You are not your donor [COMMANDMENT 3]

A ten-week series on things you should know about fundraising.

You are not your donor.

The most common cause of unsuccessful fundraising is “FFY” — Fundraising From Yourself. When nonprofit insiders assume this: If a message appeals to me, it will work for donors.

It’s a big mistake. Because you are so different from your donor — everything from your demographics to your level of knowledge, to your depth of engagement, to you level of attention. When you aim messaging at yourself, you are virtually guaranteed to miss your donors. You will create irrelevant messages that fail to motivate them.

Fundraising is an exercise in getting outside of your own mind.

The rest of the commandments (so far).