Building Donor Relationships

Good fundraising is about people and the relationship you have with them.

You see, it’s the donors who feel most connected with your cause who give the biggest gifts. In fact, the biggest return on investment you can get is to help donors feel a strong connection with your nonprofit’s work. The stronger the relationship, the more people give and the more often they’ll do it.

Most fundraisers know they need to develop relationships with donors but don’t know where to start.

And it keeps them stuck raising money in dribs and drabs instead of bringing in the kind of revenue they really need to fund their programs.

There are three things that get in the way of building these strong relationships. People

• Don’t know where to start

• Aren’t sure how to build relationships without feeling manipulative

• Can’t seem to carve out the time to begin

Sound familiar?

I remember when I was still new to fundraising and finally understood the concept of relationship building. I was excited to try, but I just didn’t know what to do. And for some reason, I couldn’t figure out the steps to building a relationship.