Making Donors Feel Like Partners

How one Wisconsin nonprofit shifted its communication style—and grew its annual giving program

Many nonprofits struggle to explain their mission to new audiences or present complex needs to current supporters.

For my organization, Gathering Waters, Wisconsin’s Alliance for Land Trusts, that’s an everyday reality. Most people don’t know what a land trust is, let alone how a statewide alliance works.

Six years ago, despite solid fundraising efforts, Gathering Waters’ annual giving program had plateaued. The team and I knew something had to change.

Then, the staff committed to seeking out new professional development opportunities, including webinars like The Better Fundraising Company’s Work Less, Raise More series. The principles learned would transform the program.

Two key concepts stood out: writing to donors in a donor-centered, conversational style and following a simple and effective “Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat” communication cadence. In 2021, Gathering Waters started to apply this style and rhythm to all of our donor communications. 

The results? Consistent 15% year-over-year growth with a 70% donor retention rate.

Following are the steps Gathering Waters took to enhance our annual giving program:

1. Look at communications through the donor’s eyes

Gathering Waters changed our focus to donor-centered messages. 

The first step in the process was to make each message easier for older donors to read. We standardized font size (12 pt minimum), font colors (black on white, avoiding reversed-out text), and font styles (serif in print, sans serif for screens). This simple change increased donor response.

Staff also began writing direct mail appeals and mass emails as if they were writing to family members or friends, creating personal, conversational messages. Shifting to a first-person point of view, allowed messages to get to the point quickly.

Gathering Waters put the donor first in their communications, using “you” as early and often as possible. “I’m writing to you today,” became, “You’re hearing from me today because.” We also moved away from organization-centric writing—using words like “us” and “we”—to donor-centric communications emphasizing “you.”

Jeff Brooks, a direct response fundraising expert and author of The Fundraiser’s Guide to Irresistible Communications, encourages new fundraising writers to use “you” at the start of every sentence in the first draft to tap into a donor-centered mindset.

“To be honest, using the word ‘you’ frequently and writing at a sixth-grade level is NOT my natural style,” said Mike Carlson, Gathering Waters’ Executive Director. “But when I learned this approach is an industry standard – proven over decades – we gave it a shot. The results speak for themselves with year-over-year growth in revenue.”

Using “you” more than “we” draws donors into the message and helps them feel like partners in the mission. 

2. Focus on the need and not the rest of the story when writing appeals

Whether you’re asking through a letter or an online appeal, let the donor see themselves at the end of the story. It emphasizes urgency. Set the scene, share the need, then ask for a gift. Explain what will happen if the funds are not raised. 

Gathering Waters found that leaving the story unresolved allowed the donor to step into the story and become the solution. When donors already know how the story ends, there is less urgency for the donor to act.

It sounds simple, but it’s often hard to be direct when asking for a gift.

In the past, Gathering Waters asked donors to consider a gift or simply stated, “Your gift will do Y,” without specifying a required amount. When Gathering Waters started asking for specific amounts to meet specific needs – “Will you give $X to help Y?” – we raised more support. 

3. Remind donors why their gift matters

When thanking donors for their gifts, mention the offer they responded to. An efficient way to accomplish this is to draft the thank-you message concurrently with the appeal, using the same voice and tone to maintain a seamless conversation. The consistent messaging builds trust and strengthens relationships.

Beyond thank-you letters, our team became more intentional about including donors in all communications about accomplishments and initiatives. “We protected 500 acres,” became “You helped protect 500 acres.” 

The organization also highlighted the donor’s generosity and what they HELPED to accomplish. Rather than saying, “You saved a prairie,” which felt like an overstatement, we rephrased the statement to, “You helped save a prairie.” The revision was honest, inclusive, and recognized the donor’s role in the community. 

4. Rethink the communication schedule

To fully implement the “Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat” rhythm, Gathering Waters increased our communication frequency. At first, there were concerns about donor fatigue. However, we found that donors didn’t mind more communication and touchpoints as long as the messages were relevant and personal.

But adding more items to a full communication schedule sounded daunting. Our team found ways to work smarter by creating content once, then repurposing it three times: an article became a blog, a social media post, and part of a personal donor message.

Gathering Waters also redesigned our communications calendar based on this foundation and made two significant changes in their donor communications plan.

First, it was time for a newsletter makeover.

Gathering Waters replaced our 12-page organizational-focused newsletter with a sleek four-page donor-centric version featuring three impact stories and one story of need on the back page. Donors can now read the entire newsletter in 10 minutes, or skim it in two, since headlines, captions, and photos tell the story at a glance.

One donor said it all during a call: “Yes, I got your newsletter. I actually read that one.”

The new format also transformed the balance sheet, moving the newsletter from an expense into a revenue generator. The “story of need” on the back page became a soft appeal that resonates with donors and motivates them to give. 

Second, donors began receiving updates from the Executive Director.

Every month, Gathering Waters’ Executive Director, Mike Carlson, sends a personal email – not an e-newsletter – to everyone on the organization’s general email list. Each simple, plain-text email written in a conversational tone updates supporters with the latest news about Wisconsin’s land trust community from Mike’s perspective.

It’s not a solicitation, but a letter from a friend or colleague. It too produces results with consistent open and click-through rates.

“I travel all over the state talking to donors and conservation advocates,” Mike said. “At events, people say, ‘I know you! I get your newsletters.’ At first, I thought . . . is that a good thing? Then I realized – more communication doesn’t annoy donors. It builds trust and makes our supporters feel like partners in our mission, not just people we contact when we need something.”

The monthly messages also allow the executive director to provide supporters with the inside scoop on what is happening within the organization. It is one more communication tool that builds relationships.

With a few adjustments, Gathering Waters took our annual giving program from a plateaued level to nearly doubling individual donor gifts since 2020. 

“I can’t point to one magic bullet,” Mike added. “It’s the whole program working together. The donor-centric focus. Timely, consistent communication. A positive culture of philanthropy in our organization. When all those seeds of communication come together, you get phenomenal growth.”

If you’re looking at your annual giving program and wondering what might be worth tweaking, here are a few questions we asked ourselves on the Gathering Waters team:

1. How are we writing to donors? Gathering Waters counts how many times “you” appears in our appeals versus “we” or the organization’s name. When “we” is winning, we know we have some work to do.

2. Are we closing the loop? We ensure donors who respond to appeals receive meaningful thank-you messages that connect their gift back to the specific need they responded to. Gathering Waters also sends Donor Reports and executive director updates to our donors, highlighting program growth and other accomplishments the donor’s gift helped achieve.

3. How often do we communicate? We’ve seen that reaching out more frequently strengthens relationships and makes donors feel like partners in the mission and part of a larger land trust community. We’ve added more non-ask and soft-ask reporting-style communications to our schedule.

4. Does our organization embrace a culture of philanthropy? During the process of enhancing our annual giving, the development team began sharing our successes and helped the greater team recognize that everybody deserves credit for a successful annual giving program. Every personal interaction starts or strengthens relationships with supporters.

“If a statewide alliance with a complex, hard-to-explain mission can make annual giving more efficient and effective, you can too,” says Mike. “Start small. Test one thing. See what happens. We’re still learning as we go.”