Are You Putting Your Donors through the Gauntlet?"

By Kimberly Jetton Ragone

As development professionals, we spend enormous amounts of time and energy cultivating new donors. We celebrate that first gift. We create mailings, emails, social media posts, events, and campaigns, all designed to tell our story, communicate our mission, and demonstrate our impact.

But what happens when a donor actually tries to take you up on the invitation to give? We have countless ways to reach them, but how do they reach you?

I invite you to think about that question for a moment and then put your organization to the test. Call your organization’s main number with the intention of making a donation. Does a real person answer the phone, or are you greeted by a bureaucratic phone tree? If there is a phone tree, is “make a donation” one of the options? If you reach a person and say you would like to make a gift, can that person help you, or are you transferred to someone’s voicemail? If you do leave a message, how long does it take to receive a return call? Do you receive one at all?

Unfortunately, I have considerable experience trying to reach development offices across the country, and I am often surprised by how difficult it can be to reach someone who can actually help.

I have two war stories to share, and I suspect they are not nearly as unusual as they should be. Names have been withheld to protect the innocent, namely, me.

The first involved a very large and well-known nonprofit. I called to let them know that my husband had passed away and had left the organization a bequest. I reached someone in development who took a message. Two weeks passed, and I heard nothing. I called again. Then I emailed. Finally, nearly six weeks after my initial call, someone contacted me to move forward with the gift.

What message did that send me? More importantly, how likely was I to feel enthusiastic about making that gift or ever giving again? I ultimately distributed the bequest and asked to be added to the organization’s mailing list because I wanted to remain connected to its work. That was several years ago, and to this day, I have never received a communication from them, even though my household donated thousands of dollars.

The second experience was more recent and, frankly, inspired this article. I was trying to reach the development department of a large social services organization. I encountered a phone tree that would not transfer me to the appropriate department and offered no way to leave a message on the main line. I never reached anyone who could take my gift. The website provided an email address for someone who was no longer with the organization.

Our organizations work tirelessly to inspire generosity. We invest substantial resources in donor acquisition, marketing, events, stewardship, and fundraising. Yet when someone raises a hand and says, “I want to give,” how easy do we actually make it?

If you tried the experiment above and your organization passed with flying colors, I want to hear about it. If it did not, here are four places to start.

1. Have a live person answer your main line during business hours.

I know the objections: budgets, staffing shortages, and competing priorities. But your main phone line may be someone’s first personal interaction with your organization. Do you really want that interaction to be a full voicemail box or an endless phone tree?

It is the equivalent of inviting someone to your home and then locking the front door. You may have spent thousands of dollars and countless staff hours inviting people to engage with your organization. When they finally respond, do not shut the door on them.

2. If you must use a phone tree, make “make a donation” one of the first options.

Preferably, make it the first. If someone is actively trying to give you money, do not make them hunt for the right department. This should be non-negotiable.

3. Make sure someone in development can actually answer the call.

Once a donor reaches the development office, someone should be available who can help or who knows exactly how to get that donor to the right person immediately. Phone coverage matters, and it matters just as much to a first-time donor as it does to a longtime supporter.

4. Return donor calls promptly and make the next interaction easier.

If a donor does leave a message, return the call in a timely manner. Then provide your direct phone number or email address so the donor does not have to navigate the same maze the next time. Make access to your development office easy, personal, and consistent.

If you are reading this and thinking, “Well, we really don’t receive donations by phone,” I would challenge you to consider whether that is because donors do not want to give that way or because you have made it too difficult for them to do so.

When I was Executive Director of the Orange (County) Catholic Foundation, I established the expectation that we have phone coverage at all times, and our stakeholders deeply appreciated it. Anyone answering the phone was trained to take a donation or gather event registration information so that callers were not endlessly transferred from one person to another.

The philosophy was simple: if someone took the time to call us, we took the time to help them.

I challenge all of us in fundraising to do better. Be available. Make giving easy. Donor-centric fundraising does not begin with your next campaign, your next appeal, or your next event. Sometimes, it begins with simply answering the phone.

Be the hero to your donors. Take the call.