The most important asset a charity has it who it knows, who knows it and who supports it. The intent of managing this important asset is to protect the charity and maintain its sustainability.
Building a viable donor and funder base extends well beyond recording a donation. It empowers a charity to build strong, credible relationships that support its mission and goals.
Well-defined processes, procedures, and standards support certification. It ensures well-trained, qualified staff. From a buyer’s perspective, they know that whether it is a product or donation, there is verifiable value.
Donors are key, and ignoring the data can erode donor loyalty.
- Corporate donors are of interest as they are vested in supporting their community and being seen as such.
- Private donors may have specific interests.
- Funders and some corporate donors have giving criteria and proposal timelines.
- Stakeholders like media, municipal, provincial, state, and federal politicians benefit from updated communications.
Once a charity begins to develop a management list, a few simple steps can improve staff’s ability to act quickly as opportunities arise.
1. Classify donors, funders and media. The type of business shows who supports the charity and who is missing. Enter key staff and classify how they interact with the charity.
2. Classify giving criteria for funders, corporations and some donors.
3. Enter Review Dates for key donors and funders to maintain accurate contact data.
A few bits of information that help staff work effectively and understand these groups’ giving practices and history are invaluable. Time is expensive when wasted.
Touchpoints with donors, funders, and stakeholders offer valuable insights and provide historical context for current and new staff. When you don’t capture interactions, you lose potentially valuable relationship data. Communicating with donors lets them know how the charity is managing and how their support makes a difference. How often is this forgotten?
Done daily, none of the above is time-consuming; it’s part of fundraising. What takes time is trying to recreate past actions or stepping on your own toes when donors say this is an old topic with a past associate.
In our book, we told the story of a new account manager who met a high-value donor and dealership owner for coffee. They asked if they would be attending the charity’s big holiday event. They said they always attended. Then came the next question. “Have you ever considered being a sponsor?” Oops! Their dealership had sponsored for years. So, the coffee ended, and what did the donor think? What would you have thought?
Information is a resource you can’t overlook. Charities that use their donor database to track donations but not the information that supports their relationships lose the ability to sustain them long-term.
Procedures, policies, and especially standards are the charity’s methods for recording and managing information, regardless of staff changes, to protect continuity and consistency.
New ideas are presented and evaluated to ensure they support the charity first, not a staff whim.
We support using one donor management tool to ensure rapid access to all the elements discussed.
The charity needs to manage its information like a *** Michelin Restaurant. The certification remains with the organization, as it defines its success, enabling it to hire the best of the best and remain sustainable.
Certification is of little value when a charity’s survival depends on data it doesn’t manage to support its sustainability.
Sharron Batsch is the developer of @EASE Fund Development Software and the author of From Chaos to Control, Build a High Performance Team Using Knowledge Management. She has worked with a wide variety of charities for over 36 years as both a consultant and volunteer fundraiser and event chair. She developed and managed a training program through Continuing Education for the University of Manitoba for the business use of microcomputer solutions offering 147 courses annually. While at the University she redeveloped a certificate program in Information Management and hosted a breakfast series for senior IT managers. She has received awards for her work in Knowledge Management from the Consulting Engineers of Canada and the Alberta Consulting Engineers. Her work helps define how charities can best use the data they collect and create an environment with 15 second retrieval using a Knowledge Management System. She specializes in information management for the not-for-profit community.
