Tips for Retaining Nonprofit Employees

Nonprofit executive directors and hiring managers have notoriously over-packed schedules and to-do lists, so if you’re blissfully relieved to cross off your “fill x role” task once a candidate has accepted your job offer, it’s certainly understandable. However, it’s wise to think of that box as being temporarily checked—and to implement strategies to ensure it stays that way for as long as possible. For many reasons, employee retention should be just as integral to pursuing your mission as fundraising and providing core services are.

 

As of 2022, the average turnover for nonprofit organizations was approximately 19%, whereas the average all-industry turnover rate was 12%. If you’d like to improve your organization’s statistics, but the prospect of designing a comprehensive employee retention plan sounds more overwhelming than organizing your next major fundraiser, don’t worry. Employee retention strategies can be simple, budget-friendly, and fine-tuned over time. In fact, they’re not unlike the practices you already have in place for retaining donors.

 

If your donors provide the fuel your organization runs on, then your employees are your engine, wheels, and everything in between (your drivetrain, to be exact). We all know that extending the life and quality of your vehicle requires regular tune-ups, repairs, and general TLC. Here’s how to take optimal care of the most valuable (and expensive) parts of your vehicle: your staff. 

How To Retain Employees—The Smart Way

 

 

 

Start by Addressing the Greatest Risks

Although you will ultimately want to tailor your retention strategies to your organization’s specific concerns, it can be helpful to start with a high-level view of the factors behind national nonprofit employee retention rate and turnover statistics. The single greatest reason for voluntary turnover is lack of opportunity for growth at 59.7%, inadequate compensation and benefits is second at 47.6%, and discomfort or dissatisfaction with an organization or its culture is third at 26.2%. 

 

Consider prioritizing these areas first as you work through your retention plan, but use your own information-gathering strategies to prevent or address other potential pain points. Exit interviews can certainly be a useful tool in this regard, but in a more preventive sense, it’s a good idea to solicit feedback in the form of anonymous surveys, routine “check-ins,” and other communication tools. But once you’ve determined your areas to address, what are the best ways to, well, address them?

Make Your Employees Feel Valued Where It Counts

In many ways, designing an effective employee retention plan boils down to tried-and-true methods of making your employees feel valued. You already have a system for keeping your donors coming back, and you can deploy a similar one for your workers. Here are some ways to address the biggest risk factors for turnover.

 

Create Pathways for Growth (Vertical and Lateral)

Given that nonprofits have a reputation for doing more with less, there’s no such thing as a redundant or superfluous employee. But you can’t expect to hold onto people skilled at running in a variety of gears if your workers feel like they’ve hit a career cul-de-sac. Even if you can’t offer them a promotion (vertical growth) in the near future, you can still make sure they’re learning and growing in their existing roles (lateral growth). Here are a few ways you can offer opportunities for career development:

 

• Promote staff internally where possible
• Provide professional development and training opportunities
• Offer challenges and “stretch” assignments
• Provide mentorship
• Send employees to industry events (like conferences and workshops)
• Pay for field-relevant certifications

 

Maximize Compensation and Benefits (Get Creative!)

It’s important to offer your employees a competitive salary and benefits package, since this is the second most-cited reason for voluntary turnover. Don’t let a tight budget be a roadblock, however: smaller tangible and significant intangible benefits can go a long way toward making your organization a truly desirable place to work. Here are some ways to show your workers that you’re committed to their welfare:

 

• Review your budget for ways to increase compensation and traditional benefits; remember to calculate your turnover costs and keep these in mind as you weigh your options
• Consider cost-of-living adjustments in pay
• If your organization can’t afford pay increases right now, offer commissions or bonuses instead
• Increase paid sick, family, or holiday leave allowances
• Ease work/life “pain points” by offering things like on-site childcare, a flexible work schedule (in person or from home), public transit passes, or stipends to help cover other personal or work-related expenses

 

