Playing the Altruism Game

"We only want donors for the right reasons" (said every nonprofit rationalizing their under performing donor file).

I do a lot of work with faith-based nonprofits, providing a message that transforms their mission to connect with new and better donors (here's where you can learn more about how I help turn mission into a message for donors). And the question of why their donors give is often a stumbling block for those who want to serve with pure motives, a pure mission, and believe they will do best when the attract only pure donors.

Of course, they dislike anything that sounds too much like sales, and they’re often embarrassed by out-right marketing.

But their worst move is when they listen to that one, vocal donor idealized as 'their best kind of donor' and are willing to change how they talk with every donor based on the anecdotal feedback of this one donor (the squeaky wheel get’s the grease).

Here’s an example… A struggling, small and historic nonprofit in the Chicago area recently changed the number of mailings to their 10,000 active donor list because one donor complained about receiving too many letters from them.

While everyone else in our world is increasing their mailings to 8, 10 and even 14 appeals each year, this nonprofit cut back from 6 or 7 to just 4 appeals.

Want to guess what happened to their revenue?

Yep... it dropped just over 20% - and they wanted to know why.

They said they were responsive and sensitive to their donors wishes. (Actually they were swayed by one donor's wishes.)

Did they change their new approach? No they did not. Instead they rationalized their mistake and boasted they had retained just the true, committed donors and lost those who didn’t share a commitment to the nonprofit’s mission. They only wanted altruistic donors.

It is common – too common – to play the altruism game and insist that we just want good, virtuous donors.

And for faith-based nonprofits they add another struggle to the equation and openly wonder (complain, object, protest even) that in our obsession with donor-friendly, donor-facing communications, we have lost a place for G/god.

The ubiquitous and insidious sentiment lurking in the shadows of faith-based nonprofit messaging is this: the donor should really be altruistic and give for the right reasons (the nonprofit's reasons, which are coincidentally, G/god’s reasons). They should even be grateful for the privilege of giving to the nonprofit - whether motivated by gratitude or guilt over their own privilege, blessing, or salvation.

It isn’t a question of whether they should give. No, they must give. They are expected to give. God deserves it (and since the nonprofit is on G/god’s team they deserve it too).

The donor should be thanking the nonprofit, not the other way around!

Here's the alternative: There is no such thing as a pure gift just as there is no pure altruism (and the donor knows this even if faith-based nonprofits do not).

Gifts create community, express social relationships (belonging, wanting to belong, known by belonging, or reciprocating to an act of generosity from another by acting as a donor). The motives for the donor may range from gratitude to guilt – it doesn’t matter to me.

And it shouldn’t matter to you either.

Donor's gifts create community, and their giving identifies them. The gift is the donor’s best expression of self-identification (conveying, displaying, proving, demonstrating who they are or the way they want to be thought of – even if their gifts are anonymous).

Just give them a chance to belong - that's the nonprofit's mission when it comes to donors.

Ready to escape obscurity and connect with your best donors? That's what I can help you with. Let's talk today!