“What will our donor get when they make their gift?”
In some advancement shops, the response to this question is something specific – a pair of socks, tickets to a football game, a naming right, a tchotchke.
In other advancement shops, the response to this question is nothing specific. A thank-you letter or a handwritten note will suffice.
But in the most long-term, productive advancement shops, a different question is asked altogether.
Instead of “what will they get?”, the question becomes, “how do we want them to feel?”
And when we switch from giving donors something to helping them feel something, we change our response.
Instead of focusing on giving donors something specific or nothing specific, we focus on experiences: A meeting with a student. An invite-only event with our CEO to hear about the progress being made with the strategic plan and what to expect next. A behind-the-scenes tour of our newly-renovated space.
Sometimes our best responses are not to answer the question everyone asks. It’s to ask a better question.
