The One Question You Need To Answer To Get More Donors

With so many nonprofits out there raising money for similar causes, you need to create a messaging strategy that will help your organization stand out. In order to do that, you need to answer one question that every donor has: Why should I give to you?

In a guest post, Tim Kachuriak, the founder and Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer for NextAfter, talked about this essential question. As he explained, the best tool we have for answering that question is our messaging.

A new year offers you a chance to review your marketing and fundraising plans. If you want to see an increase in donations this year or feel like your past efforts should’ve been more impactful, we recommend bringing your staff and stakeholders together to evaluate how successful your organization is at answering this question.

If you and your team realize that your value proposition—the answer to the question of why donors should give to you—is falling short, don’t despair. That just means there’s a huge opportunity here to turn things around.

Here are some steps you can take today to get on the path to getting more donors in 2020:

1. Download NextAfter’s eBook and learn how to effectively answer the value proposition question.
2. Audit your competitors and other nonprofits that you feel have a great answer to that question. How does their messaging compare to yours? Why does their answer work so well? What do you need to change to make yours more effective?
3. Review your past fundraising campaigns. Was there one that was significantly more successful than the rest? If so, you may want to look at the marketing messaging of that campaign. Other factors will be at play, but there’s a very good chance that your organization offered a strong value proposition to get supporters to donate.

Once you come up with a new value proposition, make sure you update your website, social media profiles, and marketing materials so your message is consistent. Soon you’ll be on your way to attracting more donors—and hopefully converting one-time donors to recurring donors—in the future.