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Major Donor Development and Retention Strategies through Storytelling

Major Donor Development and Retention Strategies Through Storytelling

We spoke with Kristen Hemmet, Director of Ministry Services for The Signatry, during the podcast Donor-Centric Communication and The Ministry of Donor Development. The Signatry connects major donors to the causes they are most passionate about to inspire and facilitate revolutionary biblical generosity. Their vision is to write the last check to the last missionary to be sent out to the last unreached people group so the last person can hear the gospel.

 

Close your eyes and envision that for a moment. What a beautiful world we’d live in if The Signatry’s vision came true! While Kristen knows this won’t happen anytime soon, The Signatry has made an amazing impact. Since the organization was founded, The Signatry has facilitated sending over $3.5 billion to nonprofits and organizations around the globe that are dedicated to solving our world’s greatest problems.

 

Obviously, Kristen’s team is good at what they do. In this article, we’ll elaborate on her best tips for major donor development and retention. Silence your device, fasten your creativity cap, and take notes so you can implement her major donor development strategies for your ministry.

 

Major Donor Development through Storytelling

Fundraising is a significant expense for any nonprofit organization, but Kristin has learned that many nonprofits fail to realize the development potential in every volunteer, staff person, and board member. She believes that much of The Signatry’s success is attributed to “a culture of donor development” in which the leaders lead by example, instill a donor partnership mindset, teach and equip staff to tell the ministry’s story, and ensure everyone serves donors well. I’ll let her tell you more about each step.

 

  1. Leaders must set the tone.
    “The first thing I would say to that ministry leader is ‘you set the tone.’ This is not just the development officer’s job. This is not just your marketing and communications department job to communicate the message effectively. You are your chief ambassador for the organization.”
  2. Donors aren’t paychecks, they’re partners.
    As chief ambassadors, leaders are responsible for “ensuring that everybody in the organization, everybody in the ministry, understands our donors are important to the work we’re doing. Not because they help us pay the bills, but because they have partnered with us, and they are helping to accomplish the work that we are accomplishing.”
  3. Tell them what their role is.
    After instilling the right mindset toward donors, leaders need to help volunteers, staff, and board members understand both the ministry’s role and their own, so they’re prepared to tell people what the organization does. “They need to know that they need to be equipped to tell the story, whether it’s in the grocery store line or after church on Sunday or on the bleachers at a soccer game. When somebody says, ‘what do you do,’ that they’re equipped to say, ‘I work for this ministry, and we do this.’
  4. Equip them for their role.
    When volunteers, staff, and board members understand part of their role is to tell the ministry’s story, leaders then need to equip them “with some key pieces, whether it’s a story or a statistic, something that they can share with that person they’re interacting with. It just helps convey this confidence in the organization and the excitement about the mission and the work that’s being accomplished.”
  5. Teach them to serve donors well.
    Ministry is about service, both for beneficiaries and supporting partners. Kristin believes we must serve our donors well by making sure “everybody understands that when we interface with donors at every level, whether they’re calling because they need to make an investment to a monthly gift, or they are a first-time donor, or they’re a major donor, that when I answer the phone, or I interface in some way with them, that I am really serving them. I am doing the ministry even if I am the receptionist at the front desk. I am still ministering well to that donor. They are a ministry partner, so I am thankful and appreciative of the role they play in the organization.”

 

We’re going to zoom in on steps three and four, because at Reliant, we specialize in equipping ministries to answer the question “what do you do” with a simple, brief statement that engages donors at an emotional level.

 

Traditionally, ministries answer this question with statistics and data to show donors what they do and how they do it, but we believe your ministry’s messaging should begin with explaining why you exist.

 

In our free course “Purpose-Driven Strategy,” Reliant Founder & Principal Creative  Zach Leighton explains the benefit of engaging a donor’s emotions by first telling them why you do what you do, and allowing those core beliefs to guide all other messaging.

 

“By allowing our why to permeate and drive our communication, we are able to communicate our beliefs as a brand, and when we share our beliefs as a brand, it gives a donor something to connect with at a deeper level than what we do or how we do what we do. At our core, humans want to belong to something, and as followers of Christ, we know that this is true. We know we are designed for community, so shared beliefs between a ministry brand and a donor allow the donor to feel that they belong to something bigger than themselves.”

 

This “why” statement then provides clear direction and clarity for your staff to communicate with donors. When staff can communicate why they do what they do, then their personal values become clearly aligned with your corporate beliefs. As they become invested in your beliefs at the heart level, it will be easier for your staff to advocate on your behalf, and that kind of genuine passion is a powerful way to create buzz and excitement around our ministries.

 

Let’s go back to The Signatry’s mission and vision: to inspire and facilitate revolutionary biblical generosity in order to write the last check to the last missionary to be sent out to the last unreached people group so the last person can hear the gospel.

