Non Profits: 4 things to make you donor friendly

Donors and advocates are busy people. Add to that – they most likely support multiple organizations. So what can you do to make yourself stand out? Whether you are contacting potential donors or reconnecting with past advocates – here are four things to make you more donor friendly:

1. Spruce up your “About Us”: Check your web analytics. I am willing to bet that your “About Us” page is one of your top viewed pages. People want to work with (and give to) people and they want to know about the actual people who run your org. If your “About Us” page is written in third person and consists of mission statements and vision statements only, this doesn’t make donors want to cozy up to you. Get staff pics and bios up there asap (as well as links to social profiles, etc). Check out this post from Smashing Magazine where they profile 20 amazing “Meet the Team” pages. Need to convince your board you need to do this: Ask them: How many times have you personally donated without checking out /researching the org first? Make it easier on donors and let the community get to know your staff/team.

2. Report back: Offer transparent data online about what you have done with past donations, how many people you have helped, etc.

3. Collect donations online: – Have you read the 20011 Cygnus Donor Survey Cygnus? They report that 65% of those surveyed plan to make at least one donation online this year. What options do you offer for online giving? Are you giving your donors what they are looking for? While direct mail and direct contact from leadership to donors are important steps – don’t overlook the online donation option. Check out the Cygnus executive summary for more insight. Another reference that might be helpful is this breakdown from Ideal Ware- they compare online donation services.

4. Add Mobile to your vocabulary – See the tip above. Did you see how many donors are giving online? Add to that the growing number of smart phone users and web enabled phones and you have an audience prime for mobile advocates (and can you even get a mobile plan without a data package anymore?). If nothing else – get this conversation started in your board room to get your leadership thinking about it. Check out this article from Non Profit Tech on m-Advocacy. One very easy step you can take here (beyond just talking about it) is to pull up your orgs website on your own phone. What do you see? What is the experience? Does it take to long to load? To hard to read? What changes could you make to make it more mobile friendly?