204 | Has contemporary fundraising become too much form over substance?

Bryan Baxter asked a sincere and perhaps familiar question. “How do you go deeper to uncover a donor's passions and interests when they give me answers like ‘I like how efficient your organization is’ and ‘you have a good reputation’?” This was the focus of today’s podcast discussion. Are such responses perhaps the consequence of over-communicating features over benefits? Could we be telling our donor the wrong story? Far too often, fundraising prioritizes form over substance; and my experience has taught me that the latter is what compels and sustains the most meaningful support. 

I don’t believe Bryan’s donors are giving because his organization is particularly efficient in what they do. I believe that, with a closer look, we would discover that their very meaningful and sometimes irrational reasons trump those that we assume matter most. Watchdog ratings, efficiency ratios, and a good reputation are certainly important; however, they are also characteristics that most shops have in common with every charity in town. There is always another highly efficient charity to give to whose mission is just as worthy as ours.

If you’d like to learn more about Responsive’s keyword outline for meaningful conversations, you can download our white-paper here. 

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 #unpredictable  #responsivefundraising