5 Communication Tips to Inspire Nonprofit Donors

  1. Understand what donors care about – and make them the hero.
    Donors are deeply interested in how their gift did or will make a difference. Let them know specifically what you did with their money. They also want to know what would happen if they gave you more. That’s your vision. Be sure to make it big and bold. And, they want to be thanked, personally and frequently. In addition, don’t focus on how wonderful your organization is. Tell donors how wonderful they are. Instead of “Our organization fed 100 hungry kids thanks to private donations,” tell donors, “You helped feed 100 hungry kids.”
  2. Don’t talk just about your needs.
    The time-honored adage in fundraising remains true. Donors don’t fund organizations that have needs. They fund organizations that meet needs. Talk about the need in the context of what the donor can do to fix the problem.
  3. Use ‘you’ and ‘your’ more than ‘we’ and ‘our’.
    YOU is the most powerful word in donor communications. Research shows that donors give more when they feel personally responsible, over and above “we’re in this together.”
  4. Communicate without asking for money.
    Your stewardship communications should out-frequent your solicitation communications by at least two to one, preferably even more. Organizations that communicate solely with their hand out risk losing valued donors. Thank-you letters, e-newsletters and emails, print newsletters, personal thank-you phone calls, holiday cards, love notes from clients – all can make a real difference in keeping donors in the fold.
  5. Tell stories that illustrate donors’ impact.
    Storytelling inspires bigger gifts! Let the people you serve illustrate how much the donor achieved.

For more help with nonprofit communication:

Moore Ink. PR & Fundraising Communications

Connecting Nonprofits thru WordPress

Whidbey Community Foundation website

Client: Whidbey Community Foundation

Scope of Work
Content strategy
Custom Photography
Front-End web development
Performance optimization
Security hardening
Visual design

Team: David Owen Hastings, Michael Stadler Photographs, Moore Ink, Scott Marlow

Whidbey Community Foundation, founded in 2016, is a grantmaking public charity that supports Whidbey Island nonprofit organizations through philanthropy, training and capacity building.

More than 750 community foundations operate in urban and rural areas in every state in the United States.

The new community foundation website, powered by WordPress, allows the organization to easily share fundraising, training and other news. A third-party portal by Community Suite provides additional tools for nonprofit listings and donations.

Performance Metrics

Performance WordPress Site Benchmark
Google Mobile Speed: 71
Google Desktop Speed 86
Pingdom 90 faster than 86% of tested sites
WebPageTest Speed Index 1,440 median = ~4,493
top 10% = <1,388
YSlow 82 average score = 70
Web Page Size 526 Kb In 2017, average page size = ~2.4 Mb
median page size = ~1.9 Mb
Web Server Requests 28 < 40 – 60 recommended

Great Design + Responsive Development = Successful Websites

screenshot Moore Ink

Copywriting & Photography: Moore Ink.
Graphic Design: David Owen Hastings
WordPress Responsive Web Development: Scott Marlow

A 3-column, mobile-responsive WordPress website, complete with responsive professional photo galleries. Continue reading “Great Design + Responsive Development = Successful Websites”