Donor Messaging: Being Intentional

The Muttart Foundation recently released their consumer survey report, “Talking about Charities 2006: Tracking Canadians’ Opinions about Charities and the Issues Affecting Them.” The report was released in 2000, 2004 and September 2006.

Highlights for me are:

• 79% of all Canadian trust charitable organizations; 29% trust them a lot (nearly the same percentage holds true for leaders of organizations)
• Hospitals are trusted most (80%); children’s causes (85%); health prevention/research (84%); education (77%); social services (74%); protection of the environment/animals (73%); churches (67%); the arts (61%); international relief and development (57%).
• 87% believe more attention needs to be given in the way charities raise their funding
• Many Canadians do have objections to charities hiring commission based fundraisers. 62% find this practice unacceptable
• Half of Canadians would like more information about the work charities do, even though it may require more money to be spent on communications
• When considering making a donation to a particular charity, 58% are most likely to research that charity though its website; 46% will call the charity to ask for more information and 44% will look at financial statements.

While reading through a study such as this, I tend to take notes to see how these findings can and should be addressed in organization-wide key messaging and position statements.  Moreover, time spent speaking with donors will clarify our own specific issues that must be addressed. In other words, are we addressing key consumer/donor issues or just speaking about what’s important to us?

One particular nonprofit I know uses a “message tree” approach (the longer the communication piece, the more key messages are to be prioritized and included) while another has developed a very deliberate positioning document that is reviewed with communications writers (both external and internal) at the start of each creative development process.  While this may not be new, it is critical to keep on track of what we are communicating and what we should communicate given organizational mandates.

“By the very act of not communicating, we are, in fact, communicating.”

Tags: Blog, canada, General Fundraising, Nonprofit, Trends