Here’s the thing, all sarcasm aside: I admire any non-profit that is shaking up their fundraising process to see where they can find good results. They didn’t send a list of demands. They didn’t insinuate that last year’s gift was inadequate. They’re not being ‘creepy’ by keeping careful records and recall of donor gift amounts. Unless it’s specifically noted that you don’t want follow-up contact and would like to remain anonymous, what is a savvy non-profit is going to do with donor information if not use it to solicit future support? They’re building and engaging their donor base. Where one person interprets this to mean: ‘they’re saying my gift last year wasn’t enough!’, I see a well-planned fundraising ask from an organization that has spent considerable time (and, thus, money) tracking donor information to further engage their contributor base, making a very request that I can feel free to disregard. I honestly don’t get the pearl-clutching about increasing dollar-specific fundraising asks- the only reason I can see an organization stopping this practice is if they received widespread negative feedback. This method has helped many of our clients fundraise more effectively and the majority of donors aren’t quite so sensitive (or, yes, pissy) that they’d feel slighted or offended by being asked to give a bit more this year than last. When I got an email ask for a quarterly gift slightly bigger (about 25%, like the organization mentioned in this post) than my donations last year, I was happy to give it and glad that they’d asked. It reminded me I could afford to incrementally bump up my gift, something I wouldn’t have thought to do with a non-specific ask.

I agree that with an increasing ask, it’s important to include information on why the money is needed and how it will be utilized- but this is a very basic component of any fundraising ask. If you’re put off, some gentle feedback is appropriate. I’m also of the opinion that this strategy is inappropriate to use for large donors (over, say $500), who would require more personalized communication. I couldn’t agree more with the Nonprofiteer that it’s not a content issue, it’s the tone. I don’t think it’s a lack of ‘skills’ though- what constitutes polite to one person might be the epitome of rudeness to another and that some donors can become offended if the tone of a fundraising ask isn’t quite deferential enough for them (which would be my interpretation of what happened here). I’m on the Board of an area non-profit and if I was uncomfortable with the way a fundraising ask to my contact list was phrased, I’d ask for a meeting with the director and inquire about the reasoning was behind it, to see if I could get on board. The likelihood that the fundraising staff at an organization knows better than a board member what gets real fundraising results is very high, so I’d really try to understand the rationale behind the wording that was rubbing me the wrong way. If I really couldn’t see why the director wanted to do the ask in that way, I might ask her to remove my contacts from the list for that letter. I think it’s important to keep in mind that, though you may be on the Board, it’s likely you don’t know as much about the organization’s individual donor fundraising process as the staff does.