Promote a Healthy Work Culture

Good company culture doesn’t happen by accident, nor will it thrive with good intentions that are haphazardly applied. Since your workplace culture directly affects how your employees feel about working for your organization, it’s essential to cultivate one in a deliberate and thoughtful way. Think about ways not only to prevent interpersonal conflicts, but to help employees feel comfortable, trusted, valued, and engaged as a team—and in all things, be consistent. Here are a few ways to do this:

 

• Develop, communicate, and demonstrate your organization’s core values (“walk the walk”)
• Be transparent with employees about organization goals, policies, decisions, and budget
• Solicit feedback often; include workers in major and minor decision-making whenever possible
• Champion equity and inclusiveness
• Have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, harassment, and other toxic or criminal workplace behavior

 

Other Ways To Prevent Turnover

If you have open lines of communication in your organization that your employees feel comfortable using, you’ll be alerted to other potential turnover risk factors, and you can get ahead of them before they escalate. Here are some simple, low-cost ideas: 

 

• Provide recognition and let staff know when their hard work has had a concrete positive impact on your organization
• Get to know your employees as individuals
• Make time for fun and feel-good activities (e.g. happy hours, lunches, movie screenings, contests, etc. based on shared team preferences rather than arbitrary top-down ideas)
• Find ways to promote work/life balance in deed, not just in lip service
• Facilitate opportunities for interpersonal and team bonding

 

You can’t prevent all turnover, of course, voluntary or otherwise, but you can certainly reduce it by implementing thoughtful strategies for employee retention. When you do this, you’ll accomplish much more than simply keeping your best people for longer. You’ll increase loyalty and productivity, reach more goals, enjoy more growth, and create an enjoyable work environment. 

As the word gets out that your organization is a great place to work, you can attract (and keep!) more top-notch talent, ensuring the engine of your nonprofit is firing on all cylinders. After all, who doesn’t want an upgraded ride?

Want more tips like these? Get them here.

Positive EOY staff morale + Strong organization leadership = New Year Success

Let’s face it, the last few months of 2022 are a vital time for organizations! You’re trying to reach new goals, set new initiatives, and plan for the incoming year. During this planning, your staff can feel burned out. Consider your staff’s workload, scrambling to make year-end goals, and let’s not forget: their personal lives going into the holiday season.

Don’t fret; we’ll be going through some initiatives to take to stay productive and refocus for a New Year.

How to Stay Productive

Throw a Holiday Party

It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It just needs to be fun. Throw a party that your staff will look forward to. Long work days are a little more bearable when a party is on the horizon. You can host a luncheon during office hours or have your party at a restaurant on a Friday night so your employees can bring their spouses. Either way, make it special. Decide on a couple of games or maybe even a white elephant gift exchange. Whatever you do, make it worth the hard work they put in all year.

Plan Out Holiday Social Media Campaigns

Social media can be fun for your target audience as well as your employees. Have them brainstorm a special giveaway or a fundraising campaign. Be sure to make it holiday-themed to keep your staff and audience interested. If you struggle to keep your social media channels active, scheduling out your posts in advance can help you stay on track.

Maybe you can partner up with a local coffee shop or restaurant and give away a coupon or gift card to anyone who comments on a photo or likes a post on Facebook. You could also have your donors match the number of likes a certain post gets by the time New Year’s Day comes. Have your employees run with the idea and let them have a good time with it. It’s something that’s a little different and special during the holiday season, but it still maintains productivity.

Show appreciation

Your staff works hard all year, so be sure to recognize them. Hand-write thank you notes with a gift card inside or offer a Christmas bonus. If you can’t afford to be financially generous, that’s okay. Just let them know they are appreciated. It will keep them motivated to do their best when they’re feeling burnt out. Expressing gratitude for your support network is a priority, bump it to the top of your list. If you know this is a priority but seems like a daunting task, get creative. Gratitude can be displayed in several ways and there are plenty of tools that can help including automations and integrations that build deeper, more personal relationships with your donors, staff, and support network.

