Candor in Donor Communication
Over the years, I often get asked questions about how to communicate something with a donor. For example: We have all these email addresses, but we haven’t sent anything to them for many months or more. We finally want to start a newsletter, which we had only previously hinted at. What do we say to all these people?
My answers to such quandaries always derive from the same process of answering these three questions: What is the truth? What do you want? What would you want if you were them? And then communicating those things with humility and candor, possibly even some humor.
Maybe like this:
You gave us your email address last year, at one of our events. At the time, we had the intent of launching an email newsletter. I’m embarrassed to tell you that we’re only just now getting around to it.
The last thing we want is for you to get our newsletter and wonder why in the world we are spamming you. So, before we have a chance to mess up, would you follow the link below and let us know if we made a mistake and you don’t want the newsletter? You can also leave us feedback on the same form or just reply to this email.
Most of the time the clients asking this question want a hard and fast ethical standard, a line in the sand about opting into email or opting out, or how to assess a stale donor relationship. But we always come back to sending a candid message and everyone in the room relaxes.
It’s just another reminder to me how deep the opportunity for authenticity with our stakeholders goes.
Posted: January 31st, 2007 under The Ideas.
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Comments
Comment from Jason Z
Time: February 1, 2007, 9:30 am
Very nicely put, Michael. It’s amazing how disarmingly powerful a little bit of candor can be — showing something like human frailty and vulnerability in an organization. Almost like if one didn’t have the warts, one would have to invent them.
Comment from Patty Hart
Time: February 12, 2007, 11:58 am
You have no idea how this hit home for me. We have tried to get our newsletter out for several months and it just has been slow in coming. It reached the point that I didn’t know what I would say when it finally happened. It was starting be be embarassing to even figure how I would manage this without looking like a loser. That honestly thing has a lot going for it.
Thank you.
Patty
Comment from Bonnie Wahiba
Time: February 13, 2007, 8:45 am
I can’t believe you wrote on this topic! It coincides with my desire to put together something special just for our donors - the first time we’ve done something like this. (They are already on our mailing list to get all of our research material.) Other than a newsletter, what other ideas do folks have of creative things to do to remind donors of how much we appreciate their support?
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