 

If you didn’t do so earlier, close your eyes and imagine what The Signatry’s dream world is like. If they work themselves out of a job, wouldn’t you want to live in their world?

 

Now, let’s consider Reliant Funding, an imaginary organization with the same goal. “Reliant Funding develops major donor relationships in 125 countries around the world to get the biggest checks possible to fund 1978 mission-driven organizations. Through this funding, over 3.2 million people have heard the gospel for the first time. By supporting Reliant Funding, you’ll be part of a revolutionary spirit of giving, reaching all corners of the globe through print, video, and social media.”

 

if you’re still awake, I’d love for you to tell me—which organization are you more likely to get excited about, The Signatry, or Reliant Funding? At Reliant Creative, we find ministries respond to the question “what do you do” with wording similar to our make-believe Reliant Funding. The difference is engaging people’s emotions by sharing your beliefs in a clear, simple story or word picture that even a child can understand. You can learn more about how to write your ministry’s why statement in our course “Purpose-Driven Messaging.

 

Kristin and her team have found that creating a culture of development within the organization cultivates donor relationships to open the door for that big, financial ask. But, at The Signatry, donor relationships don’t stop after the check is cashed. Her next tip reveals a bit of hard truth where many ministries are falling short in donor relationships.

 

Major Donor Retention through Story

Ministries invest a lot of time and resources to build donor relationships, but how well are those relationships nurtured? Kristin provided startling statistics regarding the attrition rate of donors and offered a biblical solution.

 

“Nearly 70% of all first-time donors to a nonprofit organization will not give again. Seventy percent will leave the organization after the first gift. So it’s really important when you get donors in the door that you care for them, that you communicate clearly with them, that you thank them. Gratitude is probably the biggest opportunity for us to grow relative to our communication with donors. We just don’t do it well enough. So, I think it’s important that we communicate the impact, that we thank them, that we share stories.”

 

When my daughter was in elementary school, she learned to be a bucket filler through acts of kindness. The school taught “The Bucket Lady” Carol Cloud’s analogy of emotional intelligence, where kindness puts a drop of water in the other person’s emotional bucket, while selfishness takes water out until the other person has nothing left to give. Is your ministry filling your donor’s bucket? Is your ministry like the one leper in Luke 17:11-17 that returned to thank Jesus for His gift, or do you just keep moving, like the other nine?

 

I know this is a tough gut-check, but it’s likely we all can acknowledge an opportunity for growth. We’re here to help. As Kristin said, we need to thank our donors by sharing stories. The Bible tells us that where our money is, our heart is also, so your major donors are pouring a lot of themselves into your ministry to fund stories of God’s redemption, healing and hope. Imagine how your donors would feel if you write them into God’s story? How many donors will return to your ministry if they feel they are part of that redemption, if they know they poured eternal treasures of faith and hope into someone else’s darkness?

You work very hard to make it all possible, but just like The Signatry, your ministry is the middleman, the mentor that connects donors to beneficiaries they care about. God’s stories have the power to mobilize the Church, and change includes attributing superpowers of love and resilience to your donors and beneficiaries. I’d like to close this article with a few practical, low-cost ways to fundraise through storytelling. 

6 Ways to Way Thank Major Donors Through Story

  1. Send your donors a welcome packet with stories of what you’ve done and what you’re doing.
  2. Allow your donors to superficially adopt a village, project, or beneficiary so they’ll get updates in print, video, or photos about what is happening.
  3. Allow your donors to receive and send prayer requests for the teams or beneficiaries that mean the most to them. This can be done through mail, email, or even a private Facebook group.
  4. What crafts or trinkets are native to the area you serve? Consider giving your donors a small gift or allowing a beneficiary to make something for donors. Conversely, provide the opportunity for donors to send a  gift to beneficiaries. There is intrinsic value in sharing the story of a transformed life. Give opportunities for your donors to thank your beneficiaries for sharing their stories.
  5. Send them a brief thank you video from a team member or beneficiary
  6. Create a photo book telling the story of a project they supported.

 

Which of the ideas above inspired you? How can you implement something similar in your donor retention strategy? 

 

Thank you for visiting Reliant Creative today. We hope Kristin, Zach, and I have inspired you to share your ministry heroes’ stories. If you’d like help with your creative strategy and storytelling, please contact us.

About the Author:

Valerie Riese

Valerie Riese

Valerie is a best-selling author and storyteller specializing in content aligned with a traditional biblical worldview. She provides web content writing, print and eBook ghostwriting, and editing services for ministries and nonprofit organizations, as well as publishing agencies and indie authors. Valerie's promise is to be faithful to your story, your brand, and your voice, because every creator deserves to feel empowered to encourage their audience. You can learn more about Valerie at valerieriese.com.

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