If you work in an office (or remember what it was like when you did), I bet there are things that cause a ruckus and get the whole office talking—usually angrily.
Burning popcorn in the break room microwave. Bringing something smelly for lunch. Talking around other people with the phone on speaker.
If you want to cause a stir here at our office, just call people “digital only donors” or “direct mail only donors.”
At best, you’ll get a dirty look. At worst, you’ll get called out in the meeting and never live it down as everyone else on the call tells you that there is no such thing.
It’s something that we believe strongly against here at Oneicity. Forcing your donors into one category or another is easy to do—and maybe even tempting at times to clean up data or reporting. But it’s a pitfall to avoid for 2 very important reasons.
- Donors don’t know they’re supposed to be only one kind of donor. And it’s rare that a donor will actually only give one way (remember, online giving is both a reason and a method of giving). If you’ve done a good job and helped them feel connected to your organization, then they just want to give. Which leads to our next reason.
- You want to give donors as many opportunities to give as you can. Giving should be easy and accessible, whether it’s through a donate button on the email or a sending a check back in a reply envelope.
Knowing how your donors are giving is important. And when Oneicity reports results to clients, we always look at income channels (how did all those funds come into your organization?).
But be careful about trying to put donors in one box or the other. They may have given online, but that gift on your website could’ve been prompted by your recent newsletter. Fully integrate your digital and direct mail campaigns. They should be working together, not competing.
Photo by Edan Cohen on Unsplash
