As a donor of many organizations, I have HAD it.
HAD it.
I am tired of giving donations to causes that either need it, or have asked me, or because I am moved by their work and you know what I hear back?
Nada. Nothing. Zilch!
We are very, very HARD on our clients (just ask them). If you want to work with us, together, you need to respect the people who help you. We have this fancy-schmantzy name for it – we call it “donor centered fundraising”, which to dumb it down, means – you CARE about and FOR your donors. It means you take the time to craft special appeals that your donors will care about – not the same thing you did last year with a new stock image…
It means, you know, treat them like individuals who are doing something VERY special for you.
If you don’t care about your donors, then we want nothing to do with you. And they won’t either.
Here’s what I am proposing – a money back guarantee. Hey – if Sears can do it – you can do it.
If I give a donation to you – and you don’t THANK me, ACKNOWLEDGE my existence, TELL me how I’ve helped, treat me with a bit of RESPECT within – hmm – let’s say 30 days – I can ASK and GET my donation back.
Am I crazy?
You shouldn’t be ordered by the government to do this or brow beated by your peers and colleagues to do it.
But I plead with you, right now – GO FOR IT.
I would give to ANY charity in a heartbeat if they had this guarantee. Who wouldn’t?
I bet the first client I can convince to do it will reap some fantastic benefits.
Do you think you could do it?
ALSO POSTED AT THE Agents of Good blog: please feel free to register there for all of our posts. Thank you!
Hi John
I think it’s a great idea and something I looked into introducing at my last charity.
Unfortunately over in the UK we can’t do it, as the government would then stop us from claiming gift aid back on donations (which makes them worth 25% more) as they perceive the guarantee to be a ‘benefit’ and therefore invalidatiing the tax reclaim.
It’s a shame, as I think any nonprofit should have the guts to say your donation will achieve good and if we don’t tell you the difference it’s made or thnak you properly then you can have a refund and donate to a cause that does.
I hope you find a client brave enough to take it on.
Kind regards
Craig
Thanks Craig. Over at the Agents of Good blog where i posted the same article (http://blog.agentsofgood.org/2010/08/04/your-money-back-guarantee/) – i got this comment from Ann:
Ann Rosenfield, CFRE Says:
5 August 2010 at 10:35 pm edit
Great idea – before you test this you would have to work out the regulatory kinks with CRA. Right now, once you give to a charity and get your receipt, charities are NOT allowed to refund your money.
Queen’s got into *really* big trouble with CRA when they publicly announced they were returning the Radler gift (Radler was a business associate of Conrad Black).
Charities can transfer a donor’s donation to another charity but a refund … that has got CRA charitable status revokation written all over it.
Sounds like our CDN charities face the same issue.
Thanks for your comment though.
That’s actually a good idea John Lepp suggests in his post.
How about offering to turn back a donor’s gift(s) to another charity of their choice as a guarantee. Most donors give to multiple charities anyway.
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