Set goals

Set some end-of-the-year goals for yourself, your organization, and your staff. Having one common goal to work toward will keep you and your staff productive as the year draws to a close. Make the goal visible in your office so everyone can see it and be reminded of why they do what they do.

Give them a reason to be productive

Make sure your organization is having some small successes along the way. Try partnering up with a for-profit organization. Maybe for every $20 made, a for-profit company will donate a percentage to your organization, or something similar. Don’t worry about burdening the company. They have the resources to carry out orders and produce merchandise, even though this is their busy time of year, too. 20 percent of annual retail sales occur between November and December, so your organization might benefit from that.

When your staff sees that your organization is doing well and making a difference, they will be on board and ready to work until the holiday comes.

Work with them

It’s difficult to come to a balance between working your employees hard until the holidays come and letting the lack of motivation get the better of them. Stay somewhere in the middle, though. Be sure to allow the time off they need, but ensure you are staffed enough to continue their work. Understand their busy schedules and stressful lives, and they will appreciate you more.

Most of all, make sure you get the rest you need this holiday season, too, while preparing for the busy year to come.

Refocus for a New Year

Don’t Drop the Ball

Let’s fast forward, congratulations on your successful end-of-year fundraising campaign! After all the hard work put into the final fundraising push of the year, you deserve the extra plate at Christmas dinner and the extra drink (or drinks) on New Year’s Eve—cheers. But now that the year is over and the ball has dropped, it’s time to make sure you’re not dropping the ball. Here are a few things you can focus on in the first few months of the new year to ensure success for your nonprofit.

Follow up

Just because your holiday giving campaign ended doesn’t mean its success has to be stuck in the past too. Use the leftover momentum to start the year off on the right foot.

Start by following up with new donors who showed interest during your campaign. Obviously, thank-yous are a must—your donors will love ’em and your mom will be proud—but consider some other ways to follow up too. For example, you could send a short survey to donors. Ask them why they donated and what other causes they support, and don’t be afraid to ask a question to get some more specific information that will help you improve your future fundraising efforts. If you rely on volunteers, ask these new donors if they want to get a little more hands-on and take things to the next level by joining your team of volunteers.

Wrap it Up

Have some fun in documenting the memories, performance, and achievements from the previous year. An annual report is a common publication of nonprofit organizations, an annual report should be a distinct piece of your communications and marketing assets. Since annual reports are big projects, it’s okay to expect more of this signature piece. This signature piece should provide clarity and accountability, inspire conversation, honor supporters, give readers something easy to remember and hard to forget, and showcases your nonprofit in all it’s glory. So get out there and show off a bit. Wrap up your previous year in a beautiful annual report.

Don’t get overwhelmed. An annual report is a complex beast of a project…or is it? A lot of meetings, stress, and far too many words are often put into these temporary snapshots of a nonprofit’s work. This guide breaks down these reports into an easy-to-follow outline while using the “5 W’s”: Who, What, When, Where, and Why.

Plan for next year

I’m sure the last thing you want to do in January is a plan for November and December. But the sooner you get in the film room and review the game tape, so to speak, the fresher it will be in your mind once the game day arrives. Take some time to identify your nonprofit’s successes and shortcomings you noticed during the holiday giving season and put pen to paper.

Don’t overthink it. Start with some open-ended ideas on what went well and what can be improved and thank yourself later because these notes will be helpful when the time comes to start planning. Be sure to get the final donor numbers down in writing and compare them to your expectations and previous years’ efforts.

Fight the post-holiday slowdown

The way to combat this is to do a great job of telling your story and pushing your brand to its constituents. Use social media to tell people what you’re up to. Put together some numbers that illustrate your successes during the last calendar year and make them available to your stakeholders and the community – show people where their donations went and how they helped. Use any interview requests or press opportunities to further your organization’s narrative. If journalists aren’t knocking down your door, go to them by pitching your story ideas to the media and posting unique and relevant blog posts. As always, the more you’re in front of your constituents and your community, the better. Putting even more focus on fundraising now will go a long way in preventing a slowdown in contributions later.

