It’s COVID o’clock. do you know where your donors are?

I don’t mean geographically, but that would also be useful.

I mean mentally. Emotionally. Even spiritually.

If you are in relationship with people, you are at least partly in the self-care business. And you are in relationship with your donors.

This puts a huge premium on talking with donors as opposed to talking at them.

We’ve been doing a monthly survey of high value donors partly as a cultivation effort for a client for more than two years. We ask lots of open-ended questions, We ask for stories. Once we asked them to share photos.

We wondered how this group would react to being surveyed in the midst of the pandemic.

Here are typical comments that came back:

“Thank you for giving me space to be reflective and talk out my frustrations in a constructive manner.”

“I’m so glad that you’re asking for inspirational stories…providing information and stories that are inspirational is so important to keep us all going, to keep us motivated, to give us hope, and to let us know we’re not in this on our own, but in it together!”

Your donors are isolated and many of them are frightened for their lives. Remember the average donor is 64. If they were seated across the table from you (6 feet away of course) would you blab at them or would you create space for them to open up?

Please stay safe.