Cultivating and Stewarding - A Lesson for Us All!
Cultivating and Stewarding donors … a basic in nonprofit fundraising - yes? From the moment you get a prospect to make a donation … hopefully you are sharing updates on how YOUR donation helps … talking about organizational programs and how YOU YOU YOU are so vitally important to us and enable our organization to provide direct services - advocate - educate etc.
Sometimes this gets lost in some of the direct mail and email appeals I receive … telling all about US … never about YOU … but, for the most part, that donors are more important to an organization than an organization is to donors is well understood!
And now commerce has picked up on what nonprofits have know for years … that in order to acquire and keep customers, they are going to have to offer more than a simple sale!
Not only by offering bargain prices … but by trying to create an emotional attachment to their brand … from evoking the ”I Believe” Miracle on 34th Street Macy’s pitch, to having mail boxes throughout stores where children can send letters to Santa!
So now we find ourselves in a season of private parties for Talbot’s customers, to Macy’s harking back to sentimental movie images, to Walmart’s deep discounting of the most popular toys (rolling back with that 70’s happy face) according to Washington Post columnist Ylan Q. Mui.
Which will win out … sentimental relationship building or discounted prices … that has yet to be seen. Either way … retailers are finding that they have to cultivate and steward customers in order to ensure consumer loyalty … that hopefully will directly result in sales this coming holiday season.
Does that mean that retail staff will actually have to pay attention and provide service to me when I go shopping this year! Boy, that will be a change … so we all wait to see if this is simply a marketing ploy or if customer service, like constituent service, is going to become a real part of our ongoing consumer relationships!
Either way … it is clear … if you want to continue to be the “charity of choice” for your constituents … better make sure that you continue to let them know how vital and critical THEIR support is to your organization’s continued success!
Regards,
Sue
