18 takeaways from my recent appearance on the Giving Back Podcast

This was a super-fun interview on The Giving Back Podcast. But if you don’t have time to listen to it, here are some notes my staff wrote down after listening.

• You don’t need more awareness, you need more major donors;
• Major donors want to be heard but too many charities are failing to listen;
• Using technology, charities CAN listen so they respond in ways that align with how each donor sees value;
• The key is to make people feel good — especially people with capacity (and make sure they don’t feel bad);
• Large donations follow when there’s a fit between the organization’s mission and the donor’s mission along with meaningful engagement;
• Organizations need to qualify donor passion and capacity at low cost before spending money on marketing and face-to-face relationship-building;
• The donor’s consideration process must be considered more than the organization’s moves management process;
• Fundraisers need to help donors recognize their needs (to give) more than they help donors recognize that their organizations have needs (for money);
• Most wealthy people have no idea how to give away their money;
• Fundraisers should help wealthy people understand how they can do good and find meaning in their lives;
• It’s important that fundraisers provide value to donors in ways that are in line with their needs, interests, wants, and desires;
• If nonprofits provide (give) more value to donors, they’ll raise more money than they ever imagined might be possible at low cost;
• Listening includes monitoring donor digital body language;
• Most organizations communicate with donors as if they only want to make low-dollar, impulsive giving decisions yet the major and legacy giving decision-making process is very deliberate because it involves large dollar amounts;
• The high-dollar, deliberate (and often lengthy) major and legacy gift consideration process requires that nonprofits supply donors with opaque offers over time;
• MarketSmart eats its own dog food — we do what we recommend nonprofits and fundraisers do;
• We help fundraisers make donors feel good at scale;
• Fundraisers (facilitators) will always be needed to help donors get over the finish line;
• Fundraisers should give so they know what it’s like to be a donor.