Are you learning? Are you growing as a fundraiser? The key is to find a few good sources and learn all you can about what’s happening in the world of fundraising. What we believe is the best practice, isn’t always the best for your donor. We’re passionate about Teen Challenge and believe that everyone should support us because we’re doing God’s work. We’re saving people who have lost all hope. We’re making it possible for families to be reunited and be productive. What’s not to love? However, there are lots of great causes asking people to support their work too.
Our job is to communicate the miraculous transformation to our donors, to help them develop the passion for our ministry that we have. I credit one of the reasons I’ve stayed at Teen Challenge for almost 25 years back to the early days when Brother Meppelink, Dave Batty and Wayne Keylon told stories around the prayer/lunch table. It was an indoctrination into the miracles God was doing, using Teen Challenge staff to transform desperate, hopeless lives. I was hooked. I wanted to be a part of a ministry with that kind of Kingdom impact!
That’s the concept that we have to recreate for our donors. We have to tell powerful stories of lives that have been transformed by God’s power. We have to share that there is life after addiction, and it’s a great life. We also have to share that they can be a part of this great ministry. We need their partnership and investment.
That’s “the what” we have to do. Now onto “the how” do we accomplish that big goal? I’d suggest that you take the 20 Questions, The Donor Communications Test, that fundraising guru Ton Ahern has written. You may disagree with some of his answers, but if you don’t have statistical data to backup your answers, I’d suggest trying some of his ideas to prove him right or wrong for your donors. Quiz here
I’d love to hear from you how you did on his quiz. You can email me at patty@teenchalleneusa.org. I’ll be honest, I missed six, and I’ve read some of his blog posts. Some answers definitely aren’t the obvious.
We need to remember that we have to convince our donors that they should give their hard-earned money to us instead of another needy cause. But to do this, we need to get inside our donors heads. We need to understand what they need to know to make the decision to support us.
Next time, I’ll get into more of the “how to” after you’ve had time for the quiz.
