It’s summer. Your donors are away. Not much is going on.
What should you do in your fundraising?
Even when your donors are away on vacation you can and should keep your big donor relationships relevant.
You can do this through personalized interactions or ‘touch points.’ It will make a big difference for a small investment of time and money.
Below are a few ideas to help get your creative juices flowing.
The key is to think out of the box. And the benefit of this effort will come right back to you sooner than you think.
If Your Donors are Away
Find a way of giving to them from afar.
- Get something special delivered to their hotel or apartment erev Shabbos with a warm note and brocha.
- Or even a simple erev Shabbos text when they’re away can be impactful.
- Give then information or a connection or insight (restaurant, place to visit, experience, tour guide, amazing host) that could enhance their stay.
- If they’re in Israel, can you arrange something they can’t do themselves? Get them into a Gadol? (You can email R’ Arele Pessin to set that up for you.)
Plan now for each of your top ten donors what you’ll do this summer.
Consider:
- What do they like?
- What can you do?
- What is easy for you?
- How can you help them?
- Who can you ask?
If You’re Away
- Send a postcard. Remember those! Write to your top donors and send it snail mail. Make it personal and warm. “Thinking of you from xxxxxxxxxx, Wishing you a great summer, etc.”
- If you’re in Israel get a brocha for them or daven for them at Makomos Kedoshim and let them know.
- Buy a gift that shows you’re thinking of them.
Here are a few budget gift ideas that some of the great people I work with have bought for some of their big donors when they were in Israel.
- One donor likes the Jerusalem Post, so he brought him back a copy from a recent trip to Israel.
- Another donor enjoys Israel history. He received a reprint of the 1948 New York Times on the Declaration of Independence, which he found in a Ben Yehuda gift shop.
- Another likes ‘chatzkas’ from Guela. He received a wooden challah board that flips over into a bread basket!
None of these gifts cost more that $30. But they all did something that money can’t. They created connection, because ‘you’ thought of them.
If you are running a program in the summer
- Shoot some footage of your participants saying thank you, mentioning your big donor by name. Make a personalized version for each of your big donors.
- Or get your participants to write personalized thank you notes to individual donors.
Wherever you are, or your donors are, do something meaningful with each of your top ten donors.
Have a great summer – and successful donor interactions.
B’hatzlacha raba!
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Avraham Lewis crafts fundraising success for Jewish leaders, with just not enough time.
