Donors are real people. 

Whether in a grant-making agency, company or government, it is people who make the decision to give.

So it’s important to build and maintain personal and formal relationships with donors.

The key to building relationships is systematic communication and reporting to donors.

Communication keeps the relationship alive, and reporting builds trust.

Relationship fundraising 

Relationship fundraising results in increasing or expanding the donor’s involvement with your cause, beyond money.

Increasing commitment leads to a longer ‘donor life’. This usually means an increase in the size of donations and their frequency and thus the total amount raised.

(Refer to Relationship Fundraising by Ken Burnett)

Common donor relation mistakes 

When a potential donor writes asking for more information:

• not knowing what information to send
• thinking nothing will come of it
• promising to send information but forgetting to do so
• sending information, but not following up
• sending irrelevant literature that puts off the donor

When a donor makes a donation:

• not acknowledging the donation/ grant
• taking a long time to acknowledge it
• not sending reports of progress as promised
• printing the donor’s name and/ or address wrong
• sending poor quality, standard, pre-printed literature
• becoming inaccessible to the donor 

Put in place systems and procedures for effective communication and reporting to donors.