemn it, and talk about ways to prevent it in the future.

  2. Mike Cowart says:
    June 30, 2014 at 10:29 am

    Tom,
    As Paul Harvey said, “Now, for the rest of the story…” After the Chairman of the Board gave me such a great introduction, you could cut the negative vibe with a knife. The CDO and I wanted to “fade under the large conference table”.

    This incident occurred 4 or 5 years ago, and the new CDO continues to try to convince the Board of the lifetime value of a new donor acquired by direct mail. As you know, their board wants $ now, so “let’s do more events!”

    Thanks for the publicity:)

    Mike

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