When a sports team ends its season, they get an off-season; time to recover, and a chance to reflect on the past year before starting again. But do you think those athletes are propped up on a beach with a cold one in hand the entire time? They’re using that time to hone their craft and improve themselves, they’re in the gym and the film room, doing whatever it takes to be better than the competition. And don’t kid yourself, you have several worthy competitors of your own in your community for a donor or volunteer to consider working with. There’s no offseason for nonprofit professionals. We have to reflect on past efforts and plan for the future while continually putting our best foot forward each and every day. 

About the Authors: Kayla Matthews and Randy Hawthorne. As the former Executive Director and Editor for Nonprofit Hub and a Professional Certified Marketer, Randy shares his passions of marketing and education with nonprofits to help them implement marketing and organizational leadership principles so they can grow their organizations. Randy lends his marketing and organizational leadership expertise to a number of nonprofits in his community. Outside the office, Randy works with high school and college students and mentors young professionals to develop their leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

Originally published 12.28.15—Updated 11.17.22

The most valuable asset available to any nonprofit organization is the people behind it. We’ll say it even more specifically: the most valuable asset available to any nonprofit organization is its employees. They are the main resource that helps a nonprofit meet the need and fully realize its mission. This resource is especially vital when we recognize that many organizations are small in scale and highly labor intensive. 

With the critical impact that employees have on meeting our missions, it would only seem natural that specific retention strategies would underpin the human resource practices of the nonprofit sector. It’s very easy to find a salary comparison to see what the average salary is for your positions, but not everyone pays attention. Yet surprisingly, a recent survey completed by Nonprofit HR (2021) showed that 80% of over 500 responding organizations admitted that they don’t have formal retention strategies in place. The absence of these strategies shows up in several negative outcomes, for both the organization’s sustainability and the sector as a whole. But having them place makes a positive impact—and we’ll explore how you can get started.

How Lacking a Retention Strategy Impacts an Organization

The first concerning outcome of a lack of retention strategy shows up at the organizational level. Ineffective or nonexistent retention practices directly fuels high employee turnover. An organization without formal retention principles has a higher likelihood of employees leaving the company, which inherently creates a heavy cost to the organization. The cost to replace an employee is estimated at 20% of the exiting employee’s salary. However, it’s worth noting that these costs increase with positions requiring a more specific skill set, such as those at the director or executive level. Plus, these replacement costs can extend far beyond the hire date considering the time for a new employee to grow to full effectiveness. 

These replacement costs can be grouped into two primary types: direct and indirect. Items such as severance pay for resigning employees, background verifications, and on-the-job training for new hires fall within the direct cost category. Indirect costs refer to financial impact resulting from lower levels of productivity, costs incurred by new employees as they learn the job, and the loss of institutional knowledge. Additional indirect costs may feel even more familiar than these: the impact of staff shortages on remaining team members is difficult to measure but often presents challenges regarding work-life balance, increased responsibilities, and the general stress incurred from being short-handed.

To put this into focus: a 2018 research study revealed that the average nonprofit employee stays with an organization for 2-5 years. This rapid turn-over rate leaves organizations in a near-constant state of replacing and retraining staff members, incurring ongoing direct and indirect costs. Offering some comfort, however, is the fact that those who stay beyond the 5 year mark typically stay longer than the typical for-profit employee.

Impact on the Sector: Invisible Career Paths & Sector-Switching

At the sector level, we see a ripple effect when there is a lack of specific and effective retention strategies in individual nonprofits. This shows up in two related (but distinct) outcomes: “invisibility” of nonprofit career paths and sector switching. Both show how professional advancement in the nonprofit sector is impacted by a lack of retention strategies. 

