3 Reasons Why You Need to Know Why Your Donors Donate Cliff Notes

• You can’t be effective unless you know why people give (their motivations)
• Learn the motivations of your current donors by actually talking to them and asking them why they give to your organization
• You can use what you learn to hone in what’s most attractive in your mission for future asks - Whether through direct mail, thank you letters, impact reports, social media, or your website
• Making your asks tailored to your donor interests makes it so much easier for them to say ‘yes’
• This helps you know that the thing that you’re asking them to support your organization in doing, is exactly what they want you to be doing
• It’s also nice to talk about what your donors like to talk about, rather than what you think they need to hear about
• Understanding why your donors donate makes it more likely that they’ll donate again and increase their giving
• If you understand why people love your organization, and some basic details about your existing donors, it makes it a lot easier to find other people who are like them
• Use donor management software of even a spreadsheet to keep track of what you learn about your donors
• Cultivating relationships with your donors and understanding why they give is the right thing to do because then you won’t treat them as just funders, money providers, or an ATM
• A great way to learn from your donors is through a general donor satisfaction survey, and getting feedback from your event attendees
• When getting donor feedback, ask them why they are interested in your organization
• You can also do a thank you call, thank them for their gift, and ask them what inspired them to give today
• If you feel like you don’t have enough time to make personal phone calls, carve out 30 minutes a week (or whatever chunk of time works for you) to do a batch of phone calls
• Actually talking to your donors and hearing why you’re great will make you feel good too

For a fully-formatted article version of this podcast, head over to our website: 

https://mayecreate.com/blog/myth-buster-embracing-no-premium-fundraising-with-expert-guest-jaime-freidrichs/