Good donor management

I know I've been promising in other threads to do a post on election campaign messaging and it's coming I swear, but I had to take a moment to recognize and appreciate something.

As I've mentioned a few times, I work communications for a large charitable organization. I've never worked for a charity before this one so the past year has been a bit of an education in the practices, dos and don'ts of fundraising and donor management. That latter part is the important bit.

Just getting somebody to give you $$ isn't enough. Not if you want to be successful. The interaction between donor and recipient is a relationship that has to be treated just that way - as a relationship. There must be continual contact, appreciation, nurturing and encouragement. The more personal the connection the more likely that donor is to give again, and give larger.

TO the point: this evening upon arriving home I found amidst the day's mail a small card from the Green Party of Canada. A card with a hand-written note of thanks from the Party Fundraising Manager. Nothing extravagant or flowery. Just a simple note of thanks. But it's exactly the kind of personal touch that's essential for good fundraising.

COntrast that with my recently-departed Liberal Party. In ten years, despite frequent reminders, the Liberal fundraising section never got around the changing their distribution lists to acknowledge that I'm Mr Kieran Green, not Ms Kieran Green. Every letter of "thanks for your donation" was just a pretext for another "oh and give us more money."  And one of the principles of donor management is that even at the end, when the donor tells you they are taking their money elsewhere, you close the relationship on a positive note with a thanks and well wishes for the future. Not only has the Liberal Party not given any parting sentiments... they refuse to even accept I'm gone! Yesterday I got another letter begging money, and I quit four months ago! It's not the main reason the other parties are out-fundraising them, but it surely doesn't help.

So in closing, kudos to the Green Party fundraising team. As the party grows it's going to be more difficult to maintain that personal touch, but if you can keep it up the Party war chest will keep growing, too.