When we think about professional advancement in any field, we usually understand this to mean that an employee follows a career path that’s made up of a variety of work-related activities that occur over time. All of these then culminate in the ability to take on greater responsibility. These work-related activities include “stretch” assignments, shadowing to gain exposure to new tasks, and completing purposeful professional development. In the ideal scenario, employees understand the paths available to them and actively engage in their pursuit. Team members may also see this career pathing activity as a part of a larger compensation conversation (that includes both financial and non-financial rewards), and ultimately employees experience these to be part of a strong retention strategy. But what happens when it doesn’t work?

Invisible Career Paths

Unfortunately, issues of nonprofit retention—both high turnover and low turnover—often create obstacles to this ideal. The result is an “invisible” career path. In other words, the opportunities that may be available are a mystery to many nonprofit employees. 

What does this invisibility of the nonprofit career path mean for the sector? One potential outcome is that prospective employees may overlook the potential that the sector holds as offering a viable career path, given the limited public (and private!) visibility surrounding the opportunities within the industry. This invisible career perception is also shown to influence those already within the industry, through almost all levels of a nonprofit’s structure. In an older study, fifty-five percent of emerging nonprofit leaders noted that they felt the need to leave their organizations to advance their careers.

Sector Switching

With this belief in mind—that an employee must leave the current organization in order to advance their career—being so prevalent, where do these employees go next? In many instances, they enter other sectors. One fact from a recent study states that “only 31% of employees within the nonprofit sector have indicated that they would remain at their current workplace if offered a different job elsewhere at the same rate of pay.” This means that almost 70% of nonprofit workers would leave their current position for no increase in salary.  

That’s right: over two-thirds of our workforce reported that they would leave their current organization for another opportunity which offers the same rate of pay. Why? Because their current organization is not retaining them.

In fact, nonprofit employees aren’t even compelled to stay within the sector. This issue is especially evident during financially challenging times, such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2017 study found that during times of fiscal turmoil, nonprofit employees are more likely to “sector switch” at a 26% higher rate in comparison to private sector employees. What this means is that during times of an economic crisis, the usual elements that draw an employee to a nonprofit organization (such as mission-driven work or flexible scheduling) are outweighed by the desire for economic stability. This not only leads to employees leaving an organization but also to a higher probability of them entering other sectors that offer similar or slightly better pay. 

Don’t Be Alarmed: You Can Start Your Retention Strategy Now

While these data points are alarming, our response as leaders and as a sector need not be alarmist. The pandemic created so many uncertainties, but it also created opportunities to change or start fresh. The nonprofit sector is said to be within a recovery stage from the labor loss. By one estimate, the sector has seen a 62% recovery of the estimated 1.64 million jobs lost during the first three months of the pandemic. Though this is starting to slow down due to variants and ever-changing policies, there is still hope.

That’s right—we can do this. We have the tools and intelligence to respond proactively and sustainably, especially at this dynamic point in time for the economy and the labor market. Here are three places to start.

Make retention practices a publicized priority…today.

It’s imperative that the nonprofit sector focuses on retaining their current employees. How can you make retention practices a priority today? Ask your team for their thoughts on what motivates them to work with your organization. Whether this information is gathered through an online survey or a brainstorming session in person, listen for the themes that emerge from these conversations and what ideas could be acted upon. Conversely, look back on recent staff losses. Why did the employees leave? Where did they go? Are there any patterns to learn from?

Design initial strategies that draw from motivation and maintenance activities.

Motivation-oriented retention strategies are those that recognize and inspire energy. These include recognition programs, formal and consistent support from peers and supervisors, and ongoing training and development. Maintenance retention strategies are the consistent elements of an employment agreement, including pay and reward structures, time off, and bonuses. Both types of strategies are beneficial when thinking about employee retention. 

