🌟 From the Weekly Spark, my weekly email with one useful idea for nonprofit fundraisers. Subscribe here.
Quick story: My VP of Marketing, Dave Martin, is a never-met-a-stranger kind of guy. A few weeks ago, he and his wife were in downtown DC celebrating their anniversary and stopped to buy a painting from a street vendor.
Not long after, they walked past his cart again.
The man rushed out, gave Dave a hug, and asked if he had enjoyed his anniversary. Then he pulled up Instagram and showed them a photo he had posted congratulating them. The three stood there talking and laughing for ten minutes.
Dave bought his son a bucket hat from the guy.
(Okay, what does this have to do with fundraising? I’m getting there…)
I was reading a LinkedIn post from Tammy Zonker, a major gifts expert, who talked about helping “fundraisers stop feeling like salespeople and start building authentic connections that inspire transformational giving.”
And it reminded me of Dave’s street vendor.
The street vendor remembered him. Not in a creepy way. Not because he had a sophisticated CRM hidden in his cart.
He remembered him because he paid attention. He remembered the conversation, followed up, and made Dave feel like a million bucks.
Successful fundraising starts with genuine donor relationships.
The challenge is that as nonprofits grow, you can’t remember every donor the way the street vendor remembered Dave.
That’s where data comes in—not to replace relationships, but to help create them.
🌟 Quick gut check
How many donors could you recognize if they walked up to you tomorrow?
Not just their name. Would you know if they’re a volunteer? A monthly donor? Someone who attends every event? Someone who has given every December for the past five years?
The larger a nonprofit gets, the less realistic that becomes.
Which is why the goal of good technology isn’t really to manage donors.
It’s to help you remember them.
Donors don’t see your departments, databases, and software. They experience one organization, one ongoing conversation. When it feels personal, they feel known.
That’s what the street vendor got right. He remembered Dave, remembered the anniversary, and got the coveted conversion: he sold a bucket hat. All with nothing more than a good memory and an iPhone.
Most nonprofits need just a little more help than that. That’s what your CRM does; it remembers every donor like they’re the only one.
This first ran in the Weekly Spark, my weekly email with one useful idea for nonprofit fundraisers. No homework, no hard sell. Get the next one in your inbox.
