The Nicer Side of Nonprofits: 7 Guidelines for More Humane and More Successful Fundraising

Pushy. Manipulative. Dishonest.

Most everyone knows about the “used car salesman” stereotype. Rooted in folk truth and popular portrayals across stage and screen, these individuals are aggressive bullies who never hesitate to bend the truth in order to make a deal. After all, it’s all part of the ABCs — “always be closing.”

The truth is a lot more complicated. Not all used car salespeople are evil, but this sort of overly aggressive temperament is very real and very pervasive, especially in industries that rely on sales or fundraising.

Nonprofit fundraising is no different. Certain campaigns can be extremely aggressive. The downfall to such strategies is two-fold: (1) overall industry trends are suggesting these strategies aren’t successful, and (2) these strategies can lead to a loss of trust and long-term support.

Luckily, there’s a nicer side of things. Humane fundraising can create serious and sustainable payoffs. It can help your organization build deep donor relationships and confidently meet fundraising milestones — all while remaining true to the spirit and personality behind your mission.

However, it takes intention. It takes a plan. I’ve helped dozens of highly diverse nonprofits take an honest look at their fundraising tactics, and these are the seven guidelines I always suggest for more humane and more successful fundraising.

1. Be yourself.  

If you understand your organization thoroughly, fundraising attempts should be nothing more than honest and authentic communication. You should be yourself, and you should represent your organization with the truth.

Unfortunately, the nonprofit sector isn’t immune to dishonest behavior, and it can be particularly tempting to compromise your principles when your organization is desperate for an influx of money. This is why it is extra important to be genuine and transparent when building donor relationships. If at any point donor interactions start to feel contrived or manipulative, start what you’re doing and change course.

2. Treat everyone as a major investor.  

Believe it or not, “sensing fairness” is one of the primary reasons artificial intelligence requires human oversight. Why? Because fairness and equal treatment can be very intangible, very complex ideas. Still, most of your prospects can sense it right away.

For this reason, you should treat each potential donor like a major investor, ensuring that all prospects are treated with respect and that no less-than-obvious opportunities are missed. This is not only the most humane and empathetic way to approach relationship fundraising, but it’s also the most effective.

3. Develop the relationship first.  

Do you share your Uber with strangers? Do you sit down for a meal with people you pass once on the street? Do you vacation with families you’ve never met? There might be a few exceptions for each case, but these situations are incredibly rare. They virtually never happen. Why? Because the relationship comes first.

Major investments only happen when an organization has spent time building trust with the investor. Donor fundraising is about complex, sequential relationships, and those things simply don’t happen overnight. Is your organization getting granular about its relationship management? Studies show that using fundraising data strategically can be a big boon in building relationships faster and more efficiently.

4. Show genuine interest in your prospects. 

If you talk loudly into a deep well, you’ll get a response. A distorted version of your own voice will echo back with a slight delay — almost as if in response to what you said. You might call this talking, but you wouldn’t call it a conversation.

For donor relationships to feel authentic, they need to be two-way streets. You need to express genuine interest in your prospects, taking the time to discover their hobbies, values, family, friends, and so on. At almost all times, you should be doing more listening than talking, and you should never use a script.

5. Don’t conclude meetings without scheduling the next one.  

One of the most important ingredients to successful and humane fundraising is momentum. If you don’t want to resort to fundraising tactics you and your organization deem too aggressive, you have to maintain momentum toward every fundraising milestone. One way to do this is by ensuring that donor-to-fundraiser dialogue is always moving forward, which means you never conclude a meeting with any prospect without scheduling the next one. More dialogue means more proposals. More proposals means more supporters.

6. Follow the platinum rule.  

How YOU want to be treated isn’t what matters anymore.

What I’m talking about is the platinum rule — an evolution of the golden rule. This is the idea of treating people how THEY want to be treated, as opposed to how YOU want to be treated. When it comes to building relationships with potential donors, this involves listening to and understanding the needs and boundaries of each individual. Moreover, it means never dehumanizing prospects through thoughtless dialogue that is concerned only with your perspective: “Hey, that person is a really big fish…”

7. Remember your proof points.  

What is the most compelling and authentic tool at the disposal of every fundraiser? Strong evidence of social return on investment (SROI).

Honesty about your vision and mission is one thing. However, it’s quite another to offer tangible supports upon which to build a more trusting relationship. At the end of the day, there is no substitute for clear and concrete measures of social impact. Is your fundraising material equipped with engaging and impressive evidence? What sort of story does it tell?

Embrace the nicer side of nonprofits. 

It’s the job of every nonprofit fundraising team to act explicitly and transparently in order to build trust, and building trust is something that can’t be faked. It requires that you be yourself, treat everyone with fairness, prioritize the relationship, show genuine interest, never lose momentum, and support your statements with evidence. This is why the most effective nonprofit fundraisers are leaders of the highest integrity who ground their work in empathetic listening and a deep sense of humanity.

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Written by Donald Summers, Ed.M.
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