The politicization of USPS, mail delays, supply chain shortages, and rising costs of production materials have introduced new complexities for planning direct mail fundraising campaigns. With a consequential midterm on the horizon and recession looming, is it time to adjust strategy?

So far, we’ve established that disingenuous stewardship and disconnect between departments create discord for your audience, and especially your donors.

So what do we do about it?

Part 2: Departmental Disconnect

If we spend more time understanding audience experience, recognizing there is no singular journey for potential donors, and prioritize building authentic transparent relationships rather than fall back on simple measures of short-term successes, our organizations are positioned to succeed.

Part 1: Donor Stewardship Metrics.
The fundamental principle of fundraising is relationship-building. The same mass communication tools we’ve used to drum up revenue can also be used to bring our stakeholders closer. But not if our stewardship messages are disconnected from development efforts. Overly optimistic emails and overzealous lists of accomplishments undermine our case for support.

The overly sanitized success stories we choose for the report fly in the face of effective fundraising. We present our audience with a vision of just how great we are, ignoring the fact that a very clear need still exists. It’s time we rethink this nonprofit tradition.

The last two years have been… eternal. They’ve also raised some important conversations about how the social sector operates. This is certainly not an exhaustive list and most (if not all) require cultural transformation within our organizations and deep reflection on the ways our sector “does business.”

December may be the pinnacle of problematic fundraising, with GivingTuesday leading the way. Before giving up on the big days, try approaching them differently. We work in a complicated space tackling incredibly complicated issues. Our organizations don’t exist in a vacuum—nor do our donors. Let’s be honest about it.

As fundraisers, we’re surrounded by urgent causes. Racial equity, climate justice, and natural disasters among many others. However, nothing in our day-to-day work constitutes an emergency.