Who Is Your Ideal Donor?
When you post or email or send an appeal out to the world - who are you trying to talk to anyways? My guess is - you might be saying in your head: I dunno...anyone that will listen?
I know I might take some heat for this, but a lot of the time when I’m looking for best practices to share with my clients or students - I turn to the for-profit community. Why?
Because the amount of resources that go towards learnings and findings for a “customer” far surpass that of a donor. Yet...they are verrryyyyy similar.
One thing that millions of businesses, large and small alike, hone in on is: their ideal customer - also referred to as - The Ideal Customer Avatar. Business teams spend major buck-a-roonies on figuring out who they should market to. THEN, they imagine that person or very small group of people and write every line of copy, every social media post, every email...as if they were talking to that ONE person directly.
In alllll the nonprofits I’ve ever worked for this has never, ever come up 🤯. I think the philosophy for nonprofits is “we will take anyone,” which is true for a business too. I mean, Apple isn’t NOT going to sell someone that iPhone. But when Apple markets their products, they picture someone who is limitless, sleek, clean, beautiful, and cool. Yet, they sell to everyone.
Not so sleek, clean and cool people definitely have an iPhone 🙋♀️.
The “we will take anyone” attitude for nonprofits means I frequently find organizations trying to speak to EVERYONE. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but no company - for-profit or nonprofit - can do that. I’m going to double down and say that’s especially true for the itty bitty small staffed nonprofits not yet thriving.
So, let’s take a page from the for-profit’s world and figure out: who is your ideal donor? Here are 11 things to think about/questions to ask when trying to personify this avatar:
Is this person a male, female, or gender neutral?
How old is this person?
What level of education has this person completed?
Is this person single, married, divorced, widowed?
Does this person have children? If so, how many?
Where does this person work?
What are some interests this person has?
What are three things this person values?
What does this person do to find fulfillment?
Where does this person hang out online (IG, FB, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit, etc)?
If this person could do one thing to make the world a better place, what would they do?
This week, I’ve put together a freebie worksheet for you to figure out: who is your ideal donor? Think about it, fill it in and give this person a name.
From now on, I want you to think about how you would talk, text, email, or write to this very specific person each time you write a posting for social media, create a new trifold or update your website.
How would your Ideal Donor respond to what you are putting out in the world?
Here are some examples of some nonprofit organizations who clearly know their audience and do a fantastic job of speaking directly to THEM and not the masses of people.
DoSomething: They describe themselves as a platform mobilizing millions of young people to take action offline. They help youth with causes ranging from global warming to STEM to ending gun violence and student debt. Their founder and former CEO called herself the “Chief Old Person” and their corporate partners include brands like TikTok and ESPN. Check out some of their social media postings and you get the picture.
Ruby’s Rainbow: You guys - I love this organization. They are small and mighty and reallllyyyy know how to tap into a donor’s emotion. Best of all - I don’t think they are doing this on purpose, but they are 🔥. Ruby’s Rainbows provides academic scholarships to young adults who are as they say “rockin’ an extra chromosome.” They do an excellent job of bringing the happy and joy recipients of the scholarships have when they find out they get a scholarship. I’d say their idea donor is anyone looking to brighten their day.
So - tell me: who is your ideal donor? I’d love to know what you find out!
xo,
