Go to content Go to navigation Go to search

April 11, 2008

How Careless Mistakes Can Anger Donors

Too many charity appeals and follow-up correspondence are filled with careless and insensitive mistakes, writes Charles Longsworth, former president of Hampshire College and a veteran fund raiser and board member, in an opinion piece in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Mr. Longsworth says that in recent months, he and his wife, whom he describes as “generous and easy marks,” have made several donations to charities that were completely ignored or responded to with form letters, thank-you notes misspelling their names, and other mistakes.

In one case, soon after he left the board of a charity, he received a solicitation letter from another trustee there addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. Longsworth” that the board member didn’t even bother to sign.

“If it had been personally addressed, actually signed, and perhaps, had included a personal note like ‘We miss seeing you,’ even if not true, we may have sent another gift,” writes Mr. Longsworth. “A lot of good and useful institutions are not optimizing their fund-raising opportunities. They are impersonal, careless, and seemingly uncaring about those on whom they so depend.”

Friday April 11, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

1. Couldn’t agree more, thanks for saying this.

   — Tom Welsh, MNPL    Apr 11, 04:27 PM    #

2. How would you feel if the non profit was using your small donation for expensive wines and gifts for large donors?

   — Brent    Apr 14, 08:01 AM    #

3. I would like to take this one step further to say that even the timeliness of acknowledgement letters is crucial and can easily anger a donor as well. Great article! Thanks for bringing attention to this subject matter.

   — Ken D. Grunke - Pillars    Apr 14, 02:53 PM    #

4. “If I were a rich man. . . “ from Fiddler on the Roof comes to mind with this concern on the part of Mr. Longsworth. He is so on target with what has become so common and complacent in fundraising across the board. Many of the folks doing development, fundraising, and capital campaigns are doing it as if it is a job and not a calling. The vocational aspects of visioning and valuing one’s mission and donors is often sacrificed for meeting campaign goals and/or bonuses. I applaud those who return to the academy to learn this art form and dedicate themselves to creating and maintaining a better world for others.
   Seems that in the case of Mr. Longsworth, he and his gift were as unimportant as the goose that laid the golden egg. God bless him for saying so.

   — Jay Tatum    Apr 14, 05:56 PM    #

5. This is one of those times where a post just seems to hit the nail right on the head for me.

   This is coming from a recent Hampshire graduate who truly enjoyed the Charles and Polly Longworth Arts Village at Hampshire College.

   Part of the reason I am not giving in this year’s phone-a-thon, or to any of their direct mail solicitations, is that Hampshire College’s alumni/fundraising department has repeatedly misspelled my last name on every piece of mail I received in the year and a half or so.

   I’ve called to update, I’ve written to update, I’ve updated via the internet … and still, my name is wrong. Simple mistake that turns off a donor, especially one working in the nonprofit world.

   Charles makes that point on the grander scale – he surely is donating larger amounts than I to various charities; I’ll echo it on the smaller scale – I’m not going to send my check for $50 if they can’t even spell my name right.

   — A Hampshire Alumn    Apr 15, 02:06 PM    #

6. To the Hampshire Alumn above: I don’t know what happened in the past, but I give you my word that if you write to me at LFisher-Hertz@hampshire.edu, I will make it my personal mission to ensure your name is spelled correctly in our files. I apologize that this has not been done previously, but please give me a chance to make this right, even if you do take a year off from supporting the college you love. And thanks to Mr. Longsworth for the excellent reminder about how much these small details matter.

   — Lanette Fisher-Hertz
   Development Officer,
   Hampshire College

   — Lanette Fisher-Hertz    Apr 16, 09:44 AM    #

Commenting is closed for this article.

Previous: 'American Idol's' Fund-Raising Psychology
Next: Fund-Raising Tips for New Leaders

---

Copyright © 2009 The Chronicle of Philanthropy