I just opened a promotional email from a donor database company that was promoting their new integrated texting technology which allows you to send texts to your donors as a way to “effortlessly engage donors.” The promotion then goes on to explain that, among other things, it is great to “send links to donation pages.”

There seems to be a mistaken notion that the best way to engage your donors is by asking them for money is a different way. Somehow they won’t notice that all you ever do when you reach out to them is to ask them to give more.

But we know, from research, that there is a science to engagement, and if you care to study it deeply enough you will see that asking for a gift is not engagement but it is the natural conclusion to an already engaged donor.

The real question is, how will you engage your donor? Years ago I learned that the process of building a relationship and engaging a donor is basically a series of repeated actions simplified to: “Send them a postcard, send them a clipping, give them a call. Repeat.”  And that wasn’t a bad approach, back when snail mail was the best way to send a message.

Now we have access to systems that allow us to keep track of what exactly each one of our donors cares about most. Every charity has at least 2-4 areas that they focus on and most donors only care about the specifics of 1 or 2 of them. And yet most organizations send a periodic update on all the activities in a blanket newsletter sent to all donors and prospects. We can do better.