How to Talk to Your Donors

ABOUT YOUR DONOR

When you use words like “we” and “our” in your campaign materials, social media, website, campaign presentations, etc., you are typically referring to your United Way. For example, in phrases like “We fund 47 partner agencies and 56 programs” or “We help 137,678 people every year” the word “we” is referring to your United Way – not your donor.

If you want a donor to support your United Way, you need to talk about your donor. When you use words like “you” and “your,” you are including the donor in your work. Here are two examples of using “your” instead of “we”: “Your contribution will provide essential funding to 47 partner agencies and 56 programs” or “Your donation will help over 137,000 people every year.”

If you want to see how your United Way is doing using “We/Our” versus “You/Your,” check out our blog post Take the We/Our Versus You/Your Test.

TIP: Use words like “you” and “your” four times more often than words like “we” and “our” when talking to your donors.

YOUR DONOR’S GOAL

Our donor research has found over and over again that donors do not care about your campaign goal – it does not motivate a donor to give or increase their contribution, donors do not want to be updated about the campaign goal, and many donors do not even care if you reach your campaign goal. Why? Because your campaign goal is your United Way’s goal, not your donor’s goal.

Over thirty-five years of donor research with local United Way donors has found that the donor’s goal is to change lives in their community. Donors want to know that their contribution has helped a child enter kindergarten ready to learn, provided a homeless family permanent housing, or allowed a single mother to finish her GED, find a job, and become financially stable.

Your donors need to be able to clearly picture how their contribution changes lives in their community. In fact, I would encourage you to think “picture” when you think about your donor’s goal. Can your donor picture the impact of their contribution? I’ll bet you can easily picture a child entering kindergarten ready to learn or a homeless family in permanent housing.

Furthermore, donors need to be able to picture the results of their contribution, not the process used to achieve the results. Talking about the dozens of volunteers that dedicated hundreds of hours to the allocation process will not get you more donors. Ditto for talking about your administrative costs. Yes, there are a couple donors (about 4% from our research) who will take the time to look up your administrative costs, but no donor anywhere woke up this morning and decided they would give money to the charity with the lowest administrative costs.

TIP: Paint a picture in your donor’s mind of how their contribution will change lives in their community.

TOMORROW NOT YESTERDAY

Donors do not live in the past, but United Ways often do when they talk about all the programs they funded last year. Your donor’s goal is not to fund last year’s work. Your donor’s goals are about changing lives now or in the future. Your donors are picturing helping a single mother earn her GED and become financially stable now. They are not picturing giving to support programs that happened last year. United Ways need to stop living in the past.

You must ask your donor to support what they will accomplish this year with their contribution because your donor’s goal is now. For example, “With your help, 17 homeless families will move into permanent housing this year” or “With your $30 contribution, a child in our community will receive a book every month from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.”

To be clear, there is a place to talk about what you accomplished last year. Once someone gives to your United Way, you should report what their contribution accomplished. Not just a thank you for giving, but a clear communication that the donor’s contribution changed lives. Tell the story of how the donor made a difference in their community.

TIP: When you ask a donor to give, ask them for a contribution that will change lives now or in the future. After they give, report back on how their contribution changed lives.