By Karen Davenport
While year-end giving is over, solicitations for donations targeted at your donors will continue to come from every direction over the next 12 months - and not just from your organization. These requests for money, from the checkout line at the grocery store to the email inbox, can cause good-hearted people running in too many directions.
This continuous onslaught can turn acts of generosity into nerve-racking obligations that often result in "donor fatigue". Patrick Rooney, associate dean for academic affairs and research at Indiana University's School of Philanthropy, recommends that givers should target three, four or five charities and give larger gifts to those organizations as opposed to dispensing a large number of small gifts to many charities.
But how do we politely suggest to donors that bigger contributions to fewer causes (yours included of course) means those contributions can do more good than lots of small gifts to many organizations?
One easy, but direct idea is to suggest to your donors that they make your organization one of their top charities! You can begin by thanking them for doing this already. While we may not know if our organization is in the top 3 or 5, we can suggest that it is by a simple statement in our thank you letter, such as: "We appreciate that XZX Charity is one of your top giving priorities!"
The power of suggestion is an influential tool. If you have been receiving regular gifts continuously for a number of years, you can likely assume that your organization is already in the top tier. To really get to the heart of the matter, however, requires a conversation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking your donors what types of organizations are important to them and why.
Not only will you learn more about your donors' interests and motivations for giving, you may hear that your organization is one of their most important charities already - incredibly important information that many times can lead to a major gift, a planned gift, or both!
