Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last, Third Edition

What Donors Want Might Not Be What You Want

Thanks to marvelous Jeff Brooks (www.futurefundraisingnow.com) for this wake-up call to all of us:

“What donors want from life: it’s likely not what you want.”27

Your donors are likely different than you: different generation, gender, ethnicity, interests, experiences. Different.

What you want—what you think and believe and feel in the fundraising office—might actually conflict with your donors’ wants. Consider these research findings:

• Boomers (your prime prospect and donor market) define happiness as peacefulness.
• Twenty-, thirty-, and forty-somethings equate happiness with excitement.

Young fundraisers want to create excitement, things like: “excessively vibrant and youthful-looking design; advertising-style hype; constantly changing messaging.” And that’s exactly what the older prospects and donors do not want.

Jeff notes: “The young fundraisers are not only wrongly assuming that ‘excitement’ will be a good way to motivate their older donors to give. They’re also seeking more excitement for themselves by jazzing up and frequently changing their fundraising.”

Jeff warns us that this behavior is a very big and an all-too-common mistake. Instead, “Remember who your donors are. And remember the ways they are different from you.”