How to Avoid Donor Drop Off After a Big Gift

Let’s say your organization just received a gift, about $2 million in unrestricted funds.

Your first thoughts might include:

• Wow!
• How can we best use this?
• We must thank the donor appropriately.

You produce a beautiful piece detailing the donor’s generosity and proudly publish it to the world.

Then something unexpected happens. Your other donors, unable to give such a large gift, stop giving altogether. Panic sets in.

Your Next Steps

Social media can be your saving grace to prevent this kind of situation.
Take these proactive steps:

• Identify the gift and then the donor
  • Link to the donor if they are on social media
• Inform your audience how the gift will be used
• Remind your audience of all the other needs that still need to be filled
• Include a way for “small donations” to be combined into something larger using a crowdsourcing site, similar to Kickstarter.

Remember,

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much. — Helen Keller

What do you think?

Tags: big gift, crowdsourcing, donor, drop off, helen keller, panic, small donations, unrestricted funds