How to Connect with New Donors

Charities in the UK continue to see higher demand for services despite a fall in funding from government cutbacks and smaller donations from individual donors. Charlotte Pearce, CEO and Founder of Inkpact, suggests ways charities can capture the attention of new, potential donors.

Since the credit crunch in 2008, PwC, the Institute of Fundraising and the Charity Finance Group publish a yearly survey, “Managing the New Normal”, that assesses the impact of the economic downturn and slow-growth recovery on the UK charities sector.

In March 2015, 70% of charities said they experienced an increase in demand for services in the previous 12 months, but nearly one-third (30%) felt their charities had insufficient resources to meet this demand.

With resources stretched to the limit and more uncertainty around existing funding sources, charities have fundraising strategy and tactics clearly in focus:

• 75% of respondents plan to explore new fundraising options in the next 12 months
• Over half expect to increase fundraising in current areas of focus, and almost 40% have started fundraising in new areas
• Charities are shifting from individual committed giving programmes towards major donor, trust, legacy and corporate funders and improved investment programmes

How do charities open doors to new sources of financial support?

Successful brands make connections with their customers by establishing an emotional connection with them. Charities who are successful in fundraising do this, too. Everything they do works towards building trust. Some charities create these connections in their programmes for individual donors but it also is an important strategy to employ as charities reach out to new funding sources. Success depends on doing the research and getting insight into target audiences to understand how to best to develop and grow these connections.

Major donor, trust, legacy and corporate funders can be harder to reach and maintain than individual donors. Whilst charities should expect a bigger reward for their efforts, they need to treat these potential supporters as high-value contacts, much like a niche retailer would treat a good customer or a business would treat their best clients.

How do charities make the best impression without overstretching their budgets?

It’s especially hard to open doors in new relationships, posing one more challenge to charities with stretched resources.

In an article on Thirdsector.co.uk from 9 September 2014, Esther Foreman, the founding director of the Social Change Agency, recommended that charities “think of a human angle and build it into the campaign.” She also urged charities to bring back handwritten letters to communicate with MPs. “MPs are more impressed by one handwritten letter,” she said. Anonymous, bland emails don’t catch anyone’s attention.

MPs aren’t the only people to be impressed by handwritten letters. Using handwritten letters and notes is an effective tactic that works equally well with the public as it does in business communication and, now, in fundraising.

A handwritten letter is rarely ignored.

Handwritten letters make an effective way for charities to introduce themselves. Everyone is always curious what it has to say. It’s always opened and read. The same can’t be said about emails, where open rates vary from 12% on up, nor standard direct mail, which has an open rate of about 44%. Whilst a handwritten letter conveys much – including the investment in time and care that it has taken to write the letter – it isn’t costly to produce so it makes a very smart addition to fundraising campaigns.

A handwritten letter can’t guarantee that the charity will get the meeting with the new donor, but it will almost always mean that the prospect will have read the message and be ready to speak when the charity calls to follow-up. Used throughout the relationship, handwritten letters are good communication vehicles to follow up meetings and say thanks for financial or in-kind support. Simple and cost-effective yet extremely powerful, they help to bolster reputation and reflect positively on the charity.

Why not give handwritten letters a try the next time you need to reach out to a new potential donor and see what happens?

A version of this article first appeared on the Inkpact blog. www.blog.inkpact.com

About Inkpact:

Based at WayraUK in London, Inkpact is bringing handwriting back into today's digital world by helping businesses and organisations communicate with their clients, customers and important stakeholders in a meaningful way through personalised, handwritten letters and notecards. Learn more about Inkpact at our website www.inkpact.com.