1+1=3
I’ve heard the adage “People give to people, not to organizations”. What does this mean? I think there are several ways of interpreting it, and all are likely true. However, as a donor, I have what might be a different take on it.
First, the meaning. I think that the quote can mean one of all of the following:
Donors want to know that their money is ultimately going to an end-user/beneficiary.
Donors don’t want their money to go to administration/overhead costs.
Donors want to give to people who they can relate to.
Donors prefer to give to organizations that their friends support, as opposed to being the only one they know giving to an organization. (i.e. “charity loves company”)
Donors will give to organizations where they have or feel a personal connection to the person asking them for money.
Donors will give to organizations where they believe and trust in the leadership.
These are all valid, but those donors who focus on #1 and #2 aren’t, in my opinion, really looking at the organization in its complexity. As I wrote in in a column last year, “How NOT to Measure your Charity” the intense focus on administrative costs has created many impediments to the growth and success of many nonprofits. We don’t want waste, but requiring nonprofits to cut corners and pay substandard salaries in order to keep operations costs low is short-sighted and doesn’t really benefit anyone.
The other interpretations of the “people give to people” quote (#3-6 above) all make total sense to me, and the most important, I believe, is the last one — donors give to organizations who they trust. The 2018 Give.org “Donor Trust Report” provides an extensive look at donor trust, which, it appears, isn’t getting any better as time goes on.
Some people say that they will donate to organizations that their friends donate to, and it doesn’t matter much what the organization does. In this case, the donor is donating only because they trust the opinion of their friend.
Others donate to organizations where they have friends on the board, on staff, or who are volunteers — because they trust that their friends wouldn’t do anything that didn’t really result in doing good.
In an ideal situation, and, in my opinion, in order to preserve and grow your donor base, you need both. More and more donors are asking questions about organizations before they donate. They want to know specifics about the nonprofit’s impact, what the organization’s goals are, and how the organization differs from its “competitors”. This is especially true among younger donors who are beginning to navigate their personal giving.
As important as these questions are, there’s another piece of the puzzle that these donors crave in order to feel comfortable about donating to a particular organization — they want, and need, to trust the person giving them the information. They need to trust the leadership of the organization, too.
If either one of these — the information about the organization, or the trust in the people associated with the organization, don’t feel “right”, then it’s unlikely that the donor will donate. Even if the donor gives once, because a friend donated first, you can bet that the donor won’t continue to give if they don’t have accurate, compelling, honest information about the nonprofit as well as trust in the people involved.
I had an experience once that I still feel badly about. I was invited to a series of luncheons to learn about a major international charity, and I was very very impressed with what the charity reported as their focus, impact and successes. I gave a significant donation a couple of times, largely because I liked the person who had invited me (a member of their local board), and I was impressed with the quality of the events, as well as with the information provided about the organization as a whole.
Unfortunately, after about three of these events (and after a couple of donations), the executive “in charge” still treated me like a stranger (didn’t give me the “time of day”), and when she spoke to the guests in the room from the dais, she struck me as being pushy, snarky and untrustworthy.
You can guess the next part — I stopped going to the luncheons (despite receiving invitations), and I stopped donating to the organization. In fact, I now have a strong distaste for the organization in general, despite knowing that they do a lot of really terrific work and impact a lot of needy people.
The lesson is the following: A donor might give to an organization because of a person or because of what the organization does. But those donations are likely to be short-term, one-off gifts. To really make a “shidduch” (a match), the organization has to have their act together, and the people in the organization need to have a real relationship with the donor. If both are in place, one plus one can actually equal three — a long-term, significant, and fulfilling donor/nonprofit relationship.
Can't get enough? Read more on Twitter and follow me on Pinterest. And please feel free to share.
- Lisa