The inaugural edition of Fundraising is Beautiful (fundraisingisbeautiful.org) focuses on the myth of donor burnout. It is definitely worth a listen. The authors use real world data but break it down in a way that is easy to understand and encourage people to look at their own data for the trends they describe. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they encourage as many donor contacts as possible. They also get bonus points for their intro music (Holst's The Planets I believe, maybe Jupiter?)
Here is the essence of the current edition:
- Make your communications relevent. Make sure you send donors what they want.
- Gradually increase your level of contact with donors.
- The more recently that a donor gave to you, the more likely they are to give to you again.
They never explicitly say it, but their advice calls for listeners to put themselves in the shoes of the donor. While some of their analogies are a bit clunky (clearcutting a forest?) they make valuable points.
I look forward to listening to more of these guys.
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