Fundraising myth #1:
Donors stop giving if you ask them for a donation too often

This is the actual reason why donors stop giving (and how to raise more donations by next year).

‘You should take care not to ask donors for a gift too often.’ Many fundraisers and charity directors believe this myth. They think that if they ask their donors for a donation too often, it will annoy them and push them to stop donating altogether.

As a result, these charities do not raise as many donations as they could.

In reality, the opposite is true.

Where does that myth come from?

1. One donor with a complaint or someone in the organisation who tells you that you are asking for donations too often.
2. The fear that this person speaks on behalf of all your donors — fed by the thought that if you received so many communications from a charity, you would have stopped donating long ago.
3. The awkwardness you feel when asking someone for money.
4. Not knowing what will happen if you communicate with your donors more often.

The result?

You miss out on valuable opportunities to receive more donations and build a better relationship with your donors.

Most organisations can afford to communicate with their donors far more often than they do at the moment.

If you allow yourself to be guided by the fear of bothering your donors, you rob your many generous donors of the chance to do more good. Most of your donors are happy to donate more than once a year and want to stay involved with your organisation.

The question is not: do we bother our donors too often?

But: how can we make sure our donors do not forget about us?

Give your donors that chance to do more good  

Let’s say you donated €100 in January to help a child. It is July now. That means you haven’t heard from the charity in six months. Can you even remember making that donation? The difference that you made? Do you feel engaged? Do you still have that good feeling? Probably not.

If you make yourself a regular part of your donors’ life, this is what will happen to them:

• they feel heard
• they feel important
• they remain engaged for longer
• they feel connected to your organisation
• they see that they make impact and contribute to change with their donation

The most important result…

You will receive more and higher donations more often and build a better relationship with your donors.

Proof that it works

One of the charities we work for increased its annual number of donation requests from four to seven. The result:

• +24% more donations
• Donors stay with the organisation longer: retention increased from 30% to 48%
• Old donors return: +32%

How to dispel this fundraising myth

Substitute your outdated conviction with a new realisation.

1. Your donors are eager to do more good and contribute to what they value in their life.
   Give them the chance to do so by asking for donations more often.
2. Understand that you see every communication that you send out and read everything carefully. Every letter, every (digital) newsletter, every post on social media. Your donors devote a lot less attention to these things than you do. In fact, they do not even see many of your messages.
   Communicate with your donors more often than you think you should. Your donors will feel very differently about that than the people and volunteers in your organisation.
3. By communicating more often, you remind people of your organisation’s relevance and necessity. Show your donors that the need still exists and there are still problems to be solved. Remind them that you can only do that with their help.
   The only way to build a relationship is through frequent contact.

So: start with one additional donation request

Build valuable relationships with your donors. You cannot do that with just one or two mailings per year, so do not be afraid to communicate more often.

On the other hand, you should not make things too difficult for yourself either.

There is no need to develop an entirely new fundraising strategy overnight. From now on, aim to make one more donation request every year than you did the year before.

Give your donors a chance to help.

What will you do more of next year?

Do you want to grow your fundraising?

Follow the strategies in this whitepaper and growth will follow. This whitepaper contains eight strategies we’ve been using for over 30 years to help organisations like yours grow.