"The story’s about the donor," Seth Godin tells us.
He's 100% right.
Whatever's above 100%? He's right about that, too.
Seth is a Stanford MBA, a successful serial entrepreneur, and the best-selling author of more than a dozen mind-bending marketing books. Of the many guru bloggers I follow, he is the most consistently useful. His insights into consumer behavior are sharp and actionable.
"Every time someone donates to a good cause," he points out, "they're buying a story, a story that's worth more than the amount they donated."
There is immense treasure buried in that observation.
"It might be the story of doing the right thing," Seth explains, "or fitting in, or pleasing a friend or honoring a memory ... but the story has value. For many, it's the story of what it means to be part of a community."
Please scribble down (or have tattooed on your forearm) three points:
- Donors buy into what you've assumed is your charity's, wholly-owned story. (I.e., it's not your story anymore.)
- The role those donors purchased with their trusting gift is worth something to them personally ... each for a different reason. That gift reinforces the donor's self-identity. E.g., "I am a good neighbor because I chipped in." (I.e., it's not really about you, whatever charity, is it?)
- If your charity doesn't seek to reinforce that role, you'll soon lose that person as a donor. I speak now to all of you who hold any title similar to "Director of Donor Engagement." [Synonyms include "donor relations" and "stewardship."] (I.e., get this wrong and your charity's long-term sustainability is fraught.)
When a person makes a gift to charity, they're proving something to themselves (and maybe others): This is the kind of person I am.
REWARD that, as Lisa Sargent would insist. Every gift to charity has the potential to extend a person's story in a meaningful and positive direction.
Most charities couldn't care less. Or so they act.