Why do your donors give? Is it because your organization is awesome and doing a great job at something important? Yes, but not really.
The real reason they give is something inside their own heads, according to the Better Fundraising Blog at People Make Donations to Tell Ourselves…
Here’s why they give:
You and I make donations in order to tell ourselves who we are.
Of course, you need to be awesome. You owe that to your cause, yourself, and your donors.
But when it comes to asking, you are on your donors’ turf. And you’ll do a lot better by speaking your donors’ internal language, and showing them how their donation makes them more truly and deeply who they are.
What that means is if you want to do well in fundraising, your messaging should…
… tell donors that they’ll love giving to your organization. Your fundraising will need to tell them that your organization has the same values that your donor has. Your fundraising will need to communicate, “people like you give gifts to this organization.”
You can ignore this reality — most fundraisers do. You’ll just raise less money for your cause.