Provide value to your team members with training and development

There is an emerging need for re- or upskilling due to changes in the labor market, so think about investing in training and education for your employees. Early evidence shows this need, and “employer-provided training is often the best way for individuals to get employable skills and for employers to get skilled workers.” The general workforce has experienced notable practical skills loss in the past two years. This same study from August 2021 indicates that nonprofits particularly benefit from offering their own training programs to both retain employees and ensure their teams have the right skills, with significant interest in building up the capacity and skills of their teams in high value programs.

Examining These Retention Strategy Methods

Which of these retention strategy methods has the biggest impact? Numerous studies show that formal training and development opportunities increase job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This leads to employees having a higher likelihood of staying within that organization. They have the opportunity to build their skills in a way that inspires greater ability in their current position, and they also feel elevated self-worth in their organization’s investment in their professional growth. 

In its most ambitious form, your nonprofit may opt to fund continuing education for field-specific or nonprofit-management degrees. In a more ready state, and often more economical, are the opportunities to provide access to non-credit professional development opportunities and platforms. The bottom line: use a retention strategy that invests in your team.

Going Forward

Hopefully, this prompts your organization to address the trends in nonprofit employee retention—and specifically the strategic solution we must build and deploy if we want our sector’s workforce to both sustain and improve. Interested to go deeper into this topic? The Nonprofit Help Center will be publishing a whitepaper entitled “Non-Financial Retention Strategies: Keeping Talent By Building It” in December, 2021, available online at www.nonprofithelpcenter.com and on the nonprofit professional development platform, www.meritnonprofit.com.

 

This spotlighted blog post is courtesy of the Nonprofit Help Center

 

About Dylan Foden, Contributing Author:

Dylan Foden is a research analyst with the Nonprofit Help Center and is concurrently pursuing his Master of Arts in Organizational Psychology at William James College.

How to Get the Most from Your 2020 Giving Tuesday Campaign

Yep, you read that right. If you’re thinking about planning your Giving Tuesday campaign this week (it’s December 1, 2019), you’re about a year too late.

Listen, I know you’re busy and dates have a way of sneaking up on you. By reading this now, you’ll give yourself plenty of time to take my advice, reap the benefits and launch a successful Giving Tuesday campaign. Next year. In 2020.

The most important thing in this article is a single idea: For most nonprofits, especially small ones, a person’s relationship with your organization will determine how much they give when asked.

Fundraising professionals know that everything hinges on relationships. Who introduced you? How much time have you spent with them? What kind of rapport do you have? Do you know their dog’s name? If you get that right, you bring in the big bucks.  

Yet when it comes to digital fundraising, relationships are forgotten and left to fall by the wayside. Instead there’s just a stranger’s hand, outstretched, saying, “We don’t know each other, but click here to donate now!”

To get great outcomes for your Giving Tuesday campaign, you need to spend the entire year building great relationships.

To set you up for success, let’s look at some common qualities in great interpersonal relationships and understand how they manifest in digital communications between an organization and its audience.

Imagine a good friend. Someone that you trust, that you like, and that you would inconvenience yourself for if they asked you to. My bet is that your relationship with them feels:

1. Relevant
2. Respectful
3. Consistent
4. Meaningful

If you want to nail Giving Tuesday, you have to nail these four qualities with the people you’re talking to. Now, let’s dig in.

Relevance may feel like a weird way to think about a relationship, but hear me out. The people you are close to now had to become relevant in some way in order to allow the relationship to grow. Maybe they are family. Maybe they sat next to you in fourth grade. Maybe they share a hobby, a neighborhood watering hole, or another close friend. It’s not about how you met, it’s about how your life and theirs are connected in some way. In the same way, these people can move out of your life and lose relevance. You lose touch, you move on, you change, and having sat next to them in Mr. Ross’ class isn’t enough to keep them relevant.

When it comes to translating that to an organization, it’s actually pretty easy. Why is your work relevant to your audience? Maybe it’s a cause they care about, or it’s geographically related to where they are, or maybe you were introduced to them by a good friend. It works the same. Your job is to communicate that relevance, over and over again, all year long so that they feel connected to you.

