#donorlove

This morning I read over the latest Ahern in my inbox while my coffee brewed and of course, my brain starts spinning.

His newsletter talks about how you! too! can make your crappy 12 page newsletter written by marketing and communications that goes on and on about how awesome you are, an actual donor love piece.

I love this:

Let's do a thought experiment. Get a pen and a pad of paper. Put yourself in your average donor's shoes for a moment and try to answer the following three questions (take all the time you want):

• What would you love to receive after you've made your very first gift?

• What would delight you, had you made a second gift?

• And, if you'd made a third gift, what would surprise you so much you would say to yourself, "Well, my word, isn't that amazing! Round up the kids: I want them to see this!"

Before you rush to answer, first note the verbs: love, delight, surprise. Nothing rational there. Just heartstrings; trying, hoping to be plucked. I can't make donor newsletters any simpler than this:

• They express love for the donor.

• They bring joy to the donor.

• They surprise the donor.

If you do all three of these things in your newsletter ... you will have satisfied donors. 

I'm a donor.

To a lot of charities.

I support most, if not all the charities, we do work for, but also number of ones that we used to work with... or random charities because people have done runs/walks/mustache growing, etc.

Like my dear old, beaten down and ignored mother-in-law, I continue to give despite how I'm treated. Actually how I'm not treated.

I can name only three charities (all of whom are clients) out of the maybe 35-40 charities who I have given to in the pass year (as a one time larger gift, regular monthly donor, event participator, event sponsor - online and offline) who have shown me - any above and beyond the normal automatic e-response - gratitude for what I have done.

This is one of the reasons we work with them, because they actually do walk the walk.

Anyhow, I hate to sound pessimistic, it's not the time of year for that.

Me "giving" feels good but the good feelings shouldn't end there.

I just want to be appreciated.

I just want to be loved. And feel warm and fuzzy.

I want to feel important. That my gift matters.

I want to feel special.

I'm your donor today.

But tomorrow maybe I won't be.