Make 2025 the year of listening

It’s January and you have a whole new cohort of donors in addition to the many who have renewed their support. It’s also the month for starting new and healthier habits. Here’s one habit that will make your donors happier and boost your bottom line: Devote more energy to listening.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of assuming that fundraising success is all about delivering the right words, i.e. saying the things about your work that will open wallets and inspire loyalty. That’s certainly necessary but not sufficient.

We know from our major research projects like Missing Middle Four (available here) and from dozens of proprietary studies that good listening is a major driver of donor satisfaction. Even among the 40% or so (according to Missing Middle Four) who mostly want to be left alone, they want you to know who they are and what they want. (With these folks, we call them the “All Business” donors, delivering more words can actually be counterproductive.)

Good listening does not include faux surveys that land donors on a giving page. Donors know what those are about. And even if those fake surveys bring in dollars, they probably also erode trust.

I’m talking about sincere efforts to let donors tell you why they care about your work, what they expect in return for their generosity, and sometimes a bit more about who they are and what their lives are like. Studies show that people attribute all kinds of wonderful qualities to good listeners. As trained executive coaches, Alia and I have seen again and again the transformational impact of asking a powerful question.

Here are four practical tips for how to make listening a key part of your fundraising strategy:

• Set up an Insight Panel. The Sea Change Insight Panel® offers donors a brief monthly survey and then sends donors a summary of what they said the next month. That report back tells donors they are actually being heard. It inspires them to continue sharing and to continue giving. Don’t want to hire us? No problem, we created a free DIY workbook (available here) so you can start your own!
• Ask donors for testimonials. For one client, we sent sustainers a request every January to tell us what motivates them to give. Not only did that make the donors feel heard, it provided a host of stories and testimonials that served as some of the year’s best appeals.
• Send a simple survey once or twice a year, using the free version of SurveyMonkey or another tool. Promise participating donors you will send a summary of what you learned and how that might have influenced you. Do NOT land them on a donate page.
• Ask for feedback. Nearly all of your touches can include a general request for feedback. Every Insight Panel survey ends with the same question: “Is there anything else you would like to share today?” That produces a goldmine of useful answers to questions we weren’t smart enough to ask. It’s also a great way to surface specific donor service issues.

The key here is not so much how you listen, but that you make authentic listening an ongoing part of your donor communications.

Hear me?