If I accused you of being disrespectful to your online audiences, you’d probably get a bit defensive, but take a second and imagine yourself on a first date. After a few minutes of small talk, your date asks what you’re doing next Saturday because they are moving and could really use an extra set of hands.

How would that feel? There’s nothing really rude about the request, but it still feels disrespectful, right? If it were me, I’d be like, woah, dude, who are you? I’m over here with a whole life full of hobbies and people, and you think buying me a few pieces of raw fish makes you relevant?

I see nonprofits do this ALL THE TIME, especially on Giving Tuesday. If you are asking people for first-time donations in a social media ad, you are guilty. If you are asking people who have never given you money to tell their friends to give you money, you are guilty. If you are expecting people to read many paragraphs to understand your work on their first visit to your website, you are guilty.

Sure your language may always be appropriate, and you’re probably the most polite nonprofit on the block. You answer emails in a timely manner and you’re always the first to say thank you. But let me ask you this: Have you ever asked for a larger commitment from your audience than is appropriate based on your relationship history?

Rule: To be respectful, your ask of time or money should directly correlate to the time or money your audience has ALREADY given you. 

The longer the relationship, and the more they have engaged with you, the more you can ask of them. If you have literally never done anything but interrupt their social media feed, you have not established a strong enough relationship to respectfully ask them for money. You’re being the person who takes them to sushi and then wants hours of their precious weekend for manual labor. What can you give to them before you ask them to give to you?

Nothing builds great relationships like consistency. I hope you’ve had the sweet stability of a good friend. I’m talking about someone who exercises with you twice a week for months or years in a row, or who always picks up when you call. I hope you have friends who are steadfast and reliable, because they can be a tremendous source of strength, comfort, and service when you need it. 

Of course, we all have those friends who disappear for months at a time, then come around and need a favor. Hopefully, we’ve all outgrown those friends who are truly unpredictable and dramatic. Regardless of the source of inconsistency, we should be honest that our connection to those people is weaker and our willingness to make sacrifices for them is less than those we know we can count on.

And yet… our organizations do the same thing all the time. We let months and months pass in between updates. Our poor donors never know if the email they are going to open will have great news, a party invitation, or some tragic and moving tale designed to open their wallets. Inconsistency breeds mistrust. Even if it’s small and subconscious, you can be sure it is enough to impact the success of an annual fundraising campaign.

Only when a relationship is relevant, respectful and consistent can it become meaningful, and meaningful is where it’s at.

To help you understand what I mean, picture your dental hygienist. I’m sure he or she is a lovely person, and if you can picture them, then it’s likely that they are relevant, respectful, and consistent, so good for you! A healthy mouth is a happy mouth!

But, you probably wouldn’t call that relationship meaningful. To be meaningful, there has to be a deeper connection borne out of mutual concern. Wonderfully, this is the easy part! If you’re talking to the right people, then you know that they care about the problem you are trying to solve. The mutual concern that connects you is the one certain thing you have going for you in a fundraising campaign!

It’s so tempting for organizations to focus only on the meaningful part of their communications and relationship building with donors. It’s easy to think that your people care about your cause, so you can leverage that and turn it into dollars. In the end, you may not have overflowing budgets or sold-out events, but your Giving Tuesday campaigns do okay.

If you want to really see your people show up on Giving Tuesday, see what happens when you show up for them all year long. Consistently and respectfully remind them of your relevance so that they are confident in the meaningful work you are doing and the importance of their contribution to support it.

So how do you start building relevant, respectful, consistent, and meaningful relationships with your people?  If you’re already planning to attend Cause Camp, sign up for my strategic marketing workshop on April 22, 2020, and we’ll hatch a plan together. If you’re interested in learning more about my workshops or agency services, connect with me on LinkedIn. I promise to do my best to stay relevant, respectful, consistent and meaningful!

Get your tickets today! Early bird pricing available now, register HERE.

*Early Bird pricing available until January 